Doctor Stranger (2014)

The term "wasted opportunity" should have a definition--Doctor Stranger. Doctor Stranger was nothing but a wasted opportunity--a piece of work that started so strong and had a pretty powerful premise combined with corrupt politics and evil machinations with world-altering circumstances, but turned out to be nothing but people piddling around a hospital in a competition which seemingly went nowhere and somewhere at once. In other words, Doctor Stranger felt like it surgically removed too many parts and tried to put them back together, but when doing so, it mistook some organs for others and ultimately ended up being a "table death."

That "death" was almost predestined by Doctor Stranger's plot. At first, the show was thrilling; it's focus on Park Hoon and the things a doctor has to do gripped me. Yet, a show that has one weak character from the beginning will often find that weak character to be the cause of its entire downfall. That's what happened here. A weak character was then joined by mediocre characters, and the whole show had to rely on one really strong character (Park Hoon) to bolster the story. That weak character, though, thread through Park Hoon's performance, made a wrong stitch, and unraveled it altogether. (Don't even get me started on the ending.)

Acting-wise, it was either a beating heart or a flat line. Lee Jong Suk, Kang Sora, and Park Hae Jin gave a lot to their roles. In Jong Suk's case, his acting showed more depth than his previous roles and made me feel for Park Hoon in a real way. Unfortunately, the flat-lined actress Jin Se Yeon, brought as much character as character development for her character, that is to say, none. She tripped and stumbled over every scene that required any emotion other than a blank face that clearly said, "I don't know what the hell I'm doing."

Music-wise, I have no complaints.

Instead of asking, "Will you re-watch this?," I would say the question should be, "Do I have to re-watch this?"

Overall, I can't waste any more words than the characters did over dying patients on this drama.

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