Doctor Cha

I've never written a review for a K-drama that I haven't finished watching yet, but the highly creative episodes 8 and 9 so far are definitely worth the focus, energy, time, efforts, and sharing.

One of the scenes of Episode 9 caused me to laugh the hardest I've ever experienced my entire life, so much so that my abs hurt, and I gave up trying to refrain from busting out laughing really loud while my husband is sleeping in the bedroom.

Episode 8 is hands down the most authentic, refreshingly honest, and impressively BOLD episode I've ever seen from all the great Korean dramas I've watched.

Congratulations and thank you to all the co-creators of this K-drama, especially the authentic, honest, unconditionally kind, compassionate, empathetic, highly intelligent, deeply wise, discerning, animated, hilarious, courageous, feisty, assertive, bold and/or very talented actors and actresses, who made the incredible story come alive.

Like other great K-dramas, this is a brilliant combination package of invaluable and interesting themes mentioned above.

Although I have only seen 5 episodes, I was hooked after the first 15 minutes of the 1st episode.. I adore the cast which is truly amazing and believable. I was first introduced to kdramas on Netflix and my playlist is mostly filled with them! I wish the USA would learn from kdramas on showing the respect between the cast and giving the audience a chance to use their imaginations instead of showing every sexual detail. Everybody should give Dr Cha a chance before forming an opinion that you will ultimately regret. The only problem I have with this show is that it's only shown on the weekends!!

First of all, I have to specify that this drama targets a slightly older demographic: women in their 50s, 60s- however, it can very comfortably be watched by everyone. Still it speaks the most to women, especially married women in more patriarchal societies.

It's a story of a mother of two who, after a near-death experience, turns her life around. A housewife of 20 years, she decides to go back to medical profession and soon realizes her husband is a narcissistic liar and a good-for-nothing ****bag.

There is many frustrating moments in the drama, as Dr Cha navigates the new circumstances. I got annoyed so many times that she doesn't simply cut the cord with everything that's dragging her down- but I'm soon lead to realize that people are much more difficult to deal with. Even when her kids decide to hide big secrets from her, at first I'm annoyed, but soon I understand them. In the last two episodes you even feel some sympathy to the husband and the mother in law.

People are colorful and not pure evil or pure good, and many times they make bad decisions- this drama relies very much on that. The entire sequence of events is so very realistic. Most heart-warming interactions in the drama are non-romantic, human instincts of giving a hand or a word of comfort to those who need it. The entire drama reminded me of a saying "Homo homini lupus est", but turned into "Homo homini homo est".

Overall- this is a great drama, slice-of-life, human in all the mistakes, selfish and selfless acts characters make. It's a comforting weekend motivational type of a drama I'd especially suggest to women.

Lots of good drama, not necessarily your run-of-the-mill medical drama, the medical setting is simply to make the drama more interesting. Episode 6 was almost edge-of-the-seat kind, fun to watch. Give it a chance, you won't regret.

It is binge watch worthy, so if you would rather do that wait until mid June '23 for all episodes to be out.

The characters do justice to their roles, acting is excellent. There are some cringe moments, but if you are willing to ignore them, you will enjoy watching it all.

The story advances with every episode with a good pace, it is not too much talking and not much happening.

No Spoilers, just some pros and cons.

Pros

The acting was very good. I would call out Kim Kyung-Chul for his portrayal of Sea In-Ho, the jerk husband. Of course we don't like his character, but he did a truly superb job of navigating jerkiness and having regret. I would also call out Jo Adam for her role as Jeon So-Ra. It looks like she does not have a lot of acting experience, but the way she portrayed a cranky, domineering personality was quite subtle and skillful.

I liked the storyline and the message they were trying to communicate.

Everything that happened in the story was believable, even if unlikely.

Cons Somehow the series did not draw my wife and I in as much as our favorite KDramas. Despite some touching scenes, we were not too emotionally invested in the characters.

The ending was O. K., and I think sent a nice message, but again we were sort of just, "Oh, it's over. What will we watch next?" Rather than feeling like we would miss the story and characters. The story just sputtered to a halt. There a number of things they could have done to tie everything up to a greater extent.

So overall, not bad, but not great. So a 7 ranking.