There’s just something oddly appealing about an antihero, isn’t there? We’ve got our first look at Namgoong Min (Handsome Guy and Jung-eum) as a former surgeon in KBS’s prison thriller Doctor Prisoner, and there’s definitely a dark edge to our doctor hero according to the show’s recently released teaser.
The clip starts with Namgoong Min hard at work as a surgeon with his star on the rise, followed by a somewhat superfluous dictionary meaning of ‘doctor:’ a person whose job it is to cure illnesses. Things take a downturn when a patient can’t be revived despite the efforts of nurses with defibrillators, and the next thing we see, Namgoong Min stabs an unknown man with a scalpel to his neck. Well, that escalated pretty quickly.
I wonder whether that short scene has something to do with the doctor’s career change, since there’s a definite sense of demotion, going from a hotshot surgeon at a large hospital to a member of a prison medical unit. Namgoong Min strolls through his new workplace, as the captions read, “When a doctor goes to prison…” He stops in front of a cell, which holds Kang Shin-il (Room No. 9), and offers a spine-chilling deal: “I’ll release you. If you can withstand pain that will make you wish you were dead.” Yikes.
I’m a little sad we haven’t gotten a look at some of the other members of this enviable cast, especially SKY Castle alums Choi Won-young and Kim Byung-chul, but I’ll guess we’ll just have to sit tight until we get some more teasers. KBS’s Doctor Prisoner will premiere on March 20.
