Webtoon Spotlight

Spotlight#59: Dr. Frost

Have you ever wanted to feel like a big brain? If you do, then you probably are going to like Dr. Frost by JongBeom Lee.

Summary

The Human Mind is one of the most complicated devices in the modern world. And yet, despite our claim on uniqueness, one man fights against this message. Enter Dr frost, a man who believes that humans are the same as he discovers the mystery of emotion through his cases.

Characters

Dr. Frost: Our titular character himself, Dr frost, from a young age, has suffered damage to his Frontal Lobe, causing him to misunderstand emotion and come off as awkward. This makes Frost a stoic, brilliant man that comes off as rude and blunt to his colleagues. Throughout the series, though, he tries to understand people through his cases, implying more to his icy persona.

Seong-Ah Yoon: Dr. Frost's faithful assistant; she is naturally Frost's opposite. She is cherry, energetic, and always willing to help as she believes empathy and sympathy are the best portions of how to consult people properly. In addition, she is passionate about psychology and has often been Frost's best ally.

Overview

So the two things that can quickly go wrong in this type of story are pretty simple. One is saying a smart character is smart without proper cause, and two is making your psychological facts bullshit. These two factors can make your story a hamfisted mess of essential topics that make you come off as if you know better. 

As I've stated before, I'm okay with the media tackling important political and social matters as long as their saying comes off as educated and multi-layer while keeping themselves in line with the show. Just talking or doing something political doesn't mean you are smart and relevant. That being said, I'm happy to report that Dr. Frost is not emblematic of this problem.

Dr. Frost, from chapter one, is portrayed very intelligently through prior build-up and context clues that fit the narrative perfectly. The series goes to great depths of deconstructing common misconceptions on psychology. Which is fitting given the author has a degree in psychology. Each case of the series creates resonant characters that serve more than just PSA's as we see Frost use elaborate but different methods to cure them.

 Superiority complexes, depression, lying, and insomnia are handled beautifully through lengthy arcs that devote time to them. This is a godsend to anyone interested in psychology and history in general.

And what's better is that through these cases, we can see Frost and his surrounding cast also use these cases to develop. Frost himself is a fully 3-dimensional character who does go through subtle arcs as the story revolves around him. The art is also simple but has beautiful colors that make characters and scenes have this stylistic noir feel with gorgeous colors. This is a poignant dramatic webtoon that I forgot how great it was.

Epilogue

Dr. Frost is a beautifully crafted webtoon that deserves more love. While it has its K drama, I am happy to report that the series is finally getting brought back. Since Dr. Frost gets done, let's turn our spotlights to a much newer webtoon that has been catching my attention.