Dr. Brain

Presentation

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Analysis

Synopsis

Ko Se Won is a genius child who has a very different brain structure from other kids of his age. After his mother dies in a car accident, he is adopted by a doctor and becomes a brain scientist. He works on a project that aims at connecting brains together. So, when his son mysteriously dies in a fire and his wife commits suicide shortly after, he decides to investigate the cases using his technology.

My Opinion (No Spoiler)

Based on the successful webtoon of the same name, I was a bit worried that the drama wouldn’t live up to my expectations. The theme is rather complex (we are talking about science, experiments and memories) and the number of episodes short (only 6 episodes). However, I was really satisfied with the drama. The short format was actually perfectly adapted to the length and pace of the narrative, the twists well explained and the overall atmosphere in perfect accord with the plot.

If you like science, mystery, thriller and you only have a short amount of time to watch dramas, this Apple TV+ show will certainly please you!

Analysis (Spoiler Alert)

Characters: I really think that characters here don’t make the intrigue and the drama. What I mean is that their personalities and complexities are relayed to the background in order to let the investigation take the stage. So, instead of having grey characters all over the place, who struggle to find the truth and fight for what they believe in, the drama presents us a broad spectrum of humanity. Indeed, it seems like each and every character in Dr. Brain embodies a specific trait of human nature, from righteous individuals to evil ones. Only the hero Ko Se Won (Lee Sun Kyun) is able to switch from one side of the spectrum to the other thanks to science and his newly-developed technology.

As part of the good side of the spectrum, we can quote: detective Choi Soo Seok (Seo Ji Hye), who is probably the most honest and righteous of all. Indeed, she believes Se Won and tries to help him, even if it means that she has to take a leap of faith and trust in his non-sensical words and unknown machine. Despite that, she has at heart the will to rescue Do Yoon, Se Won’s son, and put an end to whatever is going on with the doctors working underground. On that same side of the spectrum stood Sergeant Park (Jo Bok Rae) who was killed while trying to save someone else.

On the evil side of the humanity spectrum, you have naturally Dr. Myung Tae Seok (Moon Sung Geun), who also happens to be Se Won’s adoptive father. Dr. Myung is followed by a range of other doctors from Saera Children’s Clinic and BC Center, such as Dr. Hyun Soo Jung (Lee El). However, these followers can be considered a level below Dr. Myung, as they seem to be completely brainwashed by his ideas. It is as if they were followers of a cult guru.
Moreover, other characters should be mentioned on this side such as Secretary Yoon (Yoo Teo) and the professional killers, especially The Fixer (Lee Joo Won). They are willing to kill whomever stands in their way. The only difference we can make here between these evil individuals is their motivation: Dr. Myung seeks immortality, the other doctors are in search for an incredible scientific breakthrough, Secretary Yoon wants to acquire money and power, while the Fixer is only interesting in money. All in all, they follow their greed which later on leads to their respective fall/death.

In the middle and at different levels again, you will find Se Won’s wife Yoo Jae Yi (Lee Yoo Young), detective Lee Kang Mu (Park Hee Soon) and Assistant Hong Nam Gil (Lee Jae Won). They all are in the grey area because some of their actions are questionable but in the end, their means justify the positive end. Indeed, Lee Kang Mu may apply illegal methods to have some information on Se Won, but that is only because he is looking for the truth. He even dies for it and as part of Se Won’s memory continues to look for it by helping the doctor find clues.

Yoo Jae Yi only wishes but one thing: to find her son whom she knows is still alive. She loves him more than anything. However, she still had an affair with another man, so she can’t really be considered an entirely positive character. Still, just like Lee Kang Mu, she sacrifices herself for the sake of her son.

Finally, Hong Nam Gil is from the get-go an honest person. Yet, he is somehow corrupted and manipulated by his fellow doctors, which leads him to betray his friend Se Won and to leak crucial information about his technology. All of this resulting in Se Won’s son being abducted. Even though Nam Gil’s story doesn’t start on the right foot, he eventually redeems himself. Indeed, he switches sides and chooses to stand up against his former colleagues. Without him, by the way, I don’t think Se Won would’ve been able to stop anyone. Just like the two previous characters, Nam Gil also sacrifices something in order to help Do Yoon: he compromises his mother’s safety (who is tortured at some point) and his own.

The only character who manages to live through all of those levels of the humanity spectrum is Ko Se Won. Before his brain syncs, he is actually a cold, distant and selfish individual, incapable of feeling emotions. That’s part of the reason why his wife finds refuge in another man’s arms. He remains totally stoical as well, when he learns about his son’s death and wife’s suicide. Moreover, he doesn’t care about people and the harm he can inflict on them. He is only interesting in developing his machine.

However, as soon as the brain syncs start, other people’s memories, and their emotions therein, start to flow and overtake Se Won’s own memories. Thanks to that, he is able to understand his wife’s love for her son and resentment towards him, he feels his wife’s lover affection towards her and becomes gradually more human. He changes to the point that he is willing to forgive his adoptive father at the end and to sacrifice himself for his son. A beautiful transformation for Se Won in the end, who has succeeded in becoming a bit more like the others.

Atmosphere: Even if the drama is made up of only 6 episodes, it still contains all the ingredients to make viewers scared, stressed and thrilled. Dr. Brain is a clever mix of genres (thriller, crime, horror sometimes with the memories, a little bit of science fiction, mystery) that give to the drama this particular and appreciable taste. Indeed, it enables the intrigue to develop fast over the 6 episodes and to introduce some amazing twists (like the fact that Lee Kang Mu is actually not real but a memory stuck in Se Won’s brain).

What are the themes tackled?

Reflection on science and its misuses: Dr. Brain, like other dramas before it (L.U.C.A.: The Beginning; Beautiful Mind), offer an interesting reflection on science, its limits and misuses that can lead to dire consequences.

For starters, Se Won’s technology, like any other tech of that sort, is aimed at helping others. The goal is to sync your brain with people in the coma and/or who can’t speak for example, in order to know what is going on in their head and help them eventually. It could also be a handful communication device if well used. Unfortunately, this type of devices often becomes a threat for people instead of a help. Entering and controlling someone else’s mind is too tempting not to try it. Therefore, other greedy people (the other doctors) steal Se Won’s technology and use it in their own interests: for Dr. Myung it is to become immortal and to live in Do Yoon’s brain.

This drama makes us seriously ponder about science and its drifts. As human, how far can we go in the manipulation of our brain and others’? Should we try to sync with people’s brains in the first place when we have no idea of how it can all go wrong? What about privacy, intimacy, personal thoughts? By doing brain sync, are we not infringing on what’s completely personal? Even the drama shows the main problem of such a technology: through the brain sync, Ko Se Won’s personality is changing. He is incorporating others’ qualities, traits and emotions to his own self; changing thereby who he truly is. Isn’t that a greater danger: losing oneself, disappearing for the profit of someone else? (By the way, this is exactly what Dr. Myung wants to do with Do Yoon: erase him to take his place in his own body).

If we push the reflection one step further, we can even say that in the hands of the wrong people, the machine would become a weapon, enabling the rich and powerful to live forever and/or to get rid of their rivals/enemies by simply erasing them. Is it all worth it? We don’t have the answer but at least questioning science is worth the try!

Diving up into that new technology and its consequences, we can weigh the pros and cons depending on the story depicted in the drama. Indeed, it is not all black or white, especially with scientific research.

Positive effects: On the positive side of it, the device enables Se Won to learn emotions and increase his emotional quotient. This leads to him reconciling with his wife and feeling more love towards his son. Thus, he becomes a better father, but also a better son towards his adoptive father. Indeed, he now understands his motivations and knows that Dr. Myung loved him at some point. At the intrigue level, the device is very useful for Se Won, as it provides him with new clues regarding the investigation. On top of that, he is able to get out of dangers several times thanks to the reflexes he acquired by syncing with a cat. Without his device, it is almost certain that Se Won wouldn’t have found his son on time.

Negative effects: Now, on the negative part of the technology, we have to take into account human greed, scientist’s craziness and obsession with breakthroughs, disrespect for human beings and human life, as they kidnap Do Yoon and other children, test their tech on homeless people, erase the human part of them. In a nutshell, they treat other human beings as lab mice. Not so nice indeed!

Ending: I am really hoping there will be a second season, especially because the drama ends with a cliffhanger. At the end, Se Won has managed to save his son. He also destroyed Dr. Myung in his brain and fled his collapsing consciousness right on time. As we think it is all over, well not quite. In the last scene, Se Won sees the ghost of Dr. Myung, who somehow has planted a seed of himself in Se Won’s brain.

So Dr. Myung managed to stay immortal in the end, by living in Se Won’s brain. However, Se Won still has the upper hand and his personality is not erased yet. This can only mean one thing: there will definitely be a power struggle in Se Won’s brain if there is a season 2!