Green Door – Netflix Mini-Series Review

 

 

Season 1

Episode Guide

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6

 

Split across six episodes, Green Door is a Taiwanese supernatural thriller with a twist. With a mix of horror, quirky humour and romance, Green Door does well to mix up its genres, weaving a tale with enough twists and turns along the way to keep things engaging.

As the fantastical meets the mundane, Green Door weaves two separate storylines together. After returning from the US and setting up his own clinic, a troubled young man named Sung Yen grapples with his own demons whilst trying to help clients. This takes an unexpected turn when a man dies in an alleyway and winds up possessing the body of a hospitalised woman. As Sung Yen tries to help the man piece together what’s happened, he starts seeing ghosts pop up in his mirror, and then his life.

Whilst Sung Yen struggles to keep a grip on reality, his relationship with Ma-Li consequently suffers in the second plot line of the show. This remains parallel to the supernatural for much of the series until near the end when the two merge into one shocking home truth and a pretty surprising turn of events in the finale.

Although the camera work and general cinematography don’t really showcase anything particularly outstanding, some of the special effects and CGI work more than makes up for it. There’s a good use of lighting here too, utilizing warm colours during the moments in Sung Yen’s office and cold, grey hues for flashbacks and light bites of horror.

Given the different genres Green Door juggles, this Taiwanese show does a surprisingly good job balancing things out across the six episodes. There’s a blend of comedy, drama, romance and horror here and all of them feel like a natural fit. Although the finale does strip away the supernatural elements to focus solely on wrapping up the romantic angle between Ma-Li and Sung Yen, for the most part there’s a consistency with this one that keeps things interesting.

While the acting itself is pretty good, albeit a little melodramatic at times, the journey Sung Yen takes from arrogant, self-absorbed businessman to a more selfless version of himself is admittedly cliché. It’s something we’ve seen time and time again in all sorts of media forms but the supernatural twist to this one does help to hide some of the obviousness around this.

Green Door’s length is just about long enough to keep things interesting and not too long that it outstays its welcome. The different genres are handled well and Sung Yen is likable enough to carry the series through to its surprising and well-written ending. While there are better choices in this genre, Green Door’s unpredictability is its biggest selling point and, coupled with its short length, certainly makes this a mini-series worth checking out.

 


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  • Verdict - 7/10
    7/10
7/10

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