This review may contain spoilers
It's much better than Abyss!
This show is a little bit of a nice surprise, based on the comments i thought it would be terrible, nearly as bad as Abyss. Luckily nothing in the show annoyed me in a major way. Doom is a nice fluffy drama with some slight melodramatic vibe. I had a pretty good time overall, I enjoyed even some of the most criticized episodes.I mean sure, the storytelling is a bit arbitrary and abrupt at times and the second leads do form a love triangle, but the (Beauty Inside) screenwriter has redeemed herself with giving me a nice, easily digestible ending and the second leads were a lot more entertaining than I thought they would be. The triangle did not devolve into a makjang-ish mess and it almost made sense, almost. it goes without saying that I found great that the main leads had no secondary romantic interests.
The two biggest problems I've found with the drama were the somewhat lacking chemistry between Park Bo Young and Seo In Guk and the lack of impact. The chemistry issue somewhat resolved itself by the time we reached the ending credits, it's obvious that the actors have grown used to each other. As for impact, let me explain. The theme of the show and the events that happened between the leads should've felt extremely impactful. Perhaps the writer failed with buildup a little & perhaps there were some acting hiccups in the delivery too, I don't know. The slow pace and all the gazing did not bother me at all, but I cannot help but feel that there was more than enough time to properly build up to those dramatic plot developments & make them less arbitrary, less immersion breaking.
As I have mentioned already the writing is less than flawless, but the frame of the story is really sound. It's properly written, it's not a cliche fest. The one big cliche plot the show had, the memory loss thing was well executed. Then again I always liked it when lovers reconnect after an amnesia situation. it's commendable that no third party with ulterior motives tried to take advantage of their amnesia.
The cast on the whole was really on point. Everyone was pretty great at their respective roles, except Kevin. Not the actor's fault, but good God they should have given him less screen time, nobody involved knew what to do with his character..
I loved the deity. Her difficult to explain decisions notwithstanding the actress did an absolutely phenomenal job, I enjoyed every second of her being shown on screen. (and she did have some great lines as well)
This drama has many similarities with Angel's Last Mission. That drama is better due to Shin Hye Sun's acting & the OST, but that's pretty much it, though that's admittedly quite a lot! Doom has a hugely better ending & a more balanced cast.
Another point this brings up how strong an effect music can have, when it comes to enjoyment of a drama and there Doom certainly falls a bit short.
The line about "writers being technicians" amused me to no end . It could be a fitting motto for the screenwriter. (especially if we consider The Beauty Inside too..)
TLDR: Doom is not the best drama I have ever seen, not even close, but it's been entertaining during the show's entire run and it has wrapped up in a nice way, so I'll go with 8/10.
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It’s a Mess
I was really looking forward to this one, gave it a lot of chances, but it didn’t take long for me to see it wasn’t going to meet my hopes. It’s really the story that lets this drama down. The premise has potential, but the execution is an incomprehensible mess. Whatever mystical mythology underlies the plot is full of arbitrary rules, the pacing is very uneven, and the subplots seem like add-ons from another drama. It really starts to drag in the last few episodes, creeping towards an anticlimactic finale.I’m quite forgiving of dramas with weak or troubled stories of there are good actors playing interesting characters. But much of the time, this feels like interesting characters behaving uninterestingly.
It has a few good moments, but in the end is rather forgettable.
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Music score comes through effortlessly and memorably. High rewatch value.
This Doom has broken through into my Top 6. This is the first OST that captured my attention and is now saved on my Spotify. If you love Seo In Guk, watch Cafe Minamdang first. While the timing may seem slow, the story has to be followed closely to enjoy the full experience. K-dramas have their own sub category of spiritual fantasy and DaYS does not disappoint! On a casting note - there’s a song in the US “It’s Raining Men” and DaYS is just that! You’ll find your type here! With one ML, three secondaries and two tertiaries - it’s a playground for the eyes. I don’t understand how this drama is not a Top 10 pick, but it is - so far - among mine. My only criticism is: how many designer coats were worn by our gorgeous FL and ML? (She couldn’t have fit all of them into her itty bitty suitcase.)Was this review helpful to you?
STORY
So the drama follows the love story between a man who brings doom and a terminally ill woman who makes a drunken wish for the world to end. It was quite a unique and interesting format at times funny but at the same time really sad.We first have a female lead who works herself to the bones for her mischievous and lazy little brother with little to no plans for her own self, when she is slapped with a terrible fate of dying young with an illness that is too late to be cured and she meets a diety? Wait was he a deity? A deity that bares the name and brings “doom” and has a strong distaste for mortals.
On Doom’s birthday, he hears mortals wish and grants one person’s one wish, and coincidentally he hears our female lead’s drunken wish for the world to end and immediately became interested in this mortal who wishes for the same thing he wants so he made a contract with her that she will not feel pain during her remaining days in exchange for her wishing for the world to end, the very same thing he wants to do but has no power to do unless its a human’s wish.
I was reluctant to watch for the reason that I kind of expect that it might have a sad ending and I’m not good with sad endings, LOL and I mean don’t we all? Well, thank god that it did have a happy ending. I guess the pacing was okay, I quite like the characters and their growth but I guess it was missing something. I can’t pinpoint it but I did enjoy the drama it’s just that I was expecting it to be more. More outrageous, more intense, or more fantasy? The plot was really interesting and sounded really good but I guess it lacked the impact (personally).
And tbh, I think I rooted the love story between Team Leader Cha, Hyun Gyu with Na Ji Na more than I did with the main leads which is weird considering I hate love triangle cliches.
CHARACTERS
Tak Do Kyung - Do Kyung is working as an editor when she was diagnosed with a brain cancer. She has quite a temper that she rarely lets out and often just holds her anger in, especially dealing with idiot writers. She has a younger brother Tak Seon Kyung and tries to looks after him after their parents died.
Myeolmang (Doom) / Kim Sa Ram) - Myeol Mang is neither human nor god. I’m honestly not sure how to properly explain what he is but he is somewhat a breed between a grim reaper and a goblin or is it a devil? He’s not exactly there to collect their souls but rather watch or assist their death? He is always there when a human’s “doom” comes and often times has the ability to extend their life for a little bit if he’s feeling annoyed and wants to punish that human. Humans can see him if he wants to but they don’t really see his real face but rather a stranger’s face and Dong Kyung is the only one who can see his real face.
Cha Joo Ik - Team Leader Cha is Dong Kyung’s direst supervisor and who is secretly really rich. He has a long time connection with Na Ji Na.
Na Ji Na - Ji Na is Dong Kyung’s best friend and a famous writer that goes by the pen name “Lee Hyun” which she took from the name of her first love who broke her heart.
Lee Hyun Gyu - Hyun Gyu is Ji Na’s first love and ex-boyfriend from high school. He used to be a swimmer and moved overseas. He now owns a cafe on the same building as Team Leader Cha’s office.
CAST & Production
I really love Seo In Guk and Park Bo Young so even if the storyline wasn’t that much exciting for me, it was still worth the watch. And can we just agree that Lee Soo Hyuk’s tall and serious visual with his deep full voice is just perfection? Then there was also my Dawon from SF9, I have been a fan of them since I saw their mini web series Click Your Hear so I was really happy to see them in bigger projects. And of course, Kang Tae Oh, like seriously? The cast list is such a visual overkill.Of course, it’s a Korean drama, the effects are edits were good. OST was good as well. No complains on the production for me.
FINAL THOUGHTS (Rating: 8.1/10)
I wouldn’t say I was disappointed with the drama but I was just expecting more with such a great synopsis, I think they could have done more. The main plot had such a potential to be more than what I saw, they could have made it more outrageous, more intense, more drama more angst? But that’s just my personal opinion. It did have tear-jerking scenes and cute romance which I also really liked so it was still a good watch. Would I recommend it? Yes, despite me not being overly enthusiastic about the drama after watching it, I still enjoyed it. It has a good fantasy element to it, a cute main and support couple, and funny scenes.
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Good cast but weak plot
Another show with an amazing cast but lame ass story. Honestly the plot was just soo typical. There was repetition in the entire story from the beginning episode till the end. I felt like same thing is happening in every episode. The whole drama had a gloomy vibe to it. Hardly any comedy or heartfelt moments.The ML is the DOOM! Not a devil or diety but DOOM/DEATH himself! Yet Doom’s character was hollow and very restricted. His character seemed too weak and frail to be called doom, didn’t showed any wickedness that a character called doom should have.
FL was a typical damsel in distress. Orphan who is living hand to mouth and terminally ill. Literally nothing was left when it comes to misery in her life. I was tired watching her cry every episode. It was annoying.
The god’s character also didn’t make any sense. Neither her will made any sense.
The 2nd leads had better story going on than the main lead couple.. The love triangle among the 2nd lead should get their spin off series. Main couple didn’t had many heartlfelt moments. I can’t remember any scene tht give me butterflies.
The show was overall dry with such a weak plot . Even the ending didn’t make much sense. Why make them go through that all? What purpose it served. No questions were answered as to why anything was happening. I finished the drama only to see what happens with the 2nd lead couple.
Music was good specially that instrumental music is soo mystical. I wish story was too.
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Worth watching and rewatching
I Love this drama.This drama is one of my all-time favorite dramas. It has funny, sad, thoughtful, and happy moments.
Do yourself a favor and watch it.
ML and FL have great chemistry, and there are some moments when you think they cannot be this crazy, then they are. When I tell people about this drama, I always be sure to praise the cast because they are so fun.
The way you have to think about life and love is great. Are there cliches there? Of course, there are and but that is not a bad thing. It is romance and life in one big pile.
I would have loved another season.
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Wachable if you block your ears and only watch with your eyes...
When watching Korean dramas, everyone should be aware that cliches are unavoidable. They have been a part of kdrama industry since forever and it doesn't look like writers will soon give up on them. But it's fine, cliches are fine. What is important is how you use them in the relevant plot. If they're done well there shouldn't be a problem and they wouldn't bother the viewer. Doom at Your Service couldn't do even the cliches properly. You can't do something that has been done hundreds time before...Morever, fantasy is as far away as possible the best genres kdramas can do. Usually sci/fi and fantasy are a hit or miss and this one is definitely a miss. Why is a miss here specifically? Because they can explain no sh*t properly. And it starts in the beginning, the explanation Myeol Mang did to the female lead about the wish she has, made me hit my head on the table because I felt like I was losing my brain. And then it all fell down. I was already uninterested about her wishes and I already saw that things in this drama will be going nowhere as I expected to be. If you want to make fantasy work, you should use some brain.
The drama has no brain. And it's mainly because of the female lead but since everything revolves around her excistence, her doing stupid things all the time will eventually lead to the whole drama being stupid as hell. The scrpit is at fault here I guess. I hate when a character is doing something for no reason just for the sake of the plot to progress. The whole drama relies on that. And not only her, but the male lead was also doing unreasonable stuff all the time. The drama has such a random plot like things are just happening for them to just happen with no reason. And the finny thing is, the drama is supposed to be philosophical, but all they do is talk a lot while not saying much.
The romance... now, Seo In Guk's kiss scenes are something else. I would recommend the drama just for them. The chemistry between the couple was non-existant, at least for me. I just didn't like the development of their relationship or should I say the lack of one. They just simply--- fell in love. All of their moments felt forced to me.
Myul Mang is a good character on the surface but his potential wasn't fully shown due to sappy writing. Dong Kyung... I don't know, maybe because of her unreasonable actions, I didn't really like her. Park Bo Young is a good actress, but we all know that she has that child-like vibe and she's not suitable for any role.
Overall, while there were some moments I enjoyed, I wouldn't say I liked the drama. It deserves a 6 because of the cast and the fact that for me something below 6 is really bad while Doom is watchable, but it really depends on what you're looking for and your drama taste.
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So much good stuff, but...
I have to say I enjoyed watching this show, especially after looking forward to seeing a couple of my favorite actors. I felt there was a lot of good in this, but there were some misses for me as well.STORY: I'd have to say this is where I found the shortcomings. At times, the story just felt like it got mired down and couldn't (or didn't) move forward. A lot remained unexplained. The writing was often very stilted (maybe it got lost in translation from Korean to English). I know writers often want us to make our own conclusions, but some of the things in this were so vague I wasn't sure what to think! The character of the female lead was problematic for me - she's dying, but you never feel that she quite "gets it". I understand they were going for that positive, spunky heroine that can soften the heart of a man with no heart, but come on! I wasn't able to quite relate to her, because her emotions were always pretty much on the surface. I think that you have to believe that someone recognizes that they are dying before you can empathize with them. The death thing never fully got fleshed out, I didn't think. I like to be able to see why people fall in love with one another. It was rushed in this show. They didn't like each other and then suddenly they are in love. She sometimes seemed like she missed him, but for the most part was her regular bubbly self, which didn't ring true. I also didn't care for the secondary romance at all - it dragged on needlessly and each of them had such problems that I could figure out why any one person would like the other. The ending of the show was quite a big letdown for me. It was very abrupt and there definitely needed to be more. I did enjoy the family relationships.
SYMBOLISM: The deity girl part of the storyline, if you could get past that all the conversations seemed like they were in code and I didn't have my secret decoder ring, was good. I've always liked the concept of destiny and people ending up together despite them trying to take different paths to change their future. The deity seemed like a god that was rooting for this couple. She started out playing with their lives but then kind of became a cheerleader for them. I felt redemption and second chances in her scenes with both main characters.
ACTORS: Seo In Guk as Myeol Mang was excellent. He is an actor that can display so much emotion with just a quirk of his brow. His progression from evil to good was spot on. He had that inhuman coldness down pat, and then when he started to change, it was lovely. Park Bo Young as Tak Dong Kyung - I love her as an actress, but I didn't feel that she was perfect for this role, but that may have mostly been the fault of the writing. She seemed that she spent most of her time speaking with wide eyes, and pursed lips, trying to be cute. And I have to say, I absolutely HATE the way she cries. It always makes me want to laugh because it is so over the top, I thought that when I saw her in Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, and it was the same in this show. Dawon as Dong Kyung's brother provided some wonderful comic relief.
COSTUMING/HAIR/MAKEUP: I loved the clothes they wore in this, especially all the long coats. They dressed Seo In Guk very well in all dark colors until the end, when he got to wear some beiges and gray. That man knows how to wear clothes! Everything was tailored beautifully. I also loved what they did with the color of his hair - not black but an interesting, subtle shade of gray/black. There was an effective change in his makeup from the beginning to the end that spoke to him becoming human. Her outfits were really cute and I loved how they paired sneakers with skirts for her in a lot of the scenes. I was bothered by the fact that she was going to die in a few months, but she just kept getting prettier and prettier.
CINEMATOGRAPHY/SCENERY: Very well done. I loved the composition of his house connected to her apartment - his space was large, monochromatic and cold, her area was vibrant and full of a multitude of textures and colors. the symbolism and used of plants/flowers/gardens was very well done. I especially loved when she went into his gray world and her vibrancy brought everything to life.
MUSIC: Beautiful, especially Seo In Guk's song. The music was able to make me feel some emotions that the script wasn't able to convey.
I'm glad I watched this. I do have to say that I enjoyed the first half a lot more than the last half, when it just felt like it ran out of steam.
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The show's strength lies in the romance between our leads. Park Bo Young and Seo In Guk have amazing chemistry as Tak DongKyung and Doom. The romance is slow to develop and serious in the beginning. Almost contractual. Over time it develops organically on both sides to become something special, magical, worthy of throwing away the world (or saving it). There are ups and downs and more than once DongKyung and Kim SaRam are made to start over from the beginning. I smiled the entire time their love story played out on screen and was so happy with the resolution to their love. However, the romance was also this show's biggest pitfall. The screenwriter simply spent too much time on the romance to the detriment to every other aspect of the plot. The main conflict, how DongKyung will fulfill her end of the contract without losing any of her loved ones, so present and important in the first 3 episodes or so is quickly abandoned in all but the most skeletal of framing in favor of spending more time on the romance. Even more minor conflicts, like those surrounding DongKyung's family or job, are left with barebones storytelling because the romance takes over so much screentime. The second leads' love triangle also feels tacked on to the main story; completely unintegrated into the main plot and left with a minimal amount of development despite a fair amount of screentime. Though I will say, the second lead love triangle was a unique touch to the drama and I was happy with its resolution though I wished it was more fleshed out.
Overall, this drama lacked balance between its overarching plot and its romance subplot. The romance became the plot, and not successfully as the main plot was never fully abandoned. Instead, it was left dangling to the side until it became completely insignificant to the resolution of the story. The ending, while happy and neat, left me with a feeling of incompleteness that comes with the use of arbitrary plot armor. Doom at Your Service was romantic and cute but not as well developed as it could have been.
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A drama worth watching this 2021, not just worth but a must watch drama this year 2021.
Doom at your service, i must say the first few episodes were really something. I was very hooked the day i started watching this drama.I had mixed emotions in this drama. I was happy, sad, angry, flustered, devasted, my heart fluttered, shocked, and of course in love. And a lot more.
This drama taught me a lot of things not just in the romantic side but, also on how i should approach on life. It taught me a to be brave, be in love, and sometimes wreckless. And etc.
My rate for this drama is 10000000/10
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The perfect couple in the wrong drama.
literally seo in guk and park bo young their chemistry together is so perfect and that the only reason why i didn't dropped the drama.everything was good and amazing in the first 6 episodes then i don't know what happened with the writer she really destroyed the story of such amazing cast. i was very annoyed with the story there wasn't any progress and there was so many things the writer didn't answer.
the second couples story was good actually it was more entertaining than the main couple. i loved dawon from sf9 acting he was a cutiepie. i hope i can see this cast in dramas that they deserve.
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A Masterpiece
I'm seeing a lot of the top reviews saying DAYS is washed potential and that it's boring, and it absolutely shocks me to read these?! I personally found this story so beautifully written and portrayed, keeping me absolutely hooked on the end of each episode. I can somewhat see that the boredom could have come from the slow burn or the amount of time it took for everything to unfold once and for all but that was the beauty of this drama? I love how slowly their relationship evolved and how no matter what they stuck together against all odds.But what I wanted to appreciate the most was how smoothly they brought Myul Mang back into Dong Kyung's life in the last episode. It just made such perfect sense on how he was able to come back and most of all it tied in with the story line so perfectly I'm in awe. I've seen a lot of dramas where the lead comes back to life and it just never makes sense and look choppy but here they did such a good job at wrapping up this story in one beautiful cohesive way.
So to summarize how I feel how this drama, I absolutely loved it. I love how smoothly everything was tied together and transitioned throughout the drama. The character development and how side characters like Ji Na got their fair share of attention too. I applaud the directors and cast for doing so well in their duties regarding this drama, a solid 11/10 from me!
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