"Dr. Brain” has not received the launch that you might expect for a miniseries made by a significant South Korean filmmaker, one that’s an important building block in Apple TV+’s attempt to upgrade its international content. The show’s Thursday debut was announced less than two weeks ago, and even then, there was confusion about the actual date it would premiere in the United States. The ritual press day with cast and crew, just announced Tuesday, is taking place a week after the premiere.
That seeming lack of planning could be a result of Apple focusing its attention on the show’s release in South Korea; "Dr. Brain,” created by Kim Jee-woon, is the service’s first original series from that country. But it’s hard not to suspect another culprit: Netflix’s "Squid Game,” and the sudden avalanche of attention it has brought to South Korean television drama. Maybe someone at Apple woke up and said, "Hey, we’ve got one of those, too!”
And the one they have is, in its relatively quiet and only slightly sensational way, better. Quiet and unsensational are not qualities always associated with Kim, who was happy to engage in excesses of gore or hyperbolic action in movies like "I Saw the Devil” and "The Good, the Bad, the Weird.” In "Dr. Brain,” he’s operating in a calmer, subtler mode reminiscent of his best work, the polished horror film "A Tale of Two Sisters.”