Doona!

There was a lot of comments when the trailers came out that this was going to be female version of Nevertheless. Well let me tell you that it is not. Not in the slightest.

This series tells you the story about the trauma of a kpop idol who is completely lost and broken, and who finds herself relying on the sweet care and innocent feelings of a young boy living in the same dorm house she is hiding in.

The drama has a straightforward story with well written and complex characters. The more you watch the more about their past you will unearth, and the more of their layers you will uncover. They have an spectacular growth and development and it is truly amazing to watch. How they make mistakes, they regret them, learn from them and heal with the love they give each other.

It was very exciting to me to watch Yang Se Jong after his comeback, he is an amazing actor and he was fantastic in this role, specially in the emotional scenes. He carried the series. I also need to mention that he plays a very shy, inexperienced, crazy in love 20 year old boy, when in reality he is a 30 year old man. Just outstanding.( the difference when we saw him playing My Country: The new Age!!)

Chemistry between him and Bae Suzy was good enough, although I didn't think the skin-ship ( kisses, hugs etc...) in this was as natural and organic as I would have expected from such experienced cast and high quality production, not sure if it was done on purpose for the aesthetics of the drama but it felt staged and a bit fake. But I am used to this already in asian dramas so it might have been because of censorship and all that.

Secondary characters and couples were also fantastic and entertaining . The second female lead had also a very amazing subplot, watching her story with the male lead you were left wanting to know more about them and for a moment you actually rooted for them to become happy forever and ever. Such endearing but bittersweet story.

Overall it was a very enjoyable watch , perfect to binge during a rainy weekend. You won't regret it.

"Be careful when you're alone in a crowd. It's obvious."

"What do you mean? What's obvious?"

"Your loneliness."

Doona! Wasn't what I expected it to be, instead, it was much better. It was somber, mature, and it featured realistic dialogues.

"Your desperation to be loved, to try to compensate for never having it. You're afraid of losing people's interest."

I think Suzy did a good job portraying a female character as complex as Doona; a compulsive, miserable, and highly irresistible washed-up popstar desperate for love and attention driven by her abandonment issues.

"I wanna know what goes on in that mind of yours."

If you're looking for the usual fluffy Korean drama with feel good romance, skip this one. But if you want a more subtle and slow burn story with heartfelt confrontation scenes, go watch Doona.

This is an artistic series, not a crowd pleaser. The characters are very well defined, however, the most impressive part is the psychology of the K-pop idol. The series tries to make everyone understand what the difficulties of being a k-pop (or k-drama actor/actress, whatsoever) star in plenty of cases really are. I loved the miniseries to bits. It fits perfectly to my idea of romanticism as well as the idea of realism. To be a star, in all languages and on all meridians doesn't mean necessarily happiness. It may; but it may not. I am from Canada, but I really appreciate k-dramas. However, watching the weddings of some k-stars (Jang Na-Ra, Kang So-Ra, for example) and the fact that the non-celebrity spouse's face is hidden, most of them cannot really have girlfriends/boyfriends while young and working in this business, made me think a lot about the traumatizing life of idols. The movie is nice, but also realistic, doesn't matter what the others say. Plenty of people will complain about the ending :)) There is no other real possible ending! I strongly recommend it! It's beautiful, romantic and realistic.

Jung Hyo Lee's previous series, "Crash landing on You" is the best series I've ever seen.

Sorry. Make that, "Was the best series I've ever seen". Simply put, Doona! Is a masterpiece.

Mr Jung's work on Crash Landing on You was pitch perfect but here he spreads his creative wings and the result is both breathtaking and heart breaking, whilst still exhibiting his ability to engage you so wholly with the characters that you feel every bump along their various roads. And, trust me, Doona! Is a bumpy ride like a rollercoaster on a gravel road. Steel yourself...

The cinematography is courageous and beautiful. The editing is superb. Sorry to (and for) those who like things to rocket along at video game speed but the pacing here is slow and with a purpose, gradually gripping your heart with each passing minute until you struggle for breath. For instance, the scenes when Won Joon visits his family are almost silent and seemingly without drama of any kind yet make you feel like a weight is being slowly lowered onto your chest.

Bae Suzy turns in a performance for the ages as the dehumanised ex-pop idol, Lee Doona. Repeatedly used and discarded by those for whom she is but chattel, Doona has been driven to the depths of humanity, showing signs of bipolar disorder and brought back from the brink by an unlikely relationship with Lee Won Joon, her opposite in almost every way and played with studious seriousness by Yang Se-Jong.

Ms Bae's ability to walk the line between joy and depression, hope and desperation, selfless love and narcissism is almost unfathomable and perhaps the reason so many reviewers have given up the series within an episode or two, pointing the finger squarely at a main character they feel is one dimensional. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some people lack the patience or emotional maturity to stay the course as the character is revealed, layer upon layer.

No spoilers here; Doona's story is tragic, regardless of how the ending plays out. A week on and I'm still woken by flashbacks, whether it be mid-series moments or the final frame. Part of me wants to watch this over and over again, while part of me lies balled up and rocking but, despite the gut-wrenching heartache I feel now, I want to go again.

Doona (Bae Suzy) is the front icon of an idol group, when she has a breakdown and drops out. She moves into a small rental complex where the other tenants are college students. Lee Won-joon (Yang Se-jong) also moves into the house.

Doona is a seeker, an insecure soul, self-destructive, unreliable and driven by impulse. Won-joon is cautious, controlled, and tied down. They are each other's opposites, but coincidences cause them to develop a fragile friendship and a mutual dependence on each other.

The plot is subordinate in this fine-tuned little gem where the actors get to excel in low-key portraits of two people who meet and become each other's lifeblood but also their greatest weakness, who challenge the other's self-image and shake up what they thought they knew about themselves, their life choices and their dreams.

Anyone looking for an easy-to-digest k-drama will be disappointed. It's low key, serious, slow and wistful. It is real and painful. The photography is fantastic, the soundtrack well chosen. The interaction is exquisite between Bae Suzy, who gives her (in my opinion) best performance, and the absolutely magnificent Yang Se-jong, who's performance goes straight to the heart.

This is the best I've seen this year. Possibly it could have benefited from a few more episodes, to deepen the characters' backstories somewhat, but that's just a small note in the margin. The ending is unexpected and can be interpreted in several ways, which is quite unusual in Korean series I've seen.

If you enjoyed My Liberation Notes, Our Blues and Nevertheless, this series is for you. I give it 9.5 out of 10 wistful hearts.