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.