I'm enjoying Hospital Ship; rather, it's a show where I can turn off my brain and just watch. But after this week's episodes, it's clear why the majority of the other people watching don't enjoy it, or medical dramas in general.
A lot of people don't like medical drama, and it's easy to see why. It doesn't leave a lot of room for experimentation. The writers who don't research medicine enough piss off the actual doctors watching. Focus on big medical cases steer the spotlight away from the main characters and their development.
The wonderful exception to all three of those points is Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim, which I enjoyed immensely. The show turned out brilliant arcs one after the other, which were gripping and heartwarming, and it never forgot to make us love the doctors we were following.
But I have yet to see a medical drama equally satisfying. I wondered if Hospital Ship could be the next Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim, but with each new episode it's becoming increasingly clearer that this won't happen - it's definitely trying to be Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim, but failing.
I've already pointed out how medical drama can fail when it focuses too much on the medical - but what if it doesn't focus quite enough? Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim struck the balance between swoony romance and carefully thought out stories, but what happens if the balance is wrong?
I can think of a few examples on the spot. Emergency Couple and Doctors are romantic-comedies dressed up in doctor clothing.
Emergency Couple was lacking in so many respects for me. Looking back, I'm not sure how I made it all the way to the end.I don't remember much about it - it was my first medical drama, and I watched it very halfheartedly a few years ago, mostly through my fingers. What I do remember is that I felt no pull from the romance between a divorced couple, and no pull from the medical antics. This drama was a medical drama because that would be a convenient way to stick our main couple together if they were forced to see each other's faces in the emergency room every day. The only thing I did like was Lee Pil-mo, being a heart-throb as usual. The man needs a lead role.
It's ambitious to call Doctors are a medical drama (despite the massively generic title), because the medical elements were only added for the sake of putting some tension into the drama, whilst also padding out the story. Even with workplace arcs, there is hardly enough plot to deserve twenty episodes. Doctors is a romance, through and through. The show doesn't seem to actually care all that much about doctoring. But the thing is, without the medical side to the show, it would be too predictable. It's clear how things will be for our couple from episode for - they're so amicable, you can't once doubt that their story will end with a profession of love and a kiss for good measure. The pull to the show has to come from somewhere, so why not give the characters jobs where they can stay busy? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Doctors, and it's the one I recommend out of these two.
I can't tell if Hospital Ship is going to be a romance drama quite yet. I know that the show has set out to be the next Romantic Doctor, a drama about doctors who better themselves as they sail and provide treatment to those who need it. But firstly, the medical stories are certainly unique but not compelling - heck, one arc just finished about a cheating bastard who broke his penis. It was absurd. Secondly, the direction of the story is unclear. There isn't enough hospital ship for a drama about a hospital ship - I'm not seeing the unique premise I was promised anymore, it's just any other medical drama. Ha Ji-won is doing great in her role at the moment, but there's little else to be excited about.
A drama I would recommend in place of Hospital Ship, if you want a refreshing medical drama focused in a rural area without the hospital politics, is Thank You. It's a drama which instantly sets out to break the mould, and brings a emotional and uplifting story about discrimination and family. Jang Hyuk is fantastic as a man warmed to the core by a single mother and her ill daughter, but Gong Hyo-jin is even better as said mother, who has become strong trying to protect her girl from the harshness of the world. What could make medical dramas such good experiences is clear in Thank You - illness is awful, but it makes appreciate the time they have. If every medical drama attempted to actually delve into humanity, our flaws and good points, there wouldn't be such a stigma against the genre.
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