Dra. Cha

Doctor Cha returns as a first year resident twenty years after leaving the medical profession to raise children after getting married. Her husband has been cheating and has a child from before they were married and this is the story of how she comes to terms with her changing life and the fact she has serious health problems. The Dr played well by Uhm Jung-hwa is a great character but the writers touched on lots of subjects and characters but gave little depth to any of them, it felt like they had a tick list to cover a scenario and then move on. I was particularly annoyed at how they all treated the illegitimate daughter and then tried to make it right with a few scenes in the final episode. Kim Mi Kyung plays the mother as she always does and I mention her as even though her roles are usually minor she always makes the character believable. So great characters, well acted but let down by poor script.

Although I have only seen 5 episodes, I was hooked after the first 15 minutes of the 1st episode.. I adore the cast which is truly amazing and believable. I was first introduced to kdramas on Netflix and my playlist is mostly filled with them! I wish the USA would learn from kdramas on showing the respect between the cast and giving the audience a chance to use their imaginations instead of showing every sexual detail. Everybody should give Dr Cha a chance before forming an opinion that you will ultimately regret. The only problem I have with this show is that it's only shown on the weekends!!

A series about a downtrodden wife and mother breaking free from her philandering husband and abusive mother-in-law might have culminated as a joyful celebration. However, this series fails to hit such heights. Nevertheless, it gives us a sympathetic heroine to root for, if you can forgive her initial failure to fight back.

That sympathy for Doctor Cha's plight carries you through the series. Unfortunately her husband is often depicted as a comic character, which, for me at least, dissipated somewhat the emotional power of the story. Nor does the final episode help, with overly easy conclusions to each of the plot strands.

Nevertheless I did watch it through to the end and do not regret having done so.

No Spoilers, just some pros and cons.

Pros

The acting was very good. I would call out Kim Kyung-Chul for his portrayal of Sea In-Ho, the jerk husband. Of course we don't like his character, but he did a truly superb job of navigating jerkiness and having regret. I would also call out Jo Adam for her role as Jeon So-Ra. It looks like she does not have a lot of acting experience, but the way she portrayed a cranky, domineering personality was quite subtle and skillful.

I liked the storyline and the message they were trying to communicate.

Everything that happened in the story was believable, even if unlikely.

Cons Somehow the series did not draw my wife and I in as much as our favorite KDramas. Despite some touching scenes, we were not too emotionally invested in the characters.

The ending was O. K., and I think sent a nice message, but again we were sort of just, "Oh, it's over. What will we watch next?" Rather than feeling like we would miss the story and characters. The story just sputtered to a halt. There a number of things they could have done to tie everything up to a greater extent.

So overall, not bad, but not great. So a 7 ranking.

Lots of good drama, not necessarily your run-of-the-mill medical drama, the medical setting is simply to make the drama more interesting. Episode 6 was almost edge-of-the-seat kind, fun to watch. Give it a chance, you won't regret.

It is binge watch worthy, so if you would rather do that wait until mid June '23 for all episodes to be out.

The characters do justice to their roles, acting is excellent. There are some cringe moments, but if you are willing to ignore them, you will enjoy watching it all.

The story advances with every episode with a good pace, it is not too much talking and not much happening.