Air Dates: July 19 – September 7, 2019

Episodes: 16

Where to Watch: Viki

Genre: Medical Drama

Starring: Ji Sung and Lee Se Young

Doctor John follows the Pain Management Department at Hanse Hospital.  Most patients sent to them suffer from rare illnesses that other doctors have not been able to diagnose or treat.  The team treats each illness as a mystery to be investigated and solved.  They shift their focus away from the illness itself and focus on the patient.  By getting to know each patient’s story, the Pain Management team is able to reach beyond the limitations of common medicine and discover the source of the person’s pain.  The show also examines ethical questions faced by the medical community, most especially dealing with euthanasia and a doctor’s responsibility to relieve a patient’s pain. 

 This is a medical drama that is structured and paced more like a crime show.  Each medical case requires the doctors to work as a group, searching for clues and following leads.  The dialogue is thought provoking, without seeming preachy.  The emphasis is on the idea that medicine is not always as black and white as we would like to believe.  The cases themselves are interesting and unique.  We also get to look beyond the job, into the lives of our lead doctors, the private battles they fight and how they use those battles to drive them. 

First off, who doesn’t love Ji Sung?  He is so genuine in his acting!  Cha Yo-Han (Doctor Cha), played by Ji Sung (Kill Me, Heal Me, Familiar Wife) is a confident and talented doctor.  In the beginning, he is in prison, serving time for his part in a terminal patient’s death.  Even while imprisoned, he can’t ignore patients who are suffering, and often jumps in to help diagnose and treat fellow inmates.  By episode 3, he has finished serving his time and been hired as the new Department Head at Hanse Hospital.  Though the story of his past crimes proceeds him, so does his reputation as “10 seconds”; the doctor who only needs 10 seconds to diagnose any patient.

 We eventually learn the Dr. Cha is not only a doctor, but also a patient.  He is suffering from a rare hereditary disease called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain and Anhydrosis (CIPA).  In simple terms, he can’t feel pain or temperature.  His inability to feel pain heightens his need to understand and cure the pain in others.  He has kept his condition a secret because there are those who believe his illness makes him unable to understand the patient’s he treats.  Kang Shi-Young discovers Dr. Cha’s condition and agrees to help him keep it from the others.  As they grow closer through work, Dr. Cha and Shi-Young fall in love and support each other through all of their private and professional difficulties.  I loved seeing the mix between Dr. Cha’s confidence as a doctor and his vulnerability as a person.  Ji Sung perfectly captured the complex nature of someone living with the constant threat of illness.

 Kang Shi-Young, played by Lee Se-Young (Hwayugi, The Crowned Clown) is a resident who walked away from her job after her dad suffered a life-threatening injury.  She meets Dr. Cha while volunteering at the prison, and he convinces her to restart her residency without letting her know he is soon to be her boss.  As her relationship with Dr. Cha gets closer, she becomes his star pupil.  She shares Dr. Cha’s desire to see each patient as their own story, instead of merely their illness. 

 Shi-Young has a powerful storyline surrounding her father, who is in a coma at the hospital.  He is being kept alive by machines for years, with no hope of recovery, and the family, although all doctors, are having a hard time agreeing on what the best course of action should be from here. Shi-Young’s mother is a Director at the hospital and her sister is also a Pain Management doctor.

 Shi-Young is open-minded and outspoken.  She has a strong sense of what she feels is right for her patients.  She is also warm and careful to respect her patients feelings.  She is driven to find treatments that can take away the pain her patients suffer.  She becomes loyal to Dr. Cha and fights hard to help him treat all the people who come to them.  She isn’t afraid to step out of the box and live her life on her own terms.  It’s fun to see this kind of strong, independent, young woman in a kdrama. 

 Son Seok-Ki, played by Lee Kyu-Hyung is the prosecutor who was responsible for putting Yo-Han in jail.  He was also the father of a young boy who was killed by the patient Dr. Cha let die.  For any other Broadway fans out there, he is Javert from Les Miserables.  To him the law is above all else and should not make exceptions.  Now that Dr. Cha has been released and still refuses to show regret for his actions, Seok-Ki is obsessed with catching Dr. Cha before he can break the rules again. 

 It makes sense that Seok-Ki might be angry that his son’s killer never had to face punishment, but he was already a prosecutor when the murder happened, so what is it that drives him to be so obsessed with Dr. Cha.  I wanted to understand his character’s motivations, but I never quite felt like I got it.  Has he always been someone who valued the law over individuals?  Did his son’s murder change how he looked at his job?  Seok-Ki is also sick with a terminal cancer, and eventually gets treated by Dr. Cha.  I sometimes wondered if his urgency didn’t stem from his own illness, and a fear that in a moment of desperate pain he might give in to the temptation of allowing his own death and feel guilty for embracing that thing which he has always hated in Dr. Cha.  Anybody else have a different theory? 

I always love shows that have a fun group dynamic, so I really liked the interactions between all of the doctors in the Pain Management Department.  Kang Mi-Rae, played by Jung Min-A (Feel Good To Die, I Hear Your Voice) is the sister of Shi-Young.  She is a third year resident at Hanse Hospital.  She has been the strongest opposition to removing medical care from their father.  She feels that doing this is the same as giving up on him.  Because of this, she and Shi-Young have been estranged and she is not happy to find out that Shi-Young is coming back to the hospital and they will have to work together every day.

  Lee Yoo-Joon, played by Hwang Hee (With You, Arthdal Chronicles) , is a fellow at Hanse Hospital.  He meets Dr. Cha and Se-Young while treating inmates from the prison.  He is a small-town boy with a simple love of medicine.  His first goal in coming to Hanse was to prove Dr. Cha wrong, but as time goes on he decides to use his time to learn how to be a great doctor.  I really liked his character and was disappointed that it looked like he was being set up as a second lead.  So, I was happy when he immediately recognized the connection between Dr. Cha and Shi-Young and changed his affections to Mi-Rae instead.  He and Mi-Rae bond over an injured stray cat that they find.  They are a sweet, shy who approach their relationship slowly and carefully. 

This one did have a happy ending, which I always enjoy, but it was hard earned.  I will never get used to the way kdramas will make time jumps as if it’s no big deal.  Doctor John jumps ahead three years, while Dr. Cha moves to America to help do research on CIPA.  For about the first six months he is in constant contact with Shi-Young, but then he gets sick and doesn’t want her to find out and worry, so he makes a co-worker promise to keep telling her he is too busy to talk, until she finally gives up.  And then, two and a half years later, he shows up one day at the hospital.  Two and a half years!! 

Not only that, but he tells her that he has actually been home a year and has been watching her from afar.  I get it that he felt like he needed to do it for her sake.  He wanted to come back to her feeling healthy and whole, but it still seems a little cruel.  She takes a few days to get over it, but when she finds out all he has been through to come back to her, all is forgiven. They did give us a short, final scene that tells us what things looked like once the dust settled.   The team goes together to serve at the Healing Clinic, where Dr. Cha is working.  Dr. Cha comes out to welcome the group and openly grabs Shi-Young’s hand.  Yoo-Joon follows his example by grabbing Mi-Rae’s hand, showing off their promise rings.  Even Joon and Won-Hee get in on the action, holding hands and skipping happily behind the two couples!  I still enjoyed this drama, and I didn’t hate the ending, but I also didn’t think the final episode was perfect. 

If you enjoy medical or crime-solving dramas, you will like this one.  The cast is great, the writing is solid and the storylines are interesting and unique.  There is a good balance between medical cases and personal relationships.  I liked the way they asked important questions about modern medicine and ethics without answering those questions for you.  Conversations about things like euthanasia can be difficult, but they are also important.  I applaud this drama for its tasteful presentation of delicate medical topics. I’m giving it 4 out of 5 ramen.

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