Daily Dose of Sunshine review: Accomplishes most of its goals

In Daily Dose of Sunshine, a kind-hearted nurse adapts to working at the psychiatry unit of her hospital and shows determination to help her patients, no matter what. The series is now streaming on Netflix.

Story

Nurse Jung Da-eun receives a transfer to the psychiatry unit of Myungshin University Medical Center. On her first day as a psychiatric nurse, she comes well-prepared, only to realize that adjusting here won’t be that easy.

Da-eun’s colleagues wonder why she is transferred here. Da-eun eventually overhears her previous head nurse saying that Da-eun was too nice to her patients and was becoming a burden to them, as she was falling behind.

However, Da-eun’s new colleagues are unlike any of the nurses from the other wards. They come to understand that Da-eun is everything a nurse is supposed to be.

As Da-eun begins feeling welcome at the psychiatry unit, she will be exploring new friendships, romances, and some heartbreaking events that will change her life forever.

Performances

Park Bo-young, as Jung Da-eun, does a lot of heavy lifting as the lead of Daily Dose of Sunshine. To begin with, she wears a beautiful smile that goes well with her cheerful character.

The positivity that Bo-young reflects never feels too much, and one comes to accept her character as an imperfect person trying to do good.

Towards the end, Bo-young carries Da-eun’s depressed phase so well that a viewer worries about the character and her future, which suggests that Bo-young has gone all-out with her performance.

The likes of Yeon Woo-jin, as Go-yun, Jang Dong-yoon, as Yu-chan, and Chang Ryul, as Yeo-hwan, are much-needed comic reliefs. However, even they deliver when the script asks for touching scenes.

More of Chang Ryul’s comedy would have been welcomed, but the actor portrays great chemistry with Lee E-Dam, who plays Min Deul-re, which makes up for it.

Positives

Daily Dose of Sunshine wants to stand out as a lovely, light-hearted drama that aims to make viewers familiar with areas of mental health as much as it can.

The show fairly succeeds in doing so, as it has many conversations where the patients’ conditions are talked about in depth. To make it easier, the show writes notes on the screen whenever the characters mention a term that can’t be explained between the dialogues.

To add further, the show draws parallels between the conditions of the patients and the lives of the main characters to hint that what mental health patients are facing is no different than what others are facing.

The length of Daily Dose of Sunshine doesn’t become an issue because the creators seem to be making the hospital the viewers’ world. The show absorbs everyone into its universe, and everything happening on the premises of the hospital becomes important to them.

For the majority of episodes, the show balances its humorous and serious sides. When a piece of tragic news shakes the characters at the hospital, the environment there changes along with it. It’s a good touch that makes one sad, along with the characters.

Negatives

Daily Dose of Sunshine‘s subplots are sometimes filled in the wrong places. For example, the finale could have done without a subplot; it should have just focused on the main characters.

Also, initially, the show struggles to find its footing as a drama. It becomes more of an informative procedural since the subplots are prioritized over the main plot.

The twists that the show pulls off have a pattern. Once that is noticed, the show won’t be able to surprise viewers anymore. Lastly, the show also has the habit of spending way too much time on a single topic.

Verdict

Daily Dose of Sunshine accomplishes most of its goals: it is a touching light-hearted drama, it offers likable characters, it is informative, and it absorbs viewers into its world, making it a riveting watch.

---

Also Read: Daily Dose of Sunshine summary and ending explained