SBS's new Friday-Saturday drama Doctor X: The Era of the White Mafia is heating up the small screen, creating an unusual whirlwind right from its very first broadcast. This work is based on the medical drama of the same name that previously aired in neighboring Japan and recorded an unprecedented, all-time massive hit. Buoyed by its explosive popularity in Japan, the original series was not only produced for a staggering seven seasons but also expanded beyond the television screen to be released as a theatrical film, becoming a masterpiece among masterpieces that received immense public love. Currently, domestic audiences can easily rewatch the Japanese original through various platforms like TVING at any time, which firmly serves as collateral proving that the solid narrative and entertaining box-office potential harbored by this work have already thoroughly passed the rigorous verification of the public.
In most televised dramatic media, the role of the male and female protagonists leading the narrative is more absolute and crucial than anything else. Especially when the title of the show itself represents the protagonist's identity, as in this work, the main character bears the heavy responsibility of appearing in almost every single scene without missing a moment, carrying the weight of the entire show and delivering what is known as a "hard carry." In this Korean remake, the trusted actress Kim Ji-won has taken on the role of the protagonist "Kye Soo-jeong," a doctor boasting genius surgical skills, standing tall at the very center of the screen. Wearing the clothes of this massive and overwhelming character who must manipulate the entire play and dominate the narrative, Kim Ji-won signaled a smooth start by delivering a stellar performance that perfectly satisfied the dizzying expectations of viewers from the very first broadcast.
In truth, since her debut, actress Kim Ji-won has been the owner of a solid and glamorous filmography, consistently appearing in various major works and achieving successive mainstream box-office successes. She has steadily built her own unrivaled acting domain by starring in numerous sweet, sorrowful romances or bouncy youth dramas. However, looking back coldly, it is somewhat difficult to assert that her dazzling box-office records of the past were achievements built entirely on her own power leading the entire show. In most cases, she achieved viewership success by creating dazzling chemistry and synergy with excellent male leads who reliably supported her as counterparts. Realistically, in the Korean drama market, instances where a single female protagonist successfully digests a massive amount of screen time entirely on her own and leads a show to colossal commercial success are so rare they can be counted on one hand.
Yet, as if delightfully mocking such genre and programming limitations and long-standing prejudices, this drama Doctor X: The Era of the White Mafia instills a strong conviction that it will be able to land safely on a perfect box-office trajectory relying solely on the overwhelming individual prowess and aura of just one actress, Kim Ji-won. After merely a single episode aired, numerous iconic scene memes and buzz related to the drama completely monopolized various internet communities and social media, truly emerging as a hot topic. Already recording a phenomenal viewership rating that easily surpassed 11% in its first week of broadcasting, its initial momentum is fiercely explosive and overwhelming. No matter how excellent the directing is, based on the script of a magnificent original masterpiece, if the charm exuded by the protagonist—who occupies 90% of the show—fails to captivate the audience, the public will coldly change the channel. However, Kim Ji-won passed that narrow and treacherous gateway all too effortlessly.
Ultimately, the final victory or defeat of a drama depends entirely on how attractively and multi-dimensionally the protagonist playing the title role can bring the character to life on screen. While digesting the role of the genius freelance surgeon Kye Soo-jeong this time, Kim Ji-won seems to be pouring out every ounce of her acting inner strength and potential that she has silently accumulated across various fields, as if she had been sharpening her blade for a long time just for this moment. She instantly dispelled even the sharp gazes of a few who worried that her acting spectrum might be somewhat limited due to her heavy focus on melodrama and romance genres for a long time. Inside the operating room, she coldly controls the situation like a sharp scalpel, colder than anyone else, but once she takes off her white coat and returns to daily life, she perfectly modulates the highly colorful and complex appearance of Kye Soo-jeong—who is oddly quirky and possesses a clumsy, deeply human side—without an inch of incongruity.
The character of Kye Soo-jeong, who must simultaneously radiate such unpredictably jumping emotional lines and an unapproachable professional charisma, is an incredibly demanding and dangerous role that can never be pulled off unless the actor's own solid and stable acting skills firmly support it at the foundation. A non-forced brazenness and an undeniably lovable confidence must mesh perfectly like gears with the inherent human charm the actress possesses to finally gain powerful persuasiveness with the audience. Because Kim Ji-won executed that perilous tightrope walk flawlessly without a single inch of error in this drama, the fierce initial momentum and the successful landing in the small screen were made possible. Her unhesitating performance, exuding an explosive charm that instantly steals the public's gaze, strongly stimulates viewers' adrenaline in every episode, drawing enthusiastic support.
We often witness cases where highly anticipated works generate massive buzz right at the beginning of their broadcast, only for their narrative framework to weaken, rapidly losing momentum toward the middle and latter halves, ending in a disappointing anti-climax. However, having observed the tightly woven narrative that unfolded breathlessly up to the second episode and the weighty power exuded by the characters, one can firmly declare that this particular work will absolutely not follow such predictable and disappointing footsteps. Usually, it was all too common for Korean medical dramas, while putting forward elite doctors in white coats, to ultimately rely on boring office politics and muddy secret feuds over the position of hospital director or the massive power of a giant foundation as their main subject matter. Occasionally, there is a narrative where a good doctor equipped with genius skills appears like a comet and overcomes all those conspiracies and trials purely through medical art, but even this usually ends up trapped within a suffocating political conflict structure to some extent, inducing emotional fatigue.
However, the title role of Kye Soo-jeong, into whom Kim Ji-won vividly breathed life, delivers a thrilling catharsis in that she is a character who is perfectly and thoroughly free from such predictable, clichéd power struggles and despicable internal politics within the hospital. Despite being a genius doctor equipped with flawless and phenomenal surgical skills nearing those of a god, she is a thorough "outsider" and a contract temp doctor who does not officially belong to the massive organizational system of a university hospital or any rotten faction. Because there is not a speck of reason for her to obsess over promotions or power struggles, she has absolutely no reason to walk on eggshells or cater to the shallow whims of those around her, so long as she proves her own pure skills by saving dying patients in the operating room. It provides an intensely unrealistic pleasure, making one wonder if such a maverick, my-way doctor could actually exist in the massive pyramid organization of a real university hospital.
Her mindset—that true to her status as a contract temp, she fears those in power not at all and simply needs to execute perfectly only the tasks she was assigned according to her contract conditions—delivers a strange sense of exhilaration to modern office workers. Furthermore, Kye Soo-jeong, like a dispatch doctor who thoroughly calculates and moves her labor time down to the minute, shows the unconventional coolness of packing her bag and leaving work exactly on the dot without caring a single bit about her superiors' glares once her promised clock-out time arrives. In an ordinary, noble medical drama, staying up several nights for a critical patient would be packaged and depicted as the utmost virtue. However, even though she could naturally pocket a massive amount of overtime pay by staying late to work more, she miraculously finishes even a highly demanding surgery right at 6:00 PM sharp and leaves the operating room without lingering attachments.
In the eyes of the arrogant, elite full-time doctors of the university hospital steeped in authoritarianism, such an attitude of hers might appear as somewhat insolent, rude, and selfish behavior, acting out based solely on her outstanding surgical skills. However, she perfectly shuts their arrogant mouths with her flawless, divinely inspired scalpel movements that no one dares even mimic, and a single, overwhelming result. The active performance of a genius doctor ruthlessly slicing away the hypocrisy of a corrupt and incompetent giant organization using the fairest and most cruel weapon called 'skill' feels like a powerful, refreshing shot of catharsis that clears the clogged chests of modern viewers living suppressed by a stifling organizational society. The birth of this unrivaled female anti-hero, who confidently proves her own worth solely through skill without worrying about the gaze of others, seems more than enough to cast a fresh shockwave across the landscape of Korean dramas. One is madly looking forward to the future journey to see how much more delightfully and coolly Kim Ji-won will carve out the rotten wounds of the hospital like a master swordsman in the remaining episodes, and whether this astonishing sprint, akin to a one-woman show, can ultimately create the miracle of easily breaking through the demonic 20% viewership barrier.
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