Park Shin Hye as Nam Ha Neul

Nam Ha Neul devoted her whole life to studying every waking second and getting the best grades possible.  But after bombing the most important test of her life, Ha Neul ends up studying medicine at a small, less prestigious school than she had dreamed.  But she didn’t let that stop her.  Now she is a successful anesthesiologist at a big hospital.  But as pressures from the job and being taken advantage of by her superiors begins to take its toll, Ha Neul finds herself fighting serious clinical depression.  Fed up with it all, she quits her job, but now she isn’t sure what to do with her life. And when she comes home to find her old classmate living on her rooftop, she is sure life is just being cruel.  But because she doesn’t want to impose on her family, she finds herself confiding in Jeong Woo more and more. And they begin to depend on each other for support and encouragement.  

Nam Ha Neul is driven and hard-working.  But she has sacrificed many of the joys of growing up.  She has had very few close friends and she doesn’t really know how to relax or have fun.  But overcoming her depression is going to require her to learn how to think about something besides work.  And lucky for her, Jeong Woo has lived his life which a much freer frame of mind, and he is willing to help distract her from her professional troubles.  Park Shin Hye tends to play serious, overfocused characters well, and Ha Neul is no exception.  And since this is her first role since her marriage and the birth of her son, it was wonderful to have her back on my small screen!

♥ Dae Young and Hong Ran

I really loved this seond lead couple.  They skipped all the ugly love triangles and let these two lonely, single parents have their own love story.  I could have done with more scenes for this pair, but I liked everything I saw.  Their interactions both with each other and their kids was honest and realistic.  The topic of single parents is becoming increasingly more common in kdramas, but its rare to see 2 characters in the same series.  And I liked that they could each help the other.  

 ♥ Mental Health

The topic of mental wellness has been a trend of discussion around the world lately.  And especially among health care workers, who were extremely overworked through the pandemic.  Netflix recently postponed a drama about residents out of respect for the current resident shortage.  This is a subject that is timely and relevant.  I’m always glad to see shows that are willing to tackle these kinds of important issues.

Over the Top Acting

The humor in this drama was often based on over the top acting, whether it was cutsie moments with our leads or fighting among Ha Neul’s family.  The level of maturity seemed to take an instant dive in an effort to get a laugh.  And if this had happened a couple of times, I could have overlooked it, but it just continued to the point of being cringe-worthy.  All of this cast are talented.  There is no reason they needed to try so hard to create humorous moments.  

Complicated Mystery

The whole mystery component of this drama was a bit too confusing.  The whole “who installed cameras in the office, and what happened to the disk drive” story was convoluted and not that interesting.  The courtroom scenes felt out of place with the rest of the drama.  I kept forgetting there was a legal case at all.  I see what they were trying to do but it didn’t really work for me. 

Since our villain has already passed away from his injuries, “Doctor Slump” gets to spend the last episode giving us lots of happy endings.  Ba Da has finally found a purpose for his life and is doing well working in his uncle’s restaurant.  Dae Young and Hong Ran are happy together and seem to be creating their own little family.  Ha Neul gets an offer to study abroad, and Jeong Woo gets points for encouraging her to go even though he doesn’t want her to.  But in the end, the offer is taken back so she can’t go.  But she is back at work and her depression seems to have improved to the point where she doesn’t need therapy anymore.  Jeong Woo opens a new clinic, but he is keeping things smaller and more manageable this time around. He has learned the beauty of life/work balance.  The final scene shows the couple finally getting to watch the sunrise together and the epilogue shows a montage of the happy couple’s wedding photoshoot.