Summary
Doctor Slump gets off to an intriguing start in a zippy premiere with plenty to like.
Medical Korean dramas are endlessly popular, and Doctor Slump is the latest of them to be streaming on Netflix. Episode 1 of Season 1 is a captivating premiere, delivering sizzling chemistry between the leads and a damning portrait of careerism and overwork. It’s a little overburdened by a need to introduce characters and layout backstory, but that’s an understandable downside of any premiere. First impressions are strong, though, and genre fans will likely flock to this in great numbers.
The lion’s share of this episode is about introducing us to Ha-neul and Jeong-woo, two talented medical professionals with intertwined backstories who have grown into very different present-day circumstances.
Who are Ha-neul and Jeong-woo?
Both were exceptional youngsters. Ha-neul was indescribably hardworking, studying for 17 hours a day, and her pragmatism convinced her mother to sell the failing family factory to move to Seoul so she could go to medical school. There, she competed with another exceptional student for the top spot – Jeong-woo.
Jeong-woo was a similar overachiever. The two suddenly become rivals. And, while we don’t know the precise nature of what happened during this period, it’s only Jeong-woo who ends up getting into the prestigious Hankuk University. This doesn’t entirely track given Ha-neul’s talents and work ethic, so there’s certainly more to unpack here.
In the present day, time has been kind to Jeong-woo, who is a wealthy and beloved plastic surgeon lauded for his good looks, philanthropy, award-winning ability, and influencer status, while Ha-neul is an anaesthesiologist who is treated like garbage by her superiors. Doctor Slump presents an image of the medical industry that is not a meritocracy but is instead a classist old boys club, defined by one’s background and education more than one’s talents.
What ruins Ha-neul’s life?
Ha-neul is still proud, though – perhaps too proud to check out a persistent pain in her abdomen that is an underlying medical condition. She writes it off as a consequence of no rest, however, the pain only worsens, and she almost dies when she’s crippled in agony in the middle of the road just as a truck comes hurtling towards her.
Ha-neul narrowly avoids death and is rushed to the hospital, where she learns she needs her gall bladder removed, but the big revelation of the incident is that she has something else to worry about – she’s depressed.
Ha-neul can’t accept this either. She can’t imagine why someone who has their life together to the extent that she does could be depressed; she doesn’t understand why in the moments before the truck hit her, she reflexively wished that it would. She doesn’t know why the incident has left her with so much trauma, unable to cross the road without fearing for her life, and she stubbornly refuses the doctor’s advice and the medication she’s told she needs to take to get better.
What ruins Jeong-woo’s life?
Things don’t go well for Jeong-woo in the premiere either. In the same three minutes that Ha-neul describes as having ruined her life, his own is demolished when a patient dies on his operating table. This wouldn’t necessarily be out of the ordinary in the medical profession, even if it’s out of character for Jeong-woo, but the patient died from blood loss stemming from an anticoagulant being present in her blood that was supposedly prescribed by Jeong-woo himself, despite him having no knowledge of doing so. The CCTV footage has been tampered with, seemingly by Jeong-woo himself. He’s tried for medical negligence and has to pay a giant penalty which leaves him destitute and ruined.
How does Doctor Slump Season 1 Episode 1 end?
Of course, the premiere ends with Ha-neul and Jeong-woo being reunited, both in their predicaments and also physically. When Ha-neul returns home, she heads up to the roof to drink some beers and finds Jeong-woo standing there with his bags.
In a flashback, we see how, despite their rivalry, Jeong-woo fell in love with Ha-neul, which is sure to complicate things now that their paths have crossed once again.
What did you think of Doctor Slump Season 1 Episode 1? Let us know in the comments.
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