Nevertheless,

Pointless, toxic...and.. sex? "Friends with benefits"

The story of a romance between a man who is annoyed with relationships but likes to flirt and a woman who wants to date but does not believe in love.
This show is just so toxic and after the third episode I was so done with it, but somehow I ended up watching it.
If we talk about the monotonous story line, this show gets the award. Just so boring and honestly you can easily skip so many parts in one episode.

1. The main male character is portrayed as someone who is hot, charming, good looking "bad boy". Plus there is some sort of pain or emotional abuse witch they made it seem so cool, but in reality, there isn't anything cool with that. And everyone seems to forget that he is actually very manipulative person, who besides fucking every good looking girl, there isn't much to him.
Every girl seems to forget about his "real face" once they look at him and have sex with him...
2.The main female character. Now with this is what you call someone who makes mistakes, seems to understand that what she has done is not good, but then she does it again and again. NABI is a character who doesn't understand her own feelings at first place, she isn't innocent or naive , she knows what she is doing and does it everytime. I just dislike her character so much. No point of talking more about her... such a weak personality omg

To be very honest this show is a waste of time and romanticizes cheating , not communicating in a relationship and meaningless sex.
The only one thing I liked about the show is how they are promoting lgbtq+ community by including a lesbian love story.

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It's a Toxic relationship, Nevertheless

This drama sets the example of what not to do in a relationship. If you like toxic relationship, bad choices and merry go round situations then this drama is for you.

In This review I will be only focusing on the two main leads, Nabi and Jae eon.

First, let me just point something out.
Two broken people cannot be together and if they do the relationship will always be/remain rocky. They need therapy, they need to fix themselves first. As along as they don't seek professional help I'm against them being a couple. There's nothing wrong with being single. Be single happy and free rather than be in fear if your partner truly loves you for you and not just lust.

NABI- I believe she is a very sweet girl but has poor choice and makes poor choices when it comes to her love life. From her first toxic relationship, I would salute her for getting away from that relationship bearing in mind it was her first boyfriend and relationship. Although it her some time,still bravo to her.

Now, although she got out of that she jumped right in to another without processing her breakup. To me, if i were in that situation and I went to an art gallery and saw my figure with my name being exibeted I might have had a nervous breakdown and definitely would not be interested in getting into any relationship that quickly. I would say that Jae eon showed up at perfect timing And uttered sweet lyrics to her. Some would say love at first sight, nope i disagree, it was sexual attraction at first sight.

As you will see throughout the drama they both were very sexually compatible. Sexual compatibility doesn't depict love in a relationship. She wanted more in the relationship but her partner was unwilling to commit. She also did not know him as a person, his likes and dislikes and when she ask questions he basically shuts her up by using sex & physical contact.

She want's to claim him as hers, give him the pronoun boyfriend and be happy with him. She went away and wanted out of the relationship, he followed her and yet he still was not being candid with her. Why? I still don't know but somehow he magically changed and wants to be in a real relationship? People change... yes but not that easily. I mean if that's the kind of relationship she wants good for her.

JAE EON- He is a good person, however, he has underlying trauma and issues that needs to be addressed and looked after. His reasons for not wanting to commit to a relationship is quite difficult to understand. He uses sex as a means of coping that's why when perdinal questions are been asked to him he uses physical contact to guard his pain. I believe he could be freed from his toxic tendencies if the writer explored more on the mental issues he has.

Nevertheless, two broken people in a relationship what happiness could they give each other. Nabi is still not heal from her bad breakup and Jae eon has some underlying issues/trauma that's yet to be known. Until they work on themselves individually they shouldn't be in any relationship.

The drama on a whole was not to my liking and as stated at the beginning what it entails no so much my cup of tea. Nevertheless i completed it but won't re watch.

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I'm warming you don't watch this drama plzz. I wasted my time on this garbage

plzz dont make these kind of shitty drama. These days i hate watching korean and Chinese drama they are stupid and waste of time.I hate a What a stupid drama nabi is so stupid really and jae uhn has no self respect man. No story don't know where the story going why tgey are making drama like these man make drama with a good story. Good cast does doesn't mean that drama is going to hit bro you need a good story too. I mean how the director think 🤔 director be like : ok lets do anything so want to do i hate this kind of dramas which waste my time. Plzz dont watch this drama I'm warning you

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TRASH⁹⁹⁹

If you don't want to f*ck with your own mind don't watch this and save yourself from watching THE MOST humiliating pathetic portrayal of "love".

In the beginning I felt this is gonna be quite promising and artistic, so I was anticipating for a real emotional wreck kind of romance.
OMG I was sooo right about this drama being an emotional wreck. I was left in confusion why the hell I started this drama in the first place. The cinematography was soo good, but the story was all over the place. The FL got on my nerves whenever she was on camera. She was rather pathetic. And the ML was cocky manipulating sadistic b**tard. I'm beyond irritated. This is probably THE MOST artistic trashy disastrous kdrama I ever wasted my time on.

Ngl OSTs were good tho 😒

You're welcome XOXO

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A sophisticated take of what love is - watch without judgement to enjoy!

A lot of the frustration from viewers about this story lies perhaps in their wish to admire characters from the get go and/or expectations of growth. I found it beautifully poetic in its portrayal of the faults of people. People do not live their whole lives watching themselves on screen. They do many things in the moment, with the wisdom (or lack thereof) they possess then. This story breaks down the little moments of rapture and anguish of young lives navigating young love clumsily. More mature (not age! but those with life experiences) audiences will appreciate it and be more understanding (& less judgemental) of Na-bi and Jae-On’s push and pull. One more episode left - will life serve these two (& us) great lessons for (self) love with a side of heartbreak nevertheless?

PS. en pointe music direction. Every track was beautiful in its own right but paired with the scenes… breathtaking.

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It went down hill after the first couple episodes

I didn’t like the ending mostly .
This drama became quite tiring after the first couple episodes in my opinion. The FL really annoyed me, she knew and saw multiple times that the ML was clearly toxic asf and said she would stay away MULTIPLE TIMES but always folded at the sight of him. It was so cliche, the women always becomes weak at the knees of the “bad guy”. The side love interest was so much better, was clearly a lot better of a guy he truly liked her, but you know that’s how these dramas always end up. The nice guy somehow loses. Dumb decision on her part tbh. She lost.

Other than the main characters, this drama did include some great side characters who I enjoyed getting to know! I was especially really happy to lesbian representation in it, which is not often shown in k-dramas, so that was nice.

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Currently questioning my existence :')

Why screenwriter, just why. Genuinely regret the time I wasted on this drama and I curse my friend who recommended this to me.

The main leads are so unlikeable. Both Jae Eon and Nabi are so freaking annoying throughout the entire drama. She knew exactly what type of guy JE was and continued to fall and become SP with him. She gets hurt by him and is surprised and then continues to like him. Miss girl really has no self respect, she got hurt by her ex-boyfriend because he cheated on her but then even after being told Jae Eon had a girlfriend, still kissed him back. Yolo I guess.

And then we have Jae Eon whos on that F-boy shi. The "I got so many hoes " type of guy. I personally think he's immature for being in college and having this kind of mindset. I thought maybe we could've understood him better with a backstory but no we get nothing.

Side characters were great. Really liked the LGBTQ+ representation. I'm really sad Sol and Jih-wa didnt get much screen time and honestly I dont think Jih-wa liked Sol in the drama, it just seems to me she doesnt want to lose a friend and we never even got a confirmation.

Last episode was terrible the ending doesent even make sence. Nabi is really clueless her character wouldve been so much better with even a little development. I was hoping they would part ways with how toxic their relationship was but nope they decide to go out instead.

Overall bad but the acting was so good to make me hate the characters so much so I guess thats something. The music was nice too.

Oh and I'll never forgive this drama for making me hate seeing Song Kang's face :D

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Slow!

This drama moves so slowly for each episode that i get to screaming point- then it ends in a cliffhanger!
I find the FL irritating when she acts so slowly and barely says anything. Then she suddenly becomes outspoken! She's like a sloth that suddenly falls from a tree!
I get he is attractive but looks only get you so far.
Because of the slow pace iI'm getting fed up of the ceaseless on/off nature of their relationship and as to her being shy of love and trust because of her ex- not much evidence of that! She sp obviously wants commitment from him.
Also if they are eating together, chatting and having sex its not a sex only relationship as the storyline maintains - its a relationship for heavens sake! If it was just sex friends he wouldn't stay the night.
Both characters are very confused / poorly written.
May have to wait to binge and fast forward on all episodes so I can find out what happens without crawling to the finale!
update to episode 8
Still nothing! It's like watching paint dry! No character development, no new information - just the inclusion of a second lead. ML and FL still not communicating but talking in cyphers. and avoiding being honest with each other - I'm not even clear what the pair of them want from each other!
Final episode!
At last hjis has dragged its way to a conclusion and what a trite one it is! They dont clarify their past or current feelings , she just realises she was the girl he "fell in love with at first sight!!!" So she says she will get hurt and he says are you ok with that - and they start dating! Are they whitewashing his past to say he was a playboy until he met her?!!
They were cute together at yhe start but everything since was a disaster and they didnt make their getting together convincing.
Drama has left me annoyed and disappointed!

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This does something most kdramas can't—pull off a well thought out ending.

To all those who have been waiting for series finale to decide whether or not this series is worth a watch, I'm telling you it is.

Mini-rant(please skip this part if other people's opinions offend you): This isn't a wattpad story; this isn't a show that you watch to put yourself in the FL's shoes and live through her decisions. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a little self insert every now and then, I do it too (cue every scene Elena has with Damon Salvatore on TVD) but it is not the only reason we like watching romance. Most times we just want to see people's lives play out in front of us and leave us feeling... inspired. This is one of those times. For anyone out there who's using this to say this is some kind of justification for toxic relationships, you've missed the point. This is not a how-to guide, it a story. Take it as a story and not an example to live by.

~Review starts here~

1. Plot: Had the ending panned out any other way I would not have rated it as high as I did. That's because the series has some very obvious flaws that will be hard to overlook by the most ardent fans of the leads.

Here are my CONS:

+Pacing: This is some of the worst pacing I've seen recently. The only other drama I would say that beats it is DOOM and I didn't even finish that so you can see where this sits on my list. Just how Nabi kept losing her interest in her piece, I kept losing interest in the show. Irony, thy name is Nevertheless. Those of you joining us post series finale will at least have the benefit of running through the boring parts to reach the more interesting parts (salute to my fellow comrades who saw this in real time and tore their hair out every time we were left teased and frustrated only to come back to it after a few weeks to find out how much more dysfunctional things were getting). There is a lot of aEsThEtIc shots of trees rustling and light flaring through window sills. So much so that you'd often feel like you're stuck in a moody 2010s music video. I love aesthetics, I'm the kind of person who'd watch something just to see pretty people put on pretty clothes and go to pretty places but NOT at the Cost. Of. The. Plot. Every time we cut to a blank scene with nothing happening and sceneries changing I got pulled out of the story. It was meant to make us marinate in the feelings of what transpired on the screen but all it did was make me marinate on the fact that I was bored to death or impatient as hell.

+Character development: This story has always been about Na-bi. Park Jae Eon is more a plot device than a real character and that is the second biggest flaw of this series. We understand something about where Na-bi is coming from but that happens literally in the eleventh hour but for PJE we are left in the dark. I would have been inclined to say it's because the series is short, at only 10 episodes had it not been for the fact that they decided to shoot the sidewalk rather than give any insight into PJE's mind.

Right about now you're looking at my rating and wondering if I made a mistake, I haven't. Just stick with me.

Moving on to the PROS:

+Side characters: Where PJE suffered, every side character flourished. Other than Ahn Kyung Jun and Min Young, I was invested in all their stories. The only reason I couldn't get into Kyung Jun and Min Young's story was because it was not interesting to me.

+Realness: This is a story grounded in reality (if it was filled with very good looking people in every nook and corner; jk; T_T). What I mean to say is that it doesn't require a lot suspension of disbelief, which allows us to be fully immersed in the story (when it's moving along; sorry, I find it hard to get over the pacing issues)

+Ending: I don't want to spoil anything in this portion but you can read further down about my full breakdown if you don't mind spoilers. TL:DR read the title and then check my rating. Yup; it's that good.

2. Acting: Most have done a good job. Yang Hye Ji who plays Bit-na did as especially good job. She perfected her character's physical cues which made it very easy to understand what Bit-na was thinking even when she didn't have any dialogues. I also really liked the chemistry between Kim Min Gwi and Yang Hye Ji. They really played well off of each other. Han So Hee was serviceable in the role. I think it might have just been a directorial choice to make her character Na-bi extremely closed off. So much so that we were often left wondering like PJE what was really going on with her. Song Kang plays the brooding bad boy well but he too felt limited by the choices made my the directing and writing team about how much of himself he's showing us on screen. Lee Ho Jung and Yoon Seo Wan have also done very well in their roles. Chae Jong Hyeop is charming on screen.

3. Cinematography: It has a youthful feel to it. Makes me feel nostalgic for a period in life when our biggest problems stemmed from our (nonexistent; T_T) love lives. The framing is well done such that the camera would often move onto objects that were on the minds of our on-screen characters, giving us a visual clue about their thoughts.

4. Music: Every single song is a bop. You bet this is going on my OST rotation.

~~~~~~!!!SPOILERS!!!~~~~~~
Please stop reading if you don't want any spoilers!

The only reason I didn't finish my sad love affair with this series on a 5.0 or even a generous 6.0 rating is because it was able to do something that I did not think was possible. It got the ending right.

I'm about to break down the entire ENDING and how I feel about it. This is last line of warning folks, turn around if you don't want HEAVY SPOILERS.

The finale episode starts where Ep 9 leaves off and we are left feeling every single emotion Na-bi was avoiding for the past few weeks. Her heartbreak when she finally closed the door on a what-if was raw and cathartic. The whole time she was with PJE she never 'chose' him. She was a nectar-less flower swaying in the wind, letting the pretty butterfly land on it's petals but never attracting it. So choosing to let him go was her first choice about their relationship. That was when I was hooked to the story. Finally we see Na-bi wake up from her zombie fugue and choose a direction.

Next day Na-bi faces him again and in cold harsh light of reality chooses to walk away again. This was her second choice about them. This time she did it without the emotional screaming match and the heavy rain so we know she has conviction in her decision.

We see both of them trying to understand their feelings. PJE feels like he never really gave her his all and Na-bi seems more and more determined to stick with her decision.

When Na-bi's sculpture breaks we are left thinking if this was PJE, if he decided to sabotage her one last time because she didn't choose him, because she rejected him and he felt too vulnerable, too immature to deal with it in a healthy way. Despite visual evidence of an accident the thought wouldn't leave our minds. For Na-bi this was a moment of reckoning. She has not been inspired by her own art for a while. She's been floundering and has been going with the flow, trying to just finish her work for the exhibition. Now that it's been destroyed she has to choose. Her teachers and colleagues do not want to push her into a certain direction, whether that be to give up or to keep going.

So Na-bi had to make a choice. For the first time she had to choose to start her work anew, only a little different from the direction she was going but that little deviation turned her run of the mill work into something to be inspired by.

Only because she chose.

This is what the whole series came down to. To the simple fact that not making a decision, not choosing our own paths and fighting for what we want will leave us in this ditch of inertia that is very hard to get moving from. If we don't start living our lives we'll be stuck swaying in the wind, going where the well trodden path throws us.

Na-bi starts understanding that her feelings for PJE have not disappeared nor are they likely to because she never fully 'chose' them. She never fully explored them so she's left with a lot of what-ifs, living her life last-page-first, writing the endings to events she did not experience.

PJE meanwhile tries to put her first. Instead of focusing on how she makes him happy, he tries to make sure she feels supported and happy. I really liked the way he helps her rebuild and then stays away like he promised. It shows that at the end of the day he does have enough regard for her to honor her wishes, even if that's not something he wanted to do.

Do-hyuk sums it up best when Na-bi rejects him and then apologizes for rejecting him: "I'm glad I was able to feel these emotions thanks to you. I'm grateful, so don't feel sorry" (Do-hyuk is literally the best dude). Do-hyuk is already doing what Na-bi is trying to do throughout the series—live life to the fullest. He understands that its the journey that matters, not the destination.

Na-bi does choose to go out with PJE, she no longer wants to live under the shadow of the fate she's preassigned them. Maybe they'll work out, maybe they won't. The endgame is not important. It is more important to be happy with every choice we make.

Her lingering glance at Do-Hyuk and hesitation to hold PJE's hand when she sees him at a restaurant shows us that she has not completely grown out of her fear of the unknown, that maybe she's thinking about what-if she chose him. Maybe someday she will choose him, maybe she won't.

The journey is always more important than the destination.

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DO NOT WATCH unless in need for some some brain degradation.

I knew it! They couldn't have possibly pulled back in 3 episodes. In fact, they did nothing with the last 3 episodes. I honestly have no clue what was the point of this drama. It feels like the director pitied Song Kang from the show that everyone hated so they made him the end goal in this drama. His character is so much more toxic in this show than Love Alarm, yet he still gets the girl. This is so worrying. If you want realism with a tint of fantasy, Love Alarm makes so much more sense. I don't care about all the hate it is getting, it's still one of the best Korean shows I've watched in terms of realism in a flawed character. Jojo's character is the real representation of a flawed person going on a journey to self discovery, yet people hated her for it. What about Nabi here? She had no development nor any consequences.

Seriously all the acting was really subpar and nothing stood out. The only thing that stood out like a sore thumb was the annoyance of our three main leads. Nothing came out from them. If you watched episode 1 and then episode 10, you wouldn't have missed anything! Even if it doesn't make sense to watch it this way, let me tell you, it still doesn't make sense when you watch from episode 1 to episode 10. We are back to square one by the end of the series. Jae Eon gets away with his manipulation, and Nabi is as dumb as ever and the Potato Boy is a step-over mat as usual. The side plots were also really boring and kept dragging on for so long. I didn't care about anyone.

For those who are saying that this drama evokes debates, hence it's still meaningful, are wrong. Stupidity can evoke debates too, and this is the perfect example. Actually, it's not even a debate, but more of a rant to be honest. Anyone who likes this, please question your morality or see a therapist because Nabi surely needs one.

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glorifies toxic relationships, not a realistic portrayal at all.

I've never written a review before but oh god this show - please don't go watching it for the main leads, the entire storyline around them is pretty disappointing. honestly its funny how this show has portrayed a wlw relationship so well compared to any drama i've ever watched and soljiwan are literally the only reason why sat through all 10 episodes. i think its high time that kdrama writers realise that its okay for the FL to not end up with the ML, actual relationships don't work this way and even if they do there needs to be good communication; none of which was in the show. the main characters have zero growth. the show had so much potential. what waste of a good cast.

(forgive me for any mistakes i just feel super cheated by this ending rn)

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