D.P. (TV series)

D.P. (an acronym for Deserter Pursuit) is a South Korean military action television series for Netflix. Directed by Han Jun-hee, from a screenplay by Kim Bo-tong and Han, based on the Lezhin webtoon D.P Dog's Day by Kim, and starring Jung Hae-in, Koo Kyo-hwan, Kim Sung-kyun, and Son Suk-ku. The first season was released on August 27, 2021, and the second season was released on July 28, 2023.

Season 1
Set in 2014, D.P. tells the story of a team of Korean military police with their mission to catch deserters.

The series magnifies the undesirable nature of the military, especially within a South Korean context. The widespread bullying and hazing as well as the mindset for the "survival of the fittest" are rife, with those presumed the “weakest” thrown to the bottom of the pile and served horrifying experiences at the hands of their superiors and compatriots.

Private Ahn Jun-ho and Corporal Han Ho-yeol team up to find the deserters, and they end up on an adventurous journey.

Season 2
Season 2 is a direct continuation of Season 1. Like the first season, Season 2 magnifies the undesirable nature of the South Korean military, but it is mostly done through the perspective of senior officers, covering topics such as corruption, LGBTQ+ discrimination, and the question of whether the military as an organization is responsible for soldiers who act out violently due to abuse by their fellow soldiers.

Guest

 * Kwon Hae-hyo as Ahn Joon-ho's father (Eps. 1, 3-4, 11)
 * Lee Joong-ok as an hanjeungmak employee (Ep. 2)
 * Won Ji-an as Moon Young-ok (Eps. 3, 9)
 * Choi Hee-jin as Girl in pink jacket (Ep. 12)

Development
In late June 2020, Lezhin Entertainment officially announced that Lezhin Studio and Homemade Film would co-produce a 6-part adaptation of the hit webtoon D.P: Dog Days by Kim Bo-tong, to be released exclusively through Netflix. The story is based on Kim's own experience during his mandatory military service.

Director and co-writer Han Jun-hee had wanted to work on the webtoon's adaptation "for five or six years [before he] finally got a chance" to do so. Though Ahn Joon-ho is a Corporal in the webtoon, Han wanted him to be a Private in the series so people could "resonate with the story and consider Joon-ho as a friend who just started his military service."

On September 1, 2021, Jung Hae-in revealed during an interview that he is "looking forward to season 2, and the director and writer are already writing the script." On May 31, 2022, Netflix officially announced the production of the season 2 with all four main cast reprising their roles.

On December 14, 2021, a second season was confirmed.

Casting
On September 3, 2020, Jung Hae-in, Koo Kyo-hwan, Kim Sung-kyun and Son Suk-ku were confirmed to star in the series. Koo's character does not appear in the webtoon, which he found "hard but exciting to portray a character exclusive to the series." To prepare for his role, Koo received help from his road manager who was part of the D.P. team during his military service. As for Jung, he practiced boxing for three months before filming began, in order to do his own action scenes.

Kim Bo-tong, who wrote the webtoon and co-wrote the series, commented that he "never dreamed of such a cast. They fit so perfectly into their roles that it seems like the roles were written for them."

Filming
Principal photography began in the summer of 2020.

Audience viewership
Following its release, the series topped Netflix's Top 10 in South Korea.

Critical response
William Schwartz of HanCinema praised Jung Hae-in's acting, commenting that he "is sublime here, in a brooding cinematic role radically different from the romances he's better known for." He added that "D.P. is worth watching, not just by people curious what South Korean mandatory military service is really like, but anyone from any country who's seriously thinking about joining up."

Pierce Conran of the South China Morning Post gave the series a 4.5/5 rating, noting that "D.P. hits home with a story that spans the past and present, as it acknowledges that yesterday’s problems can still be today’s." He also praised the cinematography as well as Jung and Koo's "electric chemistry".

Greg Wheeler of The Review Geek rated the series 4.3/5, noting that "D.P. is a stunning Korean drama [which] takes an unflinching look at bullying, the effect it has on mental health and larger societal questions about the mandatory military service in Korea" and praising the series for its "impressive" cinematography and for the way it "explore[s] a very sensitive and prevalent topic in a raw, artistic and unflinching way."

In a mixed review, Hidzir Junaini of NME gave the series a 3/5 rating, commenting that "Kim Bo-tong and Han Jun-hee must be given credit for how this series tackles such extraordinarily difficult and tragic subject matter with compassion and sensitivity", and praising the "uniformly excellent performances, splendid cinematography, addictive pacing, and intrepid commitment to shedding light on the appalling culture of bullying in the military", but criticizing the "weak characterization [of the] three main leads" as well as the "ludicrous escalation of events during its climax, which suddenly turns a fairly grounded show into a melodramatic action thriller."