Doctor X: Age of the White Mafia faces broadcast review request over medical depictions

SBS’s Friday-Saturday drama Doctor X: Age of the White Mafia, starring Kim Ji-won, has drawn criticism over its medical accuracy after a user identifying as a practicing doctor said they had filed a broadcast review request. The complaint, shown as awaiting receipt, cites the drama’s alleged distortions of medical reality and portrayals of medical staff; no review result has been issued.

The user, who identified as an orthopedic surgeon, said on social media that they had requested a review of the series. A receipt screen from the Broadcasting, Media and Communications Standards Commission showed a complaint filed on the 13th concerning what it described as distortions of medical reality and portrayals of medical professionals in the SBS drama Doctor X: Age of the White Mafia. The status displayed was “awaiting receipt.”

The complainant objected to what they described as the drama’s overall treatment of medical work: rounds are presented as unnecessary busywork, medical staff are reduced to incompetent villains, and the uncertainty involved in medical practice is repeatedly overlooked. The user said dramatic exaggeration was understandable but argued that the depictions could give viewers a mistaken impression of medical reality.

Since its premiere on the 9th, the series has attracted attention for Kim Ji-won’s forceful performance as Gye Su-jeong, a genius surgeon, and its fast-paced story. It drew a 11.4% rating for its first episode and 14.9% for its second. As the show gained popularity, debate also grew over how faithfully its medical scenes reflect actual practice.

Criticism from some in the medical community has focused on specific scenes: sending a patient with an inguinal hernia for emergency surgery; treating a critically ill patient whose blood pressure could not be measured without sufficiently depicting the anesthesiology team’s care; and performing 300-joule defibrillation on a patient in cardiac arrest. Some medical professionals have argued that these scenes do not match real clinical situations or oversimplify medical procedures.

Attention has also turned to comments by Professor Namgung In, an emergency medicine doctor and writer who advised on the production. He had said on social media that he participated as an on-site adviser for Doctor X: Age of the White Mafia. When a user asked whether he had served as a medical adviser, he clarified that his role was on-site consultation. He added, in effect, that if medically incorrect material appeared, it could mean there had been a disagreement between the advisers and production team and the advice was not accepted.

The article notes that a drama is not a documentary reproducing reality exactly. It may exaggerate situations or omit processes to compress events and make characters clearer within limited time. But medical dramas show surgeries, emergency treatment and clinical decisions that ordinary viewers may rarely encounter. That raises concern that using life-critical medical procedures as dramatic devices could lead viewers to misunderstand real protocols or form a distorted impression of medical professionals.

The central question, the article says, is how far dramatic adaptation can go and how fully producers should reflect medical advice in scenes requiring specialist expertise. The disclosure that a practicing doctor had requested a review has added a new turn to the debate over the series’ medical depictions. The article says attention is on whether the complaint will lead to an actual review and whether further explanations will emerge about the scenes and production process.

Read the original (Korean)