Things that disappear tend to be beautiful.
1. Before I die, I need to wish doom upon the world.
2. During the contract period of 100 days, I will not be in pain.
3. Before I die, besides wishing for doom upon the world, one of my wishes will come true.
4. If the contract is broken, the person I love the most at that moment will die.
Doom At Your Service is a Korean Fantasy Romance series that premiered in May 2021, starring Seo In-guk, Park Bo-young and Lee Soo-hyuk. It can be viewed on Viki.
Ever since her parents passed away, Tak Dong-kyung has been working hard as a web novel editor to take care of herself and her younger brother. Her life takes a turn for the worse when first, she is forced to end her relationship with a man she didn't know was married and right afterward, she suddenly gets diagnosed with brain cancer. In a bout of rage she shouts her wish to curse everything to disappear to the skies, which has completely unexpected consequences: A mysterious character who calls himself Myeol Mang (destruction, ruin, or, as the Viki subtitles translate it, doom) knocks on her door. Doom is exactly what his name implies - a personification of the concept of things ending bad -, and he says that he can grant her wishes. As her last hope, Tak Dong-kyung makes a contract with Myeol Mang that will last a hundred days to live how she wants, risking her everything.
This series provides examples of:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Tak Seon-kyung to Dong-kyung. He isn't as responsible as her and often runs to her with his problems.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: The male lead, Doom.
- Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Dong-kyung is the only one who sees Doom as Seo In-guk, and remember him. He appears differently to everyone who sees him. This has led to the hospital he often visits being rumored to be haunted by a "ghost".
- Bargain with Heaven / Deal with the Devil: Tak Dong-kyung seals a contract with Doom out of sheer desperation.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Cursing the world to be destroyed doesn't mean anything will actually happen to it, right? Right?!
- Being God Is Hard: The Gardener's opinion. Also Doom's, though he isn't quite a god.
- Bizarrchitecture: Doom's home; when Dong-kyung enters it, she experiences quite the mindscrew (since it's an Unnaturally Looping Location). A little later, once they decide to live together, Doom magically integrates her apartment into his house so they have more space.
- Butterfly of Doom: There is a reference to this in the title credits.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Gods exist because humans believe they exist.
- Cosmic Plaything: Doom, and he hates it.
- Death Seeker: Doom. He apparently hopes that when Dong-kyung wishes doom upon the world, this will end his own existence, too (something he cannot accomplish himself).
- Downer Beginning: Within the first half of the premiere, the protagonist has to deal with the man she was in a relationship with with turning out to be married and dumping her; a brain cancer diagnosis; and the fact that the doom she wished upon the world might just become true.
- Easy Impersonation: One of Doom's powers. He impersonates Dong-kyung's CEO for a while so he can keep watching her. He also regularly impersonates a doctor at the hospital Dong-kyung goes to. Mostly played for laughs.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Dong-kyung and Doom first met at a funeral parlor when she was a child - she was there for her parents' funeral and he for one of the Gardener's. Dong-kyung forgot this, until the Gardener makes her remember.
- Freudian Slip: For purposes of convenience, Dong-kyung gives Doom the human name "Sa Ram", which simply means "person". She notes that it sounds very similar to "sarang" - love.
- God of Good: Possibly the Gardener. That is, for a certain definition of good.
- Jaded Professional: Doom, if you count his existence as a profession.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: There's a bit of talk about who's being a protagonist and who prefers to be a side character etc. It fits Dong-kyung job - web novel editor - quite well, after all.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The red string that Doom ties around Dong-kyung's wrist. He says that she has to hold his hand once a day in order to charge it (it will then keep her free of pain and misery). But, you know, he could also just want to hold her hand.
- The red string is almost certainly also a symbol of something else, of course.
- Protagonist Title: At least when referring to the international title of the show. Doom is the actual male lead character.
- Safety in Indifference: Doom has long since stopped caring about destruction and death following him everywhere. Or pretends to, at least.
- Shared Dream: One of Doom's powers is entering Tak Dong-kyung's dreams.
- Shout-Out: Dong-kyung watches Tale of the Nine Tailed in order to learn how to love a special being.
- Take a Third Option: When Dong-kyung realizes that the person she loves most will die no matter whether she breaks the contract or fulfills it, and that there is no other option to stop the end of the world, she decides that she will instead love Doom. So that when she breaks the contract, she will lose nothing except him. Oh, boy ...
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Doom.
- Cha Joo-ik, Dong-kyung's team leader, too.
- Telepathy: One of Doom's powers.
- Took a Level in Cynic: Dong-kyung once her misfortunes start piling up.
- Tough Love: The Gardener and Doom to each other, apparently. She created him (he grudgingly admits that she is like his mother) and wants to teach him to be more human. He snarks at her and doesn't want her near, but also goes to her many funerals to grieve.
- What If God Was One of Us?: The Gardener keeps living lives as a human, and suffering for it. At the start of the series, she's a young woman dying in a hospital.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Dong-kyung has exactly one hundred days left to live, as confirmed by Doom.
