Brain turned out to be far from what I was expecting. From what I'd heard about the drama, I was expecting a romance emerging against the backdrop of a hospital setting. For better or for worse, this is far from what Brain actually is. At the beginning of the series, Lee Kang Hoon, the main character, is presented as a typical male lead. Cold and cruel, I was expecting that with the influence of Ji Hye, the female lead, his coldness would 'melt' as he fell in love. This usual formula for k-drama that I've grown so accustomed to turned out not to be the case in Brain. Rather than a romance of any description, the way I see this drama is that it's more of a character study of Kang Hoon, a deeply troubled and, quite bluntly, deeply unpleasant man than anything else. He's portrayed to absolute perfection by Shin Ha Kyun, who executes the many layers to his character flawlessly, yet I wouldn't say at any point his character becomes likeable. There are elements of pity and sympathy evoked by his character, but on the whole his character works to be so memorable and defining in this drama by how unswervingly calculating, vindictive and petty he is. This is actually one of the things I most admired overall. It's a bold move to have a lead character who simply isn't a 'good', kind person that's easy for an audience to root for. It sets Brain apart from a more typical series to have it lead by the kind of character who would be cast as an antagonist in most dramas. With such a strong lead character as Kang Hoon, there's not a lot of room left for a convincing romance to be built up. As I've said, I was expecting this drama to orbit around the romance between Kang Hoon and Ji Hye, but this really wasn't the case at all. Their romance felt much more like an after dinner chocolate at the end of a meal than anything substantial. I'd have perhaps liked it to have had more resonance in the series as a whole (I'm so used to k-dramas being love and nothing else that I was disorientated...) especially in shaping Kang Hoon's character. The synopsis hints at this but it never really happened to any marked degree in my eyes. I would say the driving plot behind this drama is the politics of the hospital and the battling of egos amongst the surgeons. This is part way facilitated by how Kang Hoon's unchanging motivation is to be recognized as the best neurosurgeon, regardless of who he has to step on to get there. While I found this whole theme fairly interesting from a character development point of view, it did get tiresome when other plot threads were overlooked in favour of yet another scene of arguments over who was going to get to do the next complex (and therefore prestigious) operation. As I've hinted at, there are a large number of sub-plots to this drama, many of which had the potential to take this drama from being just good to really excellent. Unfortunately, I felt a lot of them weren't really filled out as far as they could have been. Some, for example the whole role of Seo Joon Suk in the dynamics of the drama, felt like they just fizzled out and I was left wondering why they'd even been introduced at all. It was as if the writers realized they'd added in too much for a span of only twenty episodes only after they'd piled the drama too high with potential plot threads. I wouldn't say this was a major hindrance, as the main plot remained strong as it was and didn't need a lot of back-up, but I still came away feeling a little disappointed that other elements hadn't really received much of a resolution. With this drama, I think almost inarguably its strength lay in the quality of the cast. Superb performances all-round. This isn't just the main cast, but also the secondary characters who played an important role in giving colour and a sense of warmth to the hospital setting. I especially enjoyed the little romances hinted at and forming in the background throughout the whole drama, which were not a focus but were adorable nonetheless. Overall, I was addicted to Brain while I was watching it, and got through it back-to-back over three days. Although it wasn't everything I hoped and thought it would be, it definitely had that je ne sais quoi that kept me watching fanatically, compelled to know what happens next. I'd definitely recommend people give it a try. If you're trying to find something a bit different from the usual formulaic Korean rom-com, this might be just what you're looking for.