[비즈한국] Is it true that no younger sibling can surpass the older? That is the thought that crossed my mind while watching 'Resident Playbook' (A Life Worth Living, Someday). As you know, 'Resident Playbook' is a spin-off of the 'Hospital Playlist' series, which garnered record-breaking popularity. Creator Shin Won-ho and writer Lee Woo-jung stepped back into producer roles, and the cast was largely replaced with young actors such as Go Yoon-jung, Shin Si-ah, Kang You-seok, and Han Ye-ji. While it is strictly a different story from the 'Hospital Playlist' series, 'Resident Playbook' is viewed as the younger sibling of the franchise. And the weight of that name is quite heavy. How difficult is it for a sequel or spin-off of a mega-hit to surpass the emotional impact of the original? Even if the younger sibling is objectively more talented than the older, parents always have a special, lingering affection for their first child.
'Resident Playbook', which began airing on April 12, follows the protagonists: first-year OB/GYN residents at Jongno Yulje Hospital who dream of a wise medical life someday. Unlike the 'Yulje 99ers' who were trusted and respected by patients in the 'Hospital Playlist' series, this show focuses on how residents who live with "I'm sorry" on their lips all day grow in their roles. So far, the viewership ratings for 'Resident Playbook' are not bad. It started at 3.7% for the first episode and climbed to 5.5% by the sixth, and it is also performing well globally via OTT platforms. However, viewer reaction is somewhat ambiguous. It feels like the divide between those who like it and those who don't has become sharper.
In fact, setting aside the pressure of the original series' success, 'Resident Playbook' is a case that finally began airing with great difficulty after being postponed indefinitely due to last year's mass resignation of residents protesting the government’s medical school quota expansion and essential medicine policies. In reality, the results for the first-year resident recruitment in the first half of this year showed a total support rate of only 8.7%, with 314 applicants for 3,594 positions nationwide, and only 181 successful candidates (5%). In reality, while the quota for first-year OB/GYN residents is 188, there was only 1 applicant and 1 successful candidate. Given this situation, it is easy to feel a huge disconnect from reality when watching a drama about four first-year OB/GYN residents bickering and growing together at Jongno Yulje Hospital.
The problem is not that disconnect, but that the drama's unique characteristics aren't clearly felt. The original 'Hospital Playlist' series, while heavily blended with fantasy, earned empathy by focusing on the friendship and humanity of medical school peers and highlighting the stories of life unfolding in a hospital. 'Resident Playbook' inherits the strengths of the original series but tries to shift the focus to the growing pains of youth—first-year residents who are social novices—yet it all feels like a superficial, skin-deep attempt.
From the protagonist Oh Yi-young (Go Yoon-jung), who is indifferent to everything, to Pyo Nam-kyung (Shin Si-ah), who emphasizes the gap between the glamorous fantasy and the shabby reality of doctors; from the mood-maker Eom Jae-il (Kang You-seok), a former idol member turned doctor, to the robotic honor student Kim Sa-bi (Han Ye-ji)—the character settings for these first-year residents are plausible, but they don't blend well into the drama. It feels like the show is screaming, "Since these first-year residents with these backgrounds have gathered, they have no choice but to bicker and fight." It was a characteristic of the original series that all the characters were extremely kind, like those in a fantasy fairy tale, but the characters in 'Hospital Playlist' were at least three-dimensional. They felt like breathing, living people, whereas not only are protagonists like Oh Yi-young and Eom Jae-il flat, but even characters like Professor Seo Jung-min (Lee Bong-ryun), who commands overwhelming respect despite her "witch" nickname, have no explanation for why they are the way they are. And the drama is already midway through.
In fact, the most three-dimensional character appears to be Myung Eun-won (Kim Hye-eun), the designated villain. Isn't it a problem when the character who is acting like a fox—having come to Jongno Yulje after being pushed out by Chu Min-ha (Ahn Eun-jin) from the original series, and determined to become a professor at any cost—seems the most complex? To fill the void left by weak character depth and relationships, the show leans on romance. It seems they want to show a full-fledged love line by pairing Oh Yi-young with her brother-in-law, fourth-year resident Gu Do-won (Jung Jun-won), but honestly, there is zero conviction as to why the indifferent Oh Yi-young would suddenly fall for him.
The constant, reckless humanism is even more hopeless. Emphasizing humanism was expected from the moment they chose OB/GYN—where the birth of life is witnessed—as the setting. And while it is inevitable to show patient stories in an episodic format, the method of machine-gunning humanism without any build-up is not very relatable. Oh, sure, I got a little choked up when Oh Yi-young comforted a ten-year-old girl who had to accept her mother's death—because no one can resist a scene involving a child—but that's about it.
Come to think of it, I watched the 'Hospital Playlist' series until the end when it aired, but I didn't particularly love it. I once wrote, "Why do I watch 'Hospital Playlist' while complaining about it?" and I truly complained quite a bit while watching it. As I wrote then, the reason I couldn't stop watching 'Hospital Playlist' was that, even though the fantasy in the drama wasn't convincing, it succeeded in making me envy that fantasy and wish it were my own. There is nothing like that in the fantasy of 'Resident Playbook'. How much can one envy Go Yoon-jung's unrealistically overwhelming visuals? If you can't envy the fantasy, it needs to move you with empathy, but even though I've passed the stage of being a social novice, I can't empathize with the protagonists of 'Resident Playbook'. Eom Jae-il's struggle to do his part as time passes is visible, but Oh Yi-young, who has the biggest role, is focused on romance...
While cameos from 'Hospital Playlist' members like Jung Kyung-ho, Yoo Yeon-seok (the '99ers'), Ahn Eun-jin, Ha Yoon-kyung, and Bae Hyun-sung stimulate nostalgia, it is too boring to watch 'Resident Playbook' solely out of loyalty to 'Hospital Playlist'. Just as I watched 'Hospital Playlist' to the end, will I be able to do the same for 'Resident Playbook'? I wonder when a younger sibling that surpasses the older will appear.
Who is Jung Soo-jin?
She has worked at various magazines, covering movies, travel, and pop culture. She doesn't want to fall behind trends, but she has become an "old-school" person who anticipates predictable clichés in the next scene while watching the latest dramas. Drifting through the vast OTT world, she is trying to regain her lost edge. Her current wish is for the release of an integrated OTT subscription plan.