Doril
A Well-Balanced Romantic Show About Family and Community with a Side of Crime
This show is delightfully unique. At its core, you have a typical Kdrama, featuring a traditional love story that explores family values and community loyalty. And then, the show successfully embellishes these themes with some unconventional twists, such as featuring a single mother and a main plot about a criminal that is surprisingly well-done for a show whose main focus is love.
The main story line and plot is relatively straightforward, yet it had me binging the series until I was done. Basically, you just have a mother who is struggling to carve out a life for herself and her son in a small town where everyone knows each other. And then, you add on some neighbors who ostensibly hate the main female lead, an annoyingly persistent policeman love interest, a former love interest, some side characters, and an unsolved mystery about a killer. Although it sounds like a mess, the pacing is so-on-point and plots are weaved together seamlessly. You may find an episode that is completely focused on one character, and yet all the other relationships and storylines are developed at the same time within that episode. I was really impressed at how clean the overall thematic feel of the show was.
I had some minor gripes that were blips that didn't decrease my enjoyment of the show, but were noticeable flaws for me: there are certain scenes where characters make some obviously dumb choices and walk into clearly dangerous situations that is similar to how a lead in a horror movie might intentionally walk into a dark room for no good reason. I found the male lead to be overly perfect sometimes: he has an unrelenting stubbornness that may be romantic but also took me out of the story sometimes because the characterization was just too perfect and unlike any person you would see in real life. I also found the female lead to be a tad annoying at times: she's struggling to be strong, yet there are a LOT of scenes where she is simply just crying.
However, the pros far outweigh the cons. Definitely give this one a watch: you can see why it won several Baeksang awards, including the grand prize.
The main story line and plot is relatively straightforward, yet it had me binging the series until I was done. Basically, you just have a mother who is struggling to carve out a life for herself and her son in a small town where everyone knows each other. And then, you add on some neighbors who ostensibly hate the main female lead, an annoyingly persistent policeman love interest, a former love interest, some side characters, and an unsolved mystery about a killer. Although it sounds like a mess, the pacing is so-on-point and plots are weaved together seamlessly. You may find an episode that is completely focused on one character, and yet all the other relationships and storylines are developed at the same time within that episode. I was really impressed at how clean the overall thematic feel of the show was.
I had some minor gripes that were blips that didn't decrease my enjoyment of the show, but were noticeable flaws for me: there are certain scenes where characters make some obviously dumb choices and walk into clearly dangerous situations that is similar to how a lead in a horror movie might intentionally walk into a dark room for no good reason. I found the male lead to be overly perfect sometimes: he has an unrelenting stubbornness that may be romantic but also took me out of the story sometimes because the characterization was just too perfect and unlike any person you would see in real life. I also found the female lead to be a tad annoying at times: she's struggling to be strong, yet there are a LOT of scenes where she is simply just crying.
However, the pros far outweigh the cons. Definitely give this one a watch: you can see why it won several Baeksang awards, including the grand prize.
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