Reasons Why "Doctor John" Is Unlike Any Other Medical K-Drama

A new kind of medical drama is coming your way!

Ahead of its July 19 premiere, SBS’s newest Friday-Saturday drama “Doctor John” is Korea’s first human medical drama that looks into the lives of anesthesiologists and how they discover the unknown causes to their terminally ill patients’ pain. The drama stars Ji Sung, Lee Se Young, Lee Kyu Hyung, Kim Hye Eun, Shin Dong Mi, Uhm Hyo Sup, and Oh Seung Hyun.

Here are the reasons why “Doctor John” is different from other medical K-dramas!

Its analysis of euthanasia

“Doctor John” is the first-ever Korean drama to touch on “death with dignity,” otherwise known as euthanasia. Throughout treatment, if two doctors ever deem the patient is unable to recover or terminally ill, they or their family members can decide on a natural death. Whether that means removing a resuscitator, stopping chemotherapy or hemodialysis, or failing to perform CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation), it means to only provide the patient the necessities of water, nutrients, and air before they die on their own accord.

However, the standard or basis of which this is decided is unclear and therefore presents an extremely divided case in the medical world. Also, the term “patient” has been growing in definition to represent a wider variety of cases, adding to this undefined range. “Doctor John” will allow deeper representation of the conflicts that arise with this topic and inspire both thinking and discussion about one’s right to decide the end of their life.

Their focus on Anesthesiology

Although a medical drama, “Doctor John” tells the story of anesthesiologists, or pain doctors, instead of the typical emergency doctors or surgeons. Each episode will demonstrate the patient as the victim, and the doctor as the detective in discovering the cause of the chronic pain that a terminally ill patient is enduring.

Just like a hunt to find a suspect or criminal, this mystery aims for the same thrill and nervousness. Everyone has experienced both physical, mental, and emotional pain, enough to say that the history of humanity is a history of pain. However, “Doctor John” will focus on not the typical pain, but on the pain that follows you no matter how hard you try to avoid and escape it, so much so that it becomes a part of your identity.

A producer from the show shared, “Through our society’s tremendously developed medicine and medicinal technology, ‘Doctor John’ captures the story of how life and death are not so typical and obvious nowadays. A doctor is someone who saves lives, heals patients, and makes people feel better, but is also someone who tries their best even if they cannot save lives, heal patients, or make the pain go away. We will greet our viewers with the meaningful message that how you die will inevitably correlate with how you live.”

“Doctor John” premieres on July 19 at 10 p.m. KST and will be available on Viki with English subtitles.

Check out the trailer below!

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