The Hippocratic Crush/On Call 36小時, standard but satisfying.

I have been in a HK drama slump for a while because TVB just kept churning oddballs (4 in Love) and train-wrecks (L’Escargot) at us. Since apparently, around Chinese New Year in HK is “air-all-our-shitty-dramas now” time. BUT finally, L’Escargot has ended and we are presented with the first decent drama of 2012, The Hippocratic Crush (also previously and well known as On Can 36 Hours). Maybe more than decent for me, since I am following it religiously every day. TVB is seriously just better when it does profession dramas.

The drama has aired a good chunk by now, at 14 episodes and I enjoy it very much. It is pretty standard TVB stuff but very satisfying. Something about it just hit all the right notes for me. Doesn’t hurt that I like both Kenneth Ma and Tavia Yeung. Kenneth Ma plays the familiar alpha male, a strict Neurosurgery specialist trainee doctor, Cheung Yat Kin. His love interest and also daughter of Yat Kin’s respected teacher is Yeung’s Fan Zi Yu.

Yat Kin is the filial son, the loving brother, the capable senior, the ideal lover. He is, for reals, almost perfect, needing very little development. Such a character can veer to being boring, but I enjoy Ma’s portrayal and find Yat Kin so damn endearing. I squee at everything he does. It’s like I am watching a K-drama! Zi Yu, on the other hand, plays newbie Neurosurgery trainee and is initially very judgmental to the point of irritating. The relationship between the two takes the usual head-butting relationship that blossom into love. Zi Yu’s judgmental attitude annoyed me at first, but she did her fair share of growing, discovering the meaning of being a doctor and her real interest in Cardiothoracic Surgery among other things. In the last 14 eps I have come to love how straightforward Zi Yu is. Once she realizes her feeling for Yat Kin, she takes action. Even after a painfully embarrassing rejection (I want to recoil into a hole for her), she still pushes forward in pursuing Yat Kin. What a breath of fresh air.

The show also features a set of supporting cast that are a charming complement to Ma and Yeung. Honorable mention: Yeung Pui Chong (Him Law) who is especially entertaining with his great comic timing. I laughed at his goofiness in every recent episode.

By all means this is not a very strong profession drama, a contrast to last year’s well done Forensic Heroes 3. The writing is rather simplistic and it is nothing like the infamous medical drama elder, Healing Hands. Some times, I even find it…slow. Really, do we need to have TWO whole episodes about ex-girlfriend’s heart problem and her pregnancy? Not to mention her acting is painful to watch. Flaws aside, I am still very fond of The Hippocratic Crush. It is a light, easy, watch and it’s about damn time Kenneth Ma takes on a leading role that I actually adore. I like the dude for a while now, I just wish he would pick better roles, sheesh.

[Picture credit: TVB.com]