Review of Doctor Cha / 닥터 차정숙

For a hot minute, I kept seeing this drama all over my feed. I tend not to watch dramas as soon as they come out just because I’m pretty impatient. I dislike having to wait for episodes, so knew I wanted to watch this, but I didn’t want to invest a ton of time waiting for the next week’s episodes to come out.

I’m the kind of person who likes to sit and watch the entire series in one go whenever possible. So I waited until 14/16 episodes were released, watched all the content that had come out in a couple of sittings, and the next weekend I was mentally prepared to watch the last two episodes. Which I hated, but I’ll get more into that.

I think I’m going through a bit of a Renaissance when it comes to Korean dramas.

I’ve been absolutely loving the newfound focus in depicting older women who want to have some sort of independence, though I think this drama threw some more sexist thinking in the final episode when Dr. Cha gives her reasoning for why her and Roy can’t date.

Lots of feelings there, but I’ll get into that. But I largely enjoyed this drama up until around episode ten, then I found it to be losing major steam.

Onwards with the review!

Cha Jeong-suk is tired of leaving behind her dream of being a doctor for the housewife life.

The protagonist of Dr. Cha is Cha Jeong-suk, who many years ago, was left pregnant by her now-husband.While he continued to work and became a successful surgeon, she was forced to give up her medical education and stay at home in order to take care of the children.

But right off the bat, we learn that her husband is no longer really appreciative of her as a person. He’s absolutely awful to her throughout the series, which makes it shocking that they drag out the divorce for so long.

Her children, too, end up taking her for granted, because when she decides she is going to go and take on a residency, beating the odds despite her age and kidney problems, which happens to be at the same hospital as her husband, her son, and the woman her husband is having an affair with (who her husband cheated on with Jeong-suk originally, and now he’s doing the reverse).

The drama follows her life at the hospital, how she finds out her husband is a cheating scumbag, navigating life now as a working mother, and so much more. Her kidney doctor, Roy, also works at the hospital and is smitten with her from the get-go.

He is the only one who knew that she was married to her husband (they kept it a secret from everyone at the hospital) because he saw them together when he denied giving her his kidney.

At the same time, Jeong-suk is really struggling with keeping up at the hospital, especially as her husband and the woman he’s cheating with plot o get her to quit.

There are several other side stories throughout, including how her son is dating the other mouthy resident who likes to yell at people, the daughter wants to go to art school but the father cannot accept that, the mother-in-law made a building in Cha’s name without her permission and that prevents her from getting a loan.

Roy is also trying to find his birth parents, as he was adopted to the United States, and there’s an intense rivalry between him and Cha’s husband because they both are competing for her affections.

Lots to learn from this series I found. It’s mainly about Jeong-suk going out and chasing after her dreams after so long, and while she’s dedicated her life to helping other people, she also simply needs to learn to live life on her own terms.

For so long she’s spent it living for other people, and now the series is focusing on how she can go off and be her own person. Which is why the ending makes so much sense, even though I have major complaints.

Roy is good for her, but when she denies him in the final episode for dating and says that because he can find a woman who can give him kids, which is a major assumption that undermines what she may actually want herself.

He doesn’t really exist as a character to be there outside of fighting with her husband over her and offering his kidney later on.

They have some moments that are cute, but he’s delegated to second male lead status. It becomes kind of obvious they’re not endgame because of how long the drama drags out the “we need to get a divorce” plot line.

Then while it’s healthy she becomes on good terms with her ex-husband, his behavior is absolutely appalling. I understand why he acts like a manchild throughout the show because of his mother and how he gets away with so many things, but the fact he faces reality and suddenly tries to change his ways after grappling with a potential divorce is so questionable.

People often don’t change like that, and it’s insane how they can heal that quickly in the time gap as a family to be on such friendly terms. I get that it does happen, but what happened between them was pretty messed up.

Overall Thoughts

Overall a good drama with some weak writing for me. I can see why others would love it, which is why taste and ratings are subjective. If you love it, cool. It just wasn’t my cup of tea by the end.

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