8.5/10 – I enjoyed this drama, but I didn’t quite love it as much as I thought I would.
I came into this drama with very high expectations due to all the praise it gets. A good 3.5 years after it’s release, Healer continues to have so much fan-love, and it’s easy to see why. It has great pacing, solid cast, interesting characters, swoon-worthy romance, cool action scenes, and consistency in quality and story throughout the whole thing. I imagine it would have been a great drama to live-watch week by week.
The story and characters were interesting. I think there are many elements in Healer that on paper might seem like more of the same storylines and tropes–your superhero-esque leading man, plucky and quirky damsel, family secrets, evil politicians/ business men, etc. But what this drama manages to do is make those ideas fresh again. I really liked the way everything was woven together. The supporting characters and our young illegal radio show friends were all done well.
I think I would have liked to have seen a lot more development overall. It felt like we saw lots of different piece of the puzzle with the past and present intertwined, but I think some areas could have been more fully realized. However, I realize it would have been difficult to flesh out everything fully without while keeping the pacing and the 20 episodes. On a related note, I think the ending was perhaps most lacking in this regard. I would have liked to have seen more done in terms of greater social/political impacts, and also with the birth mom. It was all kind of vague?
Also, at the beginning I found it weird how quickly our main couple fell for one another. Maybe I’m missed something. I suppose for her there was the Superman/ Lois Lane dynamic. But he also did scare the crap out of her and cut off her fingernails… After getting over my confusion about that, I loved the couple. It was easy to root for them and our actors have great chemistry.
Similarly, another thing that kind of bothered me that I got over was the violence. I’m not squeamish by any means, but there were some scenes where Healer beats people up and I felt like “was that really the only way you could have dealt with that?” For example, when he knocks out the hospital staff because they happen to be in the way. That seemed unnecessarily to me. Healer is supposed to be a smart dude, so why does he sometimes act with all brawn no brain.
And I can’t have been the only person who wasn’t the fan of that “Eternal Love” song. The fact that I actually understand the cheesy English lyrics while watching was quite distracting.
The ending is actually the only episode that disappointed me! It definitely left me with a bittersweet aftertaste, and still today everytime I read/see something about Healer, I keep going back to the what ifs!
Yeah, it felt a bit incomplete. Healer did well in so many other ways with such consistently good episodes until the end where it feels like there should almost be another episode. It wasn’t the worst ending, we got our happy end and all, but it left something to be desired.
The ending was at first, and probably still is my main gripe with this show, although given that I’ve watched it 3 times it can’t have been much of a gripe haha. The ending was very open though, almost would’ve been great as 25 episode drama, especially since for me at least, 20 episodes felt like 16.
I was thankfully not tainted by the Healer hype and I didn’t watch it live, so while I watched it because of its high DB rating, I was able to enjoy it all on my own without realising till later how big it was.
I wasn’t bothered by the quickness of the relationship as such, because they obviously had this weird unspoken bond, although it did, and still bothers me that she slept with him and didn’t even know his name hahaha like? isn’t that awkward?
It still remains my favourite drama though, and I think that’s just because I felt the writing to be overall super tight, and well executed and JCW is probably his best has the Healer character.
I agree about 25 episodes. The 20 episodes went by faster than it does for most shows. The pacing was just really good. Most dramas usually have those few episodes that drag on forever part way through, but Healer did a really good job with keeping up my interest. Its probably because of the layers to the story.
I think it was because of their unspoken bond thing I was able to continue watching and move on from my critical gripes about the quickness of it all. Other dramas, I might have been stuck on that for far longer, thinking “well, that’s dumb.” But I think with the chemistry between the actors made it easy to let it go and say, “oh well, I guess its fate.” And that connection they had amid all the mystery was part of what made their romance so swoon-worthy. That hand-hold in the dark and all. Squeeee
I definitely see myself rewatching Healer later on. It does have that re-watchable quality 😀
Yes, yes so true. Dramas often drag in the last quarter, but for Healer it almost never slowed down. The pacing was very well done.
Same. Any other drama it would’ve botched it to be honest. And the fact that they had that past connection as well as this two sided present connection made it a lot easier to just latch onto the “Fate” thing. Although it’s never mentioned as fate, which is probably part of the reason again why it worked.
*omgosh that hand hold* *One of my favourite hand holds ever in dramaland tbh*
I’m not much of a rewatcher- only rewatched two shows ever, so for me it’s kinda big deal!!! But yes, I agree!
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dooleygongshil
May 8, 2018 at 9:05 PM
Finished watching Healer for the first time! See my thoughts in the comments below. Your (differing) thoughts/opinions are very welcome.
May contain spoilers.
dooleygongshil
May 8, 2018 at 9:05 PM
8.5/10 – I enjoyed this drama, but I didn’t quite love it as much as I thought I would.
I came into this drama with very high expectations due to all the praise it gets. A good 3.5 years after it’s release, Healer continues to have so much fan-love, and it’s easy to see why. It has great pacing, solid cast, interesting characters, swoon-worthy romance, cool action scenes, and consistency in quality and story throughout the whole thing. I imagine it would have been a great drama to live-watch week by week.
The story and characters were interesting. I think there are many elements in Healer that on paper might seem like more of the same storylines and tropes–your superhero-esque leading man, plucky and quirky damsel, family secrets, evil politicians/ business men, etc. But what this drama manages to do is make those ideas fresh again. I really liked the way everything was woven together. The supporting characters and our young illegal radio show friends were all done well.
I think I would have liked to have seen a lot more development overall. It felt like we saw lots of different piece of the puzzle with the past and present intertwined, but I think some areas could have been more fully realized. However, I realize it would have been difficult to flesh out everything fully without while keeping the pacing and the 20 episodes. On a related note, I think the ending was perhaps most lacking in this regard. I would have liked to have seen more done in terms of greater social/political impacts, and also with the birth mom. It was all kind of vague?
Also, at the beginning I found it weird how quickly our main couple fell for one another. Maybe I’m missed something. I suppose for her there was the Superman/ Lois Lane dynamic. But he also did scare the crap out of her and cut off her fingernails… After getting over my confusion about that, I loved the couple. It was easy to root for them and our actors have great chemistry.
Similarly, another thing that kind of bothered me that I got over was the violence. I’m not squeamish by any means, but there were some scenes where Healer beats people up and I felt like “was that really the only way you could have dealt with that?” For example, when he knocks out the hospital staff because they happen to be in the way. That seemed unnecessarily to me. Healer is supposed to be a smart dude, so why does he sometimes act with all brawn no brain.
And I can’t have been the only person who wasn’t the fan of that “Eternal Love” song. The fact that I actually understand the cheesy English lyrics while watching was quite distracting.
natzillagorilla
May 8, 2018 at 10:07 PM
The ending is actually the only episode that disappointed me! It definitely left me with a bittersweet aftertaste, and still today everytime I read/see something about Healer, I keep going back to the what ifs!
dooleygongshil
May 8, 2018 at 11:08 PM
Yeah, it felt a bit incomplete. Healer did well in so many other ways with such consistently good episodes until the end where it feels like there should almost be another episode. It wasn’t the worst ending, we got our happy end and all, but it left something to be desired.
💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
May 8, 2018 at 10:51 PM
Yay! You finished it! Thanks for the review! 🙂
The ending was at first, and probably still is my main gripe with this show, although given that I’ve watched it 3 times it can’t have been much of a gripe haha. The ending was very open though, almost would’ve been great as 25 episode drama, especially since for me at least, 20 episodes felt like 16.
I was thankfully not tainted by the Healer hype and I didn’t watch it live, so while I watched it because of its high DB rating, I was able to enjoy it all on my own without realising till later how big it was.
I wasn’t bothered by the quickness of the relationship as such, because they obviously had this weird unspoken bond, although it did, and still bothers me that she slept with him and didn’t even know his name hahaha like? isn’t that awkward?
It still remains my favourite drama though, and I think that’s just because I felt the writing to be overall super tight, and well executed and JCW is probably his best has the Healer character.
dooleygongshil
May 8, 2018 at 11:04 PM
I agree about 25 episodes. The 20 episodes went by faster than it does for most shows. The pacing was just really good. Most dramas usually have those few episodes that drag on forever part way through, but Healer did a really good job with keeping up my interest. Its probably because of the layers to the story.
I think it was because of their unspoken bond thing I was able to continue watching and move on from my critical gripes about the quickness of it all. Other dramas, I might have been stuck on that for far longer, thinking “well, that’s dumb.” But I think with the chemistry between the actors made it easy to let it go and say, “oh well, I guess its fate.” And that connection they had amid all the mystery was part of what made their romance so swoon-worthy. That hand-hold in the dark and all. Squeeee
I definitely see myself rewatching Healer later on. It does have that re-watchable quality 😀
💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
May 8, 2018 at 11:39 PM
Yes, yes so true. Dramas often drag in the last quarter, but for Healer it almost never slowed down. The pacing was very well done.
Same. Any other drama it would’ve botched it to be honest. And the fact that they had that past connection as well as this two sided present connection made it a lot easier to just latch onto the “Fate” thing. Although it’s never mentioned as fate, which is probably part of the reason again why it worked.
*omgosh that hand hold* *One of my favourite hand holds ever in dramaland tbh*
I’m not much of a rewatcher- only rewatched two shows ever, so for me it’s kinda big deal!!! But yes, I agree!