Finally Descendants Of The Sun premiered this week after flooding dramaverse with endless conversations about it since the time it was revealed that writer Kim Eun Sook is working on her next project. And what a premiere it was — the show received one of the highest first episode ratings with episode 1 and 2 clocking 14.3 and 15.5 ratings respectively (Source).

And now about my first impressions — I liked the first two episodes. We meet our main characters with Song Joong Ki playing Yoo Shi Jin and Jin Goo playing Seo Dae Young — both army officers. They meet our heroine Kang Mo Yeon (Song Hye Kyo) when they somehow end up visiting a hospital and she is a doctor there. We are also introduced to Yoon Myung Joo (Kim Ji Won) who is a surgeon in the military and has some history with Dae Young. Then there are other characters who populate the hospital world. There is instant attraction between Shi Jin and Mo Yeon and they don’t hesitate to accept it. But their ideologies doesn’t allow them to go much further. Shi Jin and Dae Young are deployed to a fictional country called Urk where there are no special missions. Eight months pass and now Mo Yeon also arrives in the same country as a representative of her hospital as it is planning to set-up some power plant there.

I’m really liking the characters here and also that the show has established enough to know them quite well. I’m very happy that Shi Jin is not like a regular hero from the writer’s previous shows, who were all dominating, possessive. He is cheerful, cheeky, playful. I love how Song Joong Ki plays him so adorably. I was assuming that Mo Yeon would be a cold, no-nonsense heroine but was pleasantly surprised to see her playful, cute personality. She is strong as well. I absolutely loved the flirting and attraction between the couple and the chemistry is spot on. Usually I’m not a fan of romance building up at lightning speed but in this case, it was enjoyable and actually made sense that two people got infatuated with each other and were not calling it love already. It felt as if I’m watching a movie where things really take place at super fast speed. I’m excited to see how the reunion will play out going further in the drama. I do feel that it was very childish of Mo Yeon to get pissed off for not telling her the military secrets. As an adult and a doctor, she should have known better!

I love, love, love Jin Goo here. He steals every scene he is in and I’m excited to know what went on between him and past flame Myung Joo. There were some stereotypical characters and situations that I had to roll my eyes over but thankfully there were things I liked more than the ones I didn’t. The photography and direction are good and the effect of prefilming is visible. I also loved the friendship between our male leads.

One thing I found really jarring was the over playing music. I want to see my characters reacting without the OST telling me about it. I hope they tone it down. On an additional note, I’m so glad that there is no confusion about the love lines! We have two couples and no second lead or possibility for shipping wars.

All in all, a good start for Descendants Of The Sun.