“Doctor Slump” Wraps Up Quietly With Poor Results Despite Having Park Shin-hye & Park Hyung-sik
JTBC, known as a drama powerhouse, eventually fell into a slump due to the poor results of “Doctor Slump”
“Doctor Slump” started off well with a rating of 4.1% in the first episode. The number continued rising to 6.7% in episode 4 but nearly halved to 3.7% in episode 5. Later, the viewership trend reversed and it soared to 8.2%. However, it suddenly plummeted to 5.7% in the 11th broadcast. Since then, the rating fluctuated in the range of 5% and 6% until the end of the drama. The fact that its ratings did not stay consistent means they don’t attract many solid viewers.
The biggest reason is the lack of chemistry between the two main characters. Park Shin-hye returned to the small screen for the first time after marrying actor Choi Tae-joon and giving birth to their first child. She is still beautiful and her visual is seemingly unchanged, however, it’s no longer easy for a married actress to perform a romance with a younger male co-star. Chemistry is one of the most important things in creating a romcom, and this poor result eventually overshadowed the ambitions of the two actors who reunited for the first time in 11 years.
Another major reason for the failure of “Doctor Slump” is its script. Viewers pointed out that there was no difference from other romantic comedies and the narratives in the first part of the drama were quite long. Episodes 1 and 2 were supposed to attract solid fans for the drama, however, many viewers couldn’t immerse themselves in the story due to its gloomy atmosphere. In fact, uncreative characters and boring scripts affected the chemistry of the lead actors negatively. As such, “Doctor Slump”, whose title already hints at a predictable story, quietly ended without creating many hot topics.
“Doctor Slump” did not even appear among the three most popular weekend dramas recently. The competition between MBC’s “Wonderful World”, SBS’s “Flex X Cop” and tvN’s “Queen of Tears” are so fierce that JTBC’s “Doctor Slump” couldn’t interfere with it. While “Wonderful World” receives high attention and “Flex X Cop” achieves high ratings, “Queen of Tears” is getting both. However, the “Doctor Slump” does not have any.
As a result, “Doctor Slump”, which ended with a disastrous performance without compliments or even negative reviews, leaves a big stain in the filmographies of the actors.
