Netflix K-drama Hospital Playlist fails to deliver in a bloated second season, while HBO Go’s Doom Patrol returns to save an ungrateful world – again
- Not a lot happens in the second season of Hospital Playlist – the same implausibly young doctors dither over romantic entanglements in between emergencies
- In DC Comics’ Doom Patrol an unlikely bunch of superheroes, each having suffered a disfiguring accident for their powers, return for a third series
In musical terms, this is that “difficult second album”: the one that follows the smash-hit first record, but turns out to be disappointingly bloated, meandering and lacking in focus.
“Patient” has a double meaning when tackling this series: with most of the 12 episodes clocking in at feature-film length, a considerable investment of time is required to make it from start to finish. But can the show hold the audience’s attention for that long?
That depends on what you want from a series based on the lives and loves of a group of implausibly young-looking doctors and best friends trying to balance their hormonal urges and professional responsibilities.
Doctors Lee Ik-jun (played by Jo Jung-suk), Kim Jun-wan (Jung Kyung-ho), Yang Seok-hyeong (Kim Dae-myung), Ahn Jeong-won (Yoo Yeon-seok) and Chae Song-hwa (Jeon Mi-do) again find themselves in various states of romantic entanglement or dithering (to date or not to date), while all around them the mundane cogs of the Yulje Medical Centre grind on.
Which means that outside their personal experiences, plus some operating theatre emergencies, not a great deal is shown to be happening. But is that what television is supposed to be for? Without labouring the sensationalism, shouldn’t it be dousing us in escapism and excitement? (Sticking captions on screen to explain obscure medical terms doesn’t count.)
With more filling than a mortar sandwich, the show relies for some of its high points on the quintet’s regular band practice in Seok-hyeong’s basement, so perhaps they should stick to making actual albums. The five do, after all, play their instruments for real.
Don’t worry – the Doom Patrol team is back
An unlikely bunch of superheroes comprises the patrol: Robotman, or Cliff Steele (Brendan Fraser); Elasti-Girl, or Rita Farr (April Bowlby); Cyborg, or Victor Stone (Joivan Wade); Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero); and Negative Man, or Larry Trainor (Matt Bomer).
The price each has paid for their superhuman abilities is an appalling, disfiguring accident. So it’s a mystery that they should go into battle for a world in which they are persecuted, ostracised and insulted – but perhaps tolerance and understanding ideally work both ways.
Responsible for all their problems is madcap scientist Niles Caulder, or The Chief (Timothy Dalton), who fundamentally wants the best for them, although he has a bizarre way of showing it, often butting up against his disconcerting charges in sweary, foul-mouthed confrontations.
Their anger towards him is hardly surprising: despite rescuing them from certain death and increasing their lifespans, thanks to his experiments they are condemned to a freak-show existence, even though his plan is to shape them into a force for social good.
Perhaps the gang’s most fearsome enemy is a blazing monster that could have escaped from the darkest recesses of Stephen King’s imagination: the Candlemaker, ready (as a poster boy for climatic cataclysm) to burn up the planet – and the patrol with it.
It’s the superhero life, Jim, but not as we know it …
