Daily Dose of Sunshine : The Case of 12 Episodes Vs 6 Episodes Series

Recently released on Netflix, Daily Dose of Sunshine revolves around the story of Jung Da-Eun, a nurse who recently transferred from the internal medicine to neuropsychiatry department. While working at internal medicine, Da-Eun was considered quite a nuisance and slow to her co-workers. As a nurse in internal medicine, she was also seen as “too kind”. While transferring to neuropsychiatry, her kindness could be a double-edged sword as she navigates the fascinating world of people who deal with mental challenges. There are 12 episodes in this series and it is based on a webtoon titled 정신병동에도 아침이 와요. This series is also directed by the same All Of Us Are Dead director, Lee Jae Kyu. Since its release, this series has been on the top 5 list in Netflix Indonesia which indicates that a lot of people in the country are taking an interest in this series. Now, as the title suggests, I have been wanting to discuss 12 episodes vs 6 episodes series especially in South Korean production. Should Daily Dose of Sunshine be shorter than 12 episodes or was 12 episodes justified for the story and pacing? Let’s dive into that!

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In the first episode, we’ll be taken into an introduction of the characters. Jung Da-Eun (Park Bo-Young) was seen getting into a mental ward and was about to start her first day at the new department. Inside the department, there are some nurse staff as well as the potential love interest of the main character, Dong Go-Yun, a proctology doctor who went to the psychiatry ward to get an assessment of his alleged OCD. In the first episode, we will also be introduced to the first case: Bipolar disorder.

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In the second and all the following episodes, while still tying the story to bipolar disorder, we are also introduced to the many facets of mental challenges. It attempts to portray that people from all-walksof- life are also susceptible to it. At the same time, we are also shown that the caregiver/nurse such as Dae-Eun is also not an exception. While navigating her depression, we are shown how important it is to have a strong support system as well as the willingness to recover. The story is quite slow paced in that each episode contains two stories that intertwine and attempt to find its resolution. While it’s good that we’re given different examples of mental illnesses, I personally think 12 episodes was quite too much as some story could have been cramped into one episode along with its resolution. While the pros of 12 episodes, the character development is a lot better, it could feel quite boring to watch similar events unfold and the pacing was rather slow.

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The story could have been a 6 episodes series from the start when Dae-Eun moves to the department, introducing a few mental health challenges, to perhaps episode 4 where Dae-Eun struggles with depression and eventually recovers from it. But I suppose, they want to cover as many cases as possible, which is why they’re doing 12 episodes instead of 6.

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The cons of longer episodes is that introducing more characters is often not necessary causing the focus to stray from the main character if it's not done well. In this series case, I think the dash of triangle love as well as too many cases sort of stray from its main protagonist which is Dae-Eun. A lot of South Korean series that are longer tend to fall flat in the middle while those with shorter series possess more anticipation and have a room for expanding it to season 2 which to be fair, in terms of business, it could be good.

The shorter series such as D.P, Home Sweet Home, The Nurse Files, all have a few protagonists and storyline that are quite solid. Despite only having shorter episodes, it was packed enough to fit in a whole frame of plot, character development and resolution of the conflict to the audience. Although one of the shorter series is that more often than not, the second episode quality tends to be lower than the first one. It sort of ruins the experience as often we have to wait a few years before the next season comes.

In the case of Daily Dose of Sunshine, I would suggest watching it if you’re interested in a series that talks about mental health challenges. It asks us to be more empathetic and learn from people who are suffering that a lot of us can be in the same situation all of sudden. While there is a mix of balance between veteran actors and rookie actors, the overall acting was quite okay. The character development, storyline as well as the resolution of the conflict are still worth following. I definitely suggest checking out this one among the recent release on Netflix.

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𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢 & 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘳 . 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨, 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯! 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰.


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Haha I've also felt that way in one series I saw some time ago, it was way too long like they were beating around the bush for too long, wasting viewers time 😅

I read a review on this series some minutes ago, I'll feel left out if I don't see it soon enough... Even though you gave enough reasons for the series to have been shorter, I'm glad it isn't more than 12 episodes 🤣 let me go add it to my watch list. Thanks for sharing!

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Right? not a lot of series are actually worthy of 12 episodes. I am sure people are watching it because it's the shiny new series on Netflix. I am re-subbing just because Sweet Home 2 is going to be released and I don't want to feel left out haha.

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Haha I haven't see Sweet Home, I guess it's an interesting one since you're getting ready for the next season hehe

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In the case of Daily Dose of Sunshine, I would suggest watching it if you’re interested in a series that talks about mental health challenges

I think I haven't seen such a series about mental health before, with that being said, I am going to check it out.

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There are a few dramas with that but usually pretty subtle compared to that one.

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