Endurance Doctor
Watch if you're looking for a medical drama with light humor and romance, but without melodramatic fluff. Lee Jae-wook and Shin Ye-eun create chemistry, and the island setting adds freshness to the familiar genre. Perfect for those tired of the hospital corridors of Seoul and wanting a sea breeze on screen.
The premiere on ENA and Genie TV took place on June 1, 2026, with an international release on Disney+ at the same time. The twelve-episode medical romantic drama adapts the webtoon "Endurance Doctor" by Kim Tae-pun. Do Ji-woo is an elite plastic surgeon suffering from a maritime injury who is forced to go to the isolated island of Pyeongdo as a public health doctor (an alternative to mandatory military service for medical professionals). From the first day, ominous signs begin to appear.
The tone is light but with a tense undertone. The series mixes the medical routine of the island clinic with romance and a light thriller: each new patient brings not only a diagnosis but also a mystery. The humor is built on the contrast between the metropolitan surgeon and the rural reality, where there are neither MRIs nor familiar tools.
Format - 12 episodes of ~70 minutes, airing on Mondays and Tuesdays. Filming took place on Gajido Island in the Sadeunmyeon area of Gyeongju, which gave the series an authentic maritime atmosphere. Lee Jae-wook plays a doctor for the first time, while Shin Ye-eun plays nurse Yuk Ha-ri, who left a metropolitan hospital.
If you enjoyed "Ghost in the White Coat" or "Romantic Doctor Kim," "Endurance Doctor" operates on the same wavelength but with island isolation creating a sense of confined space. Fans of medical dramas with a romantic line and light humor will find it comfortable, and for those looking for a replacement for "The Crown" or "Sklifosovsky" in an Asian context, this is a fresh voice in the genre.