Review of My Dearest Nemesis /
그놈은 흑염룡

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m watching.

For three years I worked professionally as a film critic, and while going to all of the film festivals and interviewing directors and actors was cool for a while, but I wanted to reclaim my time and watch movies I wanted to watch. Sometimes watching all of the new releases is great, and behind ahead of the curve, but I feel like I was falling so behind on movies I was genuinely excited about.

So I quit and decided to focus on this blog. I also randomly fell into a period of unemployment because of unexpected circumstances, and I took a long and hard look at my finances and realized I had enough to take time off. I did end up doing that, traveled for a bit, applied to jobs, and found myself working on the blog now more than ever.

One of the shows I watched recently, while still unemployed, was My Dearest Nemesis. This blog post is actually coming out later than when I first began watching the series, as I spent most of March in California for a writers’ conference and to see some relatives for Iranian New Year. I did not really watch anything during this time, as I was so busy, and My Dearest Nemesis was one of the shows I put on pause.

That said, when I got back home, it took me a bit to get back into the groove of watching this show. I feel like if I take a pause on a book, show, or movie, I find that it’s more difficult for me to get back into the swing of it. I usually go through these things in one shot (not all at once, just continuously getting through something without starting another series), so it really throws me off of my momentum.

Anyways, I feel like I’m rambling a bit, but I did end up finishing this show in the middle of April! I was watching it as the same time as Potato Lab (which I did not like), and that pushed me to finish it.

Let’s get into the review!

Two gamers, after losing contact as youths, find themselves reunited as boss and worker.

We begin this television show in the past, where the female lead, Baek Soo-jung, is still in high school. She’s obsessed with a specific online game, and has built her own community around this game. It’s one of the players, known as the Black Dragon, who catches her attention, and she even attains a crush without actually knowing the player.

But when she meets him, Ban Joo-yeon, she realizes he’s not for her, especially as he’s a bit younger. She decides to move on with her life after seeing what he’s like in real life, and then we move through a time jump in the series. Now an adult and finished her education, Soo-jung now works as a team leader at a department store called Yongseong.

However, one day, the chaebol and the heir of the company walks in, and he’s their new boss. Turns out it’s Joo-yeon, but Soo-jung doesn’t recognize him as the boy she once turned down. He’s going to take care of the store’s planning team now as their boss, and they’re going to have to interact more than expected.

We see a lot of turmoil in Joo-yeon’s backstory, too, as his family disapproves of his hobbies and lifestyle, even though he’s now very dedicated to the planning of the department store and making sure it runs smoothly. His grandmother especially wants him out of the position, and she’s going to keep a very stern eye on him to make sure he doesn’t step out of line or she’ll get rid of him.

However, the more he interacts with Soo-jung, the more she realizes that he’s a fan of the game, and although she’s not really depicted as being interested in it as much as she was in her high school years, she doesn’t judge him for it. There’s definitely romantic friction from the start between them, and as the show goes on with its story, we see how they are actually pretty well suited for each other.

The forces of the universe are going to try and force them apart, and, above all else, Soo-jung still hasn’t realize that Joo-yeon is the Black Dragon she once turned down. Obviously, because this is a Korean drama, there might be some tension over that later, but I found the ride to episode 12 to be quite smooth minus some professional hiccups for these characters. It might’ve benefitted from an extra episode or two though.

Overall Thoughts

I’d say I liked this drama overall, even though I had some trouble getting back into it. I had stopped at episode 7, which is honestly right where the drama starts to get juicy with its conflicts, but once I got back into the groove, I was fully invested in these two. Their romance is pretty sweet, even though he looks like a high schooler in a suit.

Maybe I can’t unsee this actor from his role in Twinkling Watermelon, but for now I think this is a fairly straightforward drama with no frills. It reminded me of Business Proposal in that sense, but I don’t really see this drama as being unique and/or standing out in the world of Korean office dramas.

But as I wrote before, I did find this drama enjoyable, and I think if the synopsis sounds like something you might like, then it’ll be worth it. It’s only twelve episodes, so it’s not like there’s a ton of investment involved as well.

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