My Troublesome Star

Review:

Overall Rating: 7/10  

(First half ~6/10, second half ~8/10)

It has a really fun and unique premise – a top star from the 90s/early 2000s suddenly disappears at her peak and reappears 25 years later with no memory, trying to make a comeback in today’s industry. The setup is fresh, and the show is mostly entertaining, especially once the romance finally kicks in during the latter half. If you’re mainly here for swoony romance, be patient – it is a slow burn in that regard and really only happens in the last episode or so.

The biggest issues are pacing in the beginning and, most noticeably, huge consistency problems across the 25-year time jump. A lot of characters feel like completely different people in present day compared to their younger selves, which hurts the emotional connection. Still, when it hits its stride in the back half, it’s genuinely charming and satisfying. Worth watching once if you like second-chance tropes, celebrity comeback stories, or just want something light with a happy ending – but probably not a rewatch for me.

Spoilers

The single biggest problem I had was how unrecognizable Im Se-ra / Bong Cheong-ja (Uhm Jung-hwa) became after the time jump. Young Seol-ah was ice-cool, confident, snobby (but only when someone truly deserved it), and emotionally rock-solid – basically peak diva energy. Older Bong Chenong-ja? Constantly on the verge of a panic attack, doing these breathy little “HAH!” gasps at everything (I seriously thought she was going to hyperventilate multiple times), and crying over literally anything. It felt like two different characters from the past to the present.

I kept waiting for them to say she had a brain injury from the car accident that altered her personality, because that would have at least explained it. But nope – they never mention it. Instead, we just have to accept that the poised princess of the 90s turned into the most fragile, whiny Ajumma imaginable overnight. The frumpy “bag lady” wardrobe and that wild hair were clearly to be comedic and show she “let herself go,” but come on – someone with decades of red-carpet training doesn’t suddenly dress like she shops exclusively at the dumpster just because she gained weight and lost her memory. She remembered being They Im Se-ra because she went on and on about not being the young beauty she thought she was, so she would have remembered all the glam treatments she did back then. I know they dressed her like that to make her look heavier but they could have accomplished it without making her look homeless.

She wasn’t the only one with personality whiplash:

Kang Du-won (Oh Dae-hwan) went from a bumbling, slightly incompetent but basically harmless dude when he was Im Se-ra's manager to a full-on cartoonishly evil schemer. He was polished with a businessman like demeanor that did not match that early shy slightly nerdy looking manager from before. People can hide their dark side, sure, but this wasn’t subtle two-faced behavior – it was a total core rewrite.  

- On the flip side, the villains who were supposed to stay awful – Ko Hui-yeong (the jealous rival actress), was perfectly consistent. Evil then, evil now.

Go Bong-goo (Song Seung-heon) was thankfully the most consistent of the bunch. You could totally buy that the starry-eyed young fanboy grew into a more reserved, mature version who still melts around her. His character arc felt natural.

I did love Seol-ah’s rise-back-to-fame storyline – starting from nothing, clawing her way up, dealing with all the ugly industry politics. And I loved that literally every single bad person got their comeback in the end (justice was served and it was delicious). The final happy ending wrapped things up nicely.

So yeah, I don’t regret watching it – the good parts are genuinely good and heart-fluttery – but man, those character inconsistencies and Seol-ah’s nonstop breathy whining made me roll my eyes more than once. Nearly quit watching after the early episodes. One watch was plenty for me.

Air Date: 2025

Average Runtime: 60-70 minutes per episode.

Genres: Romance, Comedy, Drama, Mystery.

Number of Episodes: 12.

Synopsis

In the glittering yet treacherous world of 1990s Korean entertainment, Im Se-ra reigns as the undisputed princess of the silver screen, her star power unmatched after clinching the youngest Best Actress award in history. But on the very night of her triumph, a shadowy accident—orchestrated by jealous rivals and buried secrets—hurls her into a 25-year abyss of amnesia and obscurity. Awakening in the body of 40 something Bong Cheong-ja (which is Im Se-ra's given name), Se-ra must piece together her fractured past while dodging threats from those who profited from her downfall. Enter Go Bong-goo, a sharp-witted ex-detective demoted to traffic duty after a botched case, whose undercover probe into a cold file unexpectedly collides with Cheong-ja's unyielding quest for truth. As buried scandals resurface amid laugh-out-loud mishaps in the cutthroat industry and tender sparks fly between the two.

Main Characters

• Im Se-ra / Bong Cheong-ja (Uhm Jung-hwa): A legendary actress who mysteriously vanishes for 25 years, reemerging with amnesia in an ordinary woman's body; fierce, glamorous, and determined to reclaim her spotlight while unraveling the conspiracy behind her disappearance.

• Go Bong-goo (Song Seung-heon): A former elite detective now stuck in traffic enforcement after a career-derailing incident; resourceful, brooding, and unexpectedly drawn into Cheong-ja's mystery, where his investigative skills spark an unlikely romance.

• Ko Hui-yeong (Lee El): Se-ra's envious rival actress from the past, harboring deep-seated resentment that fuels dangerous schemes; cunning, ambitious, and willing to sabotage anyone in her path to glory.

• Kang Du-won (Oh Dae-hwan): A slick entertainment agency executive with ties to Se-ra's old world; charismatic yet manipulative, he becomes entangled in the web of secrets as Cheong-ja's comeback threatens his empire.

• Yoon Eun-joo (Jang Da-ah): A rising young actress and potential ally to Cheong-ja; idealistic and talented, she navigates the industry's pitfalls while forming a supportive bond amid the chaos of resurfaced scandals.