My Dearest Nemesis

The complete lack of chemistry was fascinating to watch.

This drama should be studied. We need a whole master thesis presenting various theories about what happened, because it’s been ages since rom-com gave me this little, basically nothing in terms of romance between the main couple.

What’s even more confusing is the fact I actually finished it, and I did not even have to force myself to watch it. Not many things worked in this show, but somehow I still kept watching the next episodes. Don’t know what weird spell this show put on me, but it worked.

On the bright side, production wise it was great. Not outstanding, but definitely on the high level of production. I wish we would get more in-game scenes since these were for sure entertaining.

What’s more, the second couple was amazing. What a refreshing pairing. Both Ha Jin and Sin Won are the type of characters I have seen in other projects. Their whole storyline was rather unpredictable in terms of typical cliches.

That would be the end, now we have reached the border to the bark side. And there is a lot to talk about.

I already talked about how weirdly weak the chemistry between the leads was. Not one scene awoke any butterflies in my stomach, there were zero sparks. By all means, the main characters felt like siblings, not like a couple. Sadly I think Choi Hyun Wook jumped into adult roles too fast, without graduating from university first. I do believe picking one or two titles set in the uni after all the high school dramas is the best option for the majority of the actors. He looked too much like a baby here, and how the character was written did not help.

And that’s what bothered me a lot - instead of making him an adult who has what is perceived as childish hobby, they actually made him childish. And with how mature and independent Su Jeong was, it felt like a babysitting job, not a romance.

Then we have Jung Hyo Seon - what was that? They painted her as a complete psychopath, zero understanding of human emotions, not just rude and cold, but simply abusive. Even in the last episode she was “confused” by normal human emotions, to then take 180 next two scenes and reconnect with Ju Yeon by apologizing. This just pissed me off. Not only did her development make no sense, it was insulting that it was accepted by people around her in the first place. Apology is a bit too weak when you were LITERALLY abusing your grandson for years.

The writing was just bad. 12 episodes, but it’s hard to describe what actually happened in the show since most of the topics and plot lines were poorly developed. Sure, they did bring some interesting topics like feeling embarrassed about your hobbies, need for acknowledgement and how it can negatively affect your life, guilt that comes from not addressing grief, inequality in the workplace, but none of them had any depth to it, worth reflection and discussion.

Overall, this is such a weird show. Majority of it does not work, but still makes you want to watch the next episode.

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