The third season of the hit tvN series ‘Hospital Playlist’ is pretty much a done deal virtually. But, it’s not all cheers and applause. There’s a wave of opposition that’s hard to ignore.
On April 12th, a video popped up on the YouTube channel ‘channel fullmoon‘. The title? ‘Isn’t It So Nice to be Back with Class of 1999? | 👅Chattering with Nah’.
In the video, the show’s director, Shin Won Ho, dropped a major hint about Season 3. He told the main cast of ‘Hospital Playlist’, “I will do it. I will do it someday.”
Jo Jung Suk, one of the actors, responded, “I think it would be nice even if we get older. I think you would be curious about how these characters age.” Shin Won Ho seemed moved by this, saying, “These good actors want it and the fans want it. I’m so grateful for that. They’re asking me to do it.”
Shin Won Ho continued, “I talked with writer Lee Woo Jung. It’s not that we’re milking a well-made IP. We had such a good time, and when you guys say ‘do season three’, I actually thought ‘if you say let’s do it, let’s do it’.”
He also made it clear, “Let’s do it if your schedule is okay. If even one of you doesn’t come out, I won’t do it.” The ‘Hospital Playlist’, which first aired in March 2020, started with a viewership rating of 6.3% and ended with a whopping 14.1% in the final episode, making it the 6th highest-rated tvN drama ever.
Unlike other medical dramas, ‘Hospital Playlist’ focused more on the friendship and humanity of colleagues rather than the stress of surgery or doctor disputes. It even got rave reviews from actual doctors for its historical accuracy.
But Season 2, which aired in June 2021, started with a viewership rating of 10% and ended with the same 14.1%, leaving some fans disappointed. Some critics felt that the drama in Season 2 wasn’t as strong as in Season 1.
Last June, there was news about a ‘Hospital Playlist‘ prequel called ‘Wise Resident Life’. It was supposed to air in May. But then, the image of residents took a hit due to a general strike in the medical community against the expansion of medical schools.
Since the ‘Hospital Playlist‘ series has been criticized for glamorizing the medical community, the schedule was pushed back to the second half of the year.
So when Shin Won Ho mentioned Season 3, fans were like, “I will hold on”, “Please do Season 3”, “I’ve been waiting”. But some netizens weren’t so excited. Comments like “I don’t want to watch medical dramas anymore”, “I’m not interested in doctor fantasy”, “I don’t want to watch it because I know how much of a fantasy it is” started popping up.
Now, the big question is, will the ‘Prequel‘, starring Go Youn Jung, Shin Si Ah, Han Ye Ji, Kang Yu Seok, Jung Jun Won, and others, actually air? Stay tuned!
Source[1]
