REVIEW: ‘Doctor Cha’ Delivers Heart And Humor In Equal Measure

Cha Jeong-suk(Uhm Jung-hwa) has lived a comfortable life as a wife and mother of two children. Despite being in a largely loveless marriage, she’s never really thought about where else her life might have gone. But when an incident brings back her desire to pursue a career in medicine, she decides to carve a new path for herself, although many in her life are against it in Doctor Cha.

Jeong-suk’s journey of self-discovery serves as a foundation for what grows into a complex tapestry of plot lines that manage to weave in and out of the show’s 16 episodes. At its core is the protagonist’s decision to return to her pursuit of practicing medicine that she gave up when she became pregnant with her now husband, Seo In-ho’s(Kim Byung-chul), child. From this point, Doctor Cha‘s narrative expands to encompass a host of interpersonal plots, including her husband’s infidelity, her relationship with both her larger family as well as the many staff members of the hospital, and a revolving series of medical cases her and the other doctors must confront.

With so much going on, it would be easy for this series to become a hurried mess of plots as each struggle to get their due time to play out. Happily, the series has a great sense of pacing, allowing the minor threads to play out in reasonable lengths, making way for new plots to come along, or for old ones to resurface. Only a couple of core plotlines actually progress through the entire show. These core lines, Jeong-suk’s pursuit of medicine, her health problems, and her husband’s affair are the only narrative points that are carried throughout the entire show. Everything else has its time and place and then is allowed to move along.

This steady flow of narration allows Doctor Cha to not only keep its story feeling fresh as it moves from episode to episode but also to keep its mood shifting from moment to moment. While there are numerous serious developments that prompt powerful emotional responses from the viewer, plenty of light-hearted elements remain which earn laughter throughout. The series manages to balance these elements splendidly so they never undercut each other.

A big thing that helps balance the humor is how lightly it is applied in most scenes, while still being frequently present. Goofy sound effects accompany startled reactions, while facial expressions are frequently exaggerated for effect when appropriate. This light touch of humor, as opposed to full jokes or more heavy-handed elements, allows the series to keep its overall light-feeling tone, even though there are many heavier, more emotional elements.

The balance of Doctor Cha‘s presentation between humor and heart is due to the talented cast. Being able to shift from being absurd in one scene to deeply grounded in another is a task every actor is called to undertake in this series, and each rises to the occasion skillfully. This is especially true of Byung-chul. While most of his time as Jeong-suk’s husband is spent as the bumbling villain who often struggles to get out of his own way, he is able to shift in key moments to display both cold cruelty and heartfelt remorse. All of these aspects that Byung-chul brings to the character so well allow for a level of nuance I wouldn’t think possible, given how largely deplorable he is for most of the series.

Another standout in this regard is the supporting character Jeon So-ra(Jo Ah-ram). As a third-year resident, So-ra is in charge of the first years, including Jeong-suk. While she is initially presented as cold and uncaring towards the new doctors, Doctor Cha comes to evolve the character brilliantly over the series run, allowing her to become a full, three-dimensional person, that displays a wonderful heart. Ah-ram’s delivering of the character, especially during the middle of her arc as she begins to reevaluate how she has treated other characters manages to take So-ra from cold to self-reflecting, and finally, warm and out-reaching is a fluid transition thanks to the actor’s performance.

Bringing all of the surprising depth and wonderful pacing together is an ending that I thought I had all figured out going into it and turned out to be almost completely wrong about. Despite the show delivering so many surprises with how it wrapped up its story, none of these felt disingenuous to its characters or themes, making it a truly impressive achievement.

Doctor Cha is an amazing show that manages to marry medical drama, humor, and emotional turmoil all within a core narrative about a woman who decides it’s time to start doing what she wants to with her life. Its wonderful charm and emotional strength make it a fantastic watch that I cannot recommend enough.

Doctor Cha is streaming now on Netflix.