The South Korean romance centres on overworked doctor Nam Ha-neul (Park Shin-hye) and superstar plastic surgeon Yeo Jeong-woo (Park Hyung-sik). Having jostled through high school over the billing of top student, now their lives have diverged.<\/span><\/p>\n Ha-neul is fighting the physical and psychological cost of working towards professorship under an abusive and incompetent mentor. Meanwhile, things are going well for Jeong-woo until a patient dies on the table in a seemingly freak accident \u2013 an incident that robs him of his reputation and almost bankrupts him through compensation payments.<\/span><\/p>\n As he downsizes to pay off his debts, the only place he can find to live is the rooftop apartment owned by Ha-neul\u2019s mother (played by Jang Hye-jin). It brings the erstwhile foes into each other\u2019s orbit once more. Though they reignite their rivalry almost immediately, as Ha-neul tries to find a healthier life and Yeong-woo attempts to prove his innocence, they slowly find solace in each other.<\/span><\/p> It\u2019s not an original setup for a drama. There\u2019s room for surprises, but in spite of the series\u2019s surprisingly sincere exploration of depression and burnout, four episodes in we know where this is going.<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s not a bad thing. Many South Korean series thrive on clich\u00e9s and making only incremental changes to established formulae. Indeed, <\/span>Doctor Slump <\/span>is watchable and, at times, even endearing. There\u2019s enough here to keep audiences who aren\u2019t just here for Park Shin-hye and Park Hyung-sik entertained.<\/span><\/p>\n The problem is, to get to <\/span>Doctor Slump\u2019<\/span>s more interesting elements, one has to make it through the exposition-heavy and mostly directionless first episode. An episode that is the K-drama equivalent to a meeting that could have been an email.<\/span><\/p>\n Whiplash shifting from past to present and back again, meaningless earlier storylines, and inconsistent pacing combine to make the first episode of <\/span>Doctor Slump <\/span>one of the worst episodes of television in recent memory. Only for the second episode to pick up, mostly through settling into a vastly decelerated pace. A change of rhythm that makes <\/span>Doctor Slump <\/span>not just watchable but, albeit seldomly, brilliant when it centres on Ha-neul\u2019s depression diagnosis. But how many viewers will make it to that second episode when the first feels so disposable?<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s part of a curious trend in South Korean television. Many series don\u2019t just start slow, they front episodes that not only don\u2019t reflect the quality of what\u2019s to come but are often removed from the overall tone and pacing of the series as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n Doctor Slump <\/span>follows on the heels of <\/span>Gyeongseong Creature<\/span>, which took this to extremes. It was reputed online to improve after its <\/span>third <\/span>episode, more than three hours into its run (it did not, by the way). Better series in recent memory have started just as shakily. The otherwise excellent <\/span>Live<\/span>, <\/span>Goblin<\/span>, and <\/span>Strong Girl Bong-soon<\/span> fail to engage initially. Even <\/span>Marry My Husband<\/span>, which is remarkable for its tight storytelling, rushes through unnecessary exposition before getting to the core of its series.<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps it\u2019s a symptom of South Korea\u2019s tendency towards lengthy, single season series \u2013 something which is overwhelmingly positive but may inspire in writers a perceived need to dump as much context as possible upfront.<\/span><\/p>\n In a landscape of diminishing media literacy, some of us need that hand-holding through what may sometimes appear basic ideas. It\u2019s inescapable, however, that it\u2019s starting to feel that many writers simply don\u2019t trust their audiences to understand the simplest of nuance in backstory. Or, perhaps, some writers lack the insight to weave those elements into their stories in a natural and compelling way.<\/span><\/p>\n Whatever the case, it\u2019s a big ask to make an audience sit through at least an hour of exposition before getting to the meat of a story. This is especially true as we grow more time-starved, and often exhausted, as viewers. With so many great series releasing every week \u2013 January alone saw <\/span>Like Flowers in Sand <\/span>and the aforementioned <\/span>Marry My Husband <\/span>rake in viewers \u2013 it\u2019s difficult to stick with a series that begins with a roadblock as opposed to watching the <\/span>many <\/span>other, more accessible, series.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Close-up](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/02\/doctor-slump-netflix-3450c64.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Doctor")
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