Dr. Brain

Kim’s signature propulsive visual storytelling and other choice spices bring big-screen sensibilities to small-screen material. ... Set an appointment, if you haven’t already.

“Dr. Brain” is incredibly weird in all the best ways. ... "Dr. Brain" is a tonal rollercoaster that doesn’t quite land in the final two episodes of the season like it promises, but there’s still more than enough to admire in this crazy genre hybrid that’s designed to mess with your head.

Dr. Brain is a jumble of influences, from Frankenstein and Re-Animator to Inception (to name just a few). Director Kim, however, amalgamates with aplomb, creating something that feels fresh even though the traces of its predecessors are easy to identify.

The final two episodes of “Dr. Brain” may frustrate the give-it-to-me-straight-no-more-dream-sequences-please crowd, i.e., my fellow Americans. But as a genre mashup, and craftsmanship, the series is super-sleek, very violent and pretty sharp.

For a series predicated on the fantastical, there’s a sense that too much in “Dr. Brain” is meant to play it safe.

It’s a curious combination of glorious, terrifying genre storytelling with the plodding dramatic rhythms familiar from many other Apple TV+ hour-long series.

For a show with a wild central premise and a goofily brazen title, nothing here rises to the level of wildness that the show is teasing, nor is there the sort of grounding that could work as an alternative. ... There are action scenes and fleeting attempts at supernatural frights, all delivered with joylessness rather than the excitement of a storyteller enjoying a potentially boundless and entertaining narrative framework.