Where do we even start with SBS’s My Royal Nemesis?
Directed by Han Tae-seop and written by Kang Hyun-joo (who previously penned 2023’s Soulmate and 2025’s Lost in Starlight), My Royal Nemesis quickly climbed the charts to become one of the year’s greatest hits. Its series finale proudly earned an average nationwide rating of 11.8 per cent domestically while, internationally, the show comfortably spent eight weeks on Netflix Global Top 10 Non-English rankings.
Yes, My Royal Nemesis aired its 14th and last episode on June 20th, and it still reigned over Netflix weeks after it ended.
Honestly, it’s easy to see why the series has become such a success. My Royal Nemesis starts as a romantic, funny, and engaging story about past lives, identity, and transmigration that bewitches you with its stunning locations, charming protagonists, and quirky dialogue. However (and unfortunately), the narrative inevitably loses steam with every passing episode. Its once-shining confidence drowns in a sea of unanswered questions, ludicrously convoluted storylines, and volatile characterisation — and we can’t help but wonder how such a seemingly strong script ended up as such a head-scratcher.
This review contains very, very mild spoilers. But if you’d rather keep things spoiler-free, why don’t you pin our summary? It’s at the bottom!
Welcome to a Brave New World, Seo-ri!
My Royal Nemesis takes us back to the Joseon dynasty, where we meet royal concubine Kang Dan-shim (Lim Ji-yeon). Labelled an “evil villainess”, Dan-shim is blamed for the strange “star with a red tail” that has painted the skies for weeks and brought drought and tragedy to the kingdom. And if being the cause of the entire country’s woes wasn’t enough, she’s sentenced to death for crimes of adultery, attempted murder, and well… “disruption of hierarchy”.
Despite her fears and the desperate cries of her court ladies, Dan-shim walks out of her quarters as a courageous and outspoken young woman who refuses to bow to the wicked orders of a faceless king. As she fights to avoid the poison that is mercilessly forced upon her, we realise that she’s nothing but a victim of a corrupt and ruthless monarch.
Brute force wins, and Dan-shim is poisoned to death. The first 10 minutes of My Royal Nemesis are an intense and sombre introduction to our female protagonist, but that’s not the tone the show is looking for. From a historical drama, My Royal Nemesis quickly reinvents itself as the proper romantic comedy it aims to be when Dan-shim wakes up to see royal guards bumming around, royal servants doomscrolling on their phones, and crew members setting up cameras and microphones.
Dan-shim is now Shin Seo-ri, a mere stand-in for the leading actress of a popular sageuk (historical drama). The common shenanigans ensue as Dan-shim struggles to come to terms with the fact that she’s not in Joseon anymore — and that she isn’t Dan-shim anymore either.
In her understandably confused state, she collapses in front of Cha Se-gye’s (Heo Nam-jun) car. Se-gye is your typical chaebol heir: incredibly rich, unbelievably good-looking, and awfully arrogant. Infamously known for his cynical and ill-tempered ways, Se-gye was kicked out of his family’s conglomerate, the Chail Group, due to his rebellious misbehaviour. To find his way back to where he truly belongs, he decides to prove his competence by founding his own cosmetics company, Biojei, and making it the indisputable leader in its industry.
Against his return to Chail is his first cousin once removed (kind of tricky, I know), Choi Mun-do (Jang Seung-jo), who is well-known for his noble and responsible attitude — but who is secretly leading a nasty smear campaign against Se-gye. Fake news, AI-generated evidence, and treacherous business partners are just some of the headaches pestering our chaebol protagonist, and when (the now) Seo-ri not only randomly faints in front of his car, but also picks a fight with him in the middle of the street, Se-gye can’t help but roll his eyes. He simply doesn’t have time for these kinds of hijinks.
But this is a rom-com after all, and hijinks are exactly the sort of thing fated to mushroom all over this series. Amid the silly misunderstandings and comical encounters, our protagonists soon realise they need each other — either to navigate the uncharted waters of modern-day Korea or to achieve their capitalist goals — and so it’s in their best interests to keep each other around. What starts as a strictly business relationship turns into something more as Se-gye quickly finds himself inexplicably drawn to Seo-ri, which means he’ll tenaciously pull out all the stops to conquer her heart.
Time Travel? Reincarnation? Transmigration?
With such a solid premise as a foundation, My Royal Nemesis unfolds with considerable brilliance over its first few episodes. The narrative blends the mystery of Seo-ri’s transmigration and the magnetism of a romance bound by past lives with some clever intertextuality and a confident sense of humour, enthusiastically brought to life by the great Lim Ji-yeon. Lim embraces the sort of slapstick, cartoonish comedy established by the script and makes it all her own, devising a female protagonist who is naturally funny yet never foolish, warm-hearted yet never gullible.
While Lim commands the show’s comedy, Heo Nam-jun reigns over the romance. Heo conveys irrepressible longing through a nuanced and enchanting delivery, making it almost impossible not to fall for him. Thanks to Heo, Se-gye yearns for Seo-ri’s affection with a kind of wistfulness and passion that seems inherent to his being, effectively representing the show’s core idea of an attachment that defies fate, time, and death.
Before long, however, My Royal Nemesis becomes a repetitive mishmash of clichés and push-pull dynamics that feed vicious cycles rather than break them. Its flimsy worldbuilding ignores any sort of narrative logic, populates its storylines with unnecessary and underused characters who wander between sequences without any real purpose, and tries to tie all its loose ends together with contrived devices.
The protagonists are reactive for most of the series, merely responding to the old-fashioned and often monotonous ploys used by the antagonist. Mun-do seems to be almost almighty at times since he can buy anything and anyone at any time — until convenience tilts the scales against him in the show’s last two episodes.
The backbone of this narrative — Seo-ri’s transmigration — becomes Byzantine in its complexity, an illogical amalgam of time travel, reincarnation, possession, and body swapping. With events happening without rhyme or reason and the lack of any actual rules to the fantasy that guides this script, you finish My Royal Nemesis with more questions than answers, haphazardly trying to connect the dots and ignore the plot holes.
The Thematic Identity of My Royal Nemesis
Thematically, the show also struggles with a gradual loss of identity. At first, My Royal Nemesis toys with some very interesting ideas: female independence, loneliness, trust, and selfhood, for instance. Then, it approaches the concept of fate versus agency, of the need versus the want for romantic love, of true affection versus emotional manipulation.
The shallow examination of these very intricate reflections comes to the surface not only through the twists and turns of the narrative itself, but also through crude characterisation. Se-gye exists as a love interest only rather than a fully realised individual. His needs and desires beyond the romantic aspect of this story are pretty much nonexistent: he becomes an empty shell without Seo-ri around, and he battles for the throne at the top of Chail Group purely because he’s a chaebol heir, and that’s what he’s meant to be doing.
Meanwhile, Dan-shim is portrayed as a feisty femme fatale whose mysterious ascent from lowborn court lady to the highest-ranking royal concubine is never truly explained. We never understand how Dan-shim went from a shy, sweet, and oppressed young woman to a wicked villainess deserving of “celestial punishment”. Was the point to show how women who dare to defy gender expectations go down in history as witches and sinners? But did Dan-shim truly defy expectations if she gave in to the King’s vicious plans in order to survive? She never willingly hurt others, and she was exploited her entire life, but it’s not as if she rebelled against the establishment. With such unclear motivation and seemingly random changes, Seo-ri’s backstory is a blur that never fully aligns with her modern-day identity.
The dynamics between Se-gye and Seo-ri then follow the beats of a mostly cute, but often outdated romance. Se-gye’s excessive jealousy, the melodrama of life-threatening scenarios, and the constant mixed messages mark a relationship full of loud arguments but easy reconciliations. With their romance being the be-all and end-all of their characters, their bond is also given a weird co-dependency that feels jarring at times.
Brusque editing and poor pacing lead to bloated episodes that have their moments of fun and emotional resonance nonetheless (Kim Hae-sook as Seo-ri’s grandmother and Yoon Byung-hee as Se-gye’s assistant are especially joyful additions to this cast). There’s much about My Royal Nemesis that is charming despite its weaknesses, which is probably why the development of this narrative feels so painfully underwhelming.
Should You Watch My Royal Nemesis?
With its two charismatic leads and thrilling premise, falling in love with My Royal Nemesis is almost inevitable. However, if you want to truly enjoy the ride, you have to overlook the mechanics of this script. My Royal Nemesis asks us to care for Se-gye and Seo-ri and wholeheartedly invest in their happiness rather than do the absurd mental gymnastics required to figure out its tortuous storylines. After all, this is a romantic comedy with a happy ending pretty much guaranteed, so as long as you’re willing to play along and focus all your attention on our main couple, you might find yourself cheerfully transported into a universe of romantic miracles, quixotic insights, and infectious longing.
If, on the other hand, you’re looking for a solid narrative with strong themes and coherent worldbuilding, then perhaps My Royal Nemesis is a story for another day.
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