Just finished the 3rd season of Dr. Romantic and totally didn’t think about writing reviews after watching the first and second season…so this’ll be one ginormous Korean drama review of all three seasons. Also will be including some of my favorite quotes from each season. WARNINGS: Spoilers ahead!!! Alright now that we got that out of the way…Let’s hop in!
Quick Synopsis
Dr. Romantic revolves around a very hard working and talented surgeon who used to be a very famous doctor at a major city hospital before suddenly moving to the countryside hospital. Most of the korean drama takes place at the countryside hospital. He changed his name to “Master Kim” and refers to himself as the “Romantic Doctor” (hence the drama name).
The drama showcases a wide range of interesting medical situations that he takes on with the help of his medical staff. He also takes on very…let’s say…interesting students under his wing each season. He teaches each of them important lessons about life and career.
Although each season has it’s own plot, I would recommend watching from season 1. Every season provides explanations to key relationships and character development for the succeeding season.
My overall thoughts
It’s a fantastic medical drama. It’s the only Korean drama that I have watched where there are 3 seasons. Having that many seasons is quite rare for a Korean drama. So that should indicate a bit about how good and popular it was when it aired.
The cons
Since each season had a different plot, I was a little sad with the character development of the main antagonist. If they spent a bit more time with the history of President Do and Master Kim, I think it would’ve added a bit more punch or significance to how Master Kim would eventually overcome President Do in season 1 and 2.
Kinda going along with the antagonist theme – the third season antagonist was kinda lame. The congresswoman using her son as an excuse to bully Master Kim and the hospital was lame compared to the President Do in season 1 and 2. I think what kept me going in the third season was the medical cases and situations (which I will talk about in the pros section).
The romance was meh in all three seasons. The title did mislead me a little bit at first because I thought there’d be a good amount of romance involved. It turned out that there wasn’t that much in each season. I was disappointed with the amount of romance in the first season but the second & third season made up for it. I liked the couple in seasons 2 and 3 much better than the couple in season 1.
The pros
Since the show itself only has surgeons from General Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Orthopedic Surgery, the medical cases are primarily focused to those 3 areas; however, there’s a good amount of interesting medical “situations”. I say situations because there’s some ethical or added plot twist that transforms the medical case into a high intense medical situation. There were a lot of unique medical situations that kept me glued to my seat for each season.
For example, in Season 3, the staff take on patients from a nearby forest fire. It may seem like a normal medical situation, but when the forest fire starts to head toward the hospital, that’s when things just go bat sh** crazy.
Speaking of medical cases, I also thought that the drama had a well balanced outcome for surgery cases. They included deaths to show that even Master Kim couldn’t save everybody. It really added some sort of realism to the character.
The last pro, which is also my favorite thing about this entire medical drama, are the teaching moments from Master Kim.
Master Kim is an ideal mentor or teacher
Dr. Romantic really portrays Master Kim as an ideal mentor or teacher. Everybody who works for him really respects him for who he is and how he operates. Even people who were once his enemies become his friends. He turns the most stubborn and hopeless students into respected and confident surgeons.
He drops the most inspirational and motivational speeches on how to live life; he’ll also give you his honest, which can be sometimes pretty brutal, feedback on your performance or behavior. Master Kim is somebody I would want to be my mentor or teacher.
Great selection of music
I think the music selection was great. The OSTs for the slow and romantic moments were eh…nothing really stood out to me. BUT…
The selection of music for portraying the intense ER or surgery situations were spot on. The music ranged from intense to motivational to heart breaking themes.
My favorite song/OST from all the seasons was Hope of Hospital.
Quotes quotes quotes!
There are a lot of teaching moments in Dr. Romantic. Whether it’s Master Kim teaching his students or the hospital staff teaching other, almost everybody in the drama has memorable and thought provoking lines that touch upon living life in a meaningful way. I’ve written some of them down and wanted to share them with you! My favorite quote is the first quote 🙂
- Season 1 | Episode 1 – “Just because you vented your frustrations doesn’t mean you’ve gotten revenge. If you really want to get revenge, become a much better human being than those people. Don’t get revenge with anger but with skill. If you don’t change, nothing else will either.” – Dr. Boo Young Joo (before he changed his name to Master Kim)
- Season 1 | Episode 5 – “If there’s something worse than failure, it’s regret” – Master Kim
- Season 1 | Episode ? – “Do you know what’s the hardest thing in this world? it’s to overcome yourself.” – Reporter Oh Sung Jae
- Season 1 | Episode ? – “I know things will get tough, but once you get through it all, your life will be changed.” – Dr Yoon Seo Jung
- Season 2 | Episode 9 – “Stay strong because that’s the only way you’ll keep living” – Choi Soon-Young’s mother
- Season 2 | Episode 12 – “I understand it’s as tough fight. I’m just as exhausted. I feel the same way. But this isn’t how you do it. If you really wish to step way from this battle, be yourself and do it your own way.” – Master Kim
- Season 2 | Episode 15 – “If everything becomes easy and obvious with all these excuses, you will end up living a life where you deserve to be treated in any way.” – Dr Shim Hye Jin
- Season 3 | Episode 12 – “You may be able to hide your actions but your conscience will haunt you forever.” – Master Kim
- Season 3 | Episode 12 – “There’s always a price to pay for every choice we make. However, most people don’t realize that at the moment. Only after time has passed will they realize what was lost because of the choices.” – Dr Cha Jinman
- Season 3 | Episode 16 – “To live is to enter a new path everyday. And to face a new reality everyday.” – Dr Cha Eunjae / Dr. Insu
Hope you enjoyed this Dr. Romantic review!
