This review may contain spoilers
beautiful and heartbreaking story with a sweet ending
I've just finished watching Doom at your Service and it was a delight. The actors, the cinematography, the story--it was all great. There were so many loveable characters and seeing them interact with each other was truly heartwarming. Also, the story provided enough twists and turns to keep me interested and while it did use some common tropes and clichés, they were executed in a unique and genuine way (imo ofc).
Tak Dong-kyung was the definition of a kind-hearted person and to see her suffer through so much was really hard. Ever since the first episode, this girl got no break. From her ex-boyfriend cheating on his wife with her without her knowing, to the wife blaming it on her and causing a scene, that scene causing her trouble at work, and her brother asking for money, etc. Who wouldn't get drunk and wish doom upon this world?
One of the many sweet moments were the conversations Kevin had with Dong-kyung and Sa-ram/Myeol-mang. You can tell that family is very important to Kevin and that he is happy to welcome anyone into the family and offer support (even though he might not understand them at all times xD)
This Kdrama also offered a lot of humour and comic-relief without it being too over-the-top or out of place. Especially when you are dealing with such heavy subjects (e.g. death), it's important to not lose oneself in the seriousness of the situation and make the viewing experience unnecessary gloomy and dark (e.g. Dong-kyung comes to the conclusion that she would just fall in love with Sa-ram so he could die and not her brother or anyone else she truly cares about was unexpectet and funny. Also his reaction being "sure, let's do it" was pure comedy.)
The scene--that is also in the top 10 best scenes is the dream-sequences--we got with Dong-kyung and her family and friends all sitting in this restaurant eating and showing off their gifts Dong-kyung got them. All happy and together and bittersweet feeling you get that this will most likely not come true. Then, later on you get hit with that exact scene, when Dong-kyung finally was able to make this dream come true (but without Sa-ram :`().
My favorite scene that will forver live rent free in my mind is definitely the beach scene, where Dong-kyung finally breaks down and is a sobbing mess, opening up to Sa-ram about how she truly is feeling about her situation and that she actually wants to live and doesn't want to die. And to see how all these feelings she bottled up to not burden anyone with it (and probably to not speak her nearing death into existance) truly hit hard.
A few things I do want to critizice though are:
- Sometimes the story feels dragged out. The Kdrama would've benefited from it being a little shorter. While I really appreciate that in most Kdramas almost all character seem to have something going on, it does drag the story sometimes, especially when this side-plot doesn't tie into the main plot and it feels disconnected and unnecessary. The first half of this Kdrama was really great, I would even say up until episode 10, but after that it felt a little repeptitive. Like yeah, we had to built up tension, to show how much these two tried to fight their fate and eventually gave in and accepted it, but does this really need to be streched over so many episodes? The back and forth with Dong-kyung running away, coming back, them breaking up, them getting back together, Dong-kyung accepting the deal of the Deity just to go back to square one... etc. etc. etc. It's all important for the characters and to present the overal tragedy of their situation and to show that no matter the circumstances they would've made the same choices, but it did feel a overly lengthy at times. Many things that took this Kdrama two episodes to tell, could've been easily told in one.
- Too much love triangle drama without tension. I'm not really a fan of love triangles and DAYS (really love the abbreviation) really dragged out this one. Na Ji-na got together with Cha Joo-ik in the very last/second-to-last episode. The love triangle was one of the things I least enjoyed about this Kdrama. It was just a constant who will she choose in the end and there was no real tension, since it was clear to me from the start who the "lucky one" would be. This just made it all the more frustrating and almost pathetic, to watch these two men risk everything for their crush and just aren't able to move on although it's been YEARS. Also, there was just too much whining from Lee Hyun-gyu and Joo-ik and all this "well I won't give up and fight for her" that eventually broke up their friendship... tragic.
- Childish men. Also, once Dong-kyung was together with Sa-ram, there was this constant annoying (almost child-like) jealousy and pouting at every male character (apart from Kevin, her brother and surprisingly Hun-gyu for some reason). Like my guy, this dude is a child, why are you so pressed about him having a crush on this woman who clearly isn't in love with him. And he kept pressuring her to get married, even though she clearly wasn't ready for that commitment after only knowing him for a few months. And I know it's a trope and woman in Kdramas aren't allowed to euphorically engange in intimacy, but I am really tired of this. Would it really kill you to make a Kdrama where the female lead shares the same excitement over intimacy than her male counterpart?
Tak Dong-kyung was the definition of a kind-hearted person and to see her suffer through so much was really hard. Ever since the first episode, this girl got no break. From her ex-boyfriend cheating on his wife with her without her knowing, to the wife blaming it on her and causing a scene, that scene causing her trouble at work, and her brother asking for money, etc. Who wouldn't get drunk and wish doom upon this world?
One of the many sweet moments were the conversations Kevin had with Dong-kyung and Sa-ram/Myeol-mang. You can tell that family is very important to Kevin and that he is happy to welcome anyone into the family and offer support (even though he might not understand them at all times xD)
This Kdrama also offered a lot of humour and comic-relief without it being too over-the-top or out of place. Especially when you are dealing with such heavy subjects (e.g. death), it's important to not lose oneself in the seriousness of the situation and make the viewing experience unnecessary gloomy and dark (e.g. Dong-kyung comes to the conclusion that she would just fall in love with Sa-ram so he could die and not her brother or anyone else she truly cares about was unexpectet and funny. Also his reaction being "sure, let's do it" was pure comedy.)
The scene--that is also in the top 10 best scenes is the dream-sequences--we got with Dong-kyung and her family and friends all sitting in this restaurant eating and showing off their gifts Dong-kyung got them. All happy and together and bittersweet feeling you get that this will most likely not come true. Then, later on you get hit with that exact scene, when Dong-kyung finally was able to make this dream come true (but without Sa-ram :`().
My favorite scene that will forver live rent free in my mind is definitely the beach scene, where Dong-kyung finally breaks down and is a sobbing mess, opening up to Sa-ram about how she truly is feeling about her situation and that she actually wants to live and doesn't want to die. And to see how all these feelings she bottled up to not burden anyone with it (and probably to not speak her nearing death into existance) truly hit hard.
A few things I do want to critizice though are:
- Sometimes the story feels dragged out. The Kdrama would've benefited from it being a little shorter. While I really appreciate that in most Kdramas almost all character seem to have something going on, it does drag the story sometimes, especially when this side-plot doesn't tie into the main plot and it feels disconnected and unnecessary. The first half of this Kdrama was really great, I would even say up until episode 10, but after that it felt a little repeptitive. Like yeah, we had to built up tension, to show how much these two tried to fight their fate and eventually gave in and accepted it, but does this really need to be streched over so many episodes? The back and forth with Dong-kyung running away, coming back, them breaking up, them getting back together, Dong-kyung accepting the deal of the Deity just to go back to square one... etc. etc. etc. It's all important for the characters and to present the overal tragedy of their situation and to show that no matter the circumstances they would've made the same choices, but it did feel a overly lengthy at times. Many things that took this Kdrama two episodes to tell, could've been easily told in one.
- Too much love triangle drama without tension. I'm not really a fan of love triangles and DAYS (really love the abbreviation) really dragged out this one. Na Ji-na got together with Cha Joo-ik in the very last/second-to-last episode. The love triangle was one of the things I least enjoyed about this Kdrama. It was just a constant who will she choose in the end and there was no real tension, since it was clear to me from the start who the "lucky one" would be. This just made it all the more frustrating and almost pathetic, to watch these two men risk everything for their crush and just aren't able to move on although it's been YEARS. Also, there was just too much whining from Lee Hyun-gyu and Joo-ik and all this "well I won't give up and fight for her" that eventually broke up their friendship... tragic.
- Childish men. Also, once Dong-kyung was together with Sa-ram, there was this constant annoying (almost child-like) jealousy and pouting at every male character (apart from Kevin, her brother and surprisingly Hun-gyu for some reason). Like my guy, this dude is a child, why are you so pressed about him having a crush on this woman who clearly isn't in love with him. And he kept pressuring her to get married, even though she clearly wasn't ready for that commitment after only knowing him for a few months. And I know it's a trope and woman in Kdramas aren't allowed to euphorically engange in intimacy, but I am really tired of this. Would it really kill you to make a Kdrama where the female lead shares the same excitement over intimacy than her male counterpart?
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