Done with Ep 1 and below is my thought.

The drama moves slow, but the cast is experienced, so there is no room to complain about acting. However, I find the dialogues weird and confusing in certain places (Maybe, it is just me).

I know that it is based on webtoon and the subject they are dealing with is difficult and sensitive, so they are trying to infuse some humour with side plots like the doctor guy suffering from anal pain, but it is not funny. Even the slapstick comedy scene between the FL and SML hitting each other with ping pong bats had me wincing in imaginary pain.

The first case was about BPD, but I did not find it impactful. The message they tried to convey had been done in a hundred different formats in all the high school dramas. We have seen kids being burdened by the pressure from parents.

Despite the above criticism, the show is promising because it is informative. For instance, when the head nurse shows our FL around the facility, she talks about how it was constructed to be less harmful for the patients with suicidal thoughts.

I will go continue this and be back with a full review.

like emsel, my jury is out and i'm only 25 minutes in...

had to stop to complain -- glazed tiles on the FLOOR of a hospital?? like she slipped when the tiles were wet with urine, it is a HAZARD!!

i know, because i was so stupid to put glazed white tile on my bathroom walls and FLOOR... of course, we use bath mats, but there was one time the mat was not there and i got out of the tub...

one drop or splatter of any liquid makes those glossy tiles like ice!

I got about 1/2 through the first episode and was too bored/depressed to continue. The drama seems to be exactly the opposite of its title Daily Dose of Sunshine . It’s more like “unending dose of a depressing job where your patients slap you and start running around naked, while you slip and fall in their urine”.
I may return if other more persistent beanies tell me that things pick up. Otherwise, it’s on an indefinite holding pattern.

Spoilers!

Overall, I liked this drama.

I think the subject of mental health was well adressed. I thought it would be an episode = 1 patient and his/her mental illness. But it wasn't really the case. I liked how they focused on the medical staff and the different patients.

I liked how they gave a backstory to a lof of characters. How they promoted it, I thought it would be only Park Bo-Young. I really think Netflix should stop focusing their promotions so much on their main lead.

My biggest issue was Jung Da-Eun's case. I didn't like how they made her depressive and suicidal after the death of her patient. I would have prefered they adressed this grief in a different way. I understand this part showed how everyone can be a patient one day, nobody can't know before. But I wanted to see her more as nurse who learns her job.

Yeon Woo-Jin's character was really weird and the comedy around his job wasn't really funny. But he was really a warm character.

Jang Dong-Yoon did well in this role. I loved their friendship. I was happy for him, he could protect himself at the end. He took care of himself!

I liked the couple Min Deul-Re and Hwang Yeo-Hwan. I was afraid that he will be a rich jerk. But he was actually a good doctor with empathy.

It was nice to see Lee Jung-Eun and Lee Sang-Hee back together after A Piece of Your Mind! I hope Lee Sang-Hee will be able to act a mother who is not overwhelmed by her family 😅

K-dramas constantly use love as the only way to address mental health and the impact of trauma. This is a drama that shows some of the reality of living with a mental illness. However, like any other drama those of us who work in this field, or have lived experiences of our own or family members may find it difficult to watch because of all the things not shown or shown badly.

In Korean dramas they use the Accident and Emergency department of the local hospital to cover services that a pharmacy, general practice or an urgent treatment centre might cover in other countries. In this drama they show the mental health services within the main hospital. The outpatient appointments are held in the same building as the inpatient unit and the inpatient unit has open and closed wards. They don’t mention the legal differences or show advocates supporting the patient or family to understand the differences in their rights on either ward or the implications of being detained on a ward.

The same staff work on both wards and the additional training for psychiatric nursing is not mentioned. We see a nurse starting on the inpatient ward having transferred from general nursing at the suggestion of her senior who saw her patient focused approach as too time consuming leading to an increased workload for her colleagues.

They show some of the difficulties that can arise between different professions and the attitude of patients and the family re the status of doctors and nurses. They don’t show the range of clinicians usually present like Psychologists, art or CBT therapist or meetings where all disciplines discuss patients and the treatment plans. This may be because they don’t have these elements in the Korean system or it may be the dramaland simplified version.

They do show the thin line between coping and not coping with the pressures of life for staff and the various patients. We see a range of patients of different ages with short term and lifelong psychiatric conditions at different stages of treatment. They show the mix of medication and talking therapies and the use of physical and medical restraints. (I am not sure they show the appropriate restraint techniques to avoid injury to patient and staff). They show a teenager on an adult ward which does happen in some countries.

We get different levels of background stories of both the patients and the staff. They don’t show all the elements we would expect to see to ensure the discharge process has appropriate measures in place for professionals to follow up on patients during the high risk stage of adjustment after a period in hospital. The stories do cover the impact of self harm, attempts of suicide, and the after effects on family and staff when suicide takes place.

I think they got the balance right in terms of dramatising this element of the characters’ life experiences alongside love stories, family dynamics and work place attitudes as part of the growing trend of dramas normalising mental health.

It is a sad drama but I do think they were also able to show how there can be hope in amongst the sadness.

My comment has gone in for moderation and is quite long so I will check in to see when it is released if it gets cut off.
I tried to give an overview with key themes so you can make an informed decision whether to watch it as this like: Tomorrow, Our blues, Be melodramatic, Kim Jiyoung born 1982, needs to be watched being mindful of your own mood.

Ooof! This drama is not for binge watch! Ep 2 theme of gaslighting leading to social anxiety stemming from workplace harassement was hard to watch. Truth be told, this drama is not doing anything new in terms of the showcasing the various situations that bring mental suffering, but it is more like awareness session about the nurses/doctors providing support and positive outlook to the patients.

A little more background about all the characters are revealed and the silly humour is turned down, so the drama now looks like a proper slice of life in psychatric ward. I think the drama did a good job of showing the FL as a perfect fit for lending care services because of her nicety, but how it can also be a nuisance to her co-workers.

I've watched 4 episodes now. Can I just say, apart from the show, I like the approach, which Netflix pioneered, I believe, of dropping a chunk of episodes at once? It is so far superior to the old one episode a week format which for some reason is making a comeback, and yet which requires a refresher every week.

Anyway this was different than I was expecting. I thought this would be an ensemble drama of quirky mentally ill patients that occasionally dipped into pathos. Instead, its more a case a week approach that does not gloss over some of the difficulties in each case. But I did not find it one depressing struggling patient after another, rather it was an occasionally over optimistic tribute to the power of sympathetic understanding and appropriate treatment.

I have a few other comments on the four episodes I've seen:
1.Park Bo Young is doing a pretty good job acting as an insecure nurse adapting to a new rotation. Its not the best written or subtle role, but she's a appealing actress as shown by her salvaging of Strong Woman Bong Soon.
2. I found the pettiness of surgical nurse that forced her transfer unrealistic and annoying, akin to putting the stock "school bully" character into a hospital setting. My Mother was a head nurse while I was growing up, and I know she and others demanded a strict professionalism that the nurses she supervised adhered to--no loud whispering behind the back, rather if there was an issue, meet about it and resolve it. (I must admit I admire the nurses I have known more than the many doctors I also know.)
3. As far as those doctors--early on, this does accurately depict the tension that sometimes exists between nurses and doctors. But the two doctors who are being featured are weirdly goofy, and both pretty unprofessional in pursuit of their nurse love interests. I know sexual harassment by male doctors is a real thing, but the constant pestering by the doctor in the psych ward could easily have been reportable. I was sorry (spoiler) to see the nurse he was pursuing capitulate in the last episode I watched.
4. And this brings up something that I don't often say, and that is, I could really do without any romance involving Park Bo Young's character--especially, since it appears there is a love triangle involving guys competing without either of them asking her whether she is interested or not. But this could change, since I have only watched 4 episodes. Perhaps the FL will indeed put both of the men firmly in their place. I hope so!

5. Finally, I found it interesting that the "message" of this show so far is that mental illness is the result of social behaviors that Koreans should work to change: domineering Mothers, bullying workplace supervisors, phone scammers taking advantage of desperate people, and stressful work or life circumstances that overwhelm and induce panic. So far there have been none of the cases that I am familiar with that are the saddest: bipolar disorders or schizophrenia that appear as a result of biological or genetic factors that friends, family and doctors desperately try to help with but simply cannot. I think it would really be too depressing to show some of the actual cases that are right now not just impossible to cure, but even difficult to ameliorate.

finished in two days lol I can't control myself with binge-watching, that's why I prefer week-by-week episodes.

SPOILERS
overall, I really liked it. the drama hit the emotional notes with every case, I felt for every single one of these people. park boyoung is not my top pick for her age range, but she's competent and I can see why they would cast her for this character, someone who has this really sweet and nice image. she did well.

my boy jang dongyoon, I just love him. so much charisma and I was screaming at that's my boy when he said he was leaving work because it was 6 p.m. and he has to take care of himself.

I loved one romance and couldn't care less about the other lol only one felt necessary and engaging to me. the other one felt forced especially because one of the parts never felt integral to this story at all. and the drama forced some situations just to make them relevant to the main character.

TLDR: can't say I had high expectations, but it was a drama I was looking forward to and it didn't disappoint. nice message, informative and I hope it can bring positive changes to people's opinions and perceptions about mental disorders and, especially, those affected by it.

Came here to ask why Jang Dong Yoon went back to 2nd lead roles?

Hello everyone, I'm not familiar with mental health issues, as it is mostly taboo in my family. I've learnt to be empathetic and not prejudiced but that's all my "training" has been about so far.

So, this show does a great informative and awareness job for people like me as it provides knowledge, tools and advice.
I can imagine that professionals and experts will certainly find limits and errors.

I'm impressed by the level of research and the intelligence in putting it into a drama form to make us empathise and learn.

Several times, I thought to myself "ah, this is how you can use a TV show format for educational purpose", "this can help people who cannot afford or are reluctant to seeking psychiatric help" or "best public health campaign I've ever seen".

So many messages that I'll need to watch it again one day.

I am not sure if it is Park Bo Young's acting or the writing for the character, but throughout the first four episodes I felt absolutely nothing watching her. Regardless of who the FL had a scene with, her presence would always be the one mostly unnoticeable.

I liked the second couple, although I found the nurse's story just plain laughable. She is living in a somewhat big apartment a bit far from the bus stop. Do you seriously expect me to believe that there is no hot water in there? in Seoul? Or that she can't just move to a smaller apartment closer to the bus stop? I wrote such a dramatic story for her in my head and then we found out her living conditions are not even that bad.

With that said, I like the drama so far and I love the interior of the psych ward, especially the framed clouds.

I'm midway through ep9 and I had to take a step back from watching due to it hitting too close to home for me.

But aside from that, this drama is really good. The actors are doing an amazing job at portraying their roles, especially those portraying the patients as they had to find the balance between coming off as offensive or not even trying at all.

I'm at episode six now (I guess? 🤔) so haven't watched all of it yet, but I have some things to get off my chest already (from here on there may be spoilers!). So far I'm not impressed by the male doctors at all and was more or less shocked at the revelation that these guys should be love interests. With one of them I was hoping that a wish of mine could come true: that a man was told off by his love interest because she - wait for it! - just didn't like him, his behaviour towards her and his behaviour towards others. Alas, she gave in, and I have to keep on waiting...
Both of those guys seem to me obsessive in their pursuit and not giving a sh*t about what their love interest wants, feels or likes, it's only about *them*. At a point I was wondering if they would all end up as patients in the end!
But, addressing the main topic here, I find this show's approach on mental illness very bold! Indeed they are concentrating on mental problems that are caused by surrounding people and circumstances, but for a Korean show that's so unusual to free the patients of having to carry the guilt for their state on their own! And to seek professional help in an institution!
On the other hand: what good are these professionals when they can't see and treat a man having a panic attack *while giving a lecture about that very topic*?! I was waiting for the doctor to step in during the partner exercise with the straws. The male nurse was clearly having an open panic attack, but nobody took notice?!
You see, it's a mixed bag...but who knows how it will end, there is still half of the series to watch for me. I'm still waiting for the daily dose of sunshine, though...🌞

Seems like a tough watch. I was hopeful about the "magical realism" we had heard about earlier but it doesn't seem to be working. Should I stick it through till the end.
Perhaps wait till I'm in a more empathatic frame of mind.

I can understand the intention of the production team but perhaps the drama needed to be marketed properly and more accurately.
They have a ready made world wide audience on Netflix, a little more care and nuance and little more clarity would have gone a long way.

A side note for people like me who were wondering about the somewhat unfitzingbtitle of the show - the Korean title is 정신병동에도 아침이 와요 which means "Morning comes even in the mental ward". Seems a far better match with what's really going on here than the English title.

Have been thru depression and anxiety (still going thru probably, but I keep it controlled thru therapy and medication), just had a depression episode not long ago, hence I am really looking forward to this drama. The actors are my favourites which is icing on the cake. I find this drama to be a little disappointing despite the good reviews, would rate it a solid 7/10.

Good/relatable points
~ the idea of sunshine in the ward is highly relatable, was constantly told to keep a routine, exercise in the morning instead of night etc. My psychiatrist told me when you are out and about in the day, your brain absorps sunshine (?) which is stored as a certain chemical, and will be released at night which is good for sleep.
~ Use of CG. I dun get some of them, but it definitely works for the delusion patient.
~ Some meaningful lines. What struck me the most was the line "Everyone borders between being abnormal and normal."

Rooms for improvement
~Lack of talk therapy: They are snippets, and is more fleshed out for the depression episode. The homework is highly relatable to me, especially the positive thoughts journal cos it helped me alot too. Even if a patient is discharged, I dun think only medication is sufficient to keep their condition under the wraps. Mental health is an on and off thing cos learning to live with triggers is a long-term process. I thought showing more talk therapy could have added more depth to the drama with meaningful dialogues and enlightenment.

In real life, truth is that it is hard to even find a therapist who can click with you. It is one of the long term struggles. It takes many tries.

~ PBY depression was not well thought out - although it can be guessed that her trigger was probably the outcome of her fav patient, I hope the show explores her thought process more. Her depression worsened too suddenly. It went from 3 to 10 real quick - one moment she could not wake up, next moment she dashed to the road.
~ I dun feel the romance. Yeon Woo Jin is good at romance dramas, but it is lacking here. The dialogues are not deep enuf.
~Character development - I would prefer to see how PBY regulate herself with her hectic work. It is quite unrealistic to see her being seemingly unaffected despite receiving harsh treatment from patients' guardians. I like the idea of the show emphasising workplace discrimination, but it lacks depth.

Mental health is a silent, long-term battle. But this show failed to explore how patients prevent themselves from falling into the dark spiral on an everyday basis.

Or maybe it is just me expecting too much since it is a very personal topic XD

After episode 6.
I don’t know if the writers had in mind A POEM A DAY (2018) but it struck me that once again Jang Dong-yoon’s character is in the makings of a love triangle with the classic, “which guy will get the girl?”.
The girl being Nurse Jung Da-eun (who takes the part of physical therapist Woo Bo-young in APAD) and the guys being Dr. Dong Go-geun (who takes the part of Dr. Ye) and Song Yu-chan (who takes the part of Min-ho (again). It is not a perfect fit but a rivalry between the two guys has begun. Will it stay friendly? If a little shipping war should develop I will be sticking with Yu-chan just like I stuck with Min-ho so long ago lol.

Ep 6....that was rough...just rough...I didn't see it coming..
need a break..

It had a great and interesting start and then it got too depressing and then ended well.
The information about mental illnesses was helpful to me and I liked all of the characters.
I would give it 8/10.

I marathoned the thing. Having lived in Korea for four years, I would have to say that this is a pretty daring subject to take on. Mental illness awareness is decades behind the western world, so this is probably a lot of new information for a Korean audience while being a lot of known information for a western audience.

I like the leads, but I still would have to put this how somewhere mid pack of the 300 plus plus plus dramas I have watched.

[ep 1 to 4]
I adore Park Bo Young, but she really speaks too fast.

The psychologist doctor is getting on my nerves. What a pompous ass. He's totally oblivious to the power dynamic that prevent the nurse to say no to him.
I do not appreciate also when ML asked 2ML "Can I like your friend?". How is he responsible in any way for her? Why is ML giving no agency to the woman he is supposedly interested in? The misogynistic writing has a very bad medicine taste and smell.

After episode 12 (final). A few thoughts.
1. I give the drama a lot of credit for just presenting a drama around mental health. Obviously the drama was used as a teaching vehicle and the conference on suicide and suicide loss survivors was well done. (The kdrama TOMORROW (2021) (Netflix) was a difficult watch for some but the thrust of that drama was: suicide prevention. It was well done.)
2. As I mentioned before I think dramatically it was a mistake to turn the drama drastically inward looking at the struggles of the leads. In effect the ‘daily dose of sunshine’ disappeared for a good part of the drama. I would have preferred more interaction with patients and their situations.
3. Just me but I found it strange that at least a couple of times in the drama mental health professionals (doctors and nurses) were shown abusing alcohol likecat the welcome and farewell dinners. I guess it is just one of those things endemic to South Korean culture.

This show is not a dose of sunshine. Watch at your peril, could be triggering. Overall decent writing, decent acting. Unfortunately, Park Bo Young does nothing for me. Don't see myself re-watching.

Not binge-watching this drama worked for me. I found the focus on mental health to be more realistic than expected and I needed the extra time to process each episode. Overall, it was well-done and interesting, almost a slice-of-life and a healing drama. I liked how the arc of gamer/civil service exam student was portrayed.

I was there for Jang Dong Yoon, who had a great arc, but he had less screen time than I was hoping for. Park Bo-Young did a fine job in her character's range of emotion. Roh Jae-Won gave a great performance as the gamer/civil service exam student. I would have liked to seen more of Yoo In-Soo, too.

This drama could have been ten episodes....

I watched it because its Park Bo Young and Yeon Woo Jin. It has an episodic approach on different patients they have at the psychiatric ward and covered the various mental health issues they suffer from. I got hooked on episode 1 because I was interested on their take on bipolar disorder. Also I really like the characters and overall vibe of the show.

The story of the working mom resonated with me and made me appreciate my own Mom and all the mothers I know. It also made me think how self care is very important in dealing with daily stresses.
Also Yu Chan's thoughts about timing echoes the one in Reply 1988. I knew when he kept using the "right time" as an excuse for not declaring his feelings, that he will not be brave enough to actually take their relationship to the next level.

Da Eun's depression was difficult to watch. It just goes to show that it can really happen to anyone no matter the profession. I was surprised on how the patient's family singled her out. Shouldnt they be more understanding?

Whew...an interesting drama, with a mix of low-key hospital routines, some of them fun, like smuggling jjajangmyeon into the nurses station, finding places to sleep illegally on night watch, or trying to keep your relationship with your doctor boyfriend hidden from the other staff. But along side all that, we face the real side of working in mental health: exhaustion, patient outbursts, interacting with toxic family who hold back the healing, and then learning how to live with your medical mistakes. We also feel the joy of seeing a patient finally climb out of their dark wound, and many do…but then sadly some fall back-in deeper and sometimes shockingly are lost to their disease. But this drama doesn’t just stay with the patients. The quicksand of their pain sometimes slowly pulls down those around them: their family and especially the doctors & nurses who manage the ups & downs of each patient’s unique efforts to heal while the medical staff balance their private emotional challenges too, both at home and at work, as we saw with the Senior Ward Nurse so busy caring for her patients but struggling to find someone to pick up her sick child at daycare.
The drama does all this, yet it still inserts sudden bursts of sunshine into our characters’ lives. For example the love triangle. Sure there’s lots of rivalry and funny competitive tomfoolery, but underscoring even this lightheartedness is the lurking presence of OCD, panic attacks and depression which must be dealt with, yet the writer doesn’t take the focus off their personal relationships as they interact either. The script was well-balanced. I felt so sympathetic about Yu Chan’s many many missed opportunities with Da-eun as he struggled to break out of their lifelong friend zone. I also kept wondering how our adorkable proctologist Dong Go-yun would ever win her over when he was so star-struck, but managed to keep from crowding her, gently helping her from behind, yet always directly open about his feelings if she asked. The romance was handled as a sidebar where it had to be considering the overarching topic of this drama, and I was glad it was because I learned so much about mental disability, especially in the last episodes, when we saw how society is still in a hard learning curve about it. Watching the political confrontation between the patients’ families and the hospital after they learned there was a person with a disability caring for their loved one, was hard to watch, but when Korea’s treasure, actress Lee Jung-eun (Parasite) stood up to face them with a crushing speech, I almost got up off the couch for a standing ovation. Honestly, this wasn’t as dark as you might think, but not going to lie, there are some episodes harder than others. But well worth the watch.