Sin Embargo (2021)

It was dull and disappointing, Nevertheless

Nevertheless might have been much better, if there was a good storyline, likeable pair of lead characters and a bit decent pacing.

The story never felt like romance, instead it was 90% complications for the leads, which I felt kind annoying and the end wasn't compelling enough. I personally like the lead characters (So Hee Han & Song Kan) but there pairing felt dumb, disappointing and it never kept the show to be interesting. Instead I was quite amazed by the pairing of the supporting characters, which were developed quite well.

The only positive thing about this drama was the music which I felt was soothing to the ears and quite melodious. Along with that, I loved how the relations developed among the other supporting cast, which was way better showcased than the lead characters. It was a wasted potential, Nevertheless.

Cons:
• Unlikeable lead characters
• Weak storyline
• Less of love story, more of irrelevant complications among the pair
• The pacing was very slow, with couple of episodes being flat boring

Pros:
• The OST was soothing and melodious
• The supporting casts had a better relationship development

My Rating : 5.5/10

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Why did I even bother?

Usually hate-watching means the show is so bad it’s actually entertaining. Here, it’s just bad, with the characters so annoying it’s hard to find someone to root for. Truth to be told, if I knew the ending before I started the show, I would not bother with watching at all. I was intrigued by the interesting beginning, and not smart enough to leave when I saw the first red flags warning me, this leads to nothing good. One could say I’m Na Bi, and this show was Jae Eon - leaving me angry, annoyed, frustrated and exhausted.

What seemed like a promising portrayal of a toxic relationship, ended as nothing more than another angsty young adult love story, that is even more pretentious than I could ever expect it to be. When in fact, it’s just fancy trash with pretty actors in it.

The main plot is the relationship between Na Bi and Jae Eon. Here’s the thing though - the relationship makes no sense. At first it’s presented as a strong sexual attraction, but it never really moves to anything more. Whenever the writer tried to incorporate any strong feelings from either female or male lead, it made no sense. What are these feelings even based on? By episode 4, the main romance became extremely repetitive and boring. How many times can we see Na Bi cry and Jae Eon be a jerk?

Na Bi was just painful to watch. By the end of the show I felt like she literally learned nothing. There was no development and no progress. The moment I saw some change, she took a U-turn into a crying mess.

Jae Eon was one dimensional and an empty shell. Don’t know what the writer was thinking, but you cannot develop something that does not exist. Giving him a last minute character development, when from the start he had no character or personality was a miracle in itself.

Bit Na and Gyu Hyun were more fun to watch, since both characters were stronger and had more of prominent personalities, but even they ended up on the rather shallow note. While they could have addressed some more interesting ideas about relationships and be a good mirror to Na Bi and Jae Eon’s relationship, the writer left me with little discussion and no real conclusion.

The only couple I truly did enjoy watching was Min Young and Kyung Jun. They were funny, sweet and relatable in all the best and heartwarming ways.

Except for them, there are exactly two things that Nevertheless, did well - LGBT representation and the amazing soundtrack.

While we’ve gotten more and more gay relationships in k-dramas lately, rarely ever we see lesbians presented in any way. At best it’s vaguely suggested or mentioned as a “personality trait”. It’s good to see a side story that truly explores the romance between two girls, and how they both deal with growing feelings. Sadly for me, I could not enjoy their ploy, since I could not stand Ji Wan as a character.

No matter how much I might dislike Nevertheless, the soundtrack is full of amazing bops. I listen to Butterfly and Love Me Like That daily - some of my favorite songs from 2021.

Overall, I could easily write a whole essay on why this show was basically a writing failure, but I honestly do not want to waste any more precious minutes of my life on this title. Let it die on my completed list, never to be visited again.

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SIDE STORIES>>

"Flowers don't bloom just for one butterfly" - Bit Na

Waste of time, probably wasted 8 hours why NOT 11 hours you must think? Right? Because only the side stories are good but sadly they have less screen time :/ This drama is meaningless and will just make you frustrated.

The drama started off quite well, the realistic portrayal of modern college relationships was really relatable. The MAIN story is slow paced from the very start but at some point it became repetitive which made it boring. I have to admit that the plot was exaggerated, the drama should have been not more than 6-7 episodes honestly. But the way it continues is AWFUL and the word "realistic" is thrown out if the window and was replaced by fairy tale ending .

MAIN CHARACTERS

Nabi, honestly at first I thought Nabi AIN'T DUMB but she is. She is the dumbest character I have seen in my whole drama life. Her actions are really dumb, they can make you frustrated. I liked the way the writer portrayed Nabi's insecurities. Han So Hee really did a great job portraying the character as well.

Jae On, the walking red flag. If you're reading this please don't normalize Jae On's actions just because you're the actor's fan. Jae On's character is pretty much a playboy for whom love isn't a thing, it's just attraction. I never approved of his character. For him Nabi was also one of his butterflies. Song Kang did pretty well at first I couldn't get those playboy vibes from him but later he was a bit better.

Do Hyeok, the potato guy, he is the "cliche" good boy type character, one of those who still believe in true love. Sorry to say tho he was really nice but he was kinda pushy as well.

The main story is SO MEANINGLESS, what was the point of their story? If their was no moral of the story? this drama was a fairy tale, it definitely was. This drama is ridiculous just because the two leads had chemistry doesn't mean there toxic character had to end up together. It's not about which team you are team potato or red flag. I was legit team FL end up with nobody. Her character development where is it? FL really need self love classes.

SIDE STORIES

The only reason I didn't drop this, I won't go in detail because some of the ships were pretty unexpected. They're stories were short yet really beautiful. I'm really glad that the writer was brave enough to portray them!

MUSIC

This drama has beautiful OST lineup I swear, even if you don't watch the drama you can listen to the OST, one of my fav is "Love me like that" by Sam Kim.

OVERALL

I was glad that Korean dramas are trying something NEW than the cliche college romance drama BUT sorry this drama crashed real bad. Should you watch Nevertheless? No. Personally I won't recommend it. The outcome of drama was really disappointing. I would never recommend one to watch it.

Now this drama is definitely NOT for everyone. If you can't differentiate between what's toxic and what's not, please don't watch this.

IF YOU FOUND MY REVIEW HELPFUL PLEASE LEMME KNOW ^^
END :D

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Disappointment

I hate when Kdramas adapt Webtoons and just give a different plot completely. This reminds me of CITT. At least with CITT there was the excuse that the Webtoon wasn’t over. This one had everything fleshed out and a whole ending the go off by. The ratings were already low in SK so they could’ve at least done a decent plot that leaves the people that watch it interested or satisfied. The relationship between the two main characters was toxic from the beginning. Who was more toxic doesn’t matter because they were both trash at certain points. That alone should’ve concluded that they don’t belong together. Jae eon Is a player, he straight up ran with the “I don’t date” premises from their first conversation. How tf did he fall in love with her before that then? I wanted to see how he never changes so she chooses herself. Every single time she did, she went back to him right TILL THE END!!! This should’ve been wrapped up in 6 episodes but over 10 hours in 10 episodes was a waste for an ending as crap as that. Hello Kdramas, friendly reminder that “the power of love” doesn’t exist 99.9% of the time and shitty men won’t change for you. Stop selling this sick fantasy and start properly acknowledging the toxic behavior these MLs have.

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I will start from positive Side couples -
they have such a beautiful story . Collage friends been together for years then one fall then another . The GL couple were highlight of the show . Their acting and character development Rating = 9/10
Here i start the main part O boy is it 2005 ? I am asking again is it 2005 why the main plot is so shitty why main couple are so shitty . A fboy with naive girl who is used by others and fboy act reckless - change for her . Like didnt we leave that shit in 2010 ? What was on writer mind No character development, No plot , No love stroy Nothing people want FL with with A guy because his face is handsome Really ? If i could really give this drama Rating for Main couples its -1 /10. Never watching love traigle again so much disappoiment . Worst Drama of 2021

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Tired

Han Sohee I love you babe but this entire show… a mess, a mistake. I could write an essay on how much I hated it and everything that was wrong but I really don’t want to waste any more time on this show. So I’ll keep it brief:

Romanticizing toxic relationships in 2021, really? Absolutely stagnant, two dimensional, and uninteresting characters. Slow, dragged out plot that did a 360, ending up exactly where it started. Superficial relationships (did the main couple talk about ANYTHING?). The horrible tattoos; I absolutely despise butterflies now. I could go on.

Please I’m begging everyone to go read the webtoon. It actually makes sense instead of whatever the heck this was.

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50 shades of disappointment

The premise of the drama was realistic but it dropped so badly because of the ending.This drama kept me hooked but I always expected Nabi's character development.JE instead had a change of heart which also happened out of the blue.He was just flirting and sleeping with her and all of a sudden he fell for her and had a redemption arch.If they had moments where they were emotionally available for each other this could still make some sense but the writer followed the
"girl fixed the guy and made him loyal" trend.
She is just feeling ecstatic because she fixed Jae Eon but what she needs is self-love.


Giving this a 6.5 just because I'm cutting the fact how poorly the ending was written.It kept me entertained for 10 weeks to only leave me disappointed in the end.All the side couples were cute and could have a drama of their own.I liked how slowly all the side couples had a promising development.


Loved all the osts.The cast did a commendable job.
Still confused if this was a YOUNG ADULT (YA) drama or a fairytale.

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I had such high hopes for this drama, but the ending left me disappointed. The drama is beautifully shot, and the side characters are wonderfully written, but it threw away the unconventionality that had originally kept me watching. I had hoped that the drama would dive into the character development of the female lead and her struggles with love after leaving a toxic relationship, but it did none of that. The main couple had chemistry, but halfway through they got incredibly boring, and I found it hard to believe either of them changed for the better since the drama rarely bothered to show it. While it's arguable that it was more realistic this way, I found that it fell into the same tropes of the female lead ending with the toxic male lead, and the theme of choosing romantic love over choosing oneself.

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Disappointed

What to say about this ending? They romanticized a toxic and abusive relationship. They romanticized that a woman is indeed a repair shop for men. I feel shame and pity for Na-bi because in that conversation where they return their relationship, it is evident how emotionally dependent she is on him. She knew what he was like, what he put her through, and yet she threw herself into his arms again. I am disappointed! Fortunately the secondary couples - Sol and Jiwan, Bit-Na and Kyuhyun, Min Young and Kyung Jun - saved that story.
They could have made Na-bi discover female empowerment. They could have made her realize with Jae-eon that no one deserves to go through an abusive relationship. What about Jae-eon saying he fell in love with her at first sight? This was never a crush because if he really had fallen in love with her, he would have had intentions of getting into a serious relationship with her from the start. And not just after losing her. What starts wrong will never work. Except in Nevertheless, history made people think everything that happened was normal.

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Not Worth The Hype

Before watching this drama, I had heard so much hype about it. Everyone on Tiktok and Twitter were losing their minds over it. So, I decided it must be really good if everyone talked about it so much.
But honestly, it really just felt like it was trying too hard to appeal to an audience who was looking for a more "mature" drama. The main reason I even watch dramas is because I love watching the pure build up to a relationship. And I think that many shows have done that very well.

This drama was a rare case where I loved everyone but the main characters by the end of it. The female lead is exhausting to follow, the male lead is just a walking red flag (as dubbed by viewers on social media) and the conclusion is frustrating at best.
The only good part of this show was the soundtrack. I added well over half of the OST to my playlists because they're just so good.

In closing, watch this drama if you want to understand the hype. However, just be prepared to be annoyed for most of the 10 episodes.

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High Quality, Atypical Show That Is Almost-Completely Negated By Its Ending

First, some important points: this show is a potential trigger for people who have experienced toxic, emotionally manipulative relationships. There is NO physical violence and NO serious crime (IE. NO rape, etc.), but in the first few minutes of this show, you will see someone in an emotionally abusive relationship. This show is NOT your stereotypical Kdrama romance where you have a female lead, a male lead, a second male lead, a lot of laughs and heartfelt moments, and a sunshine-and-rainbows ending. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with enjoying these feel-good romance shows (I know I do), but this show is NOT ONE OF THEM.

I will NOT include spoilers, such as who ends up with who, but it is impossible to review this series without alluding to broad themes and discussing some overall challenges, plot trends, and character personalities. Furthermore, the ending alone severely decreases my rating of this show, so I will allude to it without specifics. If you want to go into the show completely blind, then please stop reading here.

The first 9 out of 10 episodes of this show are very intriguing. Based on a web toon, it is an exploration of realistic romantic relationships, which includes the pettiness, immaturity, and dishonorable intentions that sometimes accompany them. On the one hand, you will see typical romance, such as fun, sexy flirting, selfless acts of caring, or heart-to-heart talks. On the other hand, you will see negative behaviors, such as characters creating problems borne from insecurities, doing and saying hurtful things to make people jealous and uncomfortable, or simply acting like complete jerks out of solely selfish motivations. My experience watching this drama can be described as if I were watching a long shot of two train cars colliding in super-slow motion.

If you look back at the discussion about this show, you’ll discover contentious talks. Different people held different views on each of the characters, particularly the main ones, Na Bi and Jae Eon. I think most people see Na Bi as being insecure and in an unlucky, difficult spot with both her love life and her academic efforts. I also think most people see Jae Eon as exuding pure sex and attraction, while being very honest that he does not believe in relationships, and as a result, only wants to hook up. What people disagreed on was whether or not their actions were reasonable or justified, whether each was at fault for their misfortunes, and whether each could learn and change. Even when the second male lead, Do Hyuk, comes into play, I do not think it is made fully obvious which lead you should be rooting for - he is a very considerate gentleman to Na Bi and has harbored long-time feelings for her, but does the pair have enough sexual chemistry? There are no fantastical villains or completely righteous heroes in this series, so I don’t think there is an absolute answer to this question. Moreover, I don’t think it is easy to find fault in the second female lead, Yoon Seol Ah, either, who is essentially just a straightforward love rival for Jae Eon. The leads’ interactions with each other display the positive behaviors that cultivate romance, but also the toxic behaviors that hinder an interpersonal relationship. As the plot evolves, I think the core question is “in a romantic relationship, to what degree is the importance of sexual attraction, emotional attachment, mutual respect, and friendship?” I think each of the male lead characters evokes a different sense of each aspect and it’s interesting for a real-life person to think about how they prioritize these factors, given their personal preferences and life experience.

Completely separate from the web toon, the show created all-new side characters that match this grey area. You have an LGBTQ+ character who is not out yet but also deals with the age-old-problem of “do I risk ruining the friendship or do I keep silent about my romantic feelings?” Then, you have a separate storyline about a capricious girl who greatly values sex and sleeps around, but suddenly finds herself with a strong desire to engage in a monogamous relationship. All of this adds to the feeling that the people in this show are living, breathing human beings and not simply super-hot, super-charming, super-selfless characters that exist in other shows.

The general ambience was expertly established to match this humanistic feel. The cinematography, especially the lighting and the camera work, capture the slow-burn feeling that is needed for this kind of melodrama. The OST is very appropriate, having mostly muted sounds and melodies, while leaning heavily on guitar performances, which in total give the music an “indie/coffeehouse feel" - it wasn't my favorite OST of all time, but I thought it fit. The acting is superb -- Song Kang, by all outward-appearances, seems like a genuinely stand-up guy in real life, yet he easily transforms into the suave, intense-staring, oozing sex-at-all-times, possibly-a-jerk Jae Eon. Han So Hee is totally convincing as the attractive-but-not-the-most-attractive, kinda-normal but deeply insecure-and-doesn’t-realize-it, going-through-a-tough-time girl Na Bi. Of the side characters, all were also great and fulfilled their roles well. The fanbase seemed to really love the LGBTQ+ characters and they were A-OK from my point of view. For me, I especially enjoyed Yang Hye Ji’s portrayal of the overly-meddling, whimsical, and overly-honest Bit Na. In the end, I say, hats off to the actors, director, writer, and production crew for their hard work.

However, there were still some minor production blips. Kim Min Gwi is currently embroiled in real-life scandal, and as a result, his character was minimized, with the result being some awkward scenes where the camera intentionally focuses away from his physical figure and gives a really strange feel as you listen to him talk off screen. The show also seemed to waste some precious time which led to rushed side-character endings: in particular, there was a lot of random screen time given to two teaching assistant characters. They were so forgettable that the first time they were shown together on screen by themselves, I forgot who they were and thought I had accidentally tuned into a different show. At the end of the day, these drawbacks were minor points.

The main issue I had with the series was that I felt that the last episode undermined the entire plot and character arc of the main characters. Episodes 1 through 9 clearly establish that the show is about flawed people interacting with other imperfect people in the setting of romance. Like real people, the characters make mistakes, but also like real people, the characters are given opportunities to learn and grow from their mistakes - sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. What I expected of the final episode is that it would be a logical conclusion towards the lessons that were learned as well as the lessons that were not learned. However, to me, Episode 10 is simply forcing the leads to end up in particular relationships/not in particular relationships with no careful explanation as to why. To be clear, the issue I have with it is not which people ended up together or which did not, but it's the fact that their conclusion did NOT feel inevitable and did NOT feel like it was developed towards in the preceding 9 episodes - in fact, the way that Episode 9 ended seemed to imply the the leads were going in a totally different direction. As a character-driven drama, this is anathema: you need to spend the time showing the adversity that a character faces, how they respond to it, and how certain personality changes are inevitable. In other words, you have to SPEND TIME to show CHANGE - real change by real-life people is difficult and takes a long time. Thus, a realistic show also needs to spend the time to gradually morph their characters. Put another way, I felt the ending was simply a stilted fairy-tale ending made to force final pairings and/or force certain characters to end up alone. I will offer this analogy: imagine you are watching a Kdrama with two, mega popular idol stars in lead roles. You also have two minor, less popular idols in supporting roles as the second leads. You learn that the male lead is an attractive and dumb man. You learn that the female lead is an attractive and blunt woman. Throughout the series, the main conflict and misunderstandings stem from the man being stupid and the woman being overly straightforward. Nevertheless, they slowly overcome their differences, discovering that they complement each others' strengths and deficiencies, and therefore develop a romantic relationship, which culminates in sincere confessions, steamy kisses, and emotional moments. The second-to-last episode shows you that the two leads have accepted their differences, and are planning their marriage together. Then, all of a sudden, in the last episode, the show pulls a complete 180: suddenly the male lead possesses genius level intellect without explanation. Because of this out-of-nowhere intelligence, he breaks up with the female lead as he realizes he no longer needs her. A last minute crisis pushes him towards the second female lead. We see a montage of all the times he interacted with the second lead throughout the show - the male lead misses the second female lead greatly. She, in turn, wants the male lead a lot. Ultimately, they begin a relationship with each other. That is essentially how Nevertheless felt like it ended to me - we ignored the personality traits of the leads that we had carefully developed over 9 episodes, ignored the lessons they had learned, ignored the adversities they had overcome and put them together/didn't put them together with people purely due to a last-minute crisis fabricated by the show. It was like all the time I spent with the show was thrown into the garbage in favor of a completely new start from left-field.

It's such a shame. I am a huge sucker for character-driven shows and I felt like this show was initially going to be an "easy recommendation" for me, but I absolutely cannot do it unless you are a mega fan of the actors or the crew. There is definitely high production quality in here which prevents me from giving the show under a 5, but the subversion of the final episode felt like such an egregious betrayal of my watch time. To be clear, there are certain shows out there that are designed for us to live a romantic fantasy vicariously and thus for these dramas, I don't think we really pay attention to how unrealistic it is: you basically want to watch two mega-hot, super-talented stars fall in fake-love on screen and enjoy every second of it. However, Nevertheless was never this type of show. In fact, it quickly established itself as a semi-realistic look at relationships and displayed so many moments of raw, lifelike opinions and emotions. Yet, it ultimately leaned on a contrived ending -- there is a final line that Na Bi says that ironically captures this feeling of mine, "This is just too unrealistic". Therefore, I feel the show failed miserably for what it seemed to set out to do.

For me, this show is a pass.

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So slow….

Glad this was only 10 eps. It was really slow and boring through most of it. I have a few hang ups. Na Bi really set the relationship for failure from the beginning. She listened to everyone and their stories of who Jae-eon is or who and what they think he is. She had a bad relationship right before that left her with a bad attitude to begin with. If you go into a relationship with a bad attitude and not really opening up and being honest to begin with then it really is doomed. I think they both were stupid in their communication! They never said what needed to be said when they had a great opportunity to do it. It was infuriating!! So many times I wanted to stop watching because I wanted to seriously smack them upside the head. He showed her so many freaking times how he felt but she was to stupid to see it! Even in the end she still talked about how he would disappoint her again and then saw Do-hyeok and almost let go of Jae-eon’s hand. She was still wavering!! Sheesh! If this is really the reality of how young people today communicate and have a relationship I feel bad for them!

Story - so slow. It was agonizing just like a said above! It was not the best storyline for me.

Acting/Cast - the emotion was there. It was good acting. I was not disappointed in that. I was just disappointed in the story they had to work with.

Rewatch - probably not! I personally am not one for slow, boring, and poor communication shows. I like when people are honest and open. Like I said before if this is how young people date and communicate… I feel bad for them.

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