“Queen of Tears” Still Disappoint Viewers Despite Its Huge Success

tvN’s popular drama “Queen of Tears” finally wrapped up its journey after airing episode 16 on April 28th. Despite showing a happy ending, the drama still received unfavorable reviews about the storyline. In particular, many viewers complimented the first half of the drama, from episode 1 to episode 12, for its well-made plot, but complained about excessive developments in the latter half.

Park Ji-eun is a well-known writer who has made various successful K-dramas. Telling about female characters who are independent and strong instead of Cinderella female leads is considered a signature detail of Park Ji-eun’s stories and “Queen of Tears” is no exception.

In the first 10 episodes of the drama, some people questioned the setting of the male protagonist but it was acceptable because of the well-written story with many emotions. Despite dealing with the old K-drama motif of an incurable disease like the 2000s, “Queen of Tears” told it in a newer and more interesting way.

However, the plot started to become so weird in episode 13. In the last 4 episodes of the drama, a lot of K-drama cliché were added, including loss of memory, replacement of the second male lead, reunion, sacrifice for loved ones, etc. 

Drama fans expected this popular drama to have a grand ending for the main couple, but the writer focused too much on portraying the villain Eun-sung. At first, Eun-sung was introduced as a talented character who climbed to his position by working hard with bare hands. As the story progressed, this character gradually became obsessed with love. He committed crimes but his misdeeds were not bad enough that viewers didn’t know whether to like or hate him. Apart from Park Sung-hoon’s good acting, this character received a lot of criticism. 

When Kim Soo-hyun confirmed his appearance in “Queen of Tears”, marking his third project with writer Park Ji-eun, the public had high anticipation for a drama masterpiece. In the first part of the drama, the actor made fans laugh and cry so many times with his immersive acting. Especially, his crying scenes went viral on social media and attracted many hot topics.

Later, the writer kept making Kim Soo-hyun cry too much, causing his tears to become meaningless. Adding too many scenes where the actors repeatedly cried and confessed their feelings eventually made viewers feel tired of following the story. 

In the end, what kept viewers watching “Queen of Tears” until the end was the cast’s outstanding acting skills and Kim Ji-won and Kim Soo-hyun’s sweet chemistry.