'Making one doctor a hero by turning all others into fools'

'A medical drama going fine, then suddenly May 18 appears'

Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo criticized the SBS drama series "Doctor X: Mafia in White" in a Facebook post Sunday, saying he questioned whether it was a good drama for "making all other doctors look like incompetent fools and turning them into a group of jealousy and envy just to make one person a hero." [SBS]
Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo criticized the SBS drama series "Doctor X: Mafia in White" in a Facebook post Sunday, saying he questioned whether it was a good drama for "making all other doctors look like incompetent fools and turning them into a group of jealousy and envy just to make one person a hero." [SBS]

Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo has taken aim at the hit drama series "Doctor X: Mafia in White," calling it a "trashy drama."

In a Facebook post Sunday, Hong said he had doubts about whether the show qualified as good television. "Watching 'Doctor X,' I questioned whether making all other doctors look like incompetent fools — and turning them into a group of jealousy and envy just to make one person a hero — is what a good drama should do," he said.

Hong said it was "truly absurd" that the show reduces doctors to "machines that perform surgery," adding, "No matter how much you invoke freedom of expression, what is there to gain from smearing the medical profession like that?"

Hong also pointed to other medical dramas as counterexamples. "'Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim' and 'Hospital Playlist' managed to portray doctors positively without doing any of that," he said. He questioned why the May 18 pro-democracy uprising had to suddenly appear in what had been a smoothly running medical drama, asking, "Does a drama really have to be this trashy to get ratings?"

"Doctor X: Mafia in White" had earlier drawn controversy for depicting the May 18 pro-democracy uprising and featuring fictional characters — including a former president reminiscent of Chun Doo-hwan and a victim named Oh Sang-beom.

More recent episodes have stirred backlash from parts of the medical community by incorporating storylines evoking the 2024 conflict between the government and doctors, including themes of medical school enrollment expansion and a trainee doctors' strike.


shindw@heraldcorp.com