“Doctor X, an over-the-top drama that vilifies doctors”: Hong Joon-pyo’s blunt criticism

[Financial News] Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo criticized the SBS drama Doctor X: Age of the White Mafia (hereafter, Doctor X), which became controversial for its use of the May 18 Democratic Uprising as subject matter, calling it “an over-the-top drama that vilifies doctors as a group.”
On the 8th, former Mayor Hong wrote on Facebook, “Watching Doctor X, I wondered whether it makes for a good drama to portray all the other doctors as incompetent fools and turn them into a group consumed by envy and jealousy just to make one person a hero.” He also criticized it, saying, “No matter how much this is a matter of freedom of expression, what is gained by vilifying doctors as a group like that? It’s as if they turn doctors into machines for performing surgery. It’s truly absurd.”
He went on to say, “‘Dr. Romantic’ and ‘Hospital Playlist’ portrayed the profession of being a doctor in an entertaining and engaging way without resorting to that,” and added pointedly, “After things were going well, the May 18 Democratic Uprising suddenly appears in a medical drama. Do ratings really have to rise only through an over-the-top drama like that?”
Doctor X, starring actor Kim Ji-won, told the story of patient Oh Sang-beom (played by Ha Seong-gwang) in its sixth episode, which aired on the 24th of last month. The patient had been shot in the head during the May 18 Democratic Uprising and had suffered from the aftereffects for the rest of their life. Online users were divided between criticism asking, “Was the way historical subject matter was combined with a medical-drama narrative really convincing enough within the genre?” and counterarguments that it “resonated by bringing attention to the pain of modern history and the unhealed wounds of victims of state violence.”
A petition even called for the show to stop airing. The petitioner argued, “Unlike the original Japanese drama, the inclusion of May 18-related content in the Korean version was a forced fit intended to reveal a particular political stance,” and demanded that the show be taken off the air and the production team be called to testify before the National Assembly.
The controversy also spilled over into attacks on the actor. Critical comments flooded the lead actor Kim Ji-won’s social media, and an overheated response emerged, with some linking the character in the drama to the actor’s personal political leanings.
[email protected] Kim Su-yeon Reporter