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Camelot

New York

Camelot

New York
Doom at Your Service korean drama review
Completed
Doom at Your Service
1 people found this review helpful
by Camelot
Dec 21, 2021
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 6.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
The pairing of Park Bo Young and Seo In Guk seemed like a dream when this drama was announced. She is sugar-sweet and cute as a button. He looks long-suffering and brooding even at his happiest. They're both amazing actors! The description sounded great too. Reminiscent of some of the best fantasy kdramas in the industry; Goblin, Hwayugi, Hotel del Luna, and Tale of the Nine-Tailed all come to mind. The plot was straightforward: a girl diagnosed with a brain tumor wishes for the end of the world and Doom answers her call. And yet...Doom at Your Service is lackluster at best.

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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