My Royal Nemesis Episode 1

solid first episode

Fast-paced, entertaining, and a solid set-up for both of our lead characters: Shin Seo-ri and Cha Se-gye (whose names put together mean A New World aka Shin Se Gye, which I think is cute). Se-gye reminds me of the classic kdrama chaebol trope. He's violent, ill-tempered, and spoiled, but he's also capable at his job, and his stunned reaction to Consort Kang humanized him just enough to make him fairly entertaining to watch. We know just enough of Consort Kang to really feel for her throughout the episode, but there's a lot to her past that I'm still interested in seeing. Clearly, the show is trying to portray her as a misunderstood villain rather than an all out villainess, and while that may be disappointing to some people, I think she still has all the likable qualities of a villainess: unafraid to speak her mind, stubborn in getting what she wants, and uncaring of anyone else's opinion of her.

I laughed at the reference to the "how to date a chaebol" trend that went viral on Korean SNS a while ago. I think the humor thus far is landing pretty well, thanks to both Lim Ji-yeon and Heo Nam Jun, and I'm looking forward to how their chemistry and scenes go from here.

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