Doctor Cha Review

Medical Doctor Cha (now on Netflix) is an excessive-profile Korean series headlined by using Uhm Jung-hwa, a multi-hyphenate crossover megastar whose prolonged profession as a musician and actress earned her the casual identity of "Korean Madonna." She plays a girl who gave up her profession as a physician to be a complete-time mom and housewife and now unearths herself slogging through a life of higher-magnificence discontentment. So what does she do about it? Properly, I suppose the title says all of it – and the dramedy will play out over the path of sixteen episodes airing in Korea at the JTBC network, with an episode debuting every Friday and Saturday on Netflix in international territories.

Opening Shot: The lighting fixtures on Cha Jung-sook's (Uhm Jung-Hwa) makeup mirror blink on.

The Gist: Jung-sook lives in one of those excessive-quit current houses with an abundance of herbal light and ceilings that are way, manner, way up there. She visits her pal Baek Mi-hee (Baek Joo-hee), who's a dermatologist. Mi-hee convinces her to get her freckles dealt with – which appears very just like a wealthy-individual aspect to do – but more significant to the point, stands in comparison to Jung-sook's lifestyle: Mi-hee has a distinctly hit career, however, is by myself, unmarried, without kids. Jung-sook took the other route, letting her clinical license languish simultaneously as she raised her two kids and allowed her professional medical husband to bring home plenty of 1st Baron Verulam. Jung-sook pauses on her manner, looking longingly at her pal's wall, complete with certificates and pix acknowledging her many accomplishments.

At the bus experience domestic, a person collapses, gasping for breath. Is there a physician on the bus? The words "I'm a medical doctor" bounce from Jung-sook's throat, and they jump to help – but freeze up. She's no longer optimistic about what to do. "name 911!" she exclaims. An ambulance arrives, and the paramedics encourage her to trip along, that's while a handsome hassle in matching purple pants and sport coat stops to help. He's Roy Kim (Min Woo-hyuk), a doctor. He plays the tracheotomy and gently chides Jung-sook for trying to deal with the man without a license. He may want to do different matters for Jung-sook nearly absolutely lightly. However, I don't think we're there but.

The reason we're now not there is due to the fact Jung-sook is a thoughtful and selfless wife and mother, despite the fact that her lifestyle sucks: She and her husband, seo In-ho (Kim Byung-Chul), sleep in separate bedrooms; he's chillier than a Frigidaire in Siberia, and he's having an affair with Choi Seung-hee (Myung Se-bin), his colleague on the college medical institution. Her mom-in-regulation, Kwak Ae-sim (Park Joon-geum), lives with them, and they are a snobby and stressed girl who wishes to be taken down by numerous pegs. In-ho and Jung-Sook's son, search engine optimization Jung-min (tune Ji-ho), is a primary-12 months medical resident, and their teenage daughter, search engine optimization Yi-rang (Lee search engine optimization-yeon), is angling for clinical college. They sit down for dinner, and In-ho criticizes his wife's soup. She tries to seduce him, and he coldly pushes her away. She shares that she hasn't been feeling well recently, and he cruelly quips, "It's menopause. Start operating out." after which we fantasize about pushing him into an elephant stampede.

The following day, Jung-sook stores inside the branch store while she collapses. She awakens inside the ER. She calls In-ho, who's legitimately concerned, but she insists he now not cancel his ride to Europe for a scientific conference. The tests come lower back: It's her liver. She's admitted. She desires a transplant. Her mother, Oh Deok-rye (Kim Mi-Kyung), and Ae-sim are too old to donate a chunk in their liver. Her kids are too younger. The best fit is In-ho, who reveals himself at a crossroads; he's now not a completely terrible human being because he wishes his kids to have a mom. However, he's additionally no longer sure if he desires to risk the procedure for a woman he not loves. On top of that, his shithead mom begs him now not to do it. Oh, and through the manner, bet who'll be doing the surgical treatment? Proper. The good-looking hassle. Small world!

What suggests Will It Remind You Of? Doctor Cha isn't heavy-hitting like Nurse Jackie, nor is it as mainstream as Chicago Med – but it finds a sweet spot among the 2.

Our Take: medical doctor Cha is a more slick network drama than prestige tv. However, that's just excellent: It's eminently consumable, with a rock-strong critical performance from Uhm Jung-Hwa, who reveals enough range and intensity to render her man or woman sympathetic. Granted, it's a fish-in-a-barrel premise, a reasonably formulaic Housewife. No more! Story with feminist undertones; however, Uhm's presence contains enough weight in this pilot episode to warrant our dramatic funding.

The primary hour of the series sets up a chain of media res conflicts, starting from the external (crappy marriage) to the inner (Jung-sook's developing discontentment). The collection is built upon the concept that Jung-sook will dust off her clinical license and emerge as a health practitioner. The pilot establishes that she'll need to tear everything down to be able to do that: Ditch the husband, upset the children, kick the mom-in-regulation in her nasty little ass and necessarily grow to be Kim's colleague and love interest, although he's perhaps a touch young for her? Woo woo, I say. Woo woo. She ought to use it.

After one episode, no one will anoint health practitioner Cha as groundbreaking serialized art. Still, its movements quickly and keenly balances substance with leisure, mixing subtle comedy with them on occasion, over-the-pinnacle melodrama we frequently see in Korean television and movies. Are we alleged to giggle at some overwrought cleaning soap operations or take them critically? I'm now not particular. However, there's also not anything right here that will push human beings away, particularly if you're keen on Uhm and clinical dramas.

Sex and skin: None to date.

Parting Shot: no longer a spoiler because it's apparent the show won't kill off its protagonist in the first episode: Jung-sook lies in the sanatorium bed, wakeful after surgical treatment, with a bit of smile on her face suggesting that she's simply figured out that life is just too short to be this miserable. Oh, and they add just advised off her j-hole husband.

Sleeper Star: The moms/moms-in-law emit a few scene-stealing vibes: Kim Mi-Kyung is an (in general) calming dramatic impact because the down-to-earth girl who's constantly been a rock for her daughter, and Park Joon-geum is perfectly detestable because the villain and number one explanation for why In-ho is this kind of – well, see "most pilot-y line" beneath.

Maximum Pilot-y Line: Jung-sook whispers in In-ho's ear after her surgical operation: "You. Little. Bastard."

Our call: physician Cha units its hook with a mini cliffhanger, so if you watch the primary episode, you'll want to roll correctly into the second one. So circulation IT, and if the collection continues its excellent production and performances, it can become an interesting weekly comfort-food watch.