[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Emergency Couple" Episode 13

...And now it would seem "Emergency Couple" has moved on to boilerplate romantic drama territory. There's not really much in the way of jokes anymore. The only particularly funny one this time around is a bit of simple wordplay. I actually really wanted to know more about that guy who was brought into the hospital. How many job-related accidents can a person in that profession have that necessitate going to the emergency room?

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But no, the doctoring this time around is terribly casual, almost blase really. I guess this could possibly be interpreted as the characters just getting used to the difficulties of the doctoring life. It's good, for example, that Jin-hee and Chang-min are capable of handling a crisis situation without getting summoned to the medical review board. They're learning from their mistakes and managing to balance impulsiveness with procedure much better, finally justifying Cheon-soo's lenient attitude.

And I guess maybe giving way for a love triangle? Jin-hee and Cheon-soo don't exactly have a whole lot of chemistry, so we seem to have a lot more focus on Chang-min's constant paranoia that Cheon-soo is secretly planning on dating Jin-hee. I'm not sure how to read Chang-min's bizarrely possessive streak. Prior to his current enamoration, he really hasn't seemed like the obsessive type. Almost the opposite, in fact.

"Emergency Couple" is passable entertainment, I guess. I liked the flashback with the magic show, but really wish there had been more tricks involved. It seems like all the emotional resonance right now is supposed to be coming from the assumption that we, the viewers, know who these people are, like them, and care about them. Had there been a more involved set-up, perhaps the current conflicts would come off as a lot more compelling. Certainly the production values right now are good enough to warrant it.

But personally it's just difficult for me to care or put any energy into any of this. "Emegrency Couple" is, in every concievable way, an average drama. It seems deliberately constructed to provide the exact minimum degree of wacky hijinx, doctor stuff and romance to get people to tune in and watch without recoiling and turning away in disgust. It's not bad enough for me to hate, but not good enough for me to praise either. There's just not much worth actually discussing because it's all so passable. "Emergency Couple" is lucky there aren't any other medical dramas or romantic comedies going on right, or it would seem even more pointless than it already is.

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.