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One of the things that makes me happiest is to see Netflix's catalog continue to expand with more Korean content, but especially with other genres that are not only romance, so that all viewers who are prejudiced about Asian content can enjoy the most diverse and interesting plots that the country of kpop offers us.
In the month of January I didn't have too much free time to watch series or movies, I had also struggled a bit to get a program that grabbed me right away. That was until Heroes on Duty premiered on Netflix, and it took me only two days to finish the first and so far only season, unfortunately I had to sleep otherwise I would have finished it in one day.
This South Korean TV series written by Choi Tae-kang, directed by Lee Do-yoon, and starring Ju Ji-hoon, Choo Young-woo, Yoon Kyung-ho, Ha Young and Jung Jae-kwang has 8 full episodes and premiered last January 24, 2025. Heroes on Guard introduces us to the tumultuous world of the emergency room from a narrative that combines drama, action and comedy. With the under-explored focus on the trauma area, the story follows a makeshift medical team of professionals who struggle daily with the challenges of being the first lifesaving barrier for the hospital and the patients waiting to be saved.
The series maintains a very interesting balance between intense and poignant situations with certain humorous touches, which doesn't let you finish getting the tears out before a chuckle crosses the road. It all revolves around a renowned hospital that hires a new trauma chief, a former military doctor with excessive experience and incredible capabilities named Baek Kang Hyuk, a prodigy who worked for years with the Doctors for Peace in war zones and for whose temperance in tense moments is to be admired. His idealism and passion for medicine contrasts with the harsh and often discouraging reality of the healthcare system, creating an internal conflict that drives much of the plot.
The characters that complement the story are just as interesting as our protagonist, on the one hand, we have Yang Jae Won an insecure doctor who was part of the proctology team until being recruited by Kang Hyuk as his ward, a co-protagonist who in my view keeps much of the comedy alive by his innocence and awkwardness, but also a natural charm by his strong desires to be better even when he doesn't confess it. We also have Cheon Jang Mi, a nurse in the area who is very funny and excellent at her job, the best part is that her role was not relegated to a simple love interest, which makes her more eye-catching. And we have Park Kyung Won, an anesthesiology resident and the only one willing to go against everyone to participate in the surgeries, with an enigmatic personality, he wins the viewer's affection.
The interactions between the characters are filled with witty dialogue and the unusual but possible situations keep you on your toes as to how they will save the next life. This effective blend of genres allows the series to not only be a medical drama, but also a deep exploration of human relationships. But more importantly, it is a critique of health ministries and how their personal ambitions to chase the money trail makes them incompetent in their primary promise and goal: saving lives.
The drama opened the doors to explore themes such as work pressure, emotional exhaustion and the importance of teamwork in the emergency medical field, and the presentation of the challenges both in and out of the operating room means that viewers can identify with their struggles and triumphs. But these can be better deepened in the following seasons, which we hope they will bring us.
One of the pillars of the series is that there is no time for love dramas, we will have action in every chapter that maintains its main focus: every second is necessary to save a life. We will see practically nothing of the personal lives of the main doctors, and we will be the eyes in their emergency exits to be of help in the biggest accidents in the capital. I will not deny that several situations are presented a bit exaggerated and not very credible, but it is the fault of fiction and comedy, something that can be easily ignored.
Finally, but really important, the series criticizes very well the internal systems of large hospitals that prefer to lose a life to minimize the expenditure of resources and to be able to continue enlarging the pockets of those doctors with politicized positions who left the action behind to be part of the administrative line that does not fulfill any important purpose. The series leaves a clear message, they are accurate in the situations and give to know one of the areas little selected by the residents, but that is of vital importance for a hospital.
Hopefully we will be able to keep track of these doctors soon.
If medical series are your thing, and you want to see more from a more Asian vision, I recommend other series like Hospital Playlist, Doctor Strange or Doctor Romantic that you can also find on Netflix.
© 2025 
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