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Seo Dongju Deserved Better—Welcome to My Villain Era

Buried Hearts had a start that felt really promising because of the slush fund, the revenge setup and the memory loss, which really had me hooked, but the drama lost its grip in the middle. Everything started to feel so repetitive and dragged. It felt so emotionally draining to finish the drama leading me to push myself to finish because it most definitely would have ended up in my "On Hold" list if I didn't.

From the first to the sixteenth episode, Seo-Dongju kept suffering non stop. Either the man became the target himself or lost bonds close to him with no room for him to catch his breath or gain a moment of stability. Although, it felt as if he was the only one carrying the whole drama, his character still lacked a lot. He fought for a vague sense of justice for an ending that didn't even feel satisfying. His breakdown after he had gained control made me question everything. What was his definition of revenge and why was he trying to get to it when it felt so pointless in that moment? Every single loss he had experienced felt so hollow because the tragedies kept piling up. It's as if there was no time to process the emotional connection a character had with Seo-Dongju to be able to feel his loss.

The most unbearable part for me in the drama was the unnecessary "romance" the writers dragged on. It was so frustrating to see Eunnam come up on screen because why was she in the light of redemption? How could she leave Seo-Dongju when he needed her the most? He experienced so much grief and dealt with it on his own only for her to waltz back into his life with some half-hearted emotional line like "For me, you come before everyone else" like didn't you actually prove that when you chose to marry someone else over HIM? And then it's the audacity of questioning Seo-Dongju how he expects to be forgiven because of what Huh Ildo did. So isn't your choice for marriage to someone else over love and communication perhaps a bigger concern and a decision you should be begging for forgiveness for from Seo-Dongju instead? He had no one by his side. Not one person. And yet the viewers are expected to accept the reconciliation and forget whatever happened. The romance felt so forced and the expectation to forgive Eunnam's betrayal was highly unrealistic because the reassurance of her presence by Seo-Dongju's side felt meaningless after the damage had already been done. Moreover, her character was just so inconsistent because her decisions left my questions unanswered. Choosing Yeom Hicheol made no sense if she was just going to divorce him eventually. What was her motive? If she didn't care about losing the shares later, why did she even choose the marriage? Just to make Seo Dongju go through that period of suffering? Was she ever on his side? Did she even love him? None of it made sense.

Park Hyung-Sik really gave his all—an incredible performance. But it just wasn't possible for him alone to carry the whole show. Although, he did well, the script of the drama didn't really give me a chance to feel connected to his character. Loss after loss after betrayal after trauma—it all happened so quickly and intensely that at some point, it just numbed me. And it's as if his own character was numb too or more like, he felt less human. How can someone go through so much in such less time and not break? There was no real emotional processing, no moments of healing, or glimpses of joy to make the suffering bearable or meaningful. Just an endless cycle of heartbreak. Every time something went wrong, my brain literally went "Oh God, not again. Give him a break."

Overall, I felt really disappointed with the show, especially due to repetitiveness of the plot and its very unsatisfying ending. Most characters were inconsistent with their written personalities especially Eunnam and Seonu and how others would turn their back on Dongju randomly. Also, the show would have been more interesting after Seo Dongju's father had died a bit later after some sort of connection had been built. The universe really was against Dongju and maybe things would have been different if he wasn't attacked from all sides by almost every character on the show.

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