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Glorifying toxic relationships

This drama glorifies toxic and even abusive relationships by trying to portray problematic behaviors as if it's acceptable. They push the narrative that "family loyalty is everything," even if it means standing by your toxic family.

In 2025, where progressive or emotionally mature directors and screenwriters understand that sometimes found family is better than actual family and sometimes it's healthy to leave toxic environment, the team behind this project disagrees.

This drama espouses misguided "Confucian" values, emotional immaturity, and manipulative tactics. According to the drama's logic, it's okay to abuse your wife physically, it's okay to abuse your kids emotionally, it's okay to steal someone else's husband and con him into believing he's the father of your son, it's okay to gamble, it's okay for an adult to not have a job and steal money from family members, it's okay to lie to your partners, it's okay to blame someone for someone else's actions, because in the end, you'll all be forgiven... your kids will still love you, your partners will forgive you, etc. The magical powers of filial piety will make you whole again. Are you disturbed yet?

You have to REALLY suspend your logic to understand this drama. Nothing about the plot, the dialogue, and the pacing is well-executed.

Even the romantic scenes were hard to stomach because the dialogue and situations were very over-the-top and corny. It's not cheesy in a way that makes you swoon and blush but makes you cringe with secondhand embarrassment.

Acting wise. I enjoyed Ryu's and Candy's performances. I thought Ryu did well given the material and delivered when it comes to expressing emotions through his eyes and face. He was able to go toe-to-toe with more senior actors during explosive scenes. Candy is a newbie but she's outspoken and fun to watch, even if the writers made her behavior a bit brat-like at times.

Namfah stayed solid --- she's long been typecasted into bubbly roles so she did not improve nor did she regress. Meen should stick to modeling and not acting. He lacks nuance and depth in acting and interprets a calm/pressured character as having to act stiff all the time.

Mint was the biggest disappointment. She regressed and is better off as supporting than lead, especially since she played the same role (poor, bland characters with mommy issues) three times in a row now. Her character started rather bland but level-headed then ended as just a dumb character who makes allowances for things emotionally mature people wouldn't make but hold grudges on things emotionally mature people would let go.

Lastly, the annoying gambling uncle. He had SO MUCH screen time because he's either one of the producers or married to the producer/screenwriter in real life. Yet his character is 100% disposable. They should have made the two female leads orphans instead.

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Resident Playbook. Resident. Singular. No heart and lacks the camaraderie that made HP successful

I'm a fan of Hospital Playlist 1 & 2, and what the original excelled in—besides the fantastic chemistry among the cast—was showing that the doctors had lives outside of work. The characters had external interests (priesthood, camping, eating out together, and of course, singing in a band). It also explored their relationships with parents, siblings, and children. All of these qualities made Hospital Playlist charming.

In Resident Playbook, we don't see any of that. We see 90% of the residents' lives in the hospital. They're constantly tired, complaining, lacking in personality, and bad at their jobs.

Maybe the title Resident Playbook is intentional—Resident, singular—as in it's only Oh I-yeong's playbook (Go Youn-jung's character) that will be the focus and not the other residents. At first, I understood her reluctance to return to her career and why she wasn't as proactive as the rest of her cohort. But later, her bored attitude and sloppy mistakes became grating at best and unprofessional at worst.

Normally, when rookie doctors are portrayed as bored, aloof, or cold, there’s a reason to excuse their behavior—namely, that they're such phenomenal doctors that their skill alone compensates for their attitude. Oh I-yeong is not a phenomenal doctor. She's barely even a good one. It’s just that the writers made the rest of the cast so utterly incompetent that Oh I-yeong emerges as “better” by comparison.

What seemed out of character was how she displayed more energy trying to get her in-law/supervisor's attention than in caring for patients. This isn’t a female lead you want to root for. The romance is unnecessary, and—speaking personally—I found neither the FL nor ML attractive or charismatic enough to be invested in their romantic lives.

As for the other residents: Pyo Nam-gyeong (Shin Shi-ah) always seemed flustered around patients and spent nearly half the series texting her ex-boyfriend, as if she had no self-worth. I expected more from Kim Sa-bi (Han Ye-ji), especially since they gave her the Choi Song-hwa look (bob cut and circular glasses), but most of her screen time was spent being petulant and clinging to her high school/college glory years.

Even the supporting cast (other doctors and upper-level residents) lacked charm and constantly seemed tired of their jobs or annoyed when the inexperienced doctors asked questions. This is such a departure from Hospital Playlist where even the residents there weren't flat, 1D characters

The two characters I did like were the senior female doctor, Seo Jeong-min, and the male resident, Um Jae-il, because they both have traits that feel true to the Hospital Playlist universe—genuinely caring for their patients. Jeong-min is fair and direct. Jae-il can be a bit too enthusiastic, but he puts his heart into his work.

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