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And just like that, April rolled around which meant the premiere for highly-anticipated drama “Resident Playbook.” After finishing the first four episodes of the drama, I’m liking what we’ve gotten so far.

“Resident Playbook” is a spin-off of the popular medical drama “Hospital Playlist.” It follows the journey and lives of our main resident crew at Yulje Medical Center and stars Go Youn-jung as Oh Yi-young, Shin Shi-Ah as Pyo Nam-gyeong, Kang Yoo-seok as Um Jae-il, and Han Ye-ji as Kim Sa-bi. And as one would expect, there will be plenty of cameo appearances from those who were in “Hospital Playlist” (there were already some nice and pleasant cameos in the first four episodes!).

I vaguely remembered watching season 1 of “Hospital Playlist” so I was curious as to how “Resident Playbook” would pan out. Though I’m not the biggest fan of hospital and medical dramas, there’s just something that’s fun about watching dramas like “Hospital Playlist” and “Resident Playbook.” For this drama in particular, there’s this satisfying element of watching our residents squad fail and make mistakes but also learn from those mistakes and ultimately grow. They get scolded by their sunbaes, they apologize repeatedly, they beat themselves up over their mistakes. For Oh Yi-young, she imagines quitting and just giving it all up. It’s not easy for our residents and they learn things the hard way. However, it’s not always dark and bleak. With experience comes building wisdom and knowledge and we watched as our four characters grew in their own ways. Whether it was learning how to comfort and connect with their patients, learning how to perform the surgeries themselves, or learning how to interact with co-workers and colleagues at the hospital, our four residents were constantly learning. They were learning about themselves professionally and personally as well as learning more about the others around them.

Although episodes 1 and 2 were good, I fully warmed up to the drama after finishing episodes 3 and 4. The scene of the young daughter crying before her surgery in episode 3 was what sold me on fully enjoying this drama. She comforted her mother the entire time leading up to the surgery so as to not worry her mother but when it finally came down to it, she was actually afraid and scared the entire time. She was just holding it together in front of her mom. Her story was touching but what I enjoyed just as much was Yi-young’s response to the patient’s tears. Yi-young was still learning how to comfort and console her patient and she may not be the best with words of affirmation or emotions. So she learned how to do this in her own way by delaying the surgery so that her patient could have some time to herself. And once the surgery ended successfully, she hurried out of the operating room to deliver the good news to the girl’s parents. Yi-young is relatable with how direct, humorous, and straightforward her personality is but I also like seeing these sides of her in the professional setting. It makes her so easy to root for and makes her so admirable.

Another thing that I liked about Yi-young included her friendship with Sa-bi who she sort of had a conflict with in episode 4. The way that Yi-young handled her situation with Sa-bi was so graceful and kind. She could have been angry (and maybe she should have been angry and upset with Sa-bi’s betrayal). But instead of going after her and trying to get some revenge, she forgave Sa-bi. She was the bigger person. Before things could get any worse, Yi-young simply let it go. In fact, she and Sa-bi were able to bond even more by working together on an operation that 1) Yi-young was hesitant to do alone so she appreciated Sa-bi’s support/assistance and 2) was a precious and valuable opportunity that Sa-bi was grateful to have been a part of. And it was during this scene in episode 4 that I really really warmed up to the drama and found myself just nodding in awe at how good it was. The drama didn’t go the typical route with the conflict between Sa-bi and Yi-young. There really wasn’t even a conflict because it ended before it could really begin which I thought was a refreshing and nice take. It just goes to show how competitive things still are between our four characters even if they’re all in the same group and just trying to survive together. It also goes to show how they can overcome any conflicts and concerns that arise in the group. As we saw at the end of episode 4, our residents started to get closer to one another and all agreed to grab some food together. We witnessed as they were distant in the beginning and then started to slowly get close to one another. Although the hospital environment may be chaotic and stressful, they’re not alone. They have one another.