Oopsminded

I partially follow you. What do you mean when you say he is "not relatable"? People like him exist. The people around him, fully or partially still supporting him or at least accepting him are the more unrealistic part, as in real life even family members get or stay away from such personalities.
But I feel like we're about to learn that at least some of them (like the wife of the director of the newly launched movie) have some history with him, and feel responsible for how he got.

Nope, she doesn't?

Thank you for your review. I am at episode 12 and struggling a bit to find the enthusiasm to finish it.

One of the reasons being what you just confirmed, that I am anticipating a precipitation of reveals. This drama tried so much to avoid the (sometimes almost statically impossible) coincidences that drive other dramas, that it ended up being an outlier in the opposite direction: non stop near misses for a reveal/clarification.

Also, I fear the (mental) age issue won't be resolved in a satisfactory manner - at the beginning I imagined there will be some time leaps / breaks, in order to allow her to "mature", but no signs, so far, of that (still time, I guess).

You would have to actually watch it, though, are you sure you are up to that?

I am sorry, but how is this the top review on this drama? A person that describes the plot as "The ex-wife (with issues) planned for her ex-husband (also with issues) to marry other woman while she herself marries to another. *Thus began their mutual toxic relationship*" clearly didn't watch it.

Or, I don't know, that person wasn't able to read lips (or subtitles) at the 2x play speed they say they watched it?

@op - this isn't about personal taste, and of course this was no masterpiece (it's not in the top 20 dramas that I watched). But your comment is a deservice to the community, it's actually a bit of a disgrace. You could... delete it.

The male lead's behavior in Queen of Tears is morally reprehensible and emotionally detached to an extreme degree. His initial motivations—being relieved at his wife's terminal diagnosis to avoid a messy divorce and planning to fake love for financial gain—are, to me, impossible to empathize with. If such behavior occurred in real life, it would be described as psychopathic or highly manipulative, as it involves a lack of empathy, emotional deception, and self-serving behavior despite someone else's suffering.

No, it's not that complicated really. Only a psychopath would react like him in the real life.

Yes, he reacts the way a psychopath would. I dropped it at the beginning of the 2nd episode, when the ML was starting to plan with some friend how to get a financial benefit of the situation. I am amazed so many people kept on watching after this. My assumption is that the audience for kdramas is so big now that the people that found a refuge in them some years back are now in the minority.

Your review convinced me to pick this drama, even though I kept skipping it when deciding what to watch next—I assumed it wouldn't be my style based on the synopsis and the tags attached to it.

For the first 16 or so episodes, I was completely in awe, certain it would end up in my personal top 3. I fully agreed with your characterization that this is the kind of phenomenal series that comes around only once every few years.

Unfortunately, the last 2-3 episodes were... well, disappointing. The ultraviolence became unnecessarily repetitive, the abundance of teasers for the next season felt frustrating, and the aura of what could have been an epic and unique K-drama almost completely faded away.

Don't you agree?