Drama Rating: 9/10 Neck Score: A+
I love good ensemble dramas where we have multiple main characters to care about and not just the OTP. Hospital Playlist was great in that respect, and I am super excited for next season. Even just watching the group of five friends hanging out, eating, and band practice without their dynamic with their other coworkers would be amazing. I could even watch a drama just focused on the moms and uncles. In fact, my main ship is Rosa and Jong Su's friendship. There was enough balance through the longer episodes for all the different story lines for all the characters. I also love that there was passage of time without there being huge gaps. It just flowed well.
The story follows five friends who met during medical school and have been super close ever since. They are all approaching 40 and are all working in the same hospital in different departments. We get to see their daily work lives, the mundane and dramatic, their friendship after work while eating and at band practice, as well as glimpses of how they met and became friends. We have Ik Jun, general surgeon (master of the liver transplant) who is a party animal turned dad (Uju is the cutest ever) who is the social master of the entire hospital. Jun Wan, heart surgeon who seems brisk and heartless but is very thoughtful. He's a master speed eater along with Song Hwa, brain surgeon, who is perfect, loves nature, and is super nice and caring. Seok Hyeong is a ob/gyn, and is reserved and chill, like watching comedy on his phone, and is super observant and clever. Lastly, Jeong Wan, aka Buddha, who is a pediatric surgeon and son of the hospital chairman (secretly rich but is just a philanthropist and wanna be priest so no one knows he's rich). He's basically the nicest person ever who puts all his emotions into saving his patients, making him a hot mess sometimes.
Things I really like so far: relationships. Between the five friends, between the fellow residents, between residents and their professors (aka the crushes), and between those residents with crushes and the ER professor who knows the five friends well, between all the moms, Uju and his dad... I just really like everyone and how it focuses on the little things and we get to know everyone slowly. At first we may be shocked at how blunt or rude some of the doctors seem, but then we see them trying to overcome, or helping behind the scenes, and so we realize nothing is at face value. Everyone is doing what they can to be better, even if others aren't seeing that or don't appreciate it.
I can't really go into more detail, such as about the ending, because it isn't over, just season 1 is, and it left us with much to anticipate. It was a cliffhanger that made me wish it was 2021 sooner (as if I didn't already wish that). I'm really excited to see how the newly started relationships are going to develop, such as the WinterGarden couple. I'm also excited for the impending drama that is going to happen with Seok Hyeong's family, Jun Wan's long distance relationship, and the potential awkwardness of the Ik Jun and Song Hwa's whatever is going to happen there. There is a lot to look forward to. What happened in Hawaii?
Anyway, it's really good and everyone should watch it and then join me in eagerly awaiting the next season. Maybe I'll just rewatch Prison Playbook while I wait. Another fabulous ensemble show that will make you fall in love with an entire cell block of prisoners and guards.
