Hospital Playlist (2020)

Excellent Slice of Life - Will be Enough for Some Viewers but Not All

I will be completely avoiding spoilers in the FIRST half of this post and will discuss spoilers in the SECOND half of this post. I'll put a separator to try to help you avoid accidentally reading them.

If you like the Slice of Life genre, this will easily be an 8-10 out of 10. However, this show is not perfect, and I believe some of these elements weigh the quality down so that if you are not a hardcore Slice of Life lover, you might find your enjoyment decreased, which was how I felt after completing this show.

First, let's discuss the story: there is no story. Traditional, overarching plots that span throughout the series are thrown out the window so that the drama can focus on the five main characters and their relationships with their friends, family, and coworkers, while splashing in medical cases. This works extremely well if you enjoy purely character driven stories with a splash of medical jargon. This won't work so well if you are expecting longitudinal narratives -- I have to admit that I am not that into Slice of Life, but picked up this show due to all the hype, and did end up literally falling asleep at some points, having to go back and rewatch the parts I missed. However, what the show does well, it does really well: there are many, many, really heartwarming scenes which I will describe in the spoiler section. Still, for me, the show bogged itself down with too many contrivances, especially with some specific romances. I felt some elements were too cliche and appealed too much to the "kdrama fantasy" rather than being a solid look into "real life", which I would expect from Slice of Life.

Next, the acting: there is not much for me to say about this because it is wonderful. Jo Jung Suk nails it as the universally loved Lee Ik Jun. Jeon Mi Do, relatively unknown to film and TV in 2020, kills it as the bleeding heart Chae Song Hwa. The rest of the cast, including the supporting and guest cast, is very effective and believable at serving their parts.

The soundtrack was exemplary as well, drawing from older songs like the 2001 song Aloha by Trio or the 1996 Introduce Me a Good Person by Basis.

Overall, I think this show lives and dies by its Slice of Life classification -- comparing this to the breadth of romances, actions, thrillers, mysteries, horrors, etc, I think Hospital Playlist is just "good".
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SPOILERS START HERE
SERIOUSLY AFTER THIS IS THE SPOILER SECTION
FOR REALZ, SPOILERS AFTER THIS BREAK
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It's difficult to talk about my criticisms without diving into specific details about things that happen in this series, so the following is a discussion of faults I found with it.

First, the romance, which to me is the greatest fault: this show suffers "Grey's Anatomy syndrome": that is most of the doctors are actively engaging in relationships with each other, are actively considering relationships with each other, and are somehow devoid of outside-of-work love interests. Yes, there are some non-doctor pairings like Kim Jun Wan and his girlfriend, but I would argue even his relationship is too close to home, since he dates a main character's sister, Lee Ik Sun, conveniently within the circle of the main cast. Outside of this, somehow, everyone loves someone in close proximity to the show or are crushing on them: Ahn Jeong Won's resident loves him. Yang Seok Hyeong's resident also loves him. Chae Song Hwa's resident ALSO loves her. There is even a minor romance of two residents who love each other. Do you see the pattern here? For a show where romance takes a back seat to the "daily happenings of life", I thought this was way too convenient and made the relationships feel too forced. As this is a TV show, obviously some creative license is allowed, but I think the ubiquitous nature of this intra-show love just felt like lazy writing to me -- a device to fill in the extra time because the writers couldn't figure out what else to put in and just needed to jam some romance in there.

The relationship I took the most issue with was Ahn Jeong Won and his resident Jang Gyeo Wool -- over a 12 episode run, Gyeo Wool is essentially crushing over Jeong Won for 11 episodes, even trying to get over him by going on a blind date, but ultimately still remaining committed to her crush as basically nothing happens with the "getting over him" subplot. Moreover, she is characterized as being cold and misunderstood -- she is a very diligent person who is "kind in her own way" but is not someone that expresses any kind of obvious affection towards anyone, whether it is her patients or her love interest. Meanwhile, Jeong Won is characterized as being very religious to the point of taking active steps to quit being a doctor to become a priest, like the rest of his siblings, who are all priests and nuns. He doesn't date because he's committed to God. Initially, he's pretty much just ice cold to Gyeo Wool, but expresses increasing empathy to her. Finally, in episode 12, she begs him not to become a priest and he just...kisses her. I'm sorry, but especially a male watcher, this love line felt way too much an appeasement of the female fantasy rather than a realistic, or even semi-realistic romance: we're talking about a woman whose love was so great that she literally changed the life course of man. My issue isn't that their kiss wasn't heartwarming, but my problem is that Jeong Won essentially pulled a 180 over an "outwardly cold" woman who basically just wanted him to love her because...reasons. I would argue that Jeong Won's reversal of his decision in becoming a priest would have been more realistic and compelling if he had done it solely on the realization of the value of his strength in being a good doctor, without the added issue of the romance.

Second, and more minor, is the characterization of hospital life -- just like other medical shows, the series combines several jobs in one doctor, so that a general surgeon like Ik Jun diagnosing cancer, which in reality would be done by an oncologist, or doctors only needing to worry about 1-2 cases per day instead of the endless patients they seem to need to see. However, I think this is fine -- the real life paperwork of medicine is probably way too boring to turn into a real show.

Lastly, and also a little minor, the last episode in particular seemed to lean really heavily on flashbacks. I understand that context is important, but I felt it was pretty excessive, especially if you've been following the characters in a purely character-driven story for 11 out of 12 episodes and are just watching the last one.

At the end of the day, despite the issues I took with this show, I felt it was still on the positive side. Some of the heartwarming moments will stay with you for a really long time: the Aloha karaoke scene is a masterpiece and spawned the "I BELIEVE" meme that you see in some places.
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I think this show is really easy to recommend or not recommend: if you love Slice of Life, it's an autowatch. If you are tolerable of Slice of Life, it is worth your time. If you do not like it, it is a hard pass.

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Friends are forever

Likes:
1. The enduring friendship between the 5 doctors. I love how they always find time to eat together, play music, and support each other in good and bad.
2. Of the 5, Ikjun is my favorite doctor/character. He is so warm and nice. #JoJungSuk is so funny! I also love his interactions with Uju.
3. I love the romamce between Junwan and Iksun, who is as funny as her brother. But that ending!
4. Songhwa is almost too good to be true. The last part of the drama focused more on her love triangle between Ikjun and Chihong. Of course I am team Iksong!!. .
5. Im happy that Jeongwon isnt going to become a priest. He is very good with the kids and he is one of the few pedia.
6. I also love Mama Rosa and the best friend. I wish they actually end up together!
7. The obgyn doctor has a sad story. Actually cute to see him with Minha though seems like the ex wife will come back in S2.
8. I love the ost and all the times they play band.

Dislikes:
An unpopular opinion but i never got onboard the winter garden ship. Gyeoul looks so boring and lifeless. And she never smiles. I dont understand how, why and when the sweet and smiling Jeongwan liked her.

I almost gave up after watching ep 2 but im glad i continued to watch this little gem. Cant wait for season 2!

Rating: 9/10

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This show could have been a 10/10 in all rating aspects. The reason for me personally it hasn't reached this criteria is the awkward episode lengths. Don't get me wrong it's a personal pet peeve, but I don't really enjoy a drama to have each episode nearly 90 minutes long. I believe that movies work perfectly at the 90 minute mark but television shows work better when each episode is between 45 minutes to 70 minutes long - a 90 minute end of series episode is fine.
The first episode did also catch me off guard but by the third episode I believe the show really starts to pick up it's pace and you'll want to find out what happens next which is always great. The cast have an amazing chemistry together and the acting scenes were great, production also was top notch.
I believe that everyone will find this show great, I just believe that the episodes could have been spread to more, and instead of the 90 minute length it would work better with a 60 minute length per episode, but hey, that's just my opinion!

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Slow but poignant. There are moments that truly shine while others hamper the pacing.

I am rewatching the finale. It started off really well in the first two episodes. It's relatable, the gang's friendship. Who hasn't gone out to dinner with your friends only to have your friend's mom phone in and ask how you've been?

After that, I found myself fast-forwarding scenes involving one of the resident's parents and Ik-jun's sister's romance and the endless makbang scenes. The romance I wasn't interested. It's really the friendship, the comedic timing between them all and that epic karaoke scene with Jun Wan belting out "I Believe!" Those moments really shined.

I didn't see season 2. This was very slowly paced. This is one of those dramas that leaves an impression on you once you take your time with it. The finale was probably the best episodes of this season. Yes it was predictable, but it was poignant. It tackled life, or rather lives that end in the hospital. The guilt and the weight of responsibility our gang faces when lives can't be saved.

Song Hwa talks about a patient she had. She remembers her name, her face, everything. She stayed with her. But she still passed. "I felt it was my fault she died. I beat myself up for months." It's that scene I rewatch over and over. I never see guilt being addressed when there is a passing.

The best part of the series was maybe the first two episodes and the last episode. There isn't really a plot. It's rather episodic until the finale and the last couple of episodes which tied everything together. It’s a medical drama that focuses on the medical side of working in a hospital.

The romance to me was forgettable. The friendship shined and the how the residents had to tackle some heartbreaking cases where their patients didn't make it.

I love romance and enjoy rom-coms but Ik-Jun and Song Hwa to me felt cringe and forced. Song Hwa is an epic female lead and for her to suddenly rekindle her crush from eons ago? Ik-Jun was married this whole time and for him to suddenly pursue Song Hwa? Talk about forced. I liked it better when their relationship was ambiguous. Instead of going on that date, Ik-Jun waits with her at the hospital. Because this was a rare drama where friendship matters. This is rare, especially with people in their 30s-40s.

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Hospital Playlist won't be everyone's cup of tea. It is a drama about a group of friends' daily lives; there is no complex plot, no dramatic climax, and to a certain extent there is no real conclusion to the story. It is a character-driven drama, and as is always the case with these dramas, it needs a solid cast.

Hospital Playlist's cast wasn't just solid—they were amazing. The screenwriter did a great job creating and writing the characters, but it was the skill of the cast that brought such charm and humanity to each and every character. They made me laugh and they made me cry, and most of all they made me want to root for them. I especially want to highlight Jo Jung Suk's acting -- this was surprisingly the first time I've seen his work, and I fell head over heels for his portrayal of Lee Ik Jun.

Another thing that I adored from this drama was how well it managed to portray happy moments with friends—small pleasures like eating together or hanging out together between breaks, moments that are hard to organize and that are so easily disrupted by hectic lives. This was something I related to a lot and I really enjoyed those scenes.

All in all, I adored this drama and it was almost a perfect drama for me, but if I had to nitpick, I'd say that I wished the character of Chae Song Hwa was further explored, because while I adored her I also felt like she had less character development than the rest of the main characters.

There are only 12 episodes but they are quite lengthy (the final episode is almost 2 hours long!), so that might (understandably) turn off some viewers.

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MUST WATCH!

If you have watched the reply series and prison playbook this is by the same director Shin won ho, that is why the casting is similar to before. It even includes some reapperances from the cast of this previous dramas.

1. IT CAN BE CONFUSING FOR THE FIRST 3 EPISODES. At first I was confused on who the main leads were but picked it up by mid ep 1. The plot isn't one big story but rather about life at the hospital, this was slightly confusing at first but around episode 4 all the side storys and characters fit together nicely and its much eaiser to navigate while watching the episodes so do not give up on the first episode just because you are confused.
I love that it focus' on so many characters and their individual lives, the main focus isnt' really on the 5 leads but actually on a whole bunch of the hospital staff around them which is different but they all fit well together.

2. there is no villian or bad guy to ruin your day. It's a feel good show with scenes where you will cry and scenes where you rejoice and laugh its all about life and patients. there isn't a chairman or anything that's annoying and cranky which I am thankful for or characters that you hate. Everyone is loveable and likeable.


3.The main 5 leads are 4 men and 1 women (typical for shin won hos dramas) who have been best friends since university and now all work at the same hospital for the first time ever. there are scattered scenes of them all together, and when they are all together it's so much fun. The actors are so good I could honeslty believe the characters had been friends for 20+ years without a doubt.

4. There is romance in a subtle day to day life thing, I have swooned over some of the scenes between some character and am shipping 2 of the leads together!
It's well worth a watch, each character is so full of personality and it's so well written.
ALSO the BAND! such a fun little add to it! The actors actually play the intruments so its not bad sync playing its actually real!

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Wholesome, humorous, and realistic

What a lovely, comforting show.

I gotta admit; the first two episodes are super confusing because there are so many characters (including the five main leads and all the residents/nurses/interns) and they're all in different medical departments. BUT KEEP WATCHING because by episode three, you get a clearer grasp on everyone's character motivations and backstories and it's so worth it.

I loved the relationship between the five main leads; they have such a cute origin story and their relationship felt so funny and authentic. All the show's romances and ships draw you in and make you root for them. Hospital Playlist does a great job balancing serial and procedural storylines; there are the usual medical cases of the week along with compelling season-long arcs. Be prepared to cry, particular with the cases of the week; this isn't one of those doctor shows where the patients always survive. But also be prepared to laugh and swoon as the main characters joke, fall in love, and find themselves. (Side note: the kid who plays U-ju is seriously the cutest child ever).

Definitely well worth a binge-watch!

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A Transcendent Depiction of Beautiful Friendship and Romance

This is truly a one of a kind drama, and everyone knows it. Whether it's the unrivaled writing, authentic acting, or perfect production, the show delivers in every area. Supported by an emotional OST and an interesting story, it's truly everything you could ever want. Even for those who aren't interested in the premise, I implore you to give this show a try. The incredibly realistic and enjoyable dynamic between the main friends is so intoxicating I literally had to stop watching the show for a while so I didn't get too attached to the characters (which of course I did anyway). This show is such perfection that I'm literally at a loss for words, which will make this the shortest review I've ever written. It boils down to two words:

Watch it. I don't care who you are and what you like, but you owe it to yourself to experience this masterpiece.

Ahem. So yes, I recommend this.

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A show I could turn off in the middle of an episode

Hospital Playlist is highly overrated in my book. It took me well over a year to finally finish these 12 episodes because I simply didn’t care about any plot line or character enough to watch. I picked it back up because I wanted to finish the top rated dramas on MyDramalist.

This is a slow-paced, slice of life drama - which does have its charm and appeal to some. It’s not often that I watch a show and feel comfortable turning it off 20 minutes into an episode and going to sleep instead. I definitely prefer shows that make me want to keep watching well into the night. The hook just wasn’t there most of the time.

I was not a fan of any of the romances. They all fell flat for me. I didn’t see the chemistry and was actively hoping the couples wouldn’t get together or would break up. I haven’t finished season 2 yet at the time of this writing, but this review is for part 1 and I’m still not rooting for any couple in the second half.

The show does have a few touching moments sprinkled throughout and I did cry at one point. There were some moments I laughed out loud. However, those few moments of brilliance aren’t enough for me to rate the drama highly.

Overall, this show is watchable but not amazing. If you enjoyed Reply 1988, I assume you’ll enjoy this too. I compared its pacing to Reply 1988 without knowing it was indeed from the same writer. It’s wholesome, campy, relationship-heavy, and something I’d watch while grinding an online gatcha game because it just wasn’t that interesting.

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I'm not one to hold big expectations, as I'm afraid that things will turn out to be a letdown. Same case for this series; I am a huge fan of the PD-writer combo, and I love all the PDs previous works (Reply series, Prison Playbook) whole-heartedly, including the less popular Reply 1994 :D
But still, I have to admit, I did expect to feel similar 'groove' in this one as with the other works; which I didnt find in the first 4 eps. The series was good, it was light, solid plot and cast chemistry, has its comedic moments, familiar camera works, pretty good bg music choices; albeit slightly confusing with all the characters jumbles without proper narrative introductions. Then came Episode 5....... a whole game-changer! Hospital playlist instantly became my new favourite. Supporting characters and side plots started coming together nicely, intricate backstories unfolded, and (new) relationships bloomed... I could definitely felt the same nostalgic, heartwarming feelings the PD past works brought to me.
Three episodes later at eps 8, I can still safely say that it is still my favourite. Totally worth the one week wait for each new ep TT^TT

The casts are well-chosen; this is my first time watching Jeun Mi Do (I honestly dont remember her role in Mother?) and I think she is a perfect fit for Song-Hwa haha. The same goes for Kim Dae Myung (I havent watched Misaeng); I enjoy his sluggish, softy big bear character here <3 No comment for the rest of the amazing cast.
Oh! I LOVE ROSA AND HER MANCHILD BFF!!! And Sung Dong Il moments are always fun to watch haha

Overall, the series is satisfying so far, and i can't wait to watch the following eps and to cry when it's finally time to say bye to my dear professors.

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"Not good but not bad" -Kim Ji-soo

I just don't get it and I guess it just isn't for me. Whenever I get around to S2, I hope that it makes me feel a little less bored.

I kept waiting for interesting things to happen or for some positive or negative friction and I just didn't get what I was hoping for. I guess I just need a plot. I need to feel like we are going somewhere. Even if the patients were around more, but it just feels like they come and go to quickly.

I did appreciate the realism and some of acting is quite good. I like many of the characters... I just wish they did something. I wish that they had more changes for growth and development. It just never seemed to happen.

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