This article contains spoilers.
4/5 stars
Lead cast: Han Suk-kyu, Ahn Hyo-seop, Lee Sung-kyung, Kim Min-jae, Yoo Yeon-seok
Latest Nielsen rating: 16.8 per cent
Master Kim (Han Suk-kyu) and his dream team of surgeons have been through a lot this season, both in the operating theatre and in their personal lives. And the dream team has expanded with the addition of several familiar faces.
As Dr. Romantic wrapped up its third season, it brought fan favourites from previous seasons back to the Doldam Hospital’s operating theatres. This steady return of the former pupils of Master Kim feels like a natural expression of the show’s themes and goals.
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In this season’s penultimate episode, as Master Kim’s cherished Trauma Centre is on the brink of being consumed by a forest fire, chief nurse Oh Myung-sim (Jin Kyung) points out to the distraught surgeon that the centre is not what is important.
Kim has been trying to assemble his dream team of surgeons for years, but what brings them all together in the end is not the shiny new complex, it is him. Myung-sim calls him the gravitational force that pulls them all together.
The return of familiar faces began with that of the protagonist from season one of Dr. Romantic, Kang Dong-joo (Yoo Yeon-seok), the brilliant surgeon who rose up under Master Kim.
Teased halfway through the season, his appearance at the end of episode 12 comes minutes after Cha Jin-man (Lee Gyoung-young) hands in his resignation, leaving the post of head of the trauma centre conveniently vacant.
As with other former pupils of Kim who return, Dong-joo rolls up to the front door of Doldam with his suitcase. Each returning mentee is first identified by the name tags on their bags.
Narratively this does not make a great deal of sense – surely they would leave their bags at their new lodgings before returning to the hospital? – but emotionally it makes a lot of sense. It is as though they are all Master Kim’s children and are returning home after a long time away.
Dong-joo is installed as the interim head of the trauma centre, a post drawing scrutiny thanks to the season-long battle between Doldam and assemblywoman Ko Kyung-sook (Oh Min-ae) following the death of her son in the centre earlier in the season.
Doldam manages to fend off a lawsuit she throws at them, but she pushes on with an appeal, promising to hospital director Park Min-guk (Kim Joo-hun) that she will retract the lawsuit if Cha Jin-man is removed from his post.
Not only that, she promises to look favourably upon Doldam’s funding request if Jin-man is sent packing.
When Jin-man leaves under his own steam the lawsuit is cancelled, but Min-guk is blindsided when he discovers that Kyung-sook had no intention of supporting the hospital’s request for a grant. She wants to burn Doldam to the ground.
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As the season winds to a close, the government budget officer in Kyung-sook’s pocket visits Doldam, as does an officer from the Ministry of Health. This ministry officer is not impressed when he walks into a trauma centre that is empty because most of the staff are revolting against Dong-joo and his strict managerial style.
Dr. Romantic then has time for one last hurrah, as a forest fire in the region sending battalions of paramedics their way. Once again, the needs of their patients supersede their own. Personal squabbles are put aside and Master Kim’s full dream team assembles for the first time.
Kyung-sook finds herself in the centre for the third time this season with some injured aides. This rather contrived final brush with Doldam is what finally brings her over to the light; she allows the funding to go through, thereby securing the future of the centre.
With the dream team now assembled, this might have been a fitting way to close out the show’s run, but seeing as this is 2023 the door must be left open to a continuation.
It comes in the form of returning doctor Yoon Seo-jung, the Master Kim pupil from season one portrayed by Seo Hyun-jin. The season closes as her silhouette (with luggage) looks toward the gates of Doldam.
Though season three’s ratings were solid, they paled in comparison with the first two seasons of Dr. Romantic, so we will have to wait and see whether we will be treated to more of Master Kim and company again in the future.
Given the growing cadre of present and former students around him and the onset of his wrist trouble, which occasionally bothered him in the operating theatre, one would expect that a fourth season would see him pass the reins of Doldam to his protégés.
Dr. Romantic season three is streaming on Disney+.
