Descendants of the Sun

Hello drama family!

I'm back again with another Korean drama! I have set aside a place in my heart for this particular drama. Descendants of the Sun is one I can say I have watched around three times, so far. I will probably always love this show and it has definitely influenced me to watch dramas of similar genre.

Title: Descendants of the Sun

Apps: Viki

Release Year: 2016

Region: S. Korea

Episode Count: 16 + 3 special episodes

I ended up watching this drama several years ago now on a presently unavailable website, but you can find this particular drama through the app called Rakuten Viki as a show that is free to watch.

Plot: This drama follows the journey of a special forces captain and a medical doctor along a bumpy and action packed road to romance. The two originally meet in Korea and fall for one another after a mild misunderstanding, but they find that they cannot reconcile their differences between their two careers in the beginning. Thanks to fate, the two are brought together once again. The captain and his special forces unit are stationed in the fictional country of Urk where a group of medical doctors are sent to volunteer - this group includes the captain's old flame. This is a drama filled with action, romance, comedy, as well as medical and military drama.

I absolutely fell in love with the characters in this drama. The ML and FL are wonderful at acting and their chemistry is superb. The second leads are very intriguing as well and I just loved following along with their story.

Our ML is Captain Yoo Si Jin played by Song Joong Ki. The captain, who also goes by the codename Big Boss, is the leader of the special forces Alpha Team. He is funny and protective of those that he loves. He takes his job very seriously and heavily believes in serving his country. Yoo Si Jin is a character I absolutely fell in love with, the actor who plays him also became my second oppa - I have watched a bunch of his dramas thanks to Descendants of the Sun. I mean, who couldn't love that face?

The FL is Dr. Kang Mo Yeon played by Song Hye Kyo. This FL is not timid, she isn’t afraid to speak her mind and stand up for what she believes in at all. I find her to be a fairly strong female, which is a nice change of pace considering what other FLs are like in other dramas. She believes heavily that it is her job to save whomever may need saving medically no matter who they are or what they’ve done. Even if there were a character that the viewer may hate that is injured, she will still treat them despite their villainy.

Our second leads are First Lieutenant Yoon Myung-ju played by Kim Ji Won, an army doctor, and Master Sergeant Seo Dae Young played by Jin Goo, a member of Alpha Team codenamed Wolf. These two have an interesting storyline as far as their romance is concerned. There is very little romance between the two within the actual series, at least not in terms of a lot of steamy kissing and such. Their relationship is complicated, but they work together through these issues. Yoon Myung-ju is also a sort of competition for Kang Mo Yeon, the two of them have a love-hate style relationship, especially toward the beginning of the series. Seo Dae Young, on the other hand, is the best friend of and second in command to Yoo Si Jin. He is rather cold emotionally, for the most part, and you cannot tell what he is thinking based solely on his limited number of facial expressions. His actions are what reveal his true heart.

There are several other characters involved in this drama, but many of them are involved in smaller side stories or serve the main characters in some capacity. Even though they play smaller roles, these characters do begin to grow on you as a viewer. They each develop in their own way and I really enjoyed following the journey that they went on together. The focus on characters was mostly directed at the medical team rather than Alpha Team. I do wish that there had been more information about the other special forces members because there is very little you get to learn about them.

Descendants of the Sun is a drama that I have returned to more than once. I even had my husband watch it with me the second time around, he happened to enjoy it as well. I feel like this drama was one that influenced me to watch more medical and military dramas. I can't tell you exactly why I watched this drama originally, I had never been interested in this genre before, but I am glad I explored more than just what I knew I would like. Honestly, I even named my dog Big Boss, so you could say that this is probably one of my favorite shows and I may be a little obsessed.

Although, there is one thing that I had gotten tired of by the end of the series. There is one song in the soundtrack that is used for every scene that's supposed to give you the feels. It plays so many times by the end of the series, if you hear it anywhere else you'll automatically get flashbacks to Descendants of the Sun. Now, I love a really good OST, I really do, but having heard this song so many times has made my ears a little tired of it. But, I leave this up to your own judgement.

I will honestly recommend this drama to anyone looking to get into Korean dramas and I really wish there had been a second season.

Drama Mama Rating: 9.5/10 (I think I'm biased…)