After finishing the series I looked through some reviews, and many people thought Nevertheless was boring which I found weird because I never during the series thought it was boring. A lot of people and I were expecting a lovely romance story, but it quickly turns out it is not, and I think many found it boring due to it not being the story they were expecting. The reason I started watching Nevertheless was because of the OST by Sam Kim, which is an amazing song. The soundtrack in this series is phenomenal.
Genre: Drama, Romance
Episodes: 10
Written by: Kim Ga-ram
Directed by: Jung Won
Cast: Han So-hee, Song Kang, Chae Jong-hyeop
Synopsis: Yoo Na-bi, an art student breaks up with her boyfriend. Heartbroken, she stops believing in love. Park Jae-on, an art student who attends class under Na-bi, starts to show interest in her. Park Jae-on, a known womanizer and Na-bi are getting to know each other, and she slowly falls in love with him even though she has decided to not be swayed by love anymore. Knowing that he will be bad for her she can not resist his charm.
Story: 2 ⭐⭐
Characters: 2 ⭐⭐
Acting: 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cinematography: 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall: 3 ⭐⭐⭐
I love the main driver of the series and the set up for the main couple. The complicated situation between one that wants anything but being in a relationship and one that wants to take it to the next level even though they agreed to a to no strings attached type of relationship. My main problem which I will go deeper into further down in the post is that there is very little chemistry between the two and none of them seems to want to change for the better. Even though I enjoyed the thrill of the main couple in the start, the series lacked any satisfaction moving towards the end.
The acting was excellent, and they made the characters feel like actual real people. I think that the actors are saving the bad writing. There is little to none character development, some scenes get skipped, and the characters seem to never learn from their past actions. The side characters are way more enjoyable than the main characters.
Nevertheless is based on the webtoon with the same name created by Jung Seo. I really hope that the webtoon is better at expressing things and not leaving things unsaid, because the series is borderline bad.
*Spoilers Ahead [Rant Mode]
I seriously do not understand the message the series is trying to convey to its viewers. That it is fine to be together with someone who has hurt and played with you because of some happy moments. Park Jae-on is a narcissistic person that makes assumptions about people. The main reason for my dislike for the main couple is that Jae-on always assumes that Na-bi is fine with everything and even when she is trying to resist temptation he assumes that it is a game and that she is playing hard to get and that she deep down enjoys it. He always does and says something that the other person wants to hear. He always expects a reaction, a response that is in his favor. I think the last scene in episode 9 when they are in the rain shows exactly what kind of person Park Jae-on is, and for that reason I do not like the ending where they end up together. He shows zero sincerity by his actions, and the only moment in the whole series where I genuinely believe he does something out of his good heart and does not expect anything in return is when he wants to help Na-bi when her piece gets broken.
Yoo Na-bi is not a perfect person, but she at least has self-awareness that she is not a perfect person and is not pretending to be one either. I did not agree with her actions and decisions, but they were understandable to some extent. My favorite scene is the one when Do-hyeok is confessing his love, and she cried because she had conflicted feelings over Jae-on and she knew that Do-hyeok is one of the nicest people who deserves better. I totally agree with the reasoning for rejecting Do-hyeok, but ending up with Jae-on is just absurd. Ending up with a person that did something sincere and genuine once in the whole series is mind blowing in my opinion. Yoo Na-bi character arc was going from one toxic relationship to another.
I did not like that Na-bi kept Do-hyeok around after he had confessed his love, and it felt she had him around only as a plan b when things did not go well with Jae-on. Her goal was to not disappoint Do-hyeok anymore, but that did not take long for her to do exactly that. Since the confession I was waiting for her to make up her mind because I do not think it is right to keep people around when you know they like you, but you do not like them back. She even said to Ji-wan that she and Yoon Sol could not go back to being just friends, and still kept being just friends with Do-hyeok.
The scene where Park Jae-on tells the story to Na-bi of how he fell in love at first sight during the evening that she dumped her toxic boyfriend at the gallery. I found that scene ridiculous, believing that we went through so much of the series so Jae-on could tell that story. If that was true then what was the reasoning for everything that happened between the two prior. It is so dumb, and it is the worst scene and writing.
The side characters were the highlight of the series, but they also lacked a lot. I think the series would have gained by being longer, then it could have gone on a deeper level for the side characters.v
Yoon Sol & Seo Ji-wan
It is always nice to see some LQBT representation, but I do not think it was well executed. Yoon Sol is clearly in love with Ji-wan, but I get the feeling that Ji-wan’s mind is more on not wanting to lose her friend then being in love with Yoon Sol (it might be translation). I felt that we skipped a whole lot, like how did Ji-wan go from straight attractions to being a lesbian? I feel like it should be a lot more complicated than what was shown.
I do not know if I either liked or hated that they made the couple so easy to be together. On one hand I liked it because in reality it should be that easy, if two people like each other then they should be together without other people’s negative thoughts and personal opinion on it, but on the other hand I think it is a naive approach on how our society is to this day.
I think Yoon Sol is an interesting character and I really want to know the meaning of her art piece.
Oh Bit-na & Kim Min-gwi
Their character is whatever on their own, but they create a quite enjoyable and simple story as a couple. Two people who view a relationship in very different ways, but they manage to find the middle ground and work things out eventually. There is nothing better than seeing long time friends becoming lovers.
