Dr. Brain, a new six-episode drama from writer-director Kim Jee-woon, is Apple TV+’s first South Korean series, and it’s a curious combination of glorious, terrifying genre storytelling with the plodding dramatic rhythms familiar from many other Apple TV+ hour-long series. The titular Dr. Brain is Sewon, a neuroscientist with autism who struggles to cope with the tragic loss of his young son. Sewon, played by Parasite’s Lee Sun-kyun, launches himself into a half-noir, half-horror story when he invents a machine that syncs brain waves, enabling a recipient to absorb the memories of a deceased donor. Unsurprisingly, Sewon elects to use the machine on himself, giving him clues to solve the mystery of what happened to his son.Dr. Brain Season 1 Download
The premise is absolutely absurd — like a Frankenstein where the doctor uses himself to make the monster, and also a bit like a hyperserious iteration of the American CW series iZombie — and the best moments of Dr. Brain are when it registers that intense weirdness. It is a dark, heavy series, and with a scant few exceptions, its inclination is never to lean into the goofiness of Sewon’s electric-sparking light-up brain-wave machine. Instead, Dr. Brain is strongest when Sewon’s experience of someone else’s brain twists into nightmarish horror spectacles. The anticipation as he puts the brain-wave cap on for the first time is excellent and the look of muted terror on Sewon’s face as he realizes what he’s done:
This is when Dr. Brain churns along at full power.What’s frustrating, though, is that too often Dr. Brain dodges the dark freakiness of its central idea and instead lingers on rote, slow-moving mystery plotting. Sewon’s journey through the surprising twists of his family’s past could be great — the pieces are all there! Several of the reveals are legitimately surprising, and with each one, there’s a surge of energy that makes you hopeful the series will start operating at a slightly faster pace. But few of the supporting characters have as much energy or detail behind them as Sewon. It’d be especially helpful, for instance, if Jiun (Seo Ji-hye), the police lieutenant investigating the case, were more of an interesting foil for Sewon. Sewon’s co-worker Namil (Lee Jae-won) could also be a more effective check on Sewon’s clearly dubious decision-making.
