When it comes to modern television platforms, AppleTV+ seems determined to prove that less is more. In a medium long-dominated by episodic bloat, Apple’s has demonstrated a sustained preference for shorter seasons, even with its most popular comedies. And if you’re a fan of Korean cinema, it is this same approach that makes Apple TV+ such a fitting home for “Dr. Brain,” an economical new six-episode series from Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-woon (“I Saw The Devil,” “The Good, The Bad, The Weird“).
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Ever since he was a young boy, Sewon (Lee Sun-kyun) has been intrigued by the complexity of the human brain. Identified as neurodivergent in his youth, Sewon often struggled to connect with those around him, replaying the formative events of his life with picture-perfect recall and a complete lack of empathy. As an adult, Sewon has found a new use for his passions: he aims to perfect his pattern of brain syncing, a combination of thought transference and quantum entanglement that allows him to connect to the memories of the dead.
But as Sewon recklessly moves his research into human trials – with himself as the subject, of course – he soon learns that a secret world has been unfolding around him as he pursues his passions. Did Jaeyi (Lee Yoo-young), his grieving wife, turn to the arms of another man for comfort in the aftermath of their son’s death? Is Namil (Lee Jae-won), Sewon’s colleague and only defender within the office, making moves against his research? As Sewon sees his colleagues – and sometimes his actions – in a new light, he soon learns that his lifelong obsession has put all he knows in danger.
As befitting one of the preeminent directors of the Korean New Wave, the work of Kim Jee-woon (“The Age of Shadows,” “The Last Stand“) has always defied easy categorization. Kim has long charted a course between film genres; Film Comment once described the feel of his films as “taking place in carefully labeled Petri dishes,” with the director “peering down at his experiments from a distance.” And while “Dr. Brain” may start as a modern Prometheus story – cut from the same cloth as several high-concept science fiction thrillers of the past decade– the series soon begins to grow in strange directions under Kim’s watchful eye.
For a while, these concepts work hand-in-hand with the show’s ambitious narrative. In the second episode, Sewon learns that his frequent brain syncs cause him to adopt the skills and attributes of his subjects. He develops a taste for caffeine and alcohol – he even goes out for drinks with his colleagues for the first time since joining the research center – and begins to instinctively grasp objects with his left hand despite being a life-long righty. Sewon also extends his experiments to animals, peering through the mind of a neighborhood pet and developing a few not-unwelcome physical skills in the process.
A lot of the early fun of “Dr. Brain” is in watching Lee Sun-kyun unpack his character. In the first episode, Sewon is not much more than a collection of Hollywood autism stereotypes; the links between his unique brain structure and his treatment by those around him teeter on the line of exploitation. But as Sewon absorbs the thoughts and feelings and others, his very personality begins to change as well, allowing him to empathize more directly with both victims and survivors. Is this human evolution? Or the Ship of Theseus thought experiment at work? “Dr. Brain” might know, but it’s certainly not telling.
Here there is no shortage of interesting questions about life, death, and the boundaries of individual consciousness. It is a shame, then, when these elements of worldbuilding are rarely used to develop the actual texture of the world itself. The series suffers from “Inception” syndrome: it takes the illogical, unwaking mind and finds no quarter for the absurd. There are occasional flashes of inventive production design – in one standout sequence, a character is propelled backward into a conscious state, only to be subsumed by dark blood that manifests itself around her – but for as much as the series endearingly sticks to its half-baked logic, it proves unable to translate those same big swings to the production design or editing.
And as the season unfolds, the scope narrows, foregoing the broader sci-fi and horror implications for the more-standard assortment of family regrets and corporate misconduct. The sheer volume of ideas ensures that “Dr. Brain” never goes stale, but its best innovations are moved to the backburner as Sewon searches for his missing son. The most frustrating miss is in the treatment of Kangmu Lee (Park Hee-soon), the private investigator who eventually partners with Sewon on his search. What Kangmu knows – and how that information impacts Sewon – is an unplucked thread of enormous potential.
With a prestigious filmmaker in town and the kind of premise that makes “Black Mirror” fans swoon, “Dr. Brain” will find a willing audience among North American genre fans. But for a series predicated on the fantastical, there’s a sense that too much in “Dr. Brain” is meant to play it safe. The door appears cracked to continue Sewon’s story beyond the events of the first season. Here’s hoping that Lee and company find a dash of Richard Linklater or Tarsem Singh to add to their dream logic in seasons yet to come. [B-]
“Dr. Brain” debuts on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, November 3.
