[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Doctor Frost" Episode 2

While I'm willing to tolerate some level of adherence to the crime procedural format, "Doctor Frost" really overdoes it this time. One of the main factors that made the webtoon so interesting was the very flexible structure of the mystery. Doctor Frost's skills are psychological, so the only mysteries he can unravel are the ones that involves psychoanalysis. And I hate to be picky, but it's kind of hard to psychoanalyze a corpse.

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Even the medical tidbits are frustratingly generic. Alcohol induced blackouts really don't count as a medical condition that needs to be explained to the audience. This is Korea for pity's sake. I'm pretty sure everybody and their grandmother knows what an alcohol induced blackout is. The medical factors here are just a fig leaf to disguise the fact that right now Doctor Frost is functioning more like a classic consulting detective than he is a savant psychologist. Don't we have enough dramas in the world about classic consulting detectives? The savant psychologist bit is the whole reason "Doctor Frost" became popular in the first place!

Seong-ah's character also takes a downgrade here. Given that our lead characters are not police officers but in fact university staff, their involvement in criminal investigations is already suspect even without Seong-ah directly impeding police business. Her actions don't even make any sense. She just directly witnessed the guy being menaced by some thug with a knife. He's probably a lot safer in police custody than out on the street- a fact borne out by the climax.

But then why did this episode need to get violent in the first place? Why did the gangsters need to be involved? None of this helps the story- unfortunately, it's all too clear that the reason they got added in was because writer Heo Ji-yeong felt that without obvious dramatic stakes no one in the audience would pay attention. Come on, man. If you wrote "Drama Special - The Crying Woman" you can do better than this.

"Doctor Frost" represents the most abrupt loss of faith in a drama's production I can recall ever having. Even the soundtrack is a lot more boring here, mainly because in the first episode the best tunes went along with the parts about steady psychoalaysis. These bits are so absent here that this is barely an adaptation of the original webtoon at all except in the name and background of the main character. And the preview doesn't inspire any confidence either- he's going to psychoanalyze a corpse again? Really? Ugh.

Review by William Schwartz

"Doctor Frost" is directed by Seong Yong-il, written by Heo Ji-yeong and features Song Chang-eui, Jung Eun-chae and Lee Yoon-ji.

 

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