One of the interesting queries that pops up when watching “Ghost Doctor” is, if this production team would be in charge of putting together a K pop group, would they select a host of actors to try their hand at being musical entertainers? It’s because three of the leading cast members were idols prior to becoming actors. One of the supporting cast is the brother of an idol (and that idol also makes a guest appearance) and another became well-known for appearing in music videos. How does littering a medical drama/buddy comedy with idol cast members turn out? It’s an uneven affair but to their credit, much of that can be attributed to other causes.

“Ghost Doctor” primarily follows Rain’s Cha Young Min, an ace cardiothoracic surgeon who ends up wandering the hospital as a ghost after he ends up in a persistent coma. He discovers a connection with Kim Bum’s Ko Seung Tak, a new resident and member of the hospital’s ownership family. There’s also Uee’s Jang Se Jin who is a neurologist and Young Min’s ex and daughter of a conglomerate chairman that had spent the past several years in the US. Her half brother (Lee Tae Sung’s Min Ho) is scheming to take over the conglomerate and Tae In Ho’s hospital administrator gets involved.

Once Young Min is stuck as a ghost, he’s encumbered with certain rules about how far he can go, but he can go farther if he is possessing a person, and how to change clothes and open doors and eat and drink, etc. These rules make very little sense, but it’s a ghost story and it’s necessary for the narrative so, uh, whatever. But as he can interact with Seung Tak, much of the first half of the run is laboriously spent on getting Young Min and Seung Tak into some sort of working arrangement. The only respite from this glacial pace is a lot of open heart surgeries that viewers with weaker stomachs may want to skip through. And there’s a few other ghosts floating in and out but they have little connection to what’s happening through at least the first half.

After Young Min and Seung Tak finally work out their cooperation, the story lurches forward with Young Min hoping to regain consciousness, reestablish a relationship with Se Jin and foil the nefarious plans of the baddies. Along the way, it’s one odd couple after another with the previously mentioned up and down results.

Rain is clearly a performer that is a natural on stage. Everything is big - the gestures, the expressions, the volume, the attitudes and the moods. The moments when he is at ease are spare. The effect is that Rain comes across as someone playing multiple characters - arrogant Young Min, lovesick Young Min, passionate doctor Young Min and so forth. But the different character/moods don’t integrate together into a single character.

Meanwhile, Kim Bum’s Seung Tak is an aloof but affable and easy-going loafer that has bursts of insight and empathy. It’s clearly meant to be a balance against Young Min’s extremes but Kim Bum’s portrayal is, at best, odd and awkward. He rarely seems to have a comfort level with what type of character Seung Tak should be and it’s compounded by times where Kim Bum is really Young Min in possession of Seung Tak’s body. It’s a role that either is beyond this actor’s talents or that needed markedly better direction.

As a duo, the two together don’t mesh well. One is a roulette wheel of extreme personalities and the other’s real personality is the true apparition on the show.

Fortunately, as the primary arc accelerates, the rest of the cast and the subplots can get some screentime. And the more the focus shifts on to others, the better. Sung Dong Il is terrific as the patriarch of sorts among the ghost crew. Son Na Eun spends most of the first half AWOL but has some nice scenes later. And the trio of ghosts played by Yoon So Hee, Choi Seok Won and Han Seung Hyun is the highlight. Their backstories are poignant. The relationships between them are warm. And their narratives are by far the most compelling. But like with Son Na Eun, they spend a seeming eternity for their arcs to gain any traction.

Meanwhile, the villain barely appears and when he does it mostly just waiting for things to happen. The entirety of the senior medical staff are badly written comic relief and with questionable competency as doctors. Some leeway should be given to a fictional vehicle to stray from reality, but to have a hospital with only one or two surgeons that can actually operate on a patient is a gigantic stretch. Outside of the open chest cavities, the production value isn’t anything special. If there’s an OST, it’s not noticeable. Although there is a nice guest spot by Hani and the writer appears to have an outstanding knowledge of medicine (or at least enough to fool anyone but actual medical experts).

What “Ghost Doctor” really needed was someone to significantly edit the screenplay to accelerate the events of the first eight episodes and emphasize a more ensemble approach to the show. Had something like happened, this show might have been a tremendous success. But instead it’s an average show with a few nice moments and some painfully tedious filler.

Not recommended.