Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist

Excellent,thought the acting was great,very funny and emotional. The stories are interesting aswell as nicely solved,easy watching when kid is about granny is a hilarious character made me cry a few times very sweet. Not sure why all the low reviews,,I've watched alot of korean dramas and it may not be exciting all the time,it makes up for in emotional parts for me which ii always find are done excellent in korean dramas,the villian are always pretty mean but they tend to get what they deserve in most of the ones I've seen,compared to c dramas wuxia particularly are bitter sweet for no need good guys normally die ,after watching alot of episodes and putting emotion into heroes they get killed for unnecessary reasons at times.

This series is totally waste of time. Script writing and direction both are worst. Director don't know how to pace the script, main story line and side story line both are boring. Both season from start to end had to endure to watch. Acting of kim min-jae is fine and for him I watch this unbearable series, I watch Season 1 fully but in Season 2 I have to skip to complete it. Title of this series is also very misleading because kim min-jae character more look like a detective than a psychiatrist. If you want to watch medical drama or romantic drama this series is none of these. This series want to show many things like teacher-student relationship, Atrocities on widows during Joseon period, friendship, romance, politics, medical drama and investigation but couldn't make any of it worth remembering.

Kim Min-jae plays Yoo Se-poong who was once an arrogant acupuncture expert but due to his involvement in the kings death he can no longer practice. He is exiled from the palace and ends up at a village clinic where he eventually bonds with the other occupants. Kim Hyang Gi plays Seo Eun-woo who is a smart quick witted widow who poong rescues from her abusive in-laws and teaches her his skills. It is a well acted series with some light moments coming from the other occupants of the clinic and various stories where poongs healing skills are put to the test. Running through the series is the blossoming romance and also poongs attempt to clear his name in the involvement of the kings death. Good cast, well acted and a believable romantic storyline but I think it could have been improved with more character development.

The earlier episodes of the first season were decent and promising but there was a clear and undeniable pattern slowly starting to emerge after a few episodes. The drama was heading in a downward spiral throughout its both seasons. There was no clear direction to its story, I wanted it to remain as a slice of life but even that was not attractive on its own. Each passing episode felt like a downgrade of the previous episode. By the end of 2nd season, my interest had plummeted and it lost any remaining appeal. The only plausible reason for this drama to get a season 3 is if the studio wanted to commit some kind of money laundering/tax fraud scheme. It's never a good sign to adapt something and have its serialization based on public perception. This will most likely result in incomplete stories and padded semi-soft endings unless its creators were to pull through and be the exception. In more than one way, the Anime sphere shifted mostly towards this scheme in the past 6-7 years and it turned into a survival of the fittest type of race. The Kdrama is slowly heading in the exact same direction.

The casting was perfect in terms of the crew of actors and the characters they fit into and altogether creates the vibrant scenery.

The main characters were well curated, Se Pung successfully depicted the image of a heartwarming doctor with a painful past , Eun Woo the smart detective and acupuncture newbie & Ji Han the witty doctor and secret medicine expert.

The loveline between Se Pung & Eun Woo was lovely however it feels that more could have happened for the length of 12 episodes.

However, the expansion of the detective like storyline is does not fit well with the characters although it fosters character development to some extent.

The detective problem solving have occupied most of the story and there is not much about how Se Pung act as a psychiatrist to heal the souls of patients as well to achieve self healing from traumatic experience, especially when the writer comes from a professional medicine & acupuncture background.