Di Dei

This well made and often gripping series shows in realistic detail an earthquake and it's aftermath in Seoul from the point of view of doctors in a hospital and the EMTs. The first part has well done disaster sequences in the first quarter. Then the deprivation of utilities and the difficulties of medical procedures is quite gripping. Some of the surgical procedures are quite exciting. I usually don't like the overly technical medical dramas but this one isn't boring since it's a blend of disaster and medical drama. They even manage to have some romance weaved into the story.

The cast is quite sympathetic and there is time to build up the characters and their relationships. Ki Young Kwang does a great job as the hero surgeon willing to take risks to save lives. Jung So Min is quite likeable as the sweet doctor from Busan. Ha Seok Jin is convincing as the more conservative doctor. His nurse love interest is played by the pretty and intelligent looking Yon Joo Hee.

The faults of this series don't spoil the whole. If this series had been shortened by a few hours it would have been much better. There are some repetitive scenes that should have been left out mostly about the evil doings of Director Park head of the hospital. He is just too insanely obsessed with getting our hero. Same thing over and over. The ending is satisfying.

Worth a watch.

This is my second kdrama, like Mr Sunshine, that i feel the drama is like a movie. Must be hugely invested, the scene of earthquake, the destroy of the city, are all so real.

Male lead, the reckless doctor, is a bit too tall for the female lead. Natural disaster and medical scene dominates the drama. I wish there were more scenes on development of romance with the lead couple.

The drama is underrated. It does not earn attention that it should have got.

The story is spread out too much among the actors. There should be no more than 5 main characters to move the story through them. The relationship between the hero and heroine is too little. Even though it's a medical series But viewers also want to relieve stress with a beautiful love line. The story of some doctors being selfish and unwilling to change should be cut out. And situations should become more difficult. There are more issues to resolve. Such as repeated earthquakes I like the chemistry of the main actors. And medical knowledge told in the story This is a good and clear part for a medical series like this.

Doctors working during a disastrous scenario is an interesting take on the medical genre and it worked, at least for the 1st half. Resources were limited, the tension was intense and the stakes were high. It created a good mix for a thriller. However, things began to turn back into a regular medical drama in the 2nd half, it even brought with it the typical issues and conflicts with a hospital management. It slowly began to lose its attraction at that point. The brief romance was strange, it didn't work because it happened over a very short period of time. You may justify it as a little trauma bonding experience. The cast were mostly fine, however, the characters often went for over-dramatization over professionalism which took away from some of the serious moments. The drama could've worked better if it were a mini series of something like 8 episodes with good direction.

Around the end, they brought a little girl to translate sign language of the ML's brother final moments before death. Nobody thought how that might be traumatizing for a child to watch a recording of someone drowning and dying in a distressful situation until he become a floating corpse deep underwater!! There were a lot of other examples were the characters went for over-dramatization over professionalism.

I made it to the half-way mark of this series before finally deciding to quit. There seems to be many good reviews of this series, so I had high hopes, and I am already a big fan of Kim Young-Kwang, so I thought this would be a win. Unfortunately this show turned out to be a bust for me. This is actually an example of a show that I think would have been much better had it been restricted to a movie. After watching 10 hours (up to episode 11) I could already see the same plot devices repeating, making for a frustrating viewing experience. The cast is expansive, and while they do tend to focus on a few main characters, they should have focused the most on 4 or 5 instead of 10 - 15 characters. In the end, I just became too bored to spend any more time waiting to see where this show was going to go. I liked a few of the characters, but not enough to keep watching.