[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Emergency Couple" Episode 18

The loveline between Jin-hee and Chang-min is getting to be a little corny. Sure, it's sweet at times, but the dialogue strains itself with all the cliches. An attentive viewer will note that the dynamic between these two has been completely reversed from what it was earlier. Now instead of Chang-min trying to persuade a skeptical Jin-hee, an enlivened Jin-hee is trying to convince Chang-min that they can start again.

Advertisement

I do like that the characters themselves acknowledge the breadth of the cliches at this point. Practically the entire conflict here is Chang-min pointing out, correctly, that the death of his father is making Jin-hee overly sentimental. It does bring up a bit of an interesting hypothetical- how does a person prove that their feelings of romantic passion are not just sentimentally created by circumstance? Does such a thing exist as romantic love outside of these conditions?

"Emergency Couple" doesn't really answer this question though, instead opting to focus on the same basic character romance that has engaged the drama to date. It can be cute, and even fairly engaging on an emotional level, really. There's just not that much about it that's particularly remarkable. A big ruckus is made over an elderly patient, but that storyline resolves itself fairly neatly. Which is fine by me. I'd take the general strengths of this drama over the appearance of an arbitrary villain any time.

As for our supporting characters, the lack of depth their plotlines have been given so far is well reflected in the lack of depth exposed here. But depth isn't everything. I can always get behind a conversation which points out that it's easy for men to want babies when their bodies don't have to do all the career ending stuff. And Yong-gyoo also continues to get laughs he doesn't really deserve with his rather silly romantic subplot. Still, plenty of occasions call for silliness. Maybe this one not so much but a laugh's a laugh.

All that's really left to rake over at this point is Cheon-soo. I like the guy, I really do, but it's really impossible to take him as a serious threat to the main romance at this point. He practically admits it this episode. Also I'm somewhat dubious as to the ethical implications of dating an intern. "Emergency Couple" usually doesn't concern itself much with these problems, however, this episode was surprisingly decent on the whole characters are doctors in a hospital someone might actually want to go front. So, take the good with the bad really.

Review by William Schwartz

"Emergency Couple" is directed by Kim Cheol-gyoo, written by Choi Yoon-jung and features Song Ji-hyo, Choi Jin-hyuk, Lee Pil-mo, Choi Yeo-jin and Clara.