A boring show driven by the charisma of its stars
A drab story driven by the charisma of its leadsAt one point while watching Doom at Your Service, I was so excited about the things that I wanted to say about the show. Now that I have finally finished this show after several months, struggling to reach the end point, I actually don’t have much to say anymore. It is because nothing really exciting ultimately happened in the show. It was my anticipation in the earlier episodes that carried me through, but the show got really boring after seven or so episodes. I couldn’t get what this drama wanted to be. The show genre includes fantasy, but this is far from the truth. Please know that you will be disappointed if you go in expecting any supernatural/ fantasy element to the show. It also cannot be called a slice of life drama because the subplots and the supporting actors don’t seem strong enough. In the end, it is just a story about a terminally ill woman and ties in some philosophies about life in general. There is some romance and comedy but it again it does not fall entirely into any of these genres either. The biggest draws of this show are its leads. You can only make through this show if you are a BIG fan of Park Bo Young and/ or Seo In Guk. It is unfortunate that the charisma and talent of these actors could not make up for the flaws in the script.
Here are some good and bad point about the show –
The good points
Park Bo Young and Seo In Guk
Not only are they really beautiful people, but also incredibly talented actors. I actually started watching the show because of PBY. She is a wonderful actress. The fans of the two lead actors may enjoy seeing them together. They both get ample screen time especially PBY and she’s so good at the emotional scenes. I can actually even watch her doing laundry and other mundane tasks lol. SIG is equally charismatic. His charm and sex appeal made the first few episodes so exciting to watch. He’s actually pretty good at his bad boy act, and I wish the show creators would have kept that side of him till the end. Later in the show his character is dulled down in the attempt to make him more suitable for the FL. PBY and SIG have great chemistry. This was excellent pairing; it is just that the director and the writer didn’t use it to their advantage. I hope to see them together again in a show with a better plot.
First few episodes
The first seven episodes were quite exciting and had me hooked on to the show in anticipation. The production and set design are really good. It’s too bad that the later episodes really dragged and the joy of the first few episodes faded quickly.
Something different
Perhaps, the creators of the show were going for a different vibe here. Even though the show involves deities, they don’t really display their powers explicitly and nothing is too dramatic. I do like subtlety in the shows, but there is a fine line between subtlety and boring, unfortunately, this show crossed over to boring.
Philosophical dialogues about life
This can be both good and bad. There are some thoughtful dialogues in the show about the impermanence of life. So if you enjoy deep conversations about life and such you may enjoy those parts especially between the leads.
FL is not in a love triangle
But her friend is, which is quite refreshing for Kdrama land. In fact I really enjoyed the platonic relationship between Lee Soo Hyuk and PBY. I just wish Lee Soo Hyuk and others’ stories were connected to the main plot.
The bad points
Talky -Talky
This show is more talk, less play, which makes it a dull show lol. Yes, if you have a thing for long drawn out philosophical dialogues, you may not mind it at all. But it became a little boring for me especially toward the end.
No real mystery
Early on in the show, the audience is made to believe that there is some grand mystery waiting to be revealed. But there is not much to it.
Disconnected storylines
The supporting cast includes some very attractive people, but my expectation was that the stories will ultimately connect. Unfortunately, they operate parallel to the main story without any connection. I think these subplots were more intended to be fillers than anything else . Maybe, the writer realized there was no meat to the main plot so these other plots were added to fill up the show’s running time.
The God
At first, I thought that it was very interesting that the god was a little girl but her character is more confusing than inspiring. I wish they would have added more layers to her character and made some of her intentions clearer, in the end it all seemed to lead to nothing.
** Btw lol what’s up with the token white guy. I wish there was more to him. He could have been a Korean uncle and it would have been all the same.
Overall, I recommend the show if you are a fan of SIG and/or PBY or if you’ve insomnia lol if not I think you can pass this one.
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I started this drama off a reccomendation and I'm glad that I gave it the watch. While I find some dramas can get a little wishy-washy towards the middle, this one is able to pick up the pieces quickly and get you back on track. Even after the few episodes that weren't on the great side, the ending and overall conclusion made sense and was incredibly worth it. I also started this drama after watching Daily Dose of Sunshine and knew I would have to watch this one because of Park Bo Young. Her acting captured me in DDoS and in this one she's just as incredible. I love the way that she brings life and character to these written characters. She truly brings them to life and pulls off some of the best acting I have seen. I'm going to continue checking out a lot of her work. The ML also caught my eye and I loved the contrast between Myeol Mang vs. Kim Sa-Ram at the end of the drama. He brought such a personality to Doom and I couldn't get enough of the scenes with him and Dong Kyung.
You also can never get enough Lee Soo Hyuk. I've loved him since I watched him in Tomorrow and I hope that he is in more dramas to come. I love his acting so much and I really loved his character in this drama. While he is a background character, he adds a lot of little moments and towards the middle becomes more prominent as his story his portrayed. I was rooting for him the entire time and was glad to see that his story ended well like the main lead's.
Had me hooked from the beginning with the concept of the story and the acting. It never once made me lose my interest or feel the need to skip ahead. As I mentioned before, towards the middle/close end it gets a little rough, but once you stick it out and make it through... it's worth it!
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Try not to fall asleep challenge kdrama edition
I dont write reviews since its a pain and im lazy but I needed to get this across to y'all even if i end up bleeding. Like the title says i started watching this as soon as it aired and the pilot got me hooked. But that was it. Watched the second episode and i realized this was the drama i needed when i couldnt really fall asleep on my own and more like a sleeping pillI liked Seo In Guk's face, Lee Soo Hyuks voice and Park bo young's smile, everything else is average. As the plot kept progressing, I found myself losing interest. Maybe its the lead couple thats too extra, or the second couple love triangle or whatever the hell its supposed to be, it all helped set up the story but it never really connected for me. With so much fantasy elements going on with the mains and then it suddenly shifts to the normalised life of the supporting cast.
SO i slept through the first 12 episodes , watched it when i was stressed with college and needed the rest, or when i was so bored that i wanted to do something even more boring. I was proud of myself for not dropping it and tried so hard to reach the end and im glad i did. Basically ep 13-16 redeemed it for me at least a bit, i always kept wondering how they were going to end it but i just didnt expect something so heartwarming.
The story is definitely not my cup of tea and basically wasted potential but the ending really saved it for me so watch this when you have a heard time falling asleep as it helps you do just that, and when you need some warmth for your heart
Also Seo In Guk's eyes are so sexy, no homo
FYI this is just my personal opinion and in no way am i hating on it, this is more about being disappointed at not being able to enjoy something you look forward to
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I’d risk it all for Seo In Guk
The premise was really intriguing but the execution was surprisingly quite lacking. They kept reusing the same conversations and plot points over and over again to fill 16 episodes. They’re together, they’re separated, they’re together again yadayadayada. But the family was really cute and there were a lot of funny moments and Seo In Guk looked sooooooooooooo good in this I might unalive myself because of it. No seriously, i could write paragraphs about how good he looks. The ever changing blue-grayish hair and his arrogant attitude and the mole under his eye alskdfjadslkjgh!!! He is so fine, he is so scrumdidilyumptious, man of my dreams truly. So I guess that’s another point against this show because yes the FL was dealing with a lot and the fact that he was Doom and kind of scary may have played a part, but the fact that she wasn’t all over him from the beginning is very unrealistic imo. That’s all. If you’re patient and don’t mind dragging plot lines and are attracted to immortal a-holes that are softies in love then I would still recommend it.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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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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Levei uma eternidade para concluir este drama. Não exatamente pela história ser ruim, mas por trazer o tema da morte eminente da protagonista. A finitude, apesar de fazer parte da vida não é um tema que encaramos com leveza, encaramos sempre com pesar, especialmente se você pessoalmente lidou com a perda de uma pessoa próxima para o câncer.Apesar de no fundo saber que de alguma forma mágica/sobrenatural a protagonista seria curada, passamos o drama todo com ela lidando com a morte eminente, se despedindo das pessoas e se apaixonando pela "Desgraça".
No final, como previa, a protagonista consegue sobreviver graças ao sacrifício da Desgraça. E graças a este sacrifício, ele recebe como dadiva se tornar humano e viver o seu amor. É bonito, considerando as circunstâncias em que os dois se conheceram, ambos querendo acabar com o mundo. É um drama lento, mas com final satisfatório.
Com relação aos personagens secundários, sinceramente, achei bem chatinha a história do triângulo amoroso entre a amiga da protagonistas e os dois amigos.
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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 with cheater boyfriend, evil boss and terminally ill. Literally nothing was left out 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 completed it 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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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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