K-Dramas are no strangers when it comes to unhealthy relationships (unfortunately) but I have never seen a K-drama that was self-aware about it and leaned into that very premise, so I was intrigued by this show before it even aired.
I want to start off by saying, that a story is about a toxic relationship, is itself not a problem. I saw a lot of people writing this show off entirely because it contains a toxic relationship. Yeah, no shit dude, that’s what it’s about. You wouldn’t cancel a crime show because it contains murder and is therefore problematic. The question at the end is if the narrative endorses said relationship. And with Nevertheless, I am not too sure. But let’s get into it.

This show has a lot of things going for it. The cast is insanely charismatic. The chemistry of the two leads is especially off the charts, but the lead actress has a lot of chemistry with the second lead as well.
The cinematography wasn’t necessarily outstanding, I felt like they could have been more creative at times, but the show still looks pretty nice, and especially the spicier scenes were well-shot.
The soundtrack stood out as well, even though I have never been one to care about OSTs. I found it exceptionally good.
The dialogue was good and flowed naturally. Everyone talked like a real person would, which might seem like a low standard to have but is still something I appreciate. All the characters in the show felt like actual people, which is the foundation for a mature story like this.
This show definitely offered a more realistic approach to relationships, which I loved. The obsession with a purity that many Asian dramas have can get really exhausting so it was nice to see that casual sex wasn’t off-limits in Nevertheless,.
I really loved the supporting cast. I found myself rooting for Min Young and Kyung Jun who were sweet and funny and relatable and I wouldn’t mind a spin-off just about their relationship. But I was even more pleased about Sol and Ji-wan. Surprised because I actually wasn’t queerbaited (thank God) and it’s just really nice to see a healthy gay relationship in a Korean drama, but also because I was just really invested in their story. I thought it was a really well-done portrayal of a WLW friends-to-lovers-relationship. It didn’t escape me, that they were the only couple that didn’t really get any genuinely intimate moments, which makes me bitter, because we literally have multiple sex-scenes in this show but two girls being affectionate still was too controversial for Korea, but eh, sometimes you have to be happy with what you get. I usually have to look ages for halfway decent lesbian representation and happy endings for LGBT+ characters are especially rare so it was heart-warming to find something like this in a mainstream drama. I really can’t stress enough how much I loved these two and how happy this couple made me and without them, I probably would have given Nevertheless, a much lower rating.

With the leading couple, it's sadly not that simple. I expected to have major issues with at least one of the two characters because again, this is about toxic relationships, but I have major issues with both of them.
Park Jae Eon not wanting to date is completely valid. If casual sex is what you’re into, hey I don’t sl*t-shame. That’s cool with me. He wasn’t a bad boy that needed to be reformed in that regard. His actual flaw was toying with Na-bi’s feelings. When he was upfront with Na-bi and told her that he doesn’t do relationships, I was completely on board with that, problems arose when he started behaving like a boyfriend while refusing to be one.
Na-bi craving a stable relationship was of course valid as well. I also don’t blame her for falling for Park Jae Eon, because a) that man is dreamy as hell and b) he was very unclear about the boundaries of their relationship. I found myself frustrated with her a lot, for continuing to spend her time with this guy, but when you’re wearing the pink-colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags. We’ve all been there, we’ve all been in love with someone who clearly wasn’t good for us, but whose magnetism we couldn’t escape. I could only be so mad at Na-bi because I literally have been her and yelling at her to get her life together while I continue to make her mistakes would have been pretty hypocritical.
So we have two flawed people, a guy that’s aware of his charisma and toys with other people’s feelings and a girl that doesn’t respect herself enough to walk away. A common dynamic, truly a tale as old as time.

All of that itself isn’t a problem. I want characters to be flawed, heavily flawed even. I want them to make gratifying mistakes. But God damn it, something needs to come from it. Some growth. Or a life lesson. Because that’s my main beef with these two. Noone learned anything. I guess Park Jae-eon is willing to date now, but again, that wasn’t his flaw that needed fixing. Him enjoying flings wasn’t what made him toxic. What made him toxic is that he was just as bad at having flings as Na-bi was. He obviously struggled to differentiate between what is causal and what is romantic, which is why he continued to lead people on.
Na-bi wanting a boyfriend is valid, but she didn’t NEED one. Her not having a boyfriend wasn’t the flaw that needed fixing either. What she needed was to love herself. As much as I liked potato-boy, I prayed to God that he wouldn’t end up with our female lead, who herself was just as unready for a relationship as our male lead.
So, what this really should have been, was a story about two people overcoming their flaws individually. A girl that learns to stand up for herself and walk away from situations that aren’t good for her and a guy that learns to respect boundaries and communicate his intentions more clearly. Then I would have been totally fine with those two ending up together because they clearly have a lot of chemistry. But what those two needed was time apart to grow as separate people. Sadly this wasn't what we got. Na-bi and Park Jae Eon both never really changed throughout the course of the story, they’re just dating now. And that’s just really disappointing. Because now this show’s main message simply is “You can fix him <3”, which certainly is never true. And even if it was, that’s still a boring conclusion to arrive at. There are already tons of stories that keep telling us that love conquers all and that women are men’s free therapists, so I really didn’t need to watch another one that tried to sell me those ideas.

Should you watch Nevertheless,? Probably not. I wouldn’t classify this as a total waste of time, because there were a lot of things that I really enjoyed about this drama, but I still walk away from it with a bitter taste in my mouth. I was honestly quite surprised by Nevertheless, ending. Because it branded itself as being a more realistic, different approach to relationships but in the end, it still fell into old K-drama formulas. That makes the entire experience feels incredibly unrewarding. Because you watch Na-bi make the same mistakes over and over again to the point where it’s becoming ridiculously repetitive, all in the hope that the outcome will be worth it. That Na-bi will walk away from this, a different, empowered woman. But she doesn’t. And so this show is everything but.

In a weird way, I am Na-bi and Park Jae Eon is Nevertheless,. There were red flags that this drama would disappoint me, that I simply chose to ignore because I was too charmed by its strengths. I really thought things would be different this time, but I ended up heartbroken. I keep reimagining how things could have gone, a version of this that could have worked but it’s all fruitless. This is a toxic relationship and I need to love myself enough to walk away from it. Me and Nevertheless, simply aren’t meant to be.