What I love about this series the most is my reason for rating it rather low this time.
I love the complexity of the characters and the morals portrayed I don't always agree with. In s1 for example I thought Master Kim was a bit too harsh. As an older doctor, a mentor, he didn't do a good job teaching his pupils. But his character grew, and it was wonderful to watch. In s2 he appeared much softer and was less harsh. I thought his character development was done pretty nicely.
Now, at s3, I again have some issues with how certain events are portrayed. This time it's not about Master Kim, it's about a 17 years old boy who died, because a doctor forgot to check on him. The grieving mother is now the villain, and I must ask: Is there a cheaper and more tasteless way to create a villain? You can do this in a superhero movie, but not in a hospital drama series.
Let me elaborate this case a bit more. A 17 year old boy got in a car accident. He looked fine. Dr. Jung forgot to check on him. He died. We as viewers are now supposed to cry with Dr. Jung, because he made a mistake and is suffering because of this. The whole event was done to show us how overworked the doctors are, how they do their best and aren't perfect. Dr. Cha stepped in and scolded (!) the grieving mother, telling her, other patients were more important than her son, and the hospital did nothing wrong. In fact, that was a lie, because Dr. Jung forgot about the patient, and the moment he died, he was just stitching up some leg of another patient.
Again, think about the mother. The congress woman loses her 17 years old son, because they forgot to check on him. This was for sure the worst day of her life. Can you imagine the sorrow, the desperation, the anger? She lost her child! But nope, we were meant to sympathize with the doctors and to applaud Dr. Cha's speech, which was unnecessarily harsh. If you think, I'm exaggerating, then just look at comments of viewers that say "I hate the congress woman! Kim Sabu fighting!" Not wanting to finance the hospital is of course wrong, but what they did to this mother is unforgivable. Not to mention that Cha Eun Jae was the one who tried to reanimate the boy, didn't succeed, and minutes later we saw her talk with Woo Jin about her love life. The whole event had no visible impact on her. Incredible. In the same episode we also saw Ah Reum cry and break almost down, because she lost a patient that was so old, he could have died a decade ago. Tell me about the morals in this series!
If I had witnessed such an unfortunate event of a young boy losing his life too early, I would have other things in my mind than my silly love life. It seems the love stroy between Eun Jae and Woo Jin is pretty popular, that just tells me that some silly housewives are boosting the ratings, because this love is so childish, immature and boring that I have to skip their scenes. I don't want to lose too much brain cells.
Back to the boy: What happened? He was in a car accident, but seemed fine. Did he have internal bleeding? Why no autopsy? Again: WHY NO AUTOPSY? It makes no sense and is a very big writing mistake. With an autopsy they could have identified the reason for his death, and even rule out that Dr. Jang was at fault, because perhaps they couldn't have saved him anyways?
Honestly, this whole plot made me drop the series. I only came back weeks after.
Talking about the rest: Cha Eun Jae is not a likable character, which is okay. But Master Kim being so soft and nice to her is a bit irritating. Woo Jin is too dependent on Mater Kim, and even though people are gushing over the actor, most likely because he is very attractive, his acting could be better. There is something so lethargic about this character. Since I haven't seen the actor in anything else, I'm not sure if it's the actor's fault or just the character.
Last but not least: The romance between Ah Reum and Eun Tak is also a candidate for skipping scenes. We aren't in Kindergarten anymore, are we? Still the characters have a nice screen presence, and I'm not mad at them. Dr. Romantic was always a bit cheesy and "romantic". Most characters are pretty weird. That's the charm of the series.
The return of Dr. Kang made me love this series a lot more, because of the emotional tension and psychological complexity it brought back. But seeing people hating on him and rooting for Cha Eun Jae just shows me that some viewers apparently lack any common sense and emotional intelligence or are just as childish as her.
In general, this season was very irritating. It was also intense, and if not for that terrible plot with the 17 years old boy, I would give it 9 out of 10 stars, maybe even 9,5. But now I can't bring myself to rate this higher than a solid 7.
Btw, the two new doctors aren't likable at all. Not everyone can be an important genius, so it's realistic that those two will be just part of the stuff. They made one of them the comic relief, which is okay. At the beginning I seriously had no idea what they were even trying to do with them, they both lack skills and charm.
Woo Jin and Dr. Kim are carrying this series like they did in the last season. The psychological issues and the tension are making this series worth watching, the characters itself are hard to love. Well, with the exception of Kim Sabu, nurse Oh, Nam Do and the hospital manager. Seriously, those four are the highlight for me.
Sigh.