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Disappointing
The story began well and the production value is pretty impressive but the plot started to unravel in Ep8 and went downhill FAST.After developing the romance between the two leads slowly, the chemistry between Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun evaporated when the FL lead suddenly decided she was desperately in love with the ML. The series literally lost the plot, and the manic editing in later episodes and non-sensical ending made it all the more disappointing.
The saving grace is actor Woo Do Hwan’s portrayal of Captain Jo and Eun Sup and the young actors particularly young Jo Yeong (Jung Shi Yool), young Yi Gon (Jung Hyun Joon) and twin Jo Eun Bi (Jung Ye Na).
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As a fan of similar concept, I was very excited to watch this drama. However I was greatly disappointed with the poorly done script. The writer's past work in recent years have received positive reviews, therefore I thought it was reasonable for me to expect another enjoyable drama. Unfortunately it wasn't the case. I would say this drama is a reflection of the writer's work. It contains everything we have seen in her past work. Everything was there - the funny dialogues, poetic lines and for most of us the "bromance". Sadly all of this couldn't cover up the fact that this plot was just bad. In my opinion the story was very obvious from the beginning but throughout the episodes it was getting confusing and difficult for a viewer to understand what he/she was actually watching. Editing was also a key factor here, the story is about time travelling and parallel universe, it was important for viewer to be able to instantly recognize whether the setting/place is the past, future or present. Most of the time instead of actually watching I was just pondering upon what time/place they were currently in. Whether this was a flashback or current point of drama. The only thing that made this drama somehow bearable was Yeong's and Eun-sup's interaction.
In addition of a bad story a large amount of product placement was put into each episode. Naturally no drama is free from advertisements because it is what makes the drama actually happen. However the way the advertised products were presented was just very obnoxiously in a face that even I couldn't let this pass.
Overall this drama isn't the worst thing that happened but it isn't also the best one. I would only recommend to those who don't really care much for the detailed and overthought plot or well-written characters, but are here for the cliche. (Which isn't really a bad thing)
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What Went Wrong in this Show ? - Not Worth Watching
Note : I'm hella sorry , if I hurt anyone your feeling by this review as if because I'm gonna be trashing the show . Completely a negative review . If y'all wanna positive review for this show , lemme down at comment section below !When The King: Eternal Monarch was announced as the newest project of star writer Kim Eun-sook, drama fans were looking forward to another blockbuster hit. Kim probably has the longest-running streak of hit shows among Korean screenwriters. She has dominated three successive decades with award-winning and commercially successful shows, from her Lovers’ trilogy in the early 2000s, to Secret Garden and The Heirs in the 2010s, and finally, Descendants of the Sun, Goblin, and Mr. Sunshine in the 2020s. It seems that with The King: Eternal Monarch, Kim wanted to ring in the new decade with yet another hit but ended up not quite hitting the mark.
The show premiered to much hype by virtue of being Lee Min-ho’s comeback drama and a decent 11% nationwide rating. Towards the second half, however, the show failed to move past the 6–8% bracket, ending its run with a measly 8% ratings. This was surprising, especially for a Kim Eun-sook drama, as her dramas are known for breaking ratings records. Many are wondering why, despite having so many factors to its advantage—a stellar lead pairing in Lee Min-ho and Kim Go-eun, interesting supporting cast featuring Woo Do-hwan, Lee Jung-jin, Jung Eun-chae, and Kim Kyung-nam, enormous budget, an exciting sci-fi premise, intense promotions by Netflix—did the show fail to make the splash we were all hoping for? Let’s look at some possible reasons.
An Under-Utilized Villain
The main villain of the show, Lee Rim, portrayed by the mysterious and dangerous-looking Lee Jung-jin, was probably one of the biggest let-downs in the plot. He is introduced to us as the evil uncle who leads a coup against Lee Gon’s father, steals the magical flute manpasikjeok, and tries to kill Lee Gon in the very first episode. Following this, he travels to a parallel world using the flute, finds his counterpart in that world, and kills him. Pretty scandalous, right? The show sets Lee Rim up to be a formidable villain, but the characterization all but falls apart in the later episodes.
For the entire run of the show, viewers are not given a backstory for Lee Rim’s character. We know that he is evil but get no insight into either his motivations or what he’s actually scheming for. Is it political power? Does he want to rule both parallel worlds? Does he want to kill his nephew and take back the other half of the magical flute? We never find out. He stays a mystery throughout, and while that’s usually a desirable trait in a villain— this time, it fell woefully short of expectations. Lee Rim never feels dangerous or creepy enough for viewers to be invested in his eventual downfall, which, frankly, was just as disappointing as the character himself.
Poor Choice of Leads
One of the criticisms often leveled against Lee Min-ho is that he plays the same character in all his dramas. Here, too, he plays a role very similar to his previous dramas—the rich, bratty guy, except this time he’s an Emperor from a different world instead of a wealthy heir. The cocky rich guy is a concept even I, a non-fan of romance, tend to enjoy occasionally. But after Boys Over Flowers, The Heirs, City Hunter, Legend of the Blue Sea, and now The King: Eternal Monarch, it is getting boring and repetitive. Granted, no one does justice to this trope like Lee Min-ho does, but some range and depth in acting would be nice. That’s why I think King Lee Gon failed to charm viewers as easily as Lee Min-ho’s previous characters have.
As for Kim Go-eun, having watched her films and her eventual transition to dramas, I personally think that she performs better in more serious, nuanced roles like the films Coin Locker Girl and Tune In For Love. She wasn’t bad in her debut drama Cheese in the Trap either, which was a slice-of-life show that didn’t require her to be in hyper-realistic settings. In Kim Eun-sook’s fantasy dramas, however, Kim is prone to overacting—be it as Goblin‘s (Guardian: The Great and Lonely God) Ji Eun-tak or The King: Eternal Monarch’s Jung Tae-eul. Even within the show, she performed much better as the street smart Luna than the emotional Tae-eul. Minimalistic and nuanced acting seems to be much more within the actress’s range and depth.
Lack of World Building
A science-fiction romance fantasy involving time travel, multiple timelines, two parallel Koreas—one a monarchy and the other a democracy—the original concept of the show sounded too good to be true. And then it aired, and we realized that it really was too good to be true. Initial episodes set the stage for several mysteries—the power of the magic flute, the mechanics of traveling between two parallel worlds, everyone from one world having a doppelganger in the parallel world, Lee Rim’s schemes, and so on. But the developments of these arcs left a lot of be desired.
For starters, the show doesn’t dedicate time to explaining the exact powers of the magical flute manpasikjeok, which is surprising because it is the most important piece of the puzzle in the show. The world building between the two Koreas starts off as promising but ends up getting confusing when viewers can’t tell which world the characters are supposed to be in. I wish there were color tones, or something I could have used to distinguish between the two words because I spent the first few episodes thoroughly lost. When the actual time-traveling begins, the plot is too far ahead for any tension to build up so viewers are left accepting whatever the show throws at them. Frankly, it came off as unrealistic that Lee Gon could travel back and forth in time, altering timelines, without any cosmic side-effects. Isn’t that the inherent rule and tragedy of every time-travel movie/show ever?
No Build Up to the Romance
For a romance drama by one of the greatest romance drama writers of all time, the romance in this show is shockingly lacking in depth. It begins quite abruptly with Lee Gon hugging a stunned Tae-eul at the end of the first episode itself. We only know that Lee Gon has grown up thinking Tae-eul saved his life. But what makes him fall in love with her, we never find out. Tae-eul, though initially distrustful of Gon, eventually opens up and falls for him, too, but this transition again is too jarring to tug at emotions and make the viewer invested in the relationship.
The few kiss scenes we get lack any tension or buildup, seeming almost forced. As a viewer, it never felt like we saw Lee Gon and Tae-eul genuinely connect and as a result, their impending separation and reunion wasn’t as high stakes as it should have been. I was reminded of Kim Eun-sook’s previous dramas like Goblin (Guardian: The Great and Lonely God) and Descendants of the Sun, where the main couples’ banter and chemistry became one of the reasons for the shows’ success. Here, the dialogue was clichéd, romance was full of tired tropes, and chemistry was lacking. The happy ending didn’t end up being satisfying, and it hurts me to say it, because this story had so much potential.
Excessive Product Placement (PPL)
The excessive PPL in the show has also come under scanner, though this is a complaint mostly from Korean viewers. PPL is common in every drama with a big budget as broadcasters seek to recover the money they spent on the show. The difference between good and bad PPL, however, is that the former is cleverly injected into the plot and doesn’t ruin the flow, while the latter, well, does. Korean viewers have called this show’s PPL some of the most notorious they have ever seen in a drama, and let me tell you why.
Almost every meal the characters are shown eating is the BBQ chicken they are promoting, and in one scene, Lee Min-ho’s character goes beyond eating to raving about the chicken…right in the middle of the plot! We know South Korea’s fried chicken is to die for, but come on. Several times, the show switches from a drama to an advertisement in the most jarring of transitions that break the flow of that particular scene. Yet another instance is Kim Go-eun breaking character to promote a lip balm, while she is supposed to be on duty as a detective. Most international fans don’t even blink at the PPL in K-dramas, but this time, we did.
Too Many Side Arcs
Instead of building up the parallel worlds, the villains, and the lead couple’s story, the focus of the show seems to be on the many, many side characters as well as their counterparts in the parallel world. There are so many stories going on at once that focusing on one was difficult. Still, if the side arcs are done well, they only add to the plot. But side characters in The King: Eternal Monarch that looked like they would impact the main plot turned out to be irrelevant. I quite enjoyed Jo Yeong/Jo Eun-seob and Kang Shin-jae’s arcs, but Goo Seo-ryung, Prince Buyeong, Myeong Na-ri, and Min Hwa-yeon, who got significant screen time, eventually ended up contributing nothing. All this time could have been spent on developing Lee Rim’s character or the romance between Lee Gon and Tae-eul.
All in all, The King: Eternal Monarch boasted of an amazing concept, but the execution left much to be desired. It seems that writer Kim Eun-sook tried to experiment with a new genre but got lost on the way. This is not to say that I’ve lost faith in her work—it’s simply a minor setback in a long and illustrious career. K-dramaland is bound to be just as excited for her next work as we were for this one.
Have you watched The King: Eternal Monarch? Let us know your thoughts about the show in the comments below!
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My reviews are not usually long but for this drama.... I have a lot to say.The overall story was a good concept. There was a parallel universe with some minor/major differences and a portal between the two, not a bad idea. The characters, however, the characters and their relationship... not very good. The main romance has got to be one of the worst relationships I've ever seen in a drama. Their chemistry was awful. They never got a chance to develop an actual believable relationship. When she found out that everything he was saying was true, she immediately fell for him. Like?!?!!? In the beginning, she is seen as a strong female that won't take crap from no one, yet here she is falling head over heels for this man she was literally hours before, calling crazy. I also cannot count how many times there was a scene where she was crying because she missed him and then he shows up and there's a slow-mo scene of them running into each other's arms. Normally, that would be cute. Here, it's cringy and repetitive. The only chemistry they had, was at the very last episode. In my opinion of course.
Main couple aside, the whole arc of time travel was also awful. Surprise surprise. Time travel is not that difficult to understand, but I can see why it's hard to write about time travel. Even though it is difficult to write about, that is no excuse for how the drama played out. To me, it was just lazy writing.
The Prime Minister! Oh, they did her dirty. I never hated her, I never thought that she was a bad guy when it was so obvious that that's what they were trying to push. To me, she just seemed like a person who had goals and would do a lot to achieve them. I didn't like the ending they gave her, it was a bit disappointing. She could've easily been cut from the drama and it would be exactly the same.
Product Placement! There was a crap ton of product placement and I think everyone knows that. I personally think that product placement in dramas is hilarious, it always gives me a good laugh when I see how the writers wrote the product in. This drama, though, had soooo many product placements. I've seen a lot of people complain about it, and while yes, it was at times annoying, people gotta make money! Maybe they were greedy! Maybe they had a reason! Maybe they didn't! Oh well! I wouldn't say that it absolutely ruined my watching experience, it really isn't that big of a deal. But I know it is for some people, so if you hate that sort of stuff, don't even bother watching this one. I don't think I've ever seen another drama with this much product placement.
The best positive! Joyeong and Eunseob easily the best characters in the show. They're complete opposites but are still equally as lovable. You got Joyeong who's firm, has nice slick hair, and speaks formally. Then there's Eunseob. He has messy hair, is very fragile, and has one of my favorite accents ever. I freaking love it when he speaks. Now THEY had personality.
The soundtrack was beautiful and played at the right time. Sometimes it would make the scene 100% more dramatic or emotional and it was fantastic. The Fantasia of Another Dimension was incredible and makes me want to cry whenever I hear it and Orbit by Hwasa has got to be one of my favorite kpop songs of all time. There was one song that seemed out of place and I didn't like it at all. But that would be the only one.
One last thing. I believe that the cast was great, great choices with great actors. However, most of the characters were bland. It doesn't change the fact that they are good actors, but it didn't save the drama either.
I don't believe that this is one of the worst dramas ever. Did it suck at times? Yes. However, there were some times when I was looking forward to the next episode. And there were even times in which I enjoyed watching it. That's why I gave it a 6.5. To me, 6.5 is not bad, it's not good either. Equally bad and equally good in my opinion. And while I give it a 6.5, I would definitely not recommend this drama to anybody.
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A 20 hour long commercial with beautiful horses
First of all: so much advertising! I mean, at times it felt like watching an elaborate commercial.It was really distracting and my main reason for the low score.
Normally, I'm super into space-time paradoxes (among my absolute favorites within the sci-fi genre), but this is messy and, most of all, terribly boring (I'm so very disappointed in Kim Eun-sook).
I fell asleep multiple times.
By episode 5 one can easily guess the masked savior's identity and still fail to understand the mechanics of the parallel worlds created by the writer. For instance, how is it possible for universes that diverged for hundreds of years to have the same people, born on the same year and day from the same doppelgangers?! And how does it make sense to base everything on this premise and still assert that a different choice or being a second late can cause chaos in the space-time continuum?!!!
Despite their individual talent, the main couple was tepid throughout. The characters were dull and their love just came to be so suddenly that it was as nonsensical as the plot.
At one point I rooted for the prime minister, she looked like an interesting one with her political schemes and feminine outfits, but even that fell to nothing.
Honorable mention for Woo Do-hwan that tried his very best here and kept me watching to the end.
Female Empowerment Score 3/5: the three points go to the cool building owner and, in a smaller percentage, to the prime minister lady.
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Cinematography 10/10, messed up story
This drama brings me a lot of emotions. I’ll start first stating the positive things about it. The cinematography, the lightning, and the shots are out of this world. They’re simply beautiful to the eye. The locations were beautifully planned and the shots portrayed the characters different emotions and deepest fears. Secondly, Lee Min Hoo performed well in this drama. (First time I say that)! Aside from him, the villain (the actor) his skills at acting are amazing, he never disappoints. He was probably the best actor in this drama. In the beginning, I was not convinced with the protagonist that they choose because they don’t have that much chemistry. Here we come to the negative, the lack of chemistry and the worst thing: the scenes and the jumping. Most scenes didn’t follow each other and the story was pretty confusing most of the time. I think it’s okay to make us viewers think, but we are mostly watching a show to entertain ourselves ... not to be resolving puzzles that don’t make sense. The final episode was pretty satisfying to me, I won’t state how. However, there is a lot of things that I did not understand even till the last episode. I don’t know why they choose to make it so confusing. This drama was really hard to watch and got boring in a lot of episodes, I had to force myself to keep going and I think it was worthy to what I was expecting, but I wouldn’t recommend you watching it if you have better things to do/watch. Another thing I dislike was the promos/ ads that were too obvious and kept appearing repeatedly through different episodes. I may have forgotten one or two things that could be negative too about this drama. Overall, the negatives are bigger than the positive ones. For my liking, I only watched it because I like to appreciate it the cinematographers work and how hard they work on it.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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Good beginning, horrible at the end
The King: Eternal Monarch was one of the most hyped dramas of this year. Lee Min Ho, Kim Go Eun en Woo Do Hwan were all superb in their acting. That's about all the nice things I can say about it.The story started off nicely, but the character development was horrible. You didn't get attached to the characters or feel for them, they were the same from the first till the last episode.
The drama had way too many storylines that weren't finished, as if they wanted this to be a 24 episode drama but after episode 13 they got notified that it would be cut down to 16. For example: they put lots of time in for Prime minister Koo, but her character didn't develop all this time and then within 5 minutes she's out of the story. And no, she's not even dead. Why bother giving her so much screen time then??? Or bodyguard Yeong who didn't have much interaction with his counterpart, suddenly states in the last episode that he misses him? Like why would he miss him if they were in other universes in the first place? Where does this come from?
The ending of the love story isn't satisfying either, it is hinted that they will only date during the weekends until they are old. This is just so dumb in a love story. Nobody would accept only dating during the weekends for the rest of their lives, especially if you're the king of a country.
The last few episodes felt dragged out as well. We got the idea, everybody was being replaced. There is no need to show us another 10 times. Instead they could've given us some closure on the other storylines or put into character development.
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A drama that left me with mixed feelings about it. I literally stared at the screen for a few minutes trying to process the last episodes. I was stoked for this drama and hyped myself up for it which was a mistake to begin with. I pretty much set myself up to be disappointed. I know the ending could've been worse, but unfortunately, I was still left unsatisfied.Story
To start off, the plot-line was something absolutely new to me. I had never seen a parallel universe type of drama as far as I can remember, so this concept was refreshing to see. It started off slow but promising. The first half of the drama seemed to lean more towards a full on rom-com genre with the always so present weak villain story-line. That obviously changed by the second half when it got serious and the writers started throwing everything at us. This was a huge mistake. There was now a time constraint to fully explore and execute the thriller side of the story that by the time the focus switched the audience had no idea what was going on. There was so many different conflicts back-to-back that were then quickly resolved without further or very limited explanation. We were just supposed to go along with the it. Up until episode 13, I was able to make inferences through context clues to find a suitable explanation and justification for an action that had taken place and how it progressed the story. After ep 13 all reason left the chat. Time traveling came to the picture followed up with a half-@ssed explanation for it's cause. I was honestly confused the whole time up until the end, it was hella rushed.
As for the romance, it quickly progressed in the first few episodes which was a bit unexpected. I was a appalled by the way Jung Tae Eul quickly accepted the fact that a parallel universe was possible and especially how she just suddenly fell head-over-heels for Lee Gon, almost overnight. Some scenes were just too forced. I saw no buildup to the the romance, If there was then perhaps the leads lacked the chemistry to relay those emotions to the audience.
Although, mostly all the romantic scenes were cliche af, I must admit at some point I became fond of their love. I did notice the main leads scenes began to turn repetitive, aka the running towards each other for a long deep embrace, with tears in their eyes followed up with crying. At first it was heart-wrenching to see them temporarily part ways, but it eventually became tiresome seeing the same thing play out every other episode. Romance was pretty much filler because director had no idea how to progress the main plot.
If the romance had been a slow-burn type this drama might have been more positively received. The concept was too ambiguous for the writers and directors to then go and purely focus on romance. It just became a watered down version of something that had the potential to become extraordinary, if only it focused more on the technicality and function of parallel universes. One thing I will add is that some of the plot-twists, I did not see coming. They added a great deal to the story.
I honestly expected too much from this drama.
Acting/Cast
The main reason watching this, made it worth it at the end. Props to all the actors for taking on the role of two different characters and doing it extremely well. It was very convincing that at times I truly believed they were two different people, it never felt awkward or obvious. The main cast were very likable and each character had their own persona and quirks which made them unique. You can go from absolutely loving one character to despising the other even though they are played by the same actor.
Rewatch Value
Will maybe rewatch from time to time for those cute scenes between the leads when they were in kingdom of corea. Of course also for Jo Eun Sub and Jo Young's funny scenes.
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The female actresses acted the male actors off the screen. I especially liked the female prime minister and her ending seemed to be fitting. I am not sure what happened with the male characters as they seemed to do very little and had so little emotional depth. I did not really end up caring what happened to them. It really is a flaw when half the characters are just not interesting.
The villain was bland and yawn inducing considering how little we say him, which was often just in the same flashback, and his ending just did not make sense. There was very little backstory to the villain to explain what made him do what he did so it was very difficult to find him interesting.
However, what really disappointed me was what I consider to be a very sad ending for the king and detective. I have already thought of at least half a dozen endings for them that would have been better and I find it hard to believe this was the best ending the writers could think of. Just to make it clear, the ending for most of the characters was suitable, appropriate and/or happy but the ending for the two leads sucked. I am sure others will disagree and say it was a happy ending. I do not think so.
There are better Korean dramas out there where the ending does not make you feel that you just wasted 16+ hours of your life.
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Good Acting with Sci Fi and Supernatural Elements. Storytelling could have been better.
Lee Min ho has done a brilliant job. He was acting with his eyes. I believed that there was another world and he was the real king! Omo! The female lead's acting was also very good. In fact everyone acted very well! And o-m-g the supporting actor and actresses' storyline were also very interesting. Normally I don't enjoy that much the supporting stories because they would be not much detailed and so on. But this one was really good.But personally I think the chemistry lacked a little bit. Nevertheless, the romance and chemistry was not that important for me in this show. I watched it for other scenes.
The story was good. Of course there were some plotholes in the supernatural side. (But it is the same in all supernatural, science fiction dramas.) Generally the story telling was really good. There were some episodes, which felt like , they were written a little bit sloppy. Normally I guess how the things are going to end up, but there were lots of elements, that surprised me. Also I dont recognize seeing a more fullfilling and satisfying end and last episode for a long time!
So if you like sci-fi and supernatural stuff with good acting and good scenes, give it a go.
special note: The villains were very really good. LEE LIM was fantastic! I wanted more of his scenes :)
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It's a Simple yet beautiful drama, Don't keep your hopes too high.
Lovely Drama...Also Most awaited. ??The Storyline was refreshing and without any doubtful twists, it goes smoothly with rhythm and ended beautifully.
Oh...Lee Min Ho, If he is in the drama, it's definitely not a waste of time. His sweet yet strong character...Omg I loved it.
Kim Go Eun, She did really well in both roles. I admire her.
Woo Do hwan, No doubt He was the attention seeker of this drama. Act totally amazing, his both characters are so different and he did so well. Each and everyone was so good. They should have concentrated on OSTs a little bit more
You can't expect high level of twists and turns. Because it itself an interesting drama in its own way.
If you want to watch a drama that goes simply without any frustration.This one is So Good. ❤️❤️
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