"Healer" the warm and cozy action drama

Healer is a myriad of genres- action, comedy, romance, and mystery. It weaves them all seamlessly into a drama that makes you just feel good.

This was my first Ji Chang Wook drama and boy does he have a lethal half smile. He played the tortured soul and romantic lead with great skill as well as the multiple personalities of Healer. This was my favorite Park Min Young role to date. I loved how she played Jian/Yeonsin with such carefree abandon and I think she has chemistry with every partner. Probably the greatest surprise and delight was Kim Mi Kyung playing a hacker. She was brilliant and the glue that held all the characters together by the end.

The romance aspect was so fluttering to my heart. Due to lots of barriers and inability to meet for most of the drama, the writers had to be creative with the romance. Bringing back phone calls, secret dates, and the simple art of holding ones hand made the build up to their face to face meeting worth it. Should Jian been a bit more mad at Seo Jeonghu? Probably but that really wasn't who she was. As she said "she forgives easily".

The action scenes were actually really good. When the Master was training young Seo Jeonghu and teaching the kicks it was really beautiful how it was filmed and whoever did the stunts is pretty amazing.

The plot wasn't drastically different from other dramas in the present day. Skilled man hired to do less than legal things. The real plot was the 1992 group of friends mystery and how that story played out. Although it was a lot confusing at first because you weren't sure which kid belonged to whom and who was the adult version, the flashbacks by the end explained it all. There were a lot of characters to process.

Shoutout to Jian's adopted father. I love how he gained her trust and raised her with so much love. I'm glad this whole family came to be and will be in the future. The ex-convicts teaching her all the skills. She is the perfect counterpart for Seo Jeonghu. And Seo Jeonghu's "adopted father" in the Master. Found family indeed.

I was mostly pleased with the ending. Munho started up again with his female reporter ex-girlfriend. Jian got to have Seo Jeonghu in her life and they got to live as an ordinary couple. Jian and her mom could be together but I would have liked more from that. The reunion seemed a bit rushed in episode 16. Most of the bad guys were sent to jail.

A key scene was missing though and that was Munho's brother getting what he deserved. I needed Munsik and his minion to be held accountable for all the terrible things he had done. For the Jian abandonment and the lies and just the general piece of dirt human beings they were. And while they likely got that off screen, I needed to see it and I wouldn't have minded if Seo Jeonghu had hit them once or twice. Some may say that losing his wife was the worst punishment he could get but I still needed more.

The best aspects of this drama was all the found family aspects. It makes you feel good- the ex-cons, the adopted daughter, the found Mother, Munho, the integration of Seo Jeonghu and hopefully Minja into all that. That's the warm and cozy part. The romance angle was a bonus.

My rating 4/5. Really loved it but just needed one or two things to be done better.