By Farah Yasmin

BrimLife · 2026

Reading time: ~5-9 minutes

Spoilers Ahead

Basic Overview:

Daily Dose of Sunshine is a 2023 Korean Drama/TV show. It was released on Netflix on November 3rd, 2023. It’s actually based on a Kakao webtoon with the same Korean title. Kakao is a vast tech platform in South Korea that offers everything from banking and messaging to digital comics and content. The webtoon is created by Lee Ra-ha, who previously worked as a nurse. The events of the webtoon reflect her real-life experiences, which were brought to life by Netflix’s “Daily Dose of Sunshine”. The synopsis for this drama is based on a psychiatric nurse named Jung Da-eun. She’s a third-year nurse who worked in Internal medicine and moved into the Psychiatry unit at Myungshin University Hospital. This story follows her own experiences, from her patients, her own life, and self-discovery.

My Personal Take (Spoiler Warnings if You haven’t seen the K-Drama):

Daily Dose of Sunshine — truly what a positive title, don’t you think? If you ask me, I’d tell you NOT to take the title seriously. I found this to be a surprisingly underrated K-drama. I remembered the hype around this K-drama thanks to the social media giant, TikTok. Upon scrolling, I was compelled by the aesthetically pleasing yet solemn tones of one of the viral edits of the show for “Daily Dose of Sunshine.” Let’s call it DDOS for short. I finished this K-drama today, after a couple of days of watching it on Netflix. I’ve been meaning to get to it and finish the drama for a while, but truly, this story touched my heart in ways I didn’t think possible. I found myself learning a lot in terms of vocabulary, and just how vulnerable yet strong we humans are. I found myself relating to the main character (Jung Da-eun) in some ways. Her sunny nature, the sheer kindness, her strength, and unwavering acts of putting her emotions aside for others from a young age.

DDOS has given deep and sometimes eerie discoveries in each episode. It was full of unraveling the saddening yet realistic stories of every patient, the doctors’ and nurses’ personal lives, too, and how everyone is simply trying their best every day. This had its light moments, but overall, I would say it’s a heavy watch. While reaching the final episodes till now, it has been a rollercoaster of an experience. I believe this K-drama will allow people to feel the same and understand the bittersweet reality of just how serious mental health can be for anyone. Since we all know, there’s been a long-term stigma around mental health whenever it’s mentioned.

Jung Da-eun is a very talented nurse. She was said to be too “nice” in the early stages of the K-drama, and this made Da-eun distressed. It showed an example of the harsh realities we can be faced with and the impact of people’s words. Song Yu-Chan is Da-eun’s childhood best friend. He works at his family’s chicken restaurant after some history at the company he worked for before. We later find out the real reason for this. Yu-Chan has Panic disorder and is prone to panic attacks. This happened to be the reason why he left the previous company and had to settle down. As the K-drama progressed, viewers got insight into the main cast’s lives, as well as the lives of the patients we see in the K-drama. This allows viewers to find raw relatability by not just relating to medical workers but also to ordinary people and their lives before they came to be ill.

Besides the depressing parts, there was also much room for fluff, romance, and comedy. Viewers can expect some comical moments of the two main male leads, or doctors, being head over heels for two female nurses. One of whom is Da-eun. Dr. Dong is a Proctologist who can be fun with his charmingly awkward nature. While being comical with his unique habit of cracking his knuckles too often. The other is Dr. Hwang is a well-known and successful Psychiatrist, and he used to be Da-eun and Yu-Chan’s Tutor. He can be a total hopeless romantic just like his pal — Dr. Dong. This is an amusing trait that follows throughout the K-Drama. We not only see the seriousness of their lives and the rest of the cast, but also hints of humor, hope, and realistic desires for change, with that change being shown later on as well.

DDOS wasn’t shy to show the heavy aspects of it all when showing all this. For example, mentioning sensitive topics such as the different kinds of mental illnesses and violence. The acting for each person was nothing short of great. I could feel the talent and passion in each expression and voice line. Over the recent years, I feel like people have tried to take mental health more seriously than before. I am not a nurse or doctor, but personally, I felt it was not only a heavy watch, but an educational insight into today’s world. A dozen lessons of the chaos, pain, and hope we all stand in for our lives.

Final Messages:

Do I recommend this to be your next watch? Sure! But I’ll have you warned: it can make you question a lot of things in the process. It’s depressing in many ways, but the words of encouragement surely help. Have tissues and sugar to help you get by! I think this K-drama is a great example to the world (in most ways) of how we should not ignore our well-being. Beware of trigger points that are displayed in this K-Drama that can be uncomfortable for some viewers. Such as self-harm, mild smoking and alcohol, suicide, blood, pills, and nudity, with realistic takes on various mental illnesses.

Regardless, I hope that this K-Drama can not only educate us on mental health, but also remind us that it’s just as serious as Physical Health. Remember, everyone, to take care of yourself and ask for help may seem hard at first, but there won’t be progress until that big step is taken. We got this, and every day is worth fighting for.

Last but not least, since our brain is the CEO of our bodies, we should take care of it, right?

Work Credits:

“Daily Dose of Sunshine.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt26258202/parentalguide/. 

“What Is Kakao? Competitors, Complementary Techs & Usage.” Sumble, sumble.com/tech/kakao#:~:text=Kakao%20is%20a%20South%20Korean%20internet%20company,player%20in%20the%20South%20Korean%20tech%20industry. 

“Daily Dose of Sunshine.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Jan. 2026, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Dose_of_Sunshine.