Hey, everyone! How’s it going? Today I’m here to review the drama Resident Playbook, which premiered on April 12, 2025, and has quickly become one of Netflix’s most compelling medical dramas of the year.
Resident Playbook is available on Netflix and originally aired on tvN from April 12 to May 18, 2025, featuring a comprehensive 16-episode format with new episodes released every Saturday and Sunday. The series stars Go Youn-jung as Oh Yi-Young, Shin Si-ah, Han Ye-ji, and Kang You-seok as first-year OBGYN residents at Yulje Medical Center. Created by the acclaimed team of producer-director Shin Won-ho and writer Kim Song-hee, this Hospital Playlist spin-off brings viewers back to the beloved medical universe with fresh perspectives and new challenges.
The series follows four first-year OBGYN residents as they navigate the chaos of their work and personal lives in their quest to become exceptional doctors. Set at Jongno Yulje Medical Center, the story depicts the intense relationships between professors, residents, and the friendships that develop under the pressure of life-and-death medical situations. The show explores themes of professional growth, mentorship, personal sacrifice, and the emotional toll of working in high-stakes medical environments.
Resident Playbook has earned an impressive 8.1 rating on IMDb and achieved a Nielsen rating of 3.99 percent, reflecting strong viewer engagement with its authentic portrayal of medical training and compelling character development that honors the Hospital Playlist legacy while establishing its own unique identity.
Medical Training Reality Meets Emotional Storytelling
Resident Playbook opens by immersing viewers in the intense world of first-year medical residents, capturing the overwhelming reality of learning to save lives while barely managing your own. The series effectively portrays the chaos and pressure that new doctors face, from life-and-death emergencies to the complex hierarchy of hospital politics. The OBGYN specialty provides a unique backdrop for exploring both medical challenges and deeply personal patient stories.
The show brilliantly balances medical accuracy with emotional storytelling, showing how residents must develop not just technical skills but also the emotional resilience needed to handle tragedy, celebrate victories, and support both patients and colleagues through incredibly difficult situations.
Oh Yi-Young’s Journey from Student to Doctor
Go Youn-jung delivers a standout performance as Oh Yi-Young, portraying a first-year resident whose determination to excel sometimes conflicts with the emotional demands of patient care. Throughout the series, we watch her evolution from an eager but overwhelmed student to someone beginning to understand what it truly means to be a doctor. Her character represents the universal struggle of matching idealism with harsh reality.
Yi-Young’s character development focuses on learning that being an exceptional doctor requires more than just medical knowledge. The series explores her relationships with mentors, patients, and fellow residents, showing how each interaction shapes her understanding of medicine as both a science and an art of human connection.
The Resident Ensemble and Medical Family Dynamics
The supporting cast of residents creates a compelling ensemble that drives much of the series’ emotional core. Shin Si-ah, Han Ye-ji, and Kang You-seok each bring distinct personalities and backgrounds to their roles, creating a realistic portrayal of how different people handle the same intense pressures. Their friendships and conflicts provide both comic relief and genuine emotional depth.
The series excels at showing how the medical profession creates its own unique family structure, where colleagues become lifelines during crisis situations. The mentorship relationships between professors and residents add another layer of complexity, exploring how knowledge and wisdom are passed down in high-stakes environments.
When Medical Emergencies Test Personal Limits
The climactic episodes focus on how the residents handle their most challenging cases while dealing with personal crises that threaten to overwhelm their professional responsibilities. The series doesn’t shy away from showing the emotional toll that medicine takes on healthcare providers, exploring themes of burnout, compassion fatigue, and the difficult balance between professional duty and personal wellbeing.
These episodes examine whether the residents can maintain their humanity while developing the clinical detachment necessary to function effectively in life-and-death situations, creating compelling drama that feels both authentic and emotionally resonant.
Success on Netflix and tvN
Resident Playbook has established itself as a worthy successor to Hospital Playlist, earning an 8.1 IMDb rating and achieving a 3.99 percent Nielsen rating during its tvN run. The 16-episode format allows for thorough character development and complex medical storylines, with the series airing successfully from April 12 to May 18, 2025. As a Hospital Playlist spin-off created by the original team of Shin Won-ho and Kim Song-hee, the series has satisfied longtime fans while attracting new viewers. Resident Playbook represents Netflix’s continued investment in high-quality Korean medical dramas, proving that audiences remain hungry for authentic healthcare stories.
Essential Viewing for Medical Drama Enthusiasts
If you love authentic medical dramas, complex character development, and the emotional depth of Hospital Playlist universe, Resident Playbook is the perfect series to binge on Netflix. The show successfully combines medical accuracy with deeply human storytelling, creating a viewing experience that’s both educational and emotionally engaging.
Why This Medical Drama Sets the Standard for 2025
Positive Points:
- Authentic portrayal of medical training that feels genuine and educational
- Excellent ensemble cast with strong chemistry and individual character development
- Perfect balance of medical cases and personal relationship drama
- High production values and medical accuracy that honors the Hospital Playlist legacy
- Compelling 16-episode format allows for thorough storytelling and character growth
Negative Points:
- Some viewers find the initial episodes overwhelming and chaotic
- Comparisons to Hospital Playlist may create unrealistic expectations
- Medical jargon and procedures might be difficult for some viewers to follow
- Emotional intensity of medical situations may be triggering for sensitive viewers
- Spin-off nature means some storylines feel dependent on knowledge of the original series
Resident Playbook proves that the Hospital Playlist universe still has compelling stories to tell, delivering medical drama excellence that combines professional authenticity with deeply human emotional resonance.
Series Details
- Number of Episodes: 16 episodes
- Platform: Netflix, tvN
- Release Year: 2025
- Current IMDb Rating: 8.1
- Genre: Medical Drama, Romance, Slice of Life
- Production Type: K-Drama (Hospital Playlist spin-off)
- Status: Completed (April 12 – May 18, 2025)
- Protagonists: Go Youn-jung (Oh Yi-Young), Shin Si-ah, Han Ye-ji, Kang You-seok
- Antagonist: Medical emergencies, hospital hierarchy, personal limitations