This dorama bloody kicks ass. Ep 2 has two components. First is Sagara trying to teach this stock trading obsessed doctor how to take pride in his work. Sagara does this by making the stock doctor participate in a diagnosis discussion although Sagara already knew the disease and getting the doctor to participate in the operation. Its bloody brilliant, someone trying to make a point without resorting to preaching/shouting/crying like in most doramas.
Sagara makes his point by manipulating the subject to do what Sagara wants them to do and its up to them whether they want to take something out of it. Brilliant. The best part is the stock trader doctor doesn't magically turn over a new leaf. People don't change so easily but for one episode he was able to have pride in his work and forget about stock watching.
The second component of ep 3 is Sagara trying to convince Minagawa-sensei not to leave. He reveals his plan to her in the hope that she would decide to be his comrade in arms and after she rejects it, he has to resort to some underhanded tactics. A protagonist making hard decisions, questioning himself and ultimately deciding that the ends justifies the means. Stuff like this just brings a smile to my face.
Ep 3 surprisingly deals with Sagara-sensei's past. Usually in doramas, they leave the character confronting their past near the end but there's a very good reason why it occurs so early in this show. Suguru-chan finds out about Sagara and delights in tormenting him because he realises that Sagara cannot perform the operation. Sagara knows that Suguru only consented to be head of the team to spite Sagara and he devices a way to ensure that Suguru goes through with it.
One thought that popped into my head is that Sagara is like an adult trying to deal with a bunch of spoiled kids by manipulating them. Its like a kindergarten teacher trying to teach kids about life lessons by getting them to do stuff and not merely preaching. Perhaps that's why the villains overact and act like kids.
And there is a nice reveal/twist about why Sagara didn't do the operation himself and instead wanted Suguru. The revelation is done matter of factly but it is just bloody brilliant. The fact that Sagara's past has been turned into a mere plot device shows that the writer has bigger fish to fry which is slowly turn the hospital and the staff around. The fact that stock trader doctor has not turned good means that this is not a formulaic one character gets an epiphany per episode dorama.
Guess what else the writer Fukuda Yasushi wrote? Suspect X., Midnight Rain and Wonderful Life. Not impressed with Hero, Galileo and 20th Century Boys Movies but Doctors clearly show he is very good. He is able to take a genre that has been done so many times and put an new and intelligent spin on it. There seems to be a drop off of nearly 300 sub downloads from episode 1 to 2. Either people are unable to recognise how smart the writing is or they realised that there are no johnnys in this show.
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