De Koning: Eeuwige Monarch (2020)

The math isn't mathing... except for Woo Do Hwan that man's math mathes everyday

So I'm not going to lie, I really enjoyed the setup and even the middle of this show. It's entertaining, fast paced and has just the sort of tropes I like. The issue I have with it it's the story's resolution and most of the characters.

While there are no hateable characters. I found most of them to be pretty average. ML is okay I guess. He's a little bit flat in his delivery, but I think that's because he's this royal person who has to be stoic... but still, because he had some childish behaviors at times I didn't think he was completely stoic so it was odd. I found it hard to connect with him most of the time because of his lack of expression.

FL started out great, but ends up becoming a bit too dramatic. She honestly just cries for no reason at times, every time ML showed up she cried. Girl, this man hasn't been hurt once and ALWAYS came back for you, what made you think he was going to stay away? This dynamic just became tiring. If they had given us reason to worry about ML I would have bought FL's worry, but hoenstly? He's never in any sort of real danger. We know it, they know it... so the crying FL became unnecessary and just annoying because it kept happening after a certain point in the drama and it took a lot of screentime.

On top of that, the love story went from zero to a hundred. Maybe I'm more used to slow burn, but in one episode FL is annoyed at ML or at least she acts rudely towards him. (Understandable btw- the guy seemed crazy) And the next one she's confesing her LOVE? I understand if after proving he's not lying she decides to give him a chance but instead she confesed love? That escalated quickly.

However the love story is not awful, they do have chemistry on screen and the characters are okayish most of the time. All in all the love story has its cute moments at times, but it was more draggy than lovable. The leads are not entirely unlikeable , in fact I think I like them more when they are separated. They are much more interesting characters apart than together.

I really liked ML when he had to deal with the treason part of the plot and the FL when she had to do cop stuff - also the cop team is nice. I think my favourite was the "ganster" cop who was actually so soft and liked macaroons. What a jem.

The rest of the characters are okay. But there's a shit ton of them and I gotta be honest I lost track of whose mother suffering for her son I was watching at some points. Just how many crying moms are there in this drama? There was also a pregnant lady who got replaced by her counterpart in one world and that plot line went nowhere. There's just so many side plot things that go nowhere. Everything gets fixed somehow in the end by pure magic.

Honestly the saving grace this drama has and the reason for this rating to be above 6 is Woo Do Hwan. This man can act and he carried every scene he was in. He is a joy to watch on screen as both his roles and his characters are the most fun. I wish Jo Youngand Jo Eun-Sup were the protagonists instead... I flipping love these boys a lot. Their stories seemed to have the most heart in my opinion, and the most personal stakes. Young's undying loyalty and also respect for his friend the king and his duty as a personal guard... or Eun-Sup's love for his family and his relationship with his little siblings and Na-ri. Give me this drama instead. I loved how by the end Young became a bit more open towards people while Eun-Sup became a bit more professional. These two actually learnt from each other and became friends... and then--- those memories got erased. Lmao.

Ok here's where it gets tricky.

The writer tried to make this really convoluted plot involving one of the trickiest tools to pull off because it can create a lot of plot holes --- time travel. Now I'm all in when it comes to time travel, when it's handled well it creates majestic, adrenaline inducing stories that just leave you in awe and feeling extremely satisfied. When it is not well handled however, it creates time paradoxes and obvious plot holes.... this one, I am afraid, falls in the second category.

You had me until ML went back to fullfill his destiny and save himself as that was the start of the show. Brilliant. Saw it coming yes, but loved that things came full circle. THEN you lost me when he did it AGAIN to kill antagonist before he run off to the other world. Sir, are you aware that creates a huge paradox that means ML wouldn't have gone back in time in the first place to safe himself if he never had gotten the half flute thing? Are we just going to ignore that? Ok sure. Oh what is that? We're also conveniently have the two leads remember everything despite the huge sacrifice this impossible deed just did? Of course, no consequences. And also lets make most of these characters we care about forget about everything we just watched.

Heavy long sigh.

Look I'm all in for happily every afters, but they need to feel earned. This one just felt like plot armor for the sake of the love story. Simply put, the writer wrote herself into a corner and used time travel magic to fix everything, deliberately erasing everything from the reality we just watched but from ML's and FL's memories... also Young's at least he gets to keep his memories.

Towards the end things got unnecessarily complicated. The drama is not terrible, but it's very infuriating. There is some brilliant acting from Woo Do Hwan and some really good moments, but nothing that can make me rate this one higher than a 7.

TLDR; Watch it with low expectations and suspend your disbelief. Throw logic out the window and you'll get a tropy enjoyable time.

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