Doctor Cha Jeong Suk

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.

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!!

First of all, I have to specify that this drama targets a slightly older demographic: women in their 50s, 60s- however, it can very comfortably be watched by everyone. Still it speaks the most to women, especially married women in more patriarchal societies.

It's a story of a mother of two who, after a near-death experience, turns her life around. A housewife of 20 years, she decides to go back to medical profession and soon realizes her husband is a narcissistic liar and a good-for-nothing ****bag.

There is many frustrating moments in the drama, as Dr Cha navigates the new circumstances. I got annoyed so many times that she doesn't simply cut the cord with everything that's dragging her down- but I'm soon lead to realize that people are much more difficult to deal with. Even when her kids decide to hide big secrets from her, at first I'm annoyed, but soon I understand them. In the last two episodes you even feel some sympathy to the husband and the mother in law.

People are colorful and not pure evil or pure good, and many times they make bad decisions- this drama relies very much on that. The entire sequence of events is so very realistic. Most heart-warming interactions in the drama are non-romantic, human instincts of giving a hand or a word of comfort to those who need it. The entire drama reminded me of a saying "Homo homini lupus est", but turned into "Homo homini homo est".

Overall- this is a great drama, slice-of-life, human in all the mistakes, selfish and selfless acts characters make. It's a comforting weekend motivational type of a drama I'd especially suggest to women.

I've never written a review for a K-drama that I haven't finished watching yet, but the highly creative episodes 8 and 9 so far are definitely worth the focus, energy, time, efforts, and sharing.

One of the scenes of Episode 9 caused me to laugh the hardest I've ever experienced my entire life, so much so that my abs hurt, and I gave up trying to refrain from busting out laughing really loud while my husband is sleeping in the bedroom.

Episode 8 is hands down the most authentic, refreshingly honest, and impressively BOLD episode I've ever seen from all the great Korean dramas I've watched.

Congratulations and thank you to all the co-creators of this K-drama, especially the authentic, honest, unconditionally kind, compassionate, empathetic, highly intelligent, deeply wise, discerning, animated, hilarious, courageous, feisty, assertive, bold and/or very talented actors and actresses, who made the incredible story come alive.

Like other great K-dramas, this is a brilliant combination package of invaluable and interesting themes mentioned above.