“Every masculine gender of the Republic of Korea shall faithfully perform mandatory military service, as prescribed by the Constitution of the Republic of Korea and this Act.” Those exact words taken from the "Military Service Act" Article 3 were shown at the beginning of every single episode of D.P. Derived from the law mentioned, every single man in South Korea are obligated to perform a mandatory military service (with exceptions) for an estimated 2 years in length. The law has been globally infamous along with the surge of Hallyu wave throughout the world. However, have non South Korean people ever think about the meticulous events happened during the service? Although D.P. is pretty much fictional, the series allowed viewers to have a glimpse of life that was rather under publicized during the service.

Within the span of only 6 episodes running from 45-55 minutes each, D.P. was mainly carried by the main duo: Ahn Junho and Han Hoyeol. Both of them showed an alluring bond despite their quite far off characters on each other. Junho was always portrayed as the serious, observant, and strategic one while Hoyeol topped him off by the goofy, open, and playful persona. Though with this short time span, the series doesn’t offer much characters yet some still left remarkable points: Sergeant Park’s upright nature, Captain Im’s comic persona, some harsh military seniors, and some struggling military juniors. However, the silver lining in D.P. was not coated in its characters. It was the plot that needed to be taken more earnestly.

Set in 2014, D.P. focused on deserted soldiers and the clues that might be left behind in order to brought them back. A detective-like mission has always been a point of interest in many types of series. Nevertheless, the Netflix series distinguishes itself among other kdramas due to its rattling back stories, centered in bullying/hierarchy system in the military. By deploying strong foregrounds, D.P. criticizes not only the South Korean military but also army in general. As a matter of fact, the ingrained seniority has always been an issue in any country’s military forces. Although, such matters never seen much light of day as they were continuously debunked in order to protect the country’s military reputation.

The bullying-centered stories may be vicariously triggering to the viewers as they depict rigorous stories realistically. Actually, the root of the problems are all based on the diverse humane characteristics. However, not everyone can tolerate them especially when it comes to an unaccommodating environment like the military. A loud sleeper, a geek by nature, or just being considered plainly new are some of the intolerable “red flags” according to D.P. Thus, making all of the victims getting consequences—being mentally or physically abused. The bullying took its toll, leading to pivotal character shifts (fleeing, going insane, and even led to suicidal). Though I would like to point out that in D.P., the act did not completely take its toll through physical abuse—compared to the real hazing death victims reported through several news outlet back through 2011-2017. The seniority/hierarchy system in D.P. did not just stop among the private/corporal/lower tier of the military but also the higher ups. The series convey an ironic decision-making situation toward the end that dispatched a disheartening message.

Departing from the daunting stories, D.P. also manages to offer a more humane foreground throughout the series. The episode “Monty Hall Problem” was cleverly written with a probabilistic/mathematics-related premise delivered with real-life implementation. Not only it provided a slight change of pace throughout the series, but also provided a new perspective on fleeing the military. On the other hand, it is also a human behavior to be irresponsible and just simply miss the feeling of being “liberated” — depicted on “That Woman” episode.

Altogether, human acted out on any aspects in life due to the consequences that are currently happening around them, including the men during conscriptions. It is undeniably true that hazing is still happening throughout the military community and beyond. Nevertheless, D.P. critiqued the phenomenon in a compact, cinematic, and epic path.