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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Emergency Couple" Episode 21 Final

In the first episode of "Emergency Couple" a specific point was made of the fact that the emergency room is a terrible place for relationships, and the interns were distraught at what the experience was going to do to their social lives. I bring this up now to note that there was almost no evidence of this throughout the drama's run. The doctors have consistently had an inordinate amount of conveniently timed social meetings with each other, and this episode is no different.

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The fundamentals are strong, as usual. In terms of the romantic comedy genre "Emergency Couple" continues to hit all the right notes, having moments that are cute and funny. Indeed, nearly everybody gets a happy ending here as the cast is fully paired off with no apparent looming problems on the horizon. Well, that one woman gets a pretty raw deal, but such is life for a consumer at this hospital.

The drama as a whole has been a contradiction. As light viewing it's decent enough. There's just no point to any of it. There hasn't been any kind of real conflict- after Jin-hee and Chang-min evaded the scrutiny of the medical board early on no other particularly convincing crisis has been able to show up. It's just been typical will-they-or-won't-they fluff. And while they do end up together, whether this works for you as a viewer will depend entirely on whether you've liked them so far. They're all right, I guess, certainly much better than in the drama's first half. But that's a pretty threadbare endorsement.

Ji-hye finally gets something that's kind of like character development, as we get to see her parents and kid in a sequence I found a bit logistically confusing. They're flying to Korea and Ji-hye is flying out of it at the same time? I'm surprised her daughter's so cheerful. That's the kind of behavior that tends to breed resentment in children.

But then, negtiative emotions were never really the point were they? "Emergency Couple" is a pleasant romantic comedy- nothing more, and nothing less. I suppose that on balance I'd suggest watching the first episode and then skipping the next half dozen (which were no fun at all), if you really want to watch a romantic comedy and don't need it to be an especially deep and profound one. This is the ending that the fans want. Everyone else, well, let's be honest. They probably gave up some time ago.

Review by William Schwartz

"Emergency Couple" is directed by Kim Cheol-gyoo, written by Choi Yoon-jung and features Song Ji-hyo, Choi Jin-hyuk, Lee Pil-mo, Choi Yeo-jin and Clara.

 

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