Alas. This post has been a long time coming. I only hope I can recall all my thoughts and do them and this amazing drama justice.
(Note: These are my thoughts - no summary, sorry - on episodes 1-14, so definitely spoilers ahead.)
There are those dramas that speak to your mind - on the intellectual level, like the recently finished Pinocchio starring Park Shin-hye and Lee Jong-suk. Then there are those that get your heart - about those basic human wants and emotions we've all felt at some point. This is the crux of Healer, and I think what is drawing such an explosive online attention. Because let's face it, at the end of the day - heart >>> head. Put that in a world with intrigue, scandal, and high stakes, and it's easy to see why it's such a captivating watch.
I've seen many bloggers and commenters express how surprised they are by this drama's popularity and just its goodness. I myself have conveyed this drama as a "sleeper hit" to a friend. When you step back, the drama doesn't seem to be doing anything new in terms of writing, directing, etc., but when you're watching it - that's a different feeling altogether. It seems so obvious, but this is really a drama you have to watch for you to get it.
But today, I'm going to attempt to put into words an (emotive) analysis why this drama is so fucking good. Javabeans at Dramabeans surmised how the show has only good writing, good acting, and good directing, which should make it just a good show, but somehow it manages to be so much greater than the sum of its parts. I agree, but I'm not going to write it off as some inexplicable Healer magic. Here's what I think - here is a drama that at last is thinking, emoting, and working towards its goal like one cohesive show. It doesn't rely on any one player to pick up the slack for everyone else. It is doing what every drama should do. The story is so convincing and airtight, and the world so believable, you forget you're watching a drama. Everything seems so real. There's nothing to jar you back to reality - from the writing, directing, acting, and editing. Not a single character is wasted, nor a single moment. Everything and everyone has a reason to be there, and the show moves with refreshingly clear purpose.
Let's talk characters and relationships.
The romance between the two leads (CHAE YOUNG-SHIN played by Park Min-young and SEO JUNG-HOO played by Ji Chang-wook) gets me, because it's not about the romance. It's about finding someone you can trust (for her). It's about finding meaning in your life (for him). I love that at the beginning before she finds out that Healer and Bong-soo (Jung-hoo's fake identity...one of many) are the same person, she's in love with this mysterious Healer, not the real-life awkward Bong-soo. It's a layered, complex romance especially for Jung-hoo's side, because who is the real him anyway? He struggles with who Young-shin is in love with, who he should be to stay by her side, and I don't think it's a conflict that's conveniently resolved once she finds out who he is. Mostly because he himself still hasn't come to terms with who is, or who he can be. There's a moment in episode 14 when Jung-hoon talks roughly with Young-shin post-secret-reveal, and Young-shin responds, "Is this the real you?" I love how their relationship continues to build in complexity and nuance as secrets come out and not the other way around. But ultimately, their romance works because no matter what mind-fuck the world throws at them, they trust each other, and their love for each other. Because for two wounded souls, they've found in each other the basic things we're all looking for in life - trust, courage, comfort, meaning. That's what gets me in the end. They are more than just lovers. They are each other's best friends and soulmates.
Jung-hoo has a strong facade in his Healer role, but he's actually emotionally weaker than Young-shin. That's definitely part of his attraction towards her. She is who he's not, who some part of him wants to be. Him, KIM MOON-HO (Yoo Ji-tae), and everyone else have run away or buried deep the issues that matter and scare them them the most. For Jung-hoo, it's especially striking when you think about his job description as the night courier Healer: it's a big deal for him to not know who his clients are, the reason for their jobs, whether or not it's morally right or wrong. On the surface, Healer seems like a carbon copy of City Hunter, but it's actually the antithesis to the traditional hero vigilante. Not thinking and not caring about the world, with the ultimate goal of making enough money to live in isolation on an island for the rest of his days - seems like a cool, world-weary vigilante, but in actuality a sad, pitiable character who never dealt with his past hurts.
Now, my favorite. Chae Young-shin is not your typical plucky heroine. She shows her vulnerabilities, but she works through them. She's not a pitiful damsel in distress, but she's not just blind optimism either. Her past wounds are more than tragic and traumatizing enough for them to still reverberate in her present life (orphaned, fostered, emotional and physical abuse), which goes for Jung-hoo as well (orphaned by a father who committed suicide and a mother who abandoned him for "his own good," juvenile detention). Her character is actually most perfectly described by Jung-hoo as he falls for her - she's like a wounded leopard on the safari, but instead of running off to nurse her wounds, she keeps going and attacks. She's also smart, which I love. As a character in such a web-of-lies plot, we would understand if she of all heroines cruised through much of the series clueless, but she's not. She questions at every turn, even if she doesn't arrive at the correct conclusion or even go down the right path every time, but her questioning is realistic. It's not just realistic in the objective sense, like something logically doesn't fit. But her questioning at times can also be breathtakingly personal - "Who am I? Who are you?" She's so self-aware.
What really seals the deal for me though is the way the villain KIM MOON-SHIK (Park Sang-won) and the almost-villain-but-potentially-good-guy Moon-ho are written and portrayed. With the help of ample, fleshed out backflashes, they come off as completely 3-D human beings who are disturbingly relatable. What really happened in 1992, it almost doesn't matter because the way the tension is played out now is so real and believable you don't need to know what happened for their motives and actions to make sense. As aptly described by CHOI MYUNG-HEE (Do Ji-won), Moon-shik has an inferiority complex - he is forever the impatient Merlin wanting to be King Arthur. Moon-ho is infinitely more interesting to me than Moon-shik. Like I alluded to, he has potential. He may be falling prey to the same weaknesses that his brother did, but at least he aspires to be better. Maybe that's worse, and that is what's relatable. I love his scene with his ex-girlfriend in the most recent episode when she calls him out for never pursuing to the end those things in life that matter to him most. Because he's always been too timid, too afraid to hurt himself. And see how that almost made him a villain? How many times have we shoved something under the rug because we don't want to deal with it? We are not much different from Moon-ho, who is not that different from Moon-shik, and that depiction is so scary because it's so true.
Only thing that I can nit pick is the beginning episodes, which is the best downside a drama can have, because it can outgrow that negative and you don't leave the drama on a sour note *fingers crossed.* So if you're just getting on the Healer bandwagon now and finding it unimpressive, rest assured (or not) that it's supposed to be like this. The show settles down to take off around episode 3 or 4, and you'll forget the awkwardness of the first few episodes ever happened.
Anyway, I actually have so much more to say about this drama, but I'll wait to weigh in those thoughts along with new ones on my series-end review. Let me just say one last thing.
This drama truly feels like someone's pet project that they've been nursing, growing, and waiting for the right players to bring out its magic. Healer is steeped in such a believable world. Even though it is one full of scandals, intrigue, and high stakes politics, the characters are dealing with conflicts and questions we all deal with. It's ultimately a character-driven drama, and that speaks straight to our hearts. I'm a big fan. I'm almost jealous of these characters. I don't wish to have such a horrible background as Jung-hoo's or Young-shin's and definitely not the guilt-ridden one of Moon-ho, but I'm just jealous that their game now has such high stakes, they must deal with these issues or die. Literally.
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