This review may contain spoilers
KSalad Reciepe: Time travel + Soul Swap + Modern day drama + Flashbacks + Loovey Doovey Rom-Com
One thing about me is that I love time travel kdramas. Its one of my top 5 tropes, hence why I had HIGH expectations about My Royal Nemesis.
From the very first episode I though this was going to be an interesting experiment. A rom-com fantasy drama with a cast notoriously known for being ruthless villans. Like seriously BE IT MAIN LEADS or SUPORTING CAST they all did an AMAZING JOB. As far as ACTING is concered 10/10.
Music was also on point. I think I have at least a song that stayed in my memory and playlist so its a solis 9/10.
And now about the PLOT. I get why many people could consider this a salad. Way too many things happened simultaneously and there plenty of unexplained things left on the air.
First incredient of our KSalad and the major plot device its TIME TRAVEL. Obviously a lot of flashbacks and memories and switches from past to present. Ofc one might argue about its originality as well. Its giving Rooftop Prince meets The Story of Park Mariage Contract meets any modern chabol drama you might think of. HOWEVER the execution was exquisite up until the secound half where the writers started to complicate and intricae things in order to somehow set this drama apart from others. One one hand we had the reincarnation of the Prince being Sae Gye and of the shaman being also a shaman. And then we had some sort of soulw swap/transmigration phenomenon on Seori/Danshim side. Which left people confused. First because we though initially she was going to be a reincarnation too. Turns out there were 2 complete different souls that were swicthing supposedely because of the COMMET. The COMMET was absolutely missused turining from the time travel mecanism into a simbol for bad karma. Giving that it was reveled that the switch started from present time when Seo Ri was a kid, when there was no commet, and ended with Seo Ri choosing to return from the limbo to the present AFTER the commet that suppoosedely comes every other couple hundred years completely VANISHED. Writers wanted to be ambitious and somehow lost the control over this most important plot device over the episodes.
Another plot device was THE COMEDY + THE LOOVEY DOOVEY ROMCOME + THE MELODRAMA in the ending which was super cute and cpuld have worled a million times better into a less crowded plot. The Romance became more important then the time-space logic of the story. Don't get me wrong, I ADORED THE COUPLE and THE CHEMESTRY. I found Sae Gye a liitle bit childish and possesive but never the less, cute. The ROMANCE part that remained unclear to me is how and why would the real Danshim and the Prince end up togheter. The Prince supposedely fell in love with Seo Ri in Danshim's body. He died for her and that is why she needed to go back to change the fate. But the thing is if Sae Gye is a reincarnation it means we are talking about the same soul. Why would Seori look at them as totally diffrent human beings? Could not she have stayed with the Prince in that lifer and then reincarnate togheter in the present? Why should she let another women THAT LOOKS LIKE HER have her men for a life time? But then again...what would have happened with the real Danshim then? I feel like instead of trying to save the Prince she should have punished the King in the past. That would have changed the present Mundo's trajectory and meaby this way she could have given a happy ending both to Saegye and to Mundo's kid.
Which gets me to the 3rd plot device: The FIGHT AGAINST MUNDO/ The King: The king was left unpunished in the past and somehow Mundo was punished in the future with some stupid proofs that could and should have come to light earlier. The ML's family was completeley usless + a filler + a massive cliche. Aunties that want the money, a grandfather that wants to force a marraige upon him that has no control over Mundo but somehow threatens him with the kid. And the kid that was supoosed to show Mundo has a good part ended up as an extra in his own house cause Mundo ended un imprisoned. The entire fight against Mundo felt very repetitive. At least 3 poisonings in each timeline. Accident. A lot of hospital scenes, but NEVER a proper investigation over the murder attempts.
Another filler which makes this drama feel like 7 dramas in 1 was the actresses that somehow hated Seo Ri cause of her good acting. One became a friend, one tried to posion her (twice) and ended up not imprisoned but with a childesh BO HO HO threat on the wall. Gwang-Nam was the cutey puppey of this show. The stress relief factor. Kuddos to Min Seok's puppy harmless face. But his potential relationship with the frienemy actress was also left into a WHAT IF?
The grandma part was somehow need for Seo Ri to understand what happened to her. And the acting of mrs Haesook actually made me cry rivers. Such a good actress!!
The beginning was Rooftop Prince style. The ending was 98% copy pasted from The Story of Park Marraige Contract with the only difference being that the one in the past was not left alone in this one. (Spinoff meaby??)
Final thought/questions:
At the end the shaman kept telling Seo Ri that her punishment has come to an end. Why was she even punished for? She did not choose to spontaneously time travel and deal with idiots that try to kill her. She supposedely made a sacrifice. Which did not seem like a sacrifice at all in the end.
Why was Seo Ri in present time left in a sudden coma? Why did we not get to see Danshim? It felt like Danshim was asleep all the time and only walk up by the ending.
From the very first episode I though this was going to be an interesting experiment. A rom-com fantasy drama with a cast notoriously known for being ruthless villans. Like seriously BE IT MAIN LEADS or SUPORTING CAST they all did an AMAZING JOB. As far as ACTING is concered 10/10.
Music was also on point. I think I have at least a song that stayed in my memory and playlist so its a solis 9/10.
And now about the PLOT. I get why many people could consider this a salad. Way too many things happened simultaneously and there plenty of unexplained things left on the air.
First incredient of our KSalad and the major plot device its TIME TRAVEL. Obviously a lot of flashbacks and memories and switches from past to present. Ofc one might argue about its originality as well. Its giving Rooftop Prince meets The Story of Park Mariage Contract meets any modern chabol drama you might think of. HOWEVER the execution was exquisite up until the secound half where the writers started to complicate and intricae things in order to somehow set this drama apart from others. One one hand we had the reincarnation of the Prince being Sae Gye and of the shaman being also a shaman. And then we had some sort of soulw swap/transmigration phenomenon on Seori/Danshim side. Which left people confused. First because we though initially she was going to be a reincarnation too. Turns out there were 2 complete different souls that were swicthing supposedely because of the COMMET. The COMMET was absolutely missused turining from the time travel mecanism into a simbol for bad karma. Giving that it was reveled that the switch started from present time when Seo Ri was a kid, when there was no commet, and ended with Seo Ri choosing to return from the limbo to the present AFTER the commet that suppoosedely comes every other couple hundred years completely VANISHED. Writers wanted to be ambitious and somehow lost the control over this most important plot device over the episodes.
Another plot device was THE COMEDY + THE LOOVEY DOOVEY ROMCOME + THE MELODRAMA in the ending which was super cute and cpuld have worled a million times better into a less crowded plot. The Romance became more important then the time-space logic of the story. Don't get me wrong, I ADORED THE COUPLE and THE CHEMESTRY. I found Sae Gye a liitle bit childish and possesive but never the less, cute. The ROMANCE part that remained unclear to me is how and why would the real Danshim and the Prince end up togheter. The Prince supposedely fell in love with Seo Ri in Danshim's body. He died for her and that is why she needed to go back to change the fate. But the thing is if Sae Gye is a reincarnation it means we are talking about the same soul. Why would Seori look at them as totally diffrent human beings? Could not she have stayed with the Prince in that lifer and then reincarnate togheter in the present? Why should she let another women THAT LOOKS LIKE HER have her men for a life time? But then again...what would have happened with the real Danshim then? I feel like instead of trying to save the Prince she should have punished the King in the past. That would have changed the present Mundo's trajectory and meaby this way she could have given a happy ending both to Saegye and to Mundo's kid.
Which gets me to the 3rd plot device: The FIGHT AGAINST MUNDO/ The King: The king was left unpunished in the past and somehow Mundo was punished in the future with some stupid proofs that could and should have come to light earlier. The ML's family was completeley usless + a filler + a massive cliche. Aunties that want the money, a grandfather that wants to force a marraige upon him that has no control over Mundo but somehow threatens him with the kid. And the kid that was supoosed to show Mundo has a good part ended up as an extra in his own house cause Mundo ended un imprisoned. The entire fight against Mundo felt very repetitive. At least 3 poisonings in each timeline. Accident. A lot of hospital scenes, but NEVER a proper investigation over the murder attempts.
Another filler which makes this drama feel like 7 dramas in 1 was the actresses that somehow hated Seo Ri cause of her good acting. One became a friend, one tried to posion her (twice) and ended up not imprisoned but with a childesh BO HO HO threat on the wall. Gwang-Nam was the cutey puppey of this show. The stress relief factor. Kuddos to Min Seok's puppy harmless face. But his potential relationship with the frienemy actress was also left into a WHAT IF?
The grandma part was somehow need for Seo Ri to understand what happened to her. And the acting of mrs Haesook actually made me cry rivers. Such a good actress!!
The beginning was Rooftop Prince style. The ending was 98% copy pasted from The Story of Park Marraige Contract with the only difference being that the one in the past was not left alone in this one. (Spinoff meaby??)
Final thought/questions:
At the end the shaman kept telling Seo Ri that her punishment has come to an end. Why was she even punished for? She did not choose to spontaneously time travel and deal with idiots that try to kill her. She supposedely made a sacrifice. Which did not seem like a sacrifice at all in the end.
Why was Seo Ri in present time left in a sudden coma? Why did we not get to see Danshim? It felt like Danshim was asleep all the time and only walk up by the ending.
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