Synopsis:
A young and aspiring sculpture artist meets a captivating and magnetizing young man. The two go through many twists and turns in their relationship. Will the known flirtatious, and promiscuous boy and the innocent and confused girl meet a happy end?
Review:
Hello dear reader! Welcome back, if you are a new reader let me explain how I rate my dramas. I rate my dramas on mainly two categories, storytelling, and direction. Under Storytelling, I take into account not just the acting, but the writing, and music as well. It is usually presented as a percentage. Under the category direction, I consider both editing and direction, editing counts for 2 points while direction counts for 3. It'll be out 5. I call them my sticky notes because that tends to be what I write my thoughts on when I'm watching.
Ahh what to tell you dear reader? Well, let me just begin with the beginning. Much like Doomsday I am writing this series off as a failure. Also like Doomsday the idea of the show had so much promise to it, but it failed most miserably in the writing. Nevertheless had sex appeal, the acting and the chemistry were off the charts. The plot seemed to be intriguing and not usually addressed in K-Drama's therefore fresh. Yet, I had problems with the writing of the main characters and the trajectory of the story. I'll just come straight out with it and just produce you with my sticky notes. I gave story telling a 75% out of 100% and direction a 5/5. Now, dear reader you're probably looking at these scores and wondering if I've gone insane due to the fact I rarely give direction a perfect score. My beef with Nevertheless had nothing to do with the editing, or direction but with the writing.
The female lead, Yoo NaBi just about finished the series for me. The actress did what she could to the character to breathe life into a rather tasteless and uninspiring roll but it wasn't enough. We open the series with NaBi in the midst of a most unhealthy relationship which is quickly dealt with. She is then left trying to regain her normal sense of self and pick up whatever pieces of her dignity she has left. This NaBi I have no problem with. She begins to start to pice together things in her past relationship
that would constitute as red flags. We also learn that she doesn't actually identify nor understand what her ex-boyfriend did was not okay. Then her "friends" don't help either telling her things are romantic gestures when it's clearly an invasion of privacy. Anyway, you start to think she is learning as she's reminiscing. . . Well, I guess not. As the series moves on she moves from one toxic relationship to another. While her new lover, Park JaeEon, treats her better than her previous boyfriend yet she is still left with that uncomfortable feeling that something is wrong. . . Ding ding ding!!! Guess what girl, SOMETHING IS WRONG!!! He doesn't want a stable relationship but insists on continuing to be friends with benefits (being open minded as Koreans call it) only asking her, if it is so wrong to just want to be with someone without all the labels. RED FLAG. He goes around to any other girl to ask them if they want to see his butterflies (new way to say ramyeon mogogale? basically asking for sex.)
I understand that writer Jung Won was trying to create something new and relevant to the times but boy oh boy did chacanim just miss an opportunity. What I thought was going to be a "Moral of The Story" type of series ended up being a sad twisted excuse of a fairytale. Jung Won completely stunted one character's growth, halted another's, and totally shafted the third second male lead. Then she almost completely removes the only character worth his salt when his personal problems become public.
Park JaeEon, let me just say dear reader he is the boy that everyone wants type of guy. He is that Rebel Without a Cause, the bad boy that rolls into your life unannounced and
sweeps you away on a whirlwind romance. He's the Johnny from Dirty Dancing who will draw you in with his raw sex appeal and his bad boy personality. However, unlike Johnny JaeEon is still young and doesn't know what he wants. He begins to grow but then takes a sharp left turn and becomes a jerk then disappears. Huge red flag if you ask me. In fact, he is full of red flags. He's so manipulative and yet all the women around him seem to be fine with it and in fact let him walk all over them, NaBi included. Then when he returns he manages a small, "I'm sorry, do I still have a chance with you?" What? No! Come on. If someone did that to me I'd say, "thank you for the apology but I'm sorry, you and I cannot continue our relationship." At the very least I'd make him prove himself over time.
In my opinion NaBi forgives him WAY too easily and then they kiss and makeup? I understand NaBi couldn't be with Yang Do Hyuk (who has popularly developed the charming nickname, potato guy. . . don't understand why), she didn't feel for him the same way he cared for her. To be honest, I feel like she doesn't deserve a good man like that judging by the decisions she makes with JaeEon. Even though in previous episodes NaBi has flirtatious moments with Do Hyuk as well as displays tad bit of jealousy. . . But she didn't have feelings for him, whatever. Anyway, you can't force yourself to love someone no matter how great they treat you. Yet, had she stayed with potato boy I would have been happier. At the very least she could have learned from her time with him what it was like to be with a reliable man who wants to be with you, all the labels included. Someone who won't want to possess you but share time with you. Whatever, we already know she makes stupid decisions and she does it knowingly.
Now, for something I did like. Director Kim Ga Ram does excellent in capturing the small details such as the lingering hand touches the small glances from across the table. Especially when NaBi starts to discover JaeEon's flirtatious habits the director does well in pointing out the small things he does to flirt with women. The lingering fingers, the extended shoulder touches, the eye contact. Then she likewise
captures the small movements, quickly hidden facial expressions, and glances the characters make, especially on JaeEon when he begins to become more obsessed with Nabi and flirts with the idea of becoming more than friends with benefits. The music fits the storyline well, and I think marvelously scored. The editing was likewise well done. If not for the writing I would have loved this series.
Those are my thoughts on Nevertheless, dear reader. You can see the series if you are interested on Netflix. Let me know what you thought of the series in a comments below! Goodbye and until next time.
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