Emergency Couple

Emergency Couple

7/10

Emergency Couple 

Genre:                                   Episodes: 21                                   Year: 2014

Romance

Comedy

Medical

Synopsis:

Oh Chang Min and Oh Jin Hee decide to marry young, despite opposition from their families. Oh Chang Min loses support from his family and is unable to continue being a medical student, and instead works as a salesman for a pharmaceutical company. As both start to become increasingly dissatisfied with their lives, their marriage begins to struggle, and they decide to divorce. Six years later, the two of them find themselves as medical interns at the same hospital. For three months they have to work in the ER as part of the same team, while keeping their past relationship and divorce a secret from their co-workers.

Cast:

Song Ji Hyo (Oh Jin Hee)

Choi Jin Hyuk (Oh Chang Min)

Lee Pil Mo (Gook Cheon Soo)

Choi Yeo Jin (Shim Ji Hye)

Clara (Han Ah Reum)

General Thoughts:

A funny, insightful drama that’s easy to watch. Song Ji Hyo and Choi Jin Hyuk both deliver convincing bitter, yet comfortable, divorcee performances aided by great chemistry. There was no other real plot-line aside from the divorced couple rekindling their past feelings and the impacted relationships around them, but the episodes were far from boring, with interesting ER shenanigans to fill in the time.

Sexy CPR

A good support cast kept the drama rumbling at a steady pace, and included some wonderful female characters- while successfully avoiding the common ‘jealous b*tch’ plot device. There was a period in the middle there where the 'com' was lacking from the rom-com, but the serious episodes were needed to propel our characters into making some changes. The plotline, while never dragging, was also never surprising- it was fairly easy to see where the drama was going, it was just a matter of getting there. 

What Was Great:

Our Emergency Couple:

I really enjoyed our leads in this drama. Both had unique, quirky characters that made for a unique, quirky relationship. Oh Chang Min’s pettiness and immaturity made for some amusing scenes, particularly when paired with Gook Cheon Soo’s awkward abruptness.

Because obviously Oh Jin Hee will date whoever can maintain eye contact longest

Song Ji Hyo played a fiery, determined woman- a refreshing difference from the usual K-Drama heroine. They had an abundance of cute, and definitely developed both individually and as a pair. It was interesting to observe the continued closeness of the couple after the divorce, even before their feelings started to emerge once again. It was enjoyable to watch the underlying closeness while the surface feelings slowly began to develop. Together, Song Ji Hyo and Choi Jin Hyuk portrayed a very believable duo of divorcees, who were unsure where they stood, and what the boundaries of their relationship were.

Potentially crossed a boundary

Female Support:

‘Emergency Couple’ has some of the best female support characters in any K-Drama I’ve watched. They were still presented as an obstacle for our leads, without ever falling into clichéd, unlikeable roles. Shim Ji Hye was a standout character, and so refreshing to watch.

Gives great advise to all but herself

It was touching to see how she cared for the man she loved- so much as even helping him move forward with another woman. This character had real depth and insight, always thinking about what was best for the one she loved, rather than herself. She was never pushy or dishonest about her feelings, and her own small plot-line was interesting enough. However, it did bug me a little when she was telling everyone else to go for what they wanted, while never doing so herself. I would have loved to see all her self-sacrifice and loyalty pay off at the end when she decided to really give 100%, but I was left a little disappointed in that regard.

Medical:

ER: You're either dying, or you're not

This is the first medical K-Drama I’ve ever watched, and I enjoyed that aspect immensely. While probably not the best, or most accurate medical drama out there, it was interesting and never became confusing with medical mumbo-jumbo. While there were some heavier scenes as a result of the ER setting, it managed to avoid bordering melodrama and keep a light-hearted undertone. As the relationship plot-lines were rather slow to develop, the medical side really helped keep the drama interesting- even if none of the patients were really important or had continuing plots.

Gookie:

That baby was adorable. That baby paired with Choi Jin Hyuk was adorable. Seriously, that baby had pretty spot-on reactions.

Song Ji Hyo always looked a little awkward around him though.

I want one.

Monday Couple forever ♥

Monday Couple Moment:

The cameo by Kang Gary was hilarious. It was a delightful Easter-egg for us who know about the Monday Couple, but wasn’t ridiculous enough for people who were unaware to question what was going on with the chatty cabbie. I adore Monday Couple, and I adored this cameo. Not gonna lie, a small part of me was hoping for a massive plot twist where Oh Jin Hee runs off with the Mr. Taxi driver.

What Wasn’t:

Evil Mother-in-Law:

Oh my god. I’m so sick of this. Are all mother-in-law’s in South Korea complete psychos? Because that’s sure what it looks like given all these K-Drama representations. I’m completely over the whole mother-in-law villain thing, and I’m completely over Park Joon Geum playing them. It’s so overused that it’s no longer a plot device- it’s just downright irritating. Why, why, why do you make me sit through this? It’s actual agony. While the turnaround of this character at the end was nice, it was also highly unbelievable. I won’t be sad if I never see Park Joon Geum in anything ever again. I’m so conditioned to seeing her as this type of character, I honestly don’t think I could believe her as anything else.

OMG GET OFF MY TV

Jin Hee’s Metamorphosis:

It was great that this character changed from the quiet, listless idiot, but it’s such a shame that most of these changes happened off-screen. There’s such a dramatic difference in the way Oh Jin Hee was presented during the marriage (and even in flashbacks) that I’m left wondering how it happened. While Oh Chang Min gets all this juicy on-screen development- gradually going from self-entitled asshat to endearing heart-winner, all we get from Oh Jin Hee is her slow acceptance that she shared part of the blame for their marriage falling apart. It was easy to accept that she had changed so much over six years, but I wanted to know WHY.

From this...

...to this

Divorce:

Okay, it’s easy to see why our leads got a divorce. The first episode makes it very clear. They were insanely frustrated and fought all the time. But why did they fight all the time? While there were some hints given, it was never explored adequately, and seeing as the break-up and reconciliation was the whole point of the drama, it really was necessary to give

Communication. How rare for a man.

us viewers a little more information. It’s vaguely suggested that a lot of problems arose from Chang Min’s disappointment at not becoming a doctor and financial stress, and Jin Hee’s feelings of inadequacy- but surely that wasn’t all. If that’s really all, then the writers here are asking us to believe that they will never have financial trouble, as they will never lose their jobs, and they will never have self-doubts again. While I appreciate that their communication improved dramatically, I still find their future together uncertain if these are the only reasons they broke up. It’s easy enough to look past this and enjoy the drama for what it is, but going into more depth about the reason behind the failed marriage would have added a lot more substance to the series and resulted in a stronger, more believable relationship the second time around.

How did we get here

Re-watch?

The chances of re-watching this drama are low. While it did have many cute moments and interesting plot-lines, it was a smidge forgettable. While most aspects of the drama were good, there was nothing that was truly exceptional or standout from other dramas. 

"My heart is beating for you."