Impressive Drama on Mortality, Love, and Redemption

Some TV shows can be passively watched, but others and DAYS I count among them require a more active participation to pay attention, maybe rewatch, in order to appreciate the layers of story, of meaning, offered to the viewer. In DAYS there are three main characters and three primary themes. There will be spoilers.

The main character, Tak, is a young woman who learns she has three months to live due to a terminal brain cancer. In frustration she wishes to end the world which catches the attention of Doom (aka the Devil) who pities himself immensely and uses a ‘loophole’ in the ‘rules’ governing creation to seize upon Tak’s wish to set up a contract with her to end the world which will also end himself (his goal) and bring about the end of his mother, God. However, God, who manifests as a young teen girl with a terminal heart disease, has a plan of her own.

The Devil covertly schemes, but his mother time and again goads him in her chosen directions, and it’s clear she has the upper hand with reminders such as “God always knows everything. She just pretends not to know.” Pay attention to this half a spoiler. Note from the early episodes the small clay flower pot that God is tending in her hospital room. Much later what this flower pot represents will be revealed and then the significance of its presence early on will redefine events and conversations throughout early episodes.

The first layer theme is that of the individual confronting their own mortality and the angst in not only their own end but the conflicts with friends and relatives left unresolved. In an early episode the Devil says to Tak, “All humans’ days are numbered. They only live forever until they realize it.” In the last episode Tak will repeat this exact wording back to the Devil. That most people avoid thinking about or confronting their own mortality will limit the appeal for some. The angst surrounding Tak’s end reminds me of a TV series Dead Like Me from 2003/4 but in that case the main character was a girl who died and became a grim reaper collecting souls near her family. Here Tak is contemplating her looming future death.

The second theme is that of the romantic entanglement that grows between Tak and the Devil. The Devil first takes Tak as an average human, but soon discovers she has a strength of will that he cannot break. In one of their early conflicts the Devil tells her, “That’s just what you are. The rock that happens to be closest to me when I wanted to throw one into the lake.” But God knows all so was it a coincidence that Tak was the rock who happened to be closest?

Resonating within this second theme is a sub arc involving two brothers and Tak’s ‘adoptive’ older sister who make up a love triangle. The romantic entanglements of these three contrast with the love between Tak and the Devil that gets lit and burns hot within a mere 100 days. The three humans who are ‘living forever’ dilly dally for 10 years before they resolve their entanglement and then that is accelerated in part due Tak.

The third theme is the redemption of darkness gone astray. The Devil has a love hate relationship with his mother. She goads and manipulates him into rebellious behavior. These conversations between God and the Devil are a fascinating part of the series. God shows up when Doom is absorbed in his self pity while Tak is in the hospital. God tells her son, “It’s good not to see her. It’s the right decision.” The Devil storms off in anger and God smiles and says: “A child grows up when they defy their parents. And love is lit up when it runs into hardships.”

This third theme brings to mind a Netflix TV series, Lucifer 2016/21, which also involved God (a father figure) who was estranged from his son, Lucifer, who rebelled and was consigned to Hell where he punished the damned. Among Lucifer’s powers is that he is sexually irresistible. He is also self centered and impulsive having spent much of his time fulfilling his every impulse. Lucifer rebels and leaves Hell for Los Angeles where he meets a female detective, who is the only human entirely immune to his powers. Complications ensue and he finds his redemption through his relationship with the detective, who it turns out was placed in his path via a miracle by his father in order to bring about his redemption. In DAYS there are many striking parallels as the teen God again and again is implicated in the developing relationship between Tak and her son, Doom, aka the Devil.

Some hopefully constructive observations.

The redemption arc with Doom could have been meaningfully steeper. For example a few early scenes or even one in which God says, “You made love to 10,000 women, but never loved any one of them.”

The intense love between Doom and Tak is surprising for its chasteness. Explicit sexuality isn’t necessary but at least some allusion to a bit more physical contact would have added to story texture.

Subtitles were about average. Given the potential foreign English speaking audience it is surprising that the creators don’t pay more attention to getting this aspect right. Even modest mistakes force viewers to reverse and reread. In DAYS case there was considerable confusion regarding the important distinction between would vs will / could vs can etc, some clumsy tense mistakes, and a few cases of incorrect negatives i.e. a missing negative.

The most grating annoyance was the injection of the Canadian Kevin character. Those gratuitous scenes were seriously painful to watch. The money would have been better spent hiring the Kevin actor to edit the subtitles and using a Korean character in Kevin’s role.

There were a few cases of excessive emotion expressed. For example, when the younger brother finds out his sister is terminal. I blame the director, and then this may be a cultural difference.

Fancy clothes - new change every outing - seems unlikely for a woman of her modest salary.

Oddly Doom is often shown holding cigarettes but never actually lighting and smoking them.

Lees verder