It’s hard for me to put into words how great this show is. It’s likely because I love how the show makes me ~feel~. I felt warm fuzzies every time I watched an episode, a feeling that followed me even after the episode had ended. Later on I would randomly remember scenes from an episode and it would make me smile. All the small things add up in this show, and it sneaks up on you how much you love it.

I think Hospital Playlist portrays the world as it is and also as we wish it could be. Pretty much the entire cast are “good” people, though they can be good in different ways. Even the people we might expect to be antagonists (parents, the hospital director, etc.) genuinely care about other people and generally have good intentions. Is that entirely realistic? Probably not. But I also felt this show was rejecting cynicism; rather than leaning into our pessimistic expectations of who people are and how they act, the show consistently showed us that most people are kind hearted. So I really appreciate the world that the show portrayed. Instead of trying to be as “realistic” as possible, it decided to show humanity at its best.

The show’s relative simplicity is one of its biggest strengths. The setup is simple: 5 friends who met in medical school are now all doctors at the same hospital. The plot revolves around ordinary days in their lives. Simple, right? Yes and no. The “complexity” lies in the various relationships between the characters both as a group and individually. There is a sprawling cast of all the other hospital staff and family members, so there are a lot of characters to learn about initially. But I wouldn’t describe any of the relationships as complicated; it’s more that there are a variety of them. The relationships between the main 5 are the most fun and interesting, and they really are the heart and soul of the show. The times when they played together as a band (which happens every episode) were consistently one of the times when the warm fuzzies would sneak up on me and I’d feel so happy just watching them play music together. The show does a great job of making the relationships feel real. It shows you how much the characters care about each other, often in very small and subtle ways. It happens in moments when they’re just eating together or hanging out in each other’s offices. I love how the show portrays platonic relationships between so many male and female characters, it’s genuinely great to see a guy and girl care about each other and it not being framed as romantic. The entire cast is awesome and contribute their own little heartwarming and heartbreaking moments. No one really served as (the only) comic relief in this show; everyone had times where they made me laugh out loud. I love all of them so much, and there’s the magic of this show: it manages to make you care about every single one of them, while seemingly not trying.

I don’t know how else to describe how great this show is because it just is. Please do yourself a favor and watch this show as soon as possible.

I made a little silly powerpoint review on Tumblr if you'd like to read it: https://kdramakitty.tumblr.com/post/621054541113294849