Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist

POONG, THE JOSEON PSYCHIATRIST (2022-2023) was definitely an interesting series and I was happy to watch it. Loving Historical dramas featuring heavy medicinal themes, I found this one to be pretty top notch.

Yoo Se-Poong is a royal physician who gets wrongly expelled / banished from the royal court in a messy political conspiracy after which causes him to set out on a journey of redemption, self discovery and acceptance, all the while healing the souls of others in his new life as a physician / psychiatrist in the small, fascinating Gyesu Village. He meets new friends along the way, as he shapes his new life and finds new hope to carry on his existence.

This was a very quaint, entertaining series that I was glad to try. The whole cast was pretty great and the show features a tangled web of political intrigue, medical cases and a whole array of intriguing characters. Overall, this was a really great watch, albeit a bit slow at times. Would recommend to those with an interest in light-hearted shows about history and ancient medicine.

Korean Drama "Poong, The Joseon Psychiatrist Yoo Se Poong" is a historical medical drama.

The series has two things going for it, the comedy and the small family that the people of the 'medical center' create.

The drama has some comical moments that ease the tension of the medical cases that were, however, few and spar.

The romance was also a weak point for the drama, as the couple had too few moments and, thus, didn't create the right momentum to have an enjoyable love story.

The performances, on the other hand, were pretty great by everyone in the cast.

So, overall, five out of ten.

Korean Drama " Poong: The Joseon Psychiatrist Season Two " is the sequel and continuation of the story of Poong and his team.

The drama is more romance focus this time, though there were quite the cheesy moments when it came to the couple.

The comedy was, on the other hand, more enjoyable. Especially the princess was a pretty entertaining character.

As for the mystery, it was okay at first, and offered a few action and suspenseful things, but it got boring.

The performances were, still, great by everyone in the cast.

So, overall, four out of ten.

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.

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.

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.