I really wanted to like this drama and finish this. But it was just too much of a Moral Science class for me. After a point, I just could not take it with Sanskaar oozing out of every single episode. Kang Tae Shik's character especially was a little too moralistic for me. In the beginning, his character arc made sense, his repeated "We are Team Genie" also made sense to a certain extent because it showed the kinda work they were doing. But from setting a context to becoming preachy was a line that they should not have crossed, and this series crossed that line, and HOW. Ultimately it ended up being a didactic, preachy show solely focused on good people and good deeds, and everything was just whitewashed GOOD. Even the antagonistic characters became NICE towards the end. I get it that it's a slice-of-life, feel-good series, but so much NICE-ness on screen was just saccharine sweet for my tastes. I didn't even finish the series, but I know exactly how it's going to end, and what plot formula is going to occur in which episode. For the newbie, this might be something fresh, but for the experienced Kdrama watcher, it's just pure formula at the end of the day. It didn't make me look forward to the resolution towards the end. Just got plain boring after a point.
As for the cast, of course, I chose to watch this drama for my darling Wooky! He's such a lovely thing to watch on screen. I just don't get WHY he does not choose more meaty roles, and ALWAYS plays it safe. Going by the blurb of the series and his image in the poster, I really thought that he would be an anti-hero sort of character, like Seon Seok-goo in My Liberation Notes. But the blurb was all that was faulty with him. All throughout the series, he was the NICEST boy there could ever be, who was so unfairly wronged by the system, that one would think that he was a puppy without any agency of his own. It's alright if the director wanted to show him as a nice guy, but don't make the blurb SO misleading, please? It wasn't fair for the character tbh. His romance angle with Choi Soo Young was also meh, it was so extremely predictable, there was nothing worth rooting for. I actually ended up liking the doctor, he was this understated character, but quite sensible. Even if his character didn't have much screen time, he did a pretty decent job playing an introverted doctor. This might come up as offensive, but I did not like Song Dong Il as Kang Tae Shik - both the actor and the character were too much for me to take.
One thing that I really liked was the drama's investment in the hospice staff, which was quite good. Although all the stories eventually ended up being preachy, kudos to the script-writer for showing other stories other than the main characters' stories. I don't know what happened with Ha Joon Kyung and Jang Seok Joon, as I didn't finish the whole thing. I was interested to know, but the overtly preachy tone overshadowed everything else, and I lost interest.
The OST was nothing to write home about. The mini-play in the middle of the drama was SO STUPID AND UNNECESSARY. The only reward received from watching the entire mini-play nonsense was seeing Ji Chang Wook looking absolutely stunning in a suit. But then he looks good in anything, without anything, in whichever way he comes on screen really. So yeah, too little returns for too much investment.
Finally, using animals to persuade the viewer to tears was NOT CALLED FOR. Overall, not a binge-able drama. If you have time to spare, and you are REALLY in love with Ji Chang wook, then watch it. Otherwise can miss it.