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Mixed Feelings

I am a big fan of anything Park Bo Young does, but I hesitated to watch Daily Dose of Sunshine on Netflix, as it's a story about a nurse who transfers to a psychiatric unit, which is the role Bo Young plays. I don't like these kinds of series because I'm not a fan of mental disorder drama as entertainment. It also starred Yeon Woo-jin as a doctor with a mild case of OCD as the male lead, but I still haven't quite recovered from watching My Shy Boss, the last thing I saw him (that series really upset me by how it handled the entire concept of being shy.) Still, I'm always willing to give potentially problematic shows a one-episode watch to see if I'm wrong, so I watched it and decided to give it a go.

It's a well-acted and interesting series, and I think all the actors did a stellar job with their roles, especially Woo-jin, who had a particularly tough characterization to act. He made it work. The patients and staff go through fairly limited situations drama-wise, as you really can't show people what actually goes on in a psychiatric unit (trust me, you don't want to know.) Park Bo Young's challenge was to make the lead female character realistic, and I think she did a pretty good job with it.

Where I get into the realm of mixed feelings is the storyline itself. Yes, I think psychiatric nurses are probably one of the most hard-working and yet entirely unappreciated medical professionals out there (pediatric oncology nurses are another bunch who don't get the recognition they deserve.) Showing what they have to deal with to treat their patients is important so that people understand -- especially anyone thinking of working in this field. Yet I still don't find any of that entertaining. For me the series was often intensely depressing, especially when everything that happens is completely understandable and realistic and yet drags on and on and on. I wish they had devoted at least as much time to the romance (which is like a blip) as they did the lead female's major conflict.

Anyway, if you like this kind of series then it's probably the best I've seen in psychiatric drama, but don't watch it when you're depressed. Also there are many, many triggers in this series that could be hard for folks dealing with their own challenges to handle, including suicide, self-harm and several personality disorders that are realistically acted out. Available on Netflix.

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