Doctor Stranger had a very intriguing beginning that captured the viewers attention just by the mere mention of North Korea. With such a strong beginning it is almost impossible to think that this drama could even go downhill; however, this a completely wrong assumption to make. At the start, the focus on Park Hoon and the moral dilemma of being a doctor made for a completely emotional story line. Unfortunately, the show was not able to keep up this interest as it feel into a decline. The romance was dragged out between the main character and his love interest with too much push and pull that made it quite difficult to end up rooting for them (especially since their romance as childhood sweethearts was too adorable to handle). If you are looking for the romantic doctor content, then you most likely won't find it here. The biggest issue with the story line is that it just wasn't planned out as well as it could have been.
Acting wise? Not many complaints. Lee Jong Suk provides amazing depth to the lead character and acts with the same charm that we all know and love. Park Hae Jin's double sided character is portrayed as well as it can be within this drama, no complaints. As for the two female leads, it is hard to say whether they were good as their characters were just terribly written. Many scenes with the female actresses were just missing the character development that they both deserved which in turn just made them bland and uninteresting to watch. I think it is safe to say that Yoon Bora's Chang Yi saved the day in terms of female characters with her lovable and charming personality.
Can't say much about the music as it did not seem to have as much of an impact as it should have.
Would I rewatch it? Probably not. Would I recommend it to someone? Possibly yes, depending on if they are a fan of any of the actors/actresses.
Overall opinion: I am not going to say that it is the worst (even if it was, I can't leave a drama unfinished). But there are definitely places for improvement, which is disappointing because the show had so much potential if it had been executed properly. My positive opinions about the show come from a bit of a biased opinion based on the pure fact that I am a fan of Lee Jong Suk and Park Hae Jin. If you want a romantic drama, this isn't the one to look for. If you want a medical drama, there are a few better ones out there. If you want good looking male leads who provide depth to a character, then knock yourself out with this.
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This review may contain spoilers
Look, I understand that K dramas manipulate viewers’ emotions and I’m fine with that. The dramas usually try to make you root for the desirable but flawed hero and the plucky heroine. I can also accept time travel, body switching, and girls passing themselves off as poorly-disguised boys. I can even enjoy dramas with lawyers doing things that would get most lawyers disbarred; medical dramas with doctors who should lose their medical licenses; teachers who would normally be fired, if not criminally charged for abuse; and police dramas with police officers who need good psychiatrists. Although there are moments in every drama where logic takes a leap, I can get past most of them. Doctor Stranger, however, violated the most important canon of Korean drama law: Thou shalt not brazenly insult the intelligence of your viewers. The drama starts out okay, if a little over the top, what with evil plots and Magic Hands Doctor but it quickly devolves into a mess whose primary purpose seemed to be to jerk the viewer around. One big problem was the romance that drove the story. The actress who plays the grand romantic interest is more wooden than my dining room table and the male lead regresses into a pathetic puppy whenever he's around her (for little reason, since the actors seem to have little chemistry together). I began to hope that the female lead would be shot and really die. On the ground, instead of falling into the water, which, in this drama, seems to have life-regenerating powers. I don’t even know where to begin on the farcical who-is-the-better-doctor-competition. It is better to draw a sheet over it and send it to a well-deserved end. Plus the malpractice/revenge subplot is just … my god … no.
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Medical thriller with a historical political twist
A cautionary moral tale, about ethics, politics, promises, and duty of care. Surprisingly deep despite the sometimes shallow characters (like the playboy resident), this heart-pumping, oft gory drama about one of the top cardiology departments in Korea shows how far politicians, soldiers and doctors and prepared to go in order to ensure they reach the very top and remain there as long as they can. Pretty solid acting by all, especially northern side and the seemingly cold dad. A surprise sleeper hit which kept our pulses raised till the very end.Was this review helpful to you?
Great Drama
I watch all 20 ep on two days and for every day i finish 10 ep, For the story its goes byond audience expections and thats make it so attractive and you will watch more and more till you want to know the whole truth about how North Korean & South Korea make alliance agiant Dr.Han and his lovely spy girlfriendFor the music its great but For action Clips acting & Video graphic still so poor and look like cheap i hope in futuer they learn from their mistakes and introduce something more realistic.
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Story: 9/10 - I really enjoyed this drama's story. I must admit that I did prefer the first half of the story and I do think the concept of Jong Suk and Se Yeon did tire me towards the end. The North Korea element really boosted the story for me and definitely kept me up at night! I am sure I will never forget the first 4 episodes of this drama. They have sticked with me until now, and I think it drove this story to the 9 it is now.
Acting: 9.5/10 - I LOVED this cast. When I say the cast, I am being a little biased considering 2 of my favourite actors are the main characters of this drama (Lee Jong Suk and Park Hae Jin). However Kang So Ra was also a great protagonist, and our dear Chun Ho Jin was ever the great villain!
Music: 8.5/10 - Okay, this soundtrack was indeed great and I remember actively singing along with it while I watched this drama, but the sole reason for this 8.5 is the fact that for the life of me I could not remember any of the songs as I started writing this review. After a quick look at my k-drama soundtracks playlist I indeed found some of the songs among my favourites.
Rewatch Value: 8/10 - This criteria is a bit hard to judge for me, seeing as I am a person that doesn't enjoy rewatching things that much, so I have decided to judge this based on how much I predict I would enjoy it in case I did rewatch this drama. I have based this 8 on the sole reason that I think if I had to watch Se Yeon's character for 20 more hours I might get slightly put off this drama for real.
Overall: 9/10 - I think this drama is another Korean Drama classic. Besides the action packed story and great actors, it explores much more than the mere relationships between doctors or patients. It pushes the boundaries of what we think medicine is and makes us question corruption inside the government. It will forever be a drama that I remember dearly, even if some aspects of it lacked a little (Lee Jong Suk and Jin Se Yeon's relationship). I do apologise for the excessive talk on the Jin Se Yeon character, but it is honestly the only flaw I can point out in this drama.
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This review may contain spoilers
The beginning is one of the best!!!
I rewatch it a month ago...I enjoyed it more because i knew what was coming.
The story is interesting, the separated lovers and the endlessly effort to reunite. I didn't like the plolitics, wish it has more "hospital" time, more interesting ways of showing the awesome skills of Park Hoon.
A little long to me, could be cut to 10 or 12 episodes.
I think the end is ok, a little rushed for me.
I don't understand Park Hoon decision of living in a remote place and a remote hospital Is he going to waste his ans Hang Seung Hee skills?
I was completely addicted in the first 8 to 10 episodes! But after that, they did dragged a little: don't understand the 16 episodes formula. Few dramas deserve so many episodes and most of them tend to drag the story.
Overall, this could be a master piece but it fail to deliver...
But, if you like beautiful and true love, a plot with lots of twists and mistery, great moments of suspense, excitement, specially in the O.R., them please watch it!
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I generally skip this but i couldn't help myself from writing a review after reading the comment section. I know this review is quite late so better late than never.I would love to RECOMMEND this show.
The drama beautifully blends high-stakes medical cases with intense political conspiracies, keeping viewers on the edge of their seat.
My favourite characters are Park hoon, Jae hee and Han jae joon. I really enjoyed their respective characters journey. Jae hee and Jae joon being the most complex characters. I also liked park hoon and jae hee didn't loose their spark even after going through so much. I did wish Park hoon and Han jae joon could have taken their revenge together.
And surprisingly i disliked oh soo hyun. I actually thought i would love her like so many did but she was a sore thumb in all the 4 main characters. Yes she had good chemistry with LJS and a good actor indeed but her character was a mess. Writers should have refrain from a love triangle to begin with, this was absolutely unnecessary. Which actually made me dislike Dr. oh's character coz she emotionally cheated on Han jae joon. She fell in love with Park hoon while she was still dating han jae and also avoided breaking up with him. She came across as a confused and a coward character. She had such a great potential with han jae. Han jae deserved better than her.
But all in all it was a great drama.
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Doctor stranger was a drama i went into and started watching with pretty high expectations. Right from the beginning of the drama, i was really into it, i thought it was really interesting and i honestly thought "this must be the best drama i've ever watched". But as the series goes on, it just goes downhill.
Now, i don't think doctor stranger is a bad series, i really don't. I think the idea they had for this drama, is really cool/interesting. The whole thing about communism and North-korea, it's just a really interesting concept, and it was too...for the first 5-6 episodes, after that the series sort of falls flat and becomes really repetitious. There was a lot of surgery scenes and a lot of scenes where Park Hoon was trying to convince his ex-girlfriend that she was his ex-girlfriend, I also found myself disliking her more and more as the series goes on, and by the middle of the drama, i was hoping that he'd just forget her and date "quack" instead. Some people say they think it gets better towards the end, i honestly don't think so. I absolutely loved the OST to this drama though. Bobby Kim-Stranger, I think that song especially, fits really well with the drama. So my overall thought are that Doctor stranger is that K-drama that could've been amazing. If they had just put in a bit more effort with the scriptwriting, it would've been great. But i will say the acting was great (Lee Jong Suk did great and i loved his character), the storyline (the idea of the drama) was great and the music was great.
I hope that someone will come out with a drama that has the same concept as Doctor Stranger, just better.
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what did I just watched?
What kind of performance can I anticipate from Jin Se Yeon? It's frustrating because Lee Jong Suk seems to have better chemistry with Kang Sora. I even believed they would end up together. The series didn't begin well, but I stuck with it for a while. It provided me with an enjoyable time during the middle portion, but the ending was extremely disappointing. Despite not regretting my decision to continue watching, it simply confirmed my belief that Lee Jong Suk makes poor choices in acting roles.Was this review helpful to you?
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This review may contain spoilers
Growing up not really been shown love (from parents), it's strange he grew up to be so loving, sweet and dedicated.The story was really fun to watch. specially the parts where he was annoying Dr. Oh. who later on fell in love with him.
his strange & very loving personality make everyone around him understand that he's the true meaning of being a doctor. his sense of fashion was eccentric compared to other doctors..he, being a genius yet childish.
Im just disappointed he didn't end up with Dr. Oh. their chemistry was good. I don't know if its just me who felt like they had a mutual feeling.
I didn't like his partner the acting was very flat. I like Dr. Oh more, aside from being prettier.
Overall the story was never boring, fun, and very exciting to watch,
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Prolonged
This show is what you would call "prolonged"In the beginning, when I found out that the story contained both political and medical concepts, I thought it would be so interesting and thought that the time that was given for it might have been too short but little did I know
For starters, this is one of the first shows that I have ever watched that had a weak male lead and I thought it would be a bit unique cause it was the normal strong clique male leads but then the female lead came in to cause confusion.
The confusion the female lead caused was fine but I thought it was a little too much as I began going back to be sure of what I am watching.
despite all these, the writers then decided to delay the storyline or prolong the ending.
the show had a really good story but somethings that were not supposed to be dragged were dragged while somethings that were supposed to be dragged were not dragged but were rather rushed.
concerning the leads, the male lead was so fantastic. He was down to earth humble not to mention when he smirks. such a charmer.
for the female lead, I thought she was a two-timer as she really confused me and it really pissed me off.
but for the first time, I wished the male lead ended up with second female lead. I just thought it would have made much more sense.
i feel if anyone ever dropped this show, it would be because they got tired of waiting and not because the storyline was not good.
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