Apple’s Dr. Brain is a daring, genre-bending thriller

Although Dr. Brain stumbles via its world-building at occasions, there’s something deeply daring and profoundly formidable on this first Korean authentic sequence on Apple TV Plus. Dr. Brain takes off as a six-episode thriller starring Lee Sun-kyun (of Parasite fame) as neuroscientist Dr. Koh Se-won. It’s an encouraging begin for the streamer’s Korean debut, although the present doesn’t fairly ship on the promise of its fascinating premise and glorious forged.

We are first launched to Dr. Koh as a younger child on the autism spectrum, struggling to grasp feelings and relate to others. He is sadly labeled as an issue baby at school, which turns into an infinite burden for his single mom. Bringing him to docs, the (exorbitant) remedies supplied don’t fairly appear to work the best way she hopes for. Growing up with a propensity to “take things apart to see what is inside,” Dr. Koh dives into mind analysis, which permits him to review the human thoughts and get a glimpse of how others expertise the world. Presenting his analysis and experiments at conferences, he’s portrayed as a comparatively profitable scientist — albeit one whose concepts are unsettling to his friends. This introduction then takes a darkish, abrupt flip as Dr. Koh suffers a sequence of horrific private tragedies in fast succession. Increasingly determined to unearth what occurred, he personally checks his analysis by present process “brain syncs” with the useless to pry open their recollections for clues.

Dr. Brain is a genre-bending piece of labor, dancing between crime thriller, science fiction, and, most poignantly, a household drama. The sequence’ finest work is in its portrait of grief, sketching Dr. Koh’s non-public moments as ones of anguish and gradual reckoning together with his personal flaws and missteps. There is a saying in academia that every one analysis is in some half autobiographical and this rings true for Dr. Koh. His “brain sync” analysis turns into each a type of mourning and a sort of looking out, as he realizes that there’s something extra sinister behind the tragedies.

Lee Sun-kyun delivers an appropriately reserved efficiency, getting the stability excellent between enjoying an aloof neuroscientist and a traumatized, bereaved man searching for solutions. His colleague, Dr. Hong Nam-il (Lee Jae-won), blossoms over the sequence, portraying a depth of character that far outdoes what the script affords him. As police officer Lieutenant Choi, Seo Ji-hye (from the immensely fashionable Crash Landing On You) affords a refreshing steadiness all through the sequence.

There are unshakeable marks of Inception echoing via the six episodes, as characters wander via altered realities and layers of consciousness. Dr. Brain is most intriguing when its characters are not sure whether or not different folks they’re seeing are actual or figments from a glitchy mind sync. Although the present fumbles via the main points of the mind sync mechanism, the central story of Dr. Koh’s seek for reality and redemption is resoundingly coherent. Which makes it all of the extra disappointing that the extra philosophical explorations in Dr. Brain — on neurodiversity, ethics in mind analysis, and the idea of the self — are half-baked. Additionally, its remedy of feminine characters feels disconcertingly underdeveloped. They’re usually left with little company, abruptly enter and exit the narrative, and are in the end relegated as untidy footnotes. With its uneven tempo over six episodes, there’s a gnawing sense that Dr. Brain may have been actually nice if its supporting characters and theories have been extra deeply fleshed out.

For instance, although it by no means examines this absolutely, Dr. Brain hints at among the most complicated ethical dilemmas in expertise that we’re actually solely starting to really interrogate. It is gravely disturbing to see Dr. Koh lurking across the morgue to discover a corpse to check out his mind sync expertise or hook himself up with a cat (!!) within the title of (hopefully) fixing against the law. There is a effective stability between being a person of expertise and being utilized by expertise. Here is the place the idea of mind syncs within the present carries some real-life parallels. How a lot of ourselves can we share by way of expertise — and can we even have management over what and the way a lot is shared? What does privateness imply on this digital age? Can the strategies of technological development be justified so long as the outcomes are “good”?

These questions are all of the extra poignant given the truth that the present is backed by one of many greatest expertise firms on the planet. There is maybe a meta-critique right here someplace in regards to the relationship between Apple and its customers and whether or not our lives have actually been made higher by its merchandise. Perhaps the conclusion that the present affords us is one in every of cussed ambivalence towards expertise: Dr. Koh’s use of mind sync expertise (considerably mockingly) permits him to expertise the richness of life, in all of its feelings, joys and sorrows, greater than he ever may with out it. Yet, this comes at a value. He generally suffers from an data overload and his character adjustments when actuality and expertise begin to blur.

Seasoned writer-director Kim Jee-woon has helmed critically acclaimed Korean classics like The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008) and Korea’s first Warner Brothers-funded movie The Age of Shadows (2016). There are flashes of brilliance all through the sequence, significantly in its seamless, well-timed use of flashbacks — a storytelling instrument that too usually feels abused these days. On one degree, his smooth transitions between previous and current fittingly seize the unsettled thoughts of Dr. Koh. On one other, these shifts in time present an absorbingly suspenseful expertise for the viewer, particularly in the previous few episodes. This works within the present’s favor, as Apple TV Plus will drop episodes of Dr. Brain one after the other, weekly via December tenth.

Based on the favored Korean webtoon of the identical title, Dr. Brain premiered on November 4th, coinciding with Apple TV Plus’ launch within the Korean market. Though Dr. Brain may really feel like a gradual begin for Apple, it’s maybe useful to keep in mind that not too way back, Netflix debuted its first Korean authentic sequence Love Alarm to reasonably disappointing, less-than-illustrious evaluations. However, the platform has since developed a prolific portfolio of Korean reveals profitable each crucial and industrial acclaim, most notably with the breakout success of Squid Game. Despite its shortcomings, Dr. Brain affords a promising, hopeful glimpse of Apple TV Plus’ imaginative and prescient for its future initiatives in Korea and a veritable problem to different streamers available in the market.