Nevertheless, (2021)

Fighting through the frustration to find at least 1-2 likeable characters to hang on to

I'll start by saying that I have not read the manhwa which this drama was based on and will therefore base my review solely on what I've experienced through the drama version of it. The review will be rather long, as my frustrations with this drama were many, and you will see me using the realistic-unrealistic argument a lot. That is because I've seen way too many people trying to excuse how badly the plot develops by it being "realistic", which is something I very strongly disagree with.

The main problem with Nevertheless, in my opinion, is that I barely found any character likeable, which would have been reason enough for me to at least reach the last episode naturally. On the contrary, the frustration that was slowly and steadily building up since the first episode from nearly every character's actions grew almost unbearable nearing the end and I was ready to give up at any point, honestly.

At the forefront of this was Yoo Na Bi, of course. The main character, the one that is supposed to carry most of the show and to draw most of the attention from viewers. I can very well understand and even empathise with her attraction towards Park Jae Eon and how great of a temptation his interest towards her can be, to the point of her wanting to throw her better judgement out the window (which she does multiple times). He was a very handsome and charismatic character, with as much of a mystery to attract your attention and make you vulnerable to his smooth advances. But his f-boy behaviour gave one too many wake-up calls (or rather slaps across the face), to both Na Bi and the viewers, for her ignorance to seem realistic.

What was even more unrealistic was her "friends" directly or indirectly supporting this toxic relationship. That is a special call out to her "best friend" (as was suggested at the first few episodes) Bit Na, who as I understand was even a fan favourite too. There is no way a real friend that was aware of Jae Eon's f-boy tendencies would not be strictly against his involvement with Na Bi and not try to persuade her friend to end this relationship, even with her more progressive view on sexual relationships, because she would have clearly known that that is not what is best for her friend. But Bit Na, on the contrary, looks as if she is having fun watching Na Bi being the victim of this unhealthy push-and-pull game. And as the drama goes on it looks as if she is slowly disappearing from Na Bi's side while the screenwriters develop her own storyline, which also feels unexplained since a good amount of the first half of the show was dedicated in establishing their close friendship. Instead, we watch Yoon Sol and Seo Ji Wan take Bit Na's place as Na Bi's closer friends, which is probably healthier for her since those two look like they would be better friends to her and not as self-centered. Even still, Sol seems to also not hate the idea of Na Bi and Jae Eon's relationship, despite seeing Na Bi being a wreck because of him, which is questionable for her character but I can give her a pass since she found out much later on the whole relationship timeline and I can see a few reasons why she might want to take that approach. The other people from the friend group, including Ji Wan, had no clue so they can be exempted. The conclusion that I arrived to is that Na Bi didn't really have any good friends that she felt she could seek support from and that is probably the saddest part of this story.

Na Bi's inability to resist Jae Eon's aggressive pursuit of her would have been better explained if perhaps we would have gotten a better glimpse at her relationship with her mother and her feeling a lack of attention from her, as well as her possible experiences of growing up in a household with no healthy relationship patterns. What we get instead is a brief scene of a rather important event in Na Bi's life (her mother not only forgetting her birthday but also choosing to spend the day with her romantic partner instead) and nothing more. In fact, the screenwriters do this a lot throughout the series. They quickly brush over important details for the sake of the story moving forward and give more screentime to stylistic filler scenes that may look nice but grow tiring very quickly. That is most evident towards the end of the drama, especially regarding the situation with Na Bi's piece for the final exhibition breaking, which is supposed to be a very shocking and unfortunate incident but is instead solved rather easily in the viewer's eyes within the same episode. Parallel to that, Na Bi's constant struggle with finding the motivation to work and satisfaction with the pieces she creates, which was a major plot point since the beginning, is quickly resolved by Jae Eon being her inspiration in a way that was never really addressed, in my opinion. That is especially vexing for me since I also draw and have had the same struggles as her and I know from experience that finding a solution is rarely that simple or related to anyone else but the artist and their state of mind.

I am definitely not one of those people that wanted Na Bi to end up with Yang Do Hyuk by the end, no matter the fact that he was one of the only unproblematic and wholesome characters. Alas, both being attracted and not attracted to someone is something you simply cannot control, however much you want to. So I cannot really blame Na Bi for not eventually falling for the sweet nature of her childhood friend who was treating her with so much love and care nor for her trying to like him giving him a few false signals along the way. That, too, I find at least realistic.

What I would have prefered was for Na Bi to eventually realise what is best for her and grow enough to move on from Jae Eon and find her own happiness without a romantic relationship, since both her options where not really viable. Noone and, sadly, not even the screenwriters could persuade me in any way that she managed to "change" Jae Eon and that he finally realised he loved her enough to let go of his past ways and completely devote himself to her. That is not only extremely unrealistic but a big loss to the "I can change him!" idea that had us fall victims to f-boys and their ways 15 or so years ago.

On a more positive note, I have to give credit to the drama for featuring a same-sex couple and I can also say I liked the pace of the storyline they created for them. Even though I also found many problems with Ji Wan's characters, both her and Sol where genuine with their feelings towards each other and the plot discreetly highlighted the societal struggles of loving someone of the same sex. I also very much liked how after the two of them get together the people who find out abouth their relationship treat it as something completely normal and I feel it does a lot for lgbtq+ representation on-screen and especially for k-dramas.

In conclusion, despite the production team having rather promising material to create a unique drama, with realistic plot and empowering characters, while also addressing several relationship issues that many people can experience in their lives, they choose to take the standard route, ignoring many key elements to the story along the way and creating unrealistic relationships and unlikeable characters, that not even the beautiful direction and photography can help redeem. I cannot really say how strictly they had to follow the source material and try to confine it in 12 episodes of air-time, but maybe if that was the case it would have probably been better if they left it and found something else instead.

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