ElizabethMensah

The cast and crew during promotion: this drama is adapted from a web novel and meant to be a thriller. People thinking they're going to get a realistic story: why is there no realism and why is it so Wattpad coded. I wasn't around during the CLOY craze but did people say that about CLOY too because that story just has a VERY wild premise and requires a large suspension of disbelief. But I guess because it's rom com vibes all throughout except maybe at the end, people were fine with it.

This episode better be 1.5 hours because I don't know how else they would avoid having a rushed story.

Haha this feels like true BinJin core. If it were going to be a sad ending, MBC would not have released that pre-release because that's a huge spoiler.

Same. I don't understand the complaints. This was the most compelling episode in terms of getting a better picture of the full story.

They are so weirdly mad that Yoo Yeon Seok has great chemistry with Chae Soo Bin. There were rumors of him dating Shin Hyun-bin that were denied. Apart from the regular Hospital Playlist get togethers, there really isn't much to suggest an irl ship between Yoo Yeon Seok and Shin Hyun-bin. You shouldn't let them turn you off another YYS acting masterclass because his character in Hospital Playlist is so different but you won't find it jarring at all. That's how good of an actor he is. Irl shippers need to understand that these actors are real people not their characters in the drama. No matter how many times YYS has said his Hospital Playlist character is the closest to his irl personality, it doesn't mean that he will make the same choices as that character. People need to let these things go and not take them so seriously because they are projecting a lot onto these actresses and trying to live vicariously through them.

I think there's a lot of anger that two non-hallyu actors/stars (Yoo Yeon-seok is pretty popular in Korea but world wide he's not as well known as Gong Yoo, Lee Min-ho, Hyun Bin etc) have managed to take this dark horse drama that had very little promotion and made it a worldwide success. I love this underdog story and I appreciate the fact that one of South Korea's most versatile actors is getting worldwide fame. The shipper drama is something else. A lot of Hospital Playlist Wintergarden fans can't accept that people are raving about Chae Soo-bin's chemistry with Yoo Yeon-Seok. The thing is Yoo Yeon-Seok has great on-screen chemistry with most of his female leads because he's a very good actor. What's going on behind the scenes is another thing.

The comments on Asian Wiki are astonishing. So many people are mad that the show runners didn't just make another drama with the same plot and story line we've been getting from K-dramas all year. There's literally a question about the lack of realism in the drama and how Hong Hee-Joo isn't like all the other inspiring female leads in other dramas. I guess people are in their feelings about the amount of traction this drama is getting worldwide and because they don't like it, they are experiencing FOMO and lashing out.

I will also add for future watchers that despite its Wattpad coded plot and maybe even because of that, you are not going to be spoon fed everything about the motivations of the characters. There is a lot of symbolism in this drama and there is a lot of foreshadowing and allusions. You are not meant to have a realistic drama here so don't expect one.

Suggestions like "go to therapy" are so funny because if he did, the show would have been an hour. We are being presented with an extremely flawed male lead and people can't seem to be able to handle it.

These comments are so funny to me. Have people become so used to realistic K-drama plots that they have forgotten the makjang style ones? If Baek Sa-eon did all of those things people suggest, there wouldn't be a story at all.

Yeah and what makes it better is that Yoo Yeon Seok and Chae Soo Bin have given so much life to our trashy romantic fantasy plots and made it fun! It's like watching the stories you read come to life and in a non-cringey way. That's why it's so popular. There have been very few actors who have been able to execute a Wattpad/booktok coded trashy romance like this so well. Like I actually feel that Baek Sa Eon and Hong He Joo exist thanks to the top notch acting.

That's true lol. I just find the complaints about the lack of realism annoying so I tend to come up with nonsensical defenses. The writers are trying to sell you something unrealistic that's supposed to be fun and like a guilty pleasure. Yoo Yeon Seok has acted in two realistic dramas: Hospital Playlist and Reply 1994. Go watch that if you want realism.

Right, the writers go to great lengths to tell us that these two people don't come from normal families and they are not normal people. It's a wattpad/booktok style plot. The writers have never tried to sell us a normal marriage at all, so why are people judging it on the basis of that. And in terms of realism, it's not so unrealistic. There are still plenty of contract marriages and marriages of convenience amongst rich and powerful families (especially in South Korea).

I think I would look at it a different way. These are two people who have had deep feelings for each other (certainly affection and affinity) for twenty years. They get married and don't communicate and a sudden incident triggers a series of events that leads them to realize that they both have feelings for each other. I would interpret the lovey doviness they have now as people who are in the first phases of discovering and showing affection to each other. Essentially even though they are married, they just started dating each other. It's not out of the realm of possibility for these two people to be showing more affection and the affection is also not that of a married couple totally comfortable (except for the dream sequences) but rather that of a newly discovered passionate love. After their first kiss, they go back and sleep in different rooms. The affection they show each other is very hesitant still and not one that shows a love that has fully blossomed. I think you may be looking at them as a normal married couple who got married under normal circumstances rather than a political marriage.