Doctors is a drama I had been anticipating for quite a while. The pictures and news about it had me very excited as it would be Park Shin Hye stepping out of her normal comfort zone. She'd be a fighting kick butt woman who despite all odds became a doctor! Which would be fun! I didn't really expect too much out of the drama as Park Shin Hye tends to be in dramas that eventually lose there way. (Pinocchio being the only exception, though I'm currently not 100% done with it. But I have faith in the writer.) I thought that she wouldn't have to cry too much, Park Shin Hye acting seems to have a lot of tears, and that she'd finally graduate from cold kisses to Pinocchio power house kissing. So yeah. I was excited. Not to mention the other cast members. Doctors has some of the best flashback story I have ever scene. The first 3 episodes are setting up Hye Jung's past and her connections to the other cast. It was so exciting! Fresh! I had no idea how they'd jump back to the future and make that story better then those first 3 episodes. Because that story was engaging and I would have been happy with the story progressing from there. Yes, I had issues with Hye Jung and Ji Hong having a teacher/student romance. However, I could not deny the chemistry these two characters had together. The jump happened, it's a 13 year gap between the present story and the past. The writer created an interesting cast and the new characters as well as the ones from Hye Jung's past were all unique and fun. It seemed like Doctors was doing it! The jump to present day was exciting! There was WOMANCE between Hye Jung and her long time friend Soon Hee. Soon Hee was so great and I was excited for a female lead to have a great FEMALE FRIEND. A rarely embraced thing in dramaland. Ji Hong and Hye Jung's picked up their romance! It felt beautiful and the rain dancing scene will be an iconic thing for me, but I feel like it will be for dramaland period. There were so many possibilities with this show! Fabulous side characters and . . . it only lasted until about episode 8, where this show peaked for me. Then after that it slowly declined as stupid drama tropes swept in to kill this drama. Such as hospital takeover politics, and Hye Jung obsessing about getting an apology for her grandmother's wrongful death. Which leads to a very dragged out boring plot in which we all know the villain will have to have surgery from the people he has wronged. Sure the drama tried to hold on up to episode 14, but then it's like the writer gave up. The side characters were completely forsaken. The WOMANCE was only seen in brief glimpses and Soon Hee was given the ax. Other characters that were brought in and developed where either totally forgotten or given a few scenes towards the end. Basically the networks and writers don't realize that what makes the shows are their characters. The tropes that they feel the need to shove in and kill the dramas are the things that fans hate! There never had to be a hospital politics to make this drama interesting!! Hye Jung's story of becoming a Doctor and overcoming realistic every day odds would have been better. Focusing on the stellar cast, their chemistry together, and their lives would have been interesting. I know the writer wanted to go there as most of the episodes started and ended with a monologue from a character. Which was clearly inspired by Grey's Anatomy format. Truth is I felt like all the effort and amazing aspects of this show were put into the first 8 episodes. Then someone said, hey we have our audience let's phone it in. I think the writer kept trying from episodes 9 to 14, but the show just got away. Plot lines were started and then never explored. The writer clearly knew how to start the show, but didn't quite have enough skills to take it to the end. Opting out to do hospital politics and lame revenge stories that only hindered Doctors in the long run. It even hindered the romance! Hye Jung and Ji Hong actually grew stale and I felt like they're relationship never grew. Back hugs and cute little scenes of smiling does not a romantic development make. By the end of the drama I didn't care about them getting together. The issues they discussed where never explored and Hye Jung changed, but Ji Hong just stayed the same. Hye Jung striking him out when he did things they discussed they wouldn't do was a joke. When I thought the story was taking them somewhere it was all taken back. As to date this is my favorite role for Hye Jung. She really put the effort in to learn how to fight and those scenes were flawless. Sadly her character cried a lot, she had reason. But I've just seen so much of Park Shin Hye's roles as water work fests that I have a very low tolerence to how much I can stand seeing her cry. There's other ways to show sadness. The side characters and cast did an amazing job! Though I feel like all the interesting characters were wasted! Not to mention Yoon Do. It wasn't so bad with him, but I feel like they could have taken him to even better places. I do enjoy that Seo Woo was redeemed and decided to live better. Actress Lee Sung Kyung did a great job and I hope to see her in roles outside of her mean girl ones. There were a lot of great characters and their actors did well with what little time they were given. It baffled me that Kang Soo, played by Kim Min Suk, was given so much plot time. But they chose to do a very long and boring plot device that they then used on another character. Why? Moon Ji In was one of my favorite actress discoveries and I loved her character! She was such a force on screen and as I mentioned had a WOMANCE with Hye Jung. It's another crime that she was abandoned in favor of the dull plot lines. Not to mention the way we're supposed to believe Soon Hee will have someone. It was cold. The music went like the whole drama. They did some 90s stuff to flavor the flashback and then to connect Ji Hong and Hye Jung together. It was amazing!!! Then of course that too was abandoned, as I assume it was to much effort and not important with the boring plot line. (Yeah, I'm bitter guys.) The OST is really fun and the songs were pretty great! They matched the drama well, but towards the end I thought some of the song/music placements were odd. Rewatch? Hmmmmm, I'd probably rewatch the first 8 episodes and then make up the story from there. The next few episodes weren't bad and I could live with them up to 10. However, the majority of the drama is boring and the unique and amazing parts saved the first half of it. In my bitterness I don't think I'd rewatch. Simply because while watching the good episodes I'd feel rage about how this series became yet another great idea that was a waste in the end. If someone was looking to watch this I'd say watch the first 8, or the very least watch the first 3 episodes to see how amazing Park Shin Hye did for the role. Then I would caution that the drama declines and doesn't pan out. Also, I'd probably keep an eye out for writer Ha Myung Hee's work. Besides Doctors she's done High Society, which is another drama that started out strong but went boring. For me this has always been a curse of K-dramas. They have unique ideas but no follow through and become very boring. This year has been a revolution in dramas with Signal and quite a few others. Sadly there are still step backs like Doctors.