#jtbc drama | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

offbeatcappuccino · 3 months

Text

the you used to be my academic rival to lovers pipeline ~ dr slump ramblings (episodes 1-4)

I often joke that I watch k-dramas in lieu of therapy because a central theme of many k-dramas is unresolved trauma and healing. Dr. Slump is one of the many "healing" dramas to hit our screens this winter and it is perhaps one that few dramas that I have resonated deeply with and I don't think I can speak on what this show means to me without describing my background.

Before the third grade, I was a mediocre and sometimes below-average student, often to the disappointment of my Indian family. However, something "clicked" during the spring of my third grade and eight year old me decided on one fine afternoon that I was going to take school seriously for the first time and become an academic powerhouse. What ensued over the next sixteen years was my dogged persistence in an extremely hyper- competitive, academically rigorous, and slightly controversial charter school for the entirety of my secondary school education. Despite the workload, I was surprisingly sane for all of high school, enjoyed some of my classes, and played with my kindergartener sister on the weekends. It was also during this time that I continuously changed my professional career. An episode of "Cosmos" had me thinking I wanted to be an astrophysicist, but it was my junior year volunteering at a hospital and having two hypochondriac parents that firmly planted a desire to pursue medicine.

While I never was the valedictorian or salutatorian of my school, I graduated from high school with a fairly high GPA and acceptances to moderately competitive schools.For many, this would be the time that they could finally rest. "Grades don't matter in college", they would say and "Have fun in college and party because it's a breeze" . However, being a premed was the exception to these mantras. I was once again on the hamster wheel of academic excellence trying to maintain a high BCPM GPA and stellar extracurriculars, only to realize that graduating summa cum laude was never enough to get in to medical school. What subsequently ensued was two years of working long hours and below minimum- wage jobs to gain "clinical experience" and "boost my applicant profile". Now even with two medical school acceptances, I can't help but feel slightly disappointed and unsatisfied. The ever-lasting imposter syndrome creeping in during the wee hours of the night to tell me that "it's not a big deal" and "if only I took research more seriously in undergrad."

It is in this similar mentality that prioritizes academic validation above else that we find our protagonists, Nam Ha Neul and Yeo Jeong Woo, in as high schoolers. In Busan, Ha Neul has just been announced as the "top student of the nation". Similarily, in Seoul, Jeong Woo receives a similar accolade. Their lives collide when Ha Neul transfers to Jeong Woo's school in their senior year and they are pitted against each other for the top student position in their class. Though they have similar ambitions, it would be erroneous to suggest they are carbon copies of each other, because they both occupy opposite sides of the "academically gifted spectrum." Ha Neul is the diligent hard worker, studying 17 hours a day, running to school to not waste any time, and chowing down instant coffee packets to stay awake. She has deprived herself of all the joys of her adolescence to be the best student she can possibly be. In contrast, Jeong Woo is the effortless learner, while hardworking, he's never had to lose out on the fun to maintain his comfortable and uncontested position as the best student in his grade level. Things however take a turn with Ha Neul's arrival after she ends up scoring higher than him on the midterms, causing him to hilariously faint in front of the whole class. He embarks on an obsessive journey to reclaim his spot, pushing himself to outdo her unsustainable lifestyle.

The show fast forwards sixteen years later and we now see Ha Neul and Jeong Woo as an anesthesiologist and plastic surgeon respectively. While both were vying for an acceptance at Hankuk Medical School as high schoolers, Jeong Woo manages to score slightly higher than Ha Neul and ends up attending there while Ha Neul ends up attending a slightly less prestigious medical school. After being featured in a global health documentary, Jeong Woo, experiences a meteoric rise in popularity for his handsome looks and he makes millions in the process with a successful Neotube channel and brand endorsements. However, just as spectacular was his rise, his decline was equally catastrophic. During a routine cosmetic surgery, Jeong Woo loses his patient on the table due to excessive bleeding. His patient was a wealthy casino heiress from Macau and her family hits him back with a medical malpractice lawsuit. To make matters worse, not only is the CCTV footage from the surgery surprisingly missing, but a bottle of heparin, an anti-coagulant, is found with Jeong Woo's handprints even though he claims to never stock anticoagulants in his clinic. In a matter of days, Jeong Woo loses everything from his home, practice, and even friends.

Ha Neul is no better position than Jeong Woo. As an assistant professor at her teaching hospital, she is subject to daily physical and emotional abuse by her superiors and is forced to work 24+ hour shifts at the cost of ignoring her own pain. It was during one particular episode of unbearable abdominal pain that Ha Neul collapses mid-traffic on the crosswalk. She's rushed for an emergency gallbladder removal and Ha Neul is irrevocably altered by the incident because in the moments before she fell unconscious, she realizes that she would rather die than continue living. A visit to the psychiatrist confirms that Ha Neul has depression and she soon quits her job after she "karate kicks" and apprehends her superior for trying to make her take the blame for this medical error.

It is during their respective "slumps" that Ha Neul and Jeong Woo reunite in the oddest of circumstances as daughter of the landlady and tenant when Jeong Woo, after being denied housing almost everywhere due to his highly publicized court case, is finally able to move into Ha Neul's terrace room. At first, both are horrified to meet each other, but as they learn more about each other's respective circumstances, they grow closer over their shared failure.

For Ha Neul, while she chose to resign her job, being unemployed and diagnosed with depression takes a toll on her self esteem because she derives her self worth from her productivity and discipline. For her, Jeong Woo is her gentle reminder that it's okay to take a breath, eat tteobokki, drink soju, lose a million rounds of Tetris, and sing off-key kpop songs at the karaoke bar. This is in direct contrast to those who judge her for quitting her job and her family, who while well-intended, have a poor understanding of her depression. While they cook her favorite meals and cut store bought cake, behind their comical actions is the misguided belief that depression is like the common cold. They hope for her "recovery" but in reality, depression is a chronic illness that can be managed but has no cure. Jeong Woo is one of the few people around Ha Neul who has not made a spectacle out of her diagnosis. Similarily for Jeong Woo, Ha Neul is the only person who steadfastly believes in his innocence even when those around them and the physical evidence believe otherwise. After he is abandoned by his friends, parents, and fellow colleagues, Ha Neul becomes Jeong Woo's sole support system.

Park Shin Hye excels in playing a character she has been able to hone throughout her career- the tough and withdrawn gunner, much like her previous character, Yoo Hye Jung, from the 2016 medical drama Doctors. While I personally relate more to Ha Neul, I have to say that I enjoy Park Hyung Sik's Jeong Woo more. While I have never watched Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, I have watched several clips from the series and PHS brings a similar "Min Min" energy to this role. Jeong Woo is chaotic good personified. He's a little self-obsessed and a tad bit delusional, but he's also someone who deeply cares for the wellbeing of others. PHS is stunning in how he balances comedy with the vulnerability and fear of Jeong Woo. Behind his charm and goofiness, is a man struggling with abandonment and what appears to be early signs of PTSD. To both characters, there's an intense relatability that heightens the audience's captivation with the story.

Within the first few episodes of Dr. Slump, there are more questions asked than are answered. How will Jeong Woo be absolved of the false accusations imposed on him? How did the casino heiress really die? Who is the mysterious stalker who broke into Jeong Woo's home? Will Ha Neul get another job and how? Will she get justice for the mistreatment she faced at her prior hospital? However, the writers intentionally move the spotlight from the answers to these questions to instead shine light on perhaps the most pressing query this show chooses to grapple with- how do you learn to love yourself

Dr. Slump tackles head-on the "grind" that our hyper-capitalist and delusive meritocratic society feeds to us. It's a reminder that you don't always have to run in the marathon of life. You can walk. You can skip. You can sit. You can eat. You can drink. You can even sleep. What matters is not how close you are to the finish line, but whether you can breathe.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

#dr slump #netflix kdrama #jtbc drama #park shin hye #park hyungsik #kdramas #kdrama reviews #kdrama recommendations

11 notes · View notes