Hospital Playlist

What kind of drama it is

Five friends who met at medical school and have stayed close for nearly twenty years now work as professors in different departments of the same university hospital. The hospital is the setting, but there is no grand conspiracy or power struggle at the centre. The show moves by stacking up the days of patients and families, residents and nurses, and the five friends themselves. Each episode brings a handful of patient stories, and in between the friends eat together, trade jokes and rehearse with their band. It is a drama to watch for the warmth between people rather than for big twists.

The makers and the cast

Director Shin Won-ho and writer Lee Woo-jung are the pair behind the Reply series and Prison Playbook. Their way of giving many characters an even share of the screen, and of mixing laughter and tears in a single episode, carries over here. The five leads are professors of hepatobiliary surgery, paediatric surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, and neurosurgery, so each department shows a different side of hospital life. Beyond the five leads, the actors playing residents, nurses and patients' families carry a large part of the story.

• Aired: tvN, season 1 in 2020, season 2 in 2021
• Director Shin Won-ho, writer Lee Woo-jung (the Reply series, Prison Playbook)
• Cast: Jo Jung-suk, Yoo Yeon-seok, Jung Kyung-ho, Kim Dae-myung, Jeon Mi-do
• Format: 12 episodes per season

The choice of one episode a week

Korean dramas usually air twice a week, but this one aired once a week with longer episodes instead. That leaves room in each episode for several patient stories alongside the friends' everyday lives. It is worth keeping that rhythm when you watch now. Because the episodes are long, bingeing several in a row tends to blur the small changes in the characters. One episode a day, put on in the evening without any rush, suits this drama well.

How it breaks the medical-drama formula

Medical dramas usually mean genius doctors, hospital factions and frantic operating-room scenes. This show has surgery and emergencies too, but the camera lingers outside the operating theatre: a doctor explaining things to a family after treatment, a resident grabbing a nap in the on-call room, dinner with friends after work. The leads are drawn less as flawless heroes than as ordinary adults who make mistakes and grumble. Its biggest difference is that it offers reassurance rather than tension.

Things to watch for

With a large cast and episodes split into many small stories, keeping the points below in mind the first time makes it much richer.

• How the five friends address each other and how their speech differs
• The different atmosphere of each department's clinics and wards
• How the residents change little by little over a season
• What meal scenes reveal about the friendships

The band scenes and the music

The five friends play in a band, and the show often has them playing and singing older Korean pop songs. These songs usually connect to the mood of the episode or to what a character is feeling, so they are not just filler. Watching who sings with what expression tells you a lot about what that person went through in the episode. If a song catches your ear, look up the original. The way songs from another era overlap with a present-day story is part of the charm.

Worth knowing before you start

Since it is set in a hospital, there are scenes of serious illness, surgery, death and children undergoing treatment. If someone in your family is ill or has been recently, it may hit hard, so watch in a way that suits where you are. The diagnoses and treatments shown are staged for the story and may differ from real medicine. If you are worried about similar symptoms, do not judge by the drama; talk to a medical professional. Also note that the long episodes can lose their flow if you watch them in short bursts.

Who it suits

It suits viewers who want warm everyday life and long friendship rather than harsh conflict. If you liked Reply 1988 and its ensemble of people laughing and crying together, this will feel familiar. You do not need any medical knowledge to enjoy it, and if hospitals are unfamiliar territory, there is the extra pleasure of glimpsing the days of the people who work there. Watching from season 1 in order is recommended.