"Doctors" Episode 10 recap

Flashbacks sprinkled throughout this episode remind us of the difficult trials and tribulations Hye-jeong and Ji-hong wernt through back in the day that inspired them to get on to the medical career path. I find the inclusion of these flashbacks puzzling, since all they do is remind me that at one time "Doctors" was about people exceeding their own expectations to do good in the world rather than act all surly. And now the story is just a love triangle.
Not even a compelling love triangle at that. Everyone down to the unnamed nurses knows full well that Yoon-do has absolutely zero chance with Hye-jeong, and that it's only his general cuteness that prevents his pursuant behavior from being explictly creepy. I will admit, though I admire that he had the guts to actually get an explicit rejection. There were only blatant hints, after all, that of course Hye-jeong's heart lies with Ji-hong.
It doesn't really, mostly because Hye-jeong is cynical for some reason. That's another real irksome point for me. It's been over ten years and yes, it is horrible what happened to Hye-jeong's grandmother, but has she really just been reliving that one painful moment this entire time? Hye-jeong only recently started to work at this hospital- was life at her previous hospital miserable enough that all Hye-jeong was focused on was getting the qualification to come to this one and investigate what happened to her grandmother?
These are the flashbacks and character backstories I really want to see. To date "Doctors" has been almost fully satisfied with simply giving us bare bones archetypes and expecting us to root for the characters solely for the sake of self-identification. Once again I can see the appeal of this. Ji-hong and Yoon-do are both such nice, basically encouraging men that it's hard to really dislike either one of them all that much.
Be that as it may, there still isn't anything about them that's all that interesting, and the same can be said for the rest of "Doctors". The political disputes and the rather mild medical emergencies the drama keeps coming up with remain extremely dull. There's no sense of dramatic stakes, and no crisis. Admittedly, in a purely romantic television show, it's not necessarily all that bad for the story to be comforting rather than exciting and dynamic. But as the flashbacks keep reminding me, at one point "Doctors" was able to juggle all these balls quite skillfully, so I have no idea why right now it's only putting any effort into keeping the romance moving.
Review by William Schwartz
"Doctors" is directed by Oh Choong-hwan, written by Ha Myeong-hee and features Kim Rae-won, Park Shin-hye, Yoon Gyoon-sang, Lee Seong-kyeong, Kim Yeong-ae and Jeong Hae-gyoon.

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