We do love our medical dramas here in the U.S., don’t we? But part of why we like them is that the people saving lives in those dramas present very human flaws and foibles. They’re not seen as literal superheroes, just dedicated professionals who have knowledge and ability. A new Korean medical drama, though, makes its main character out to be such a hero, he might as well be wearing a cape.
Opening Shot: We see a man on a motorcycle on a deserted road, mountains in the background.
The Gist: That man, Dr. Baek Gang-hyeok (Ju Ji-hoon), is speeding medical supplies towards a war-torn Middle Eastern city, which is actively being bombed. He speeds through as shells fall, avoiding most danger. Even when the bike gets hit, he manages to drag himself and the supplies to the hospital that sorely needs them.
In Seoul, Korea’s health minister, Kim Myeong-hui (Kim Sun-young), is determined to fix the country’s issues when it comes to its response to high-risk traumatic events. Trauma teams in many hospitals, including the Hankuk National University Hospital. They used to employ the only trauma specialist in South Korea, but he collapsed due to overwork. Minister Kim proposes to the hospital’s director, Choi Jo-Eun (Kim Eui-sung) that she has a replacement: Baek Gang-hyeok.
When Dr. Baek enters HNUH, he’s alarmed when he finds out that the hospitals trauma teams consist of on-call doctors rotating from other departments. He butts in on Dr. Yang Jae-won (Choo Young-woo), a colorectal surgeon, as he tries to drain the sac around a trauma patient’s heart. He nicknames Dr. Yang “Anus” because that’s what he regularly treats.
Dr. Baek operates on the patient in the makeshift emergency OR while Director Choi and Minister Kim are about to introduce him to the staff; in fact, he keeps all of them waiting. During the surgery, he kicks out the anesthesiologist for taking a shortcut that caused excess bleeding. At his introduction, he tells the doubtful staff that he’s going to eliminate the current trauma system and open up a new trauma center.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Pitt but a whole lot less realistic.
Our Take: The Trauma Code: Heroes On Call is written by Choi Tae-kang based on the book Trauma Center: Golden Hour by Hansanleega. Choi certainly positions the show as more of an action-adventure and less of a medical show. Dr. Baek is an arrogant sort, but one who knows what he’s doing and brings innovative methods to an inadequate trauma system at HUNH. But the way he goes about dealing with patients and the staff makes him feel more like a medical Indiana Jones.
The question is whether that makes for an appealing show. How long can we watch Dr. Baek regarding all of his colleagues with little to no respect, rapel through fog onto cliff to treat a patient, or just act like a general know-it all?
Perhaps we’re too used to medical dramas where even the doctors with superhuman medical abilities are very human when it comes to how they deal with patients and those around them. But we’re not sure if we’re down for seeing Dr. Baek make the rest of his colleagues look like chumps in episode after episode.
Yes, there are people he’ll end up liking, like Dr. Yang, an anesthesiology resident named Park Kyung-won (Jung Jae-kwang) and an ICU nurse named Cheon Jang-mi (Ha Young), whom he nicknames “Gangster” because of how adamantly she tried to keep him from seeing his patient when she didn’t know he worked there. And there will be people that will deserve his wrath, like Han Yoo-rim (Yoon Kyung-ho), a senior attending who mocks where Dr. Baek went to medical school and thinks he’s a patronage hire.
Perhaps as these relationships settle in and he stops calling people names like “Anus,” we’ll start to see a more human side of Dr. Baek. But in the first episode, he’s not a character we want to continue following.
Sex and Skin: None. There is a fair amount of surgical gore and closeups of procedures.
Parting Shot: Dr. Baek and Dr. Yang rapel out of a helicopter towards a patient stuck on a cliff. Dr. Yang, who’s afraid of heights, screams.
Sleeper Star: Ha Young, playing nurse Cheon Jang-mi, seems to be having fun in her role, especially when she tries to stop Dr. Baek.
Most Pilot-y Line: Well, would you want to be called “Anus” by a colleague at work? In fact, that nickname would make us go straight to HR.
Our Call: SKIP IT. The Trauma Code: Heroes On Call feels a bit too silly, and its main character a bit too cartoonishly arrogant, for us to want to follow for an entire season.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.