"You have potential." It's a regularly given phrase by older people to younger people, friends to friends, and probably in the most insincere way, motivational speaker to an audience of adoring, money-wielding fans. For me, however, that phrase, "You have potential," well, that was my initial hope for Trot Lovers. However, some things in life stay mediocre, and Trot Lovers was no different. The first time I uttered "You have potential" was at the story. I looked forward to a narrative about trot music and about a girl trying to make it with trot music (not an exceedingly popular genre) in a time where pop is royalty. Obviously, knowing it's a rom-com, I knew there would be a romance, but I didn't really care about that. I just wanted to see growth, in the characters and in the narrative. That's where the potential fizzled out. The story of Trot Lovers reeked of cliche, of moments where the narrative could have ventured into new territory. Instead, the show kept the status quo, threw in elements of makjang the size of large watermelons, and basically disrupted it's main premise--to feature trot music. It's a shame, really, that the story had to be like that when given to such a talented cast. Jung Eunji was fairly on-point with her character Chun Hee. Her acting and her voice were spectacular. Shin Sung Rok made a loveable, goofy, and quirky son of a President and Ji Hyun Woo, barring the first couple of episodes, wasn't too bad as Joon Hyun. The star of the drama, in my opinion, was Yoo Eun Mi, whose character Byul lifted our spirits when the plot could not. Despite this, even the acting had flaws in its potential. Lee Se Young's Soo In (and admittedly, it may in part be the writing) was a decidedly one-note character whose pathos was completely unpalatable once it moved past petty jealousy. Musically, however, Trot Lovers held a decent amount of potential, and for the most part, fulfilled that promise. While I wished there was a bit more trot actually performed throughout the drama, when it was performed, it was very good. Overall, Trot Lovers slid into that mold of mediocrity pretty well. It had cute, even funny moments, but those moments never imprinted much on me, never gave me any anticipation for the show, and never made me jump for joy at a new episode. It was glitzy and glittery, but had very little feeling outside of its main characters. For me, the show was not a rising star, but a falling one.