Sanjh Banerjee

My Royal Nemesis: Time Travelled, Potential Didn't

My Royal Nemesis actually started well. There were strong themes of what the show was trying to establish in the first episode itself. The mix of Joseon, time travel, romance, and succession struggles made be excited. It had potential.

Did they use it though? No, not fully anyways.

I don't have complaints about their acting. I understand it was Namjun's first main charcter role and he did quite decent I won't lie. His expressions were full Diva at times. I loved it for the most part.

The early episodes did spark curiosity. I'll be honest, the base foundation of Cha Se Gye's character wasn't fully developed in the beginning. It was all over the place. It was hard to predict how this character would fit in the show. Well he managed somehow.

Whereas Kang Dan shim turned Shin soeri had fully established what she wanted to portray herself as, and she stayed true to it most of the time.

Unfortunately, one of the most striking issues lied in how she adapted to her new environment.

She is thrown from Joseon into 2026, and I loved the curiosity portrayed by her. I loved how weird she looked at things she did not understand . But that aside, let's be real here. She had grown up in the palace, and so you would naturally expect her to have gone through all the cutthroat palace politics there is (she literally died due to all the unfairness).

But no, her character was made unnecessarily naive. Till the end.

There was a LOT of wasted potential here.
She adapts to her new environment far too quickly, which takes away many opportunities for both comedy and character development. A fast learner is still easy to accept, but what feels disappointing is seeing how much more interesting her journey COULD have been.
She didn't need to adapt effortlessly to prove she was capable. In fact, a strong royal consort should be intelligent and quick-witted even when she's confused. She could have picked up on important clues, read people's intentions, and made smart observations without immediately understanding all the rules of her new world.

Dan-Sim/Seo-Ri's personality is unpredictable. She goes from badass to helpless in a snap. There was something off about this character that I honestly can't put into words. Her unpredictability gave me whiplashes.

As for Cha Se-Gye, we never truly feel the psychological trauma he is supposed to have endured since childhood. He looks solid during times of adversity which adds little depth to this character. I love a down-bad male lead, but also with their own struggles. Not just a puppy who trails behind their owner.

The side character antagonists were under-developed and honestly, this is the least of their problems I'd say. I liked Choi Mun Do, partly because how handsome he is. I mean...ahem. But again, a little more backstory could have been nice.

See it's not bad. The twist was good. I understood the intention and locked away my logic in the locker. It's just that...some things can't just be looked over. Time travel romance is my favourite genre so I was hoping for a little more. There are plot holes that you can't even deny, I'm sorry.

By the end of the series, they managed to show a wholesome ending. Good for them I guess.

Note: These critics are purely my opinion, but if you are still going to defend aspects that clearly needed work, I'm sorry, it's simply not a conversation yll are ready for.

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Disappointed af. How are you guys even watching this garbage?

My god. And then they are saying 2024 is another good year like 2016.
NO.

Cliches after cliches. Honestly I can still tolerate them as long as the story is good with well written characters.

Queen of Tears was just not it. Far from being great.

They tried to be a lot of things and ended up being nothing. All the characters were surface written and lacked any depth. I found Hae in's character to be the most unrelatable. You do not need to be a rich bossy CEO to show you are strong.

Well Hae in was far from being powerful. She was just plain rude to the people around her and unbearably difficult to understand in the initial episodes.

The show had so much power and just so much potential to do better. They absolutely failed in everything.

They tried to deal with a number of delicate themes such as saving a dying marriage, the pain of losing a child (tho barely mentioned and dealt with thereafter), family conflicts and politics, rude ass uncaring family members who suddenly became THE happily ever after family upon knowing Hae in's illness etc etc.

It seemed like Hae in's illness was solely given to her in order to convince her family, and us, the audience, of the fact that she was only human and that she deserved to be loved. So I'm guessing the directors knew how unreasonable they had made her character.

The villain wasn't proper yet again. This is especially disappointing when you have watched The Glory. Sunghoon was amazing in that role and it kept me at the edge of my seat throught the series.
Queen of Tears fails to portray a PLOT. CHARACTERS.

Hyun woo is confused about everything in the initial episodes and even becomes happy when he learns about the news of his wife's illness and that she might die. I could personally never fall in love with a character like that. No matter how bad it is, you are a man of a good social standing. Whereas the plot only tells us about the lack of communication, there were a lot more underlying problems that weren't addressed. Hyun woo had an absolutely uncaring and trash friend who pretty much directed his life for the first 6 to 7 episodes. PITIFUL AF.

I could go on and vent but that wouldn't really help.

Man. I think someone already mentioned this but 2024 has already seen major trash dumps of hot shot actors. Like you know, My demon, Dr Slump and now Queen of tears.

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TOPS. Other dramas better be learning from this one!

A drama way ahead of its times!!
THE drama.
It's the drama that tries to do a lot of things and actually does them immaculately.
It's 2024, soon to be 2025 and I'm still obsessed.

Happy ending for those wondering, this drama is packed with a solid love theme with action, mystery, adventure and a bit of family politics! Keeps you entertained and at the edge of your seat with anticipation.

The cast and acting is superb and perfect. It will break your heart and then gently put all those pieces back together for you.

Till date, Ji Chang Wook has remained my favourite actor and that's not going to change for a while. That man is something else. Istg.

Park Minyoung's character is unhinged and powerful. I fell in love with the three leads and then some!

The plot was PLOTTING. Everything about it is wonderful and it's definitely one drama I'm going rewatch again and again and again . And this is me saying that as a very seasoned watcher. And so it means SOMETHING.

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When Potential Isn't Enough: A Romance That Forgot to Romance

Kind of frustrating, potential was there.
Lets talk about the characters a little because I need to vent.

The only scene where Dr Jiu does something for the female lead in all of 7 episodes: 1) Helped her in the hospital in dealing with her
2) get jealous whenever Hari talked to the second ML.
3) Gave up his bed for Hari to stay in.

This man needs to speak up. Being weak physically doesn't make you any less of a man. Being scared of insects doesn't make you a loser.

But you being bad at communication and not making an effort to make it better however does make you look pathetic. Sure he is a good doctor. But there are other more important things that define your character.

My patience dried out in that one scene where the annoying contractor comes and pushes the female lead and he does nothing but stand there while the second male lead immediately jumps in to stop him.

The other thing however he does do is fix her leaking house in ep 8 which I guess is the turning point of the entire relationship. But I mean what about the previous 7 episodes I had to suffer through? Now suddenly he can't help but "see" her. I'm sorry this story is not building up properly.

I'd say the second male lead did a lot more than the main Male lead himself. He got hurt for her and also defended her on many occasions.

Anyways, this show started off quite strong, but it became annoying at some point. The romance looked forced and there isn't any chemistry. The actors did their best with the material, but...that's it.

The second couple did it better in terms of chemistry. They atleast had their sparks.

I might end up dropping it at some point. Lee Jae Wook is such a good actor, why would you do this 😭😭. Shin Ye-eun was very good, as you'd expect. She nailed the acting. Especially that scene where her grandmother passed away :(

Anyways. I'll be updating this in case I continue watching it and eventually finish it, who knows.

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Recycled and used

Okay hear me out. I have a good eye for dramas and this one just wasn't it.

Have we ever seen Gu won like ACTUALLY working?
Gu won does absolutely nothing about real work and is extremely one sided with his ways of pursuing a girl.

Even Park soejun was rich and kinda the nepo kid in what's wrong with secretary Kim. (Which is supposed to be the worst character traits out there. In kdramas especially). But did he have a life outside his love life? Yes. Did he build his empire? Yes. Did he also have trauma ? Yes.

The elder sister decides to be a real bitch in her mind 40s? Are you kidding me? Tho it had me in the first 2 episodes. But Ms Noona kept getting repetitive. The entire "The hotel is mine and you have no right to it" was getting boring and annoying. She had good potential but alas.

All the characters were cardboard cut out. None of them had a proper story. Cliche and recycled cheese. Nothing I haven't seen. Nothing original. Would have been gold in 2013 tho. Will give them that.

If you want eye candies, sure go ahead. Give this drama a try. Both of them are idols and know how to look good on camera, no complaints there.
But disappointing plot for all the right reasons.

If you have got nothing new to show, get lost because there are more of those good kdramas out there that need attention.

When you have watched enough dramas, you just know these things. Any seasoned watcher will have similar opinions.

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