The biggest struggle in writing this review is staying awake to do so.
In the end, there was very little point to this show that promised magical realism but gave us little magic.

On paper, Evergreen should have been one of those delightful and heartwarming Korean dramas we all know and love. Lee Jong-hyun plays Oh Soo: one of a family of guardians of a magical tree; the pollen of which he uses in his cafe to help couples fall in love. Determined not to love, he nonetheless meets and falls for Seo Yoo-ri (Kim So-eun), a policewoman who was recently dumped by her boyfriend.

With a magical tree, enchanted coffee, and a strong female protoganist, this show could have been an enjoyable watch if it wasn't all so boring and meaningless. Oh Soo is also an expert in AI for no clear narrative reason but nonetheless spends most of his time making coffee. The female lead is a badass cop - whom they repeatedly damsel to prop the male lead's heroism. The second male lead... exists. The show makes a half-hearted attempt to make fun of the cliches and tropes it's embodying but simultaneously embraces them in a way that makes the show feel generic.

The blandly-nice OTP fall in love despite the threat of the blandly-nice second male lead. Their love is threatened by fate. The ending is meandering and ultimately unsatisfying, despite the show pulling out every kdrama cliche short of a birth secret.

In the end, like the magical tree itself, this show exists. But like the magical tree itself, I'm not entirely sure why.