Doctor Cha

Really looked forward to each new episode in the beginning but the series gradually goes downhill as time goes on. The husband is a cheating jerk who cheats at work right in front of his wife and son and co- workers at work. His wife loyally raising his children for 20 years before restarting her career at the hospital where her husband and cheating mistress works. A brat secret love child tops it off. Plenty of pity and blame and illness - and went bad in my opinion with an unsatisfying ending. Am glad Netflix is adding more K-Drama for us lately however saw a few others that had some better script.

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.

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.

Doctor Cha returns as a first year resident twenty years after leaving the medical profession to raise children after getting married. Her husband has been cheating and has a child from before they were married and this is the story of how she comes to terms with her changing life and the fact she has serious health problems. The Dr played well by Uhm Jung-hwa is a great character but the writers touched on lots of subjects and characters but gave little depth to any of them, it felt like they had a tick list to cover a scenario and then move on. I was particularly annoyed at how they all treated the illegitimate daughter and then tried to make it right with a few scenes in the final episode. Kim Mi Kyung plays the mother as she always does and I mention her as even though her roles are usually minor she always makes the character believable. So great characters, well acted but let down by poor script.

A series about a downtrodden wife and mother breaking free from her philandering husband and abusive mother-in-law might have culminated as a joyful celebration. However, this series fails to hit such heights. Nevertheless, it gives us a sympathetic heroine to root for, if you can forgive her initial failure to fight back.

That sympathy for Doctor Cha's plight carries you through the series. Unfortunately her husband is often depicted as a comic character, which, for me at least, dissipated somewhat the emotional power of the story. Nor does the final episode help, with overly easy conclusions to each of the plot strands.

Nevertheless I did watch it through to the end and do not regret having done so.