The King : Eternal Monarch (2020)

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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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.

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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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I recently finished Minho's new drama.
First of all, the story : since the first episode that was released, I was fascinated by the amazing sci-fi story. It was a complex story, but not that complicated for my way of thinking. For this new, unique kind of story, I gave the show 10/10.
Then, the actors : since the first meeting of the main characters, I could really feel the great chemistry between the characters. Everyone did a great job while filming the drama. For everyone's acting, I decided to give the show a 10/10.
The whole series had an impressive sound track. The best one, in my opinion, was Hwasa' "Orbit", a song which matched with the story. For music I gave another 10/10.Hand down to everyone who composed and sang the ost.
I consider that this show is the best one I've seen in 2020, and that's why I gave 10/10 for everything including the staff, crew, script, actors, composers, singers.
I'm really glad that Minho had such a good drama after coming from the military enlistment. I also became a fan of Kim Go Eun, because she's really good at acting.

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This is a trainwreck

This show is the return of Lee min ho korea's biggest star other than kim soo hyun, the show itself is really dull and slow. The idea of another world and stuff is okay but the way they deliver it is just cringe and not appealing to the audience. If you want to watch the show go ahead, it is quite cliché and the story is poorly developed. You have one of the biggest stars but this kind of fantasy with the kingdom stuff going between worlds is just simplistic and dull, If you are watching this for lee min ho go for it, if you want to watch a show that will keep you on your seat every episode and make you wanting more this is not the show.

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Kim Eun Sook once again comes back with another drama that plays with the notion of parallel universes.
At first I was kind of confused with all the hate this drama is getting including the superficial romance between the leads who are from parallel universes.

Kim Go Eun has always been an amazing actress especially her character in Goblin where she really shined. I didn't have any problem on how she would carry Jeong Tae Eul as a character. That is how I trust her acting abilities. She played the bad-ass female lead so well that it convinced me that this show could survive with only her and her adventures. I was confused though at first at how moody her character was when she is in the presence of the male lead. I mean, come on girl! You can hold your own, you don't need no man. Her doppelganger Luna is a contrast of Tae Eul and this reminded me how versatile of an actor KGE is. She depicted the abandoned, hurt, and desperate for survival character so well it was too different from her main character.

Ah, yes. Lee Min Ho. I have a love-hate relationship with this actor. He portrayed the aura of a king well with his aura but I had problems with the way he acts most of the time. He played the dashing male lead so well it sometimes overshadows the emotions he should've been putting into the character. Did he make your heart flutter with his scenes? Yes. Did you think that he had the depth of the character on point? Sometimes. I don't know.

The bromance was there, not gonna lie. The story had a bit of a development but not the type where I would curse it for eternity. The chemistry between the leads was surprisingly there. What saved the drama for me is the OST. Despite the drama having plot holes, the OST saved me.

Will I recommend this drama? Maybe. Give it a try and be the one to judge.

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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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The writing sucks!!!!!!!!!

I really loved this kdrama and it that held so much potential with its strong cast of experienced actors, captivating plotline, well-produced OSTs, impressive visual effects, and a generous budget. However, despite its many strengths, the drama ultimately falls short due to its disappointing writing.

One of the most significant issues with the show lies in its confusing and convoluted narrative structure. Constantly switching between different timelines, parallel worlds, and flashbacks without providing clear indicators to the audience left me just feeling disoriented and I was just struggling to keep up with the plot. It would have been better if the writer offered more context and hints to help us viewers understand which world or period they are currently witnessing.

Another major disappointment was the dialogues in this kdrama whcih unfortunately suffer from being cringeworthy at times. While this may not be a major deal-breaker, it certainly detracts from the overall viewing experience. More polished and well-crafted dialogues could have definitely enhanced the emotional impact of the story.

Another major letdown in the series is the treatment of the character Lee Lim. The drama built him up to be an almost invincible force, only to have him captured and killed rather abruptly. Literally, he was built as if he was the next Thanos but he lost with just one bullet.

I also hated the inconsistency in the rules of the world established by the writer. They just made many rules and then broke many of them without any proper explanation, for example, they said only living things could move in the rift between worlds but somehow FL's bullet worked. The show would have greatly benefited if they maintained a coherent set of rules throughout the narrative.

Then there was the portrayal of the female lead, played by Kim Geo Eun, which is another point of concern. While she starts off as a strong and independent character as always, her development takes a frustrating turn, and she becomes a damsel in distress, relying on the male lead for support. Seriously she barely cried in the first 3-4 episodes but near the end every scene showed her she was crying, like wtf.

But even with all these flaws there were still some good things such as Woo Do-hwan's acting and the plot. but yeah for me this would have been an easy 10 if they just changed the writer and dialogue writer. And lastly I would say the rewatch value on this is pretty high for me because this just feels like a story that you have to rewatch to completely understand it

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Right off the bat, my review is much higher than others I've seen.
And I'll admit that a lot of the things I liked about this show were circumstantial stuff... What do I mean by that?
The past few shows I've watched were very "light" ones that I could easily predict, so I was in such a mood for something heavier and more thought-provoking. This show brought that to me along with a bunch of other... things -_-
Let me just get straight to the point...

Story 〆(・∀・＠): I was so excited about this show before I watched it. It had a bunch of actors I was familiar with, the premise of parallel worlds was hella interesting, and just the whole aesthetic was beautiful. I waited till after it finished airing, so I didn't have to wait for a new episode each week, but that left me time to hear other people's reviews on it.
And that's when a big red flag was raised on how this show might now be what I expected. I ignored it and went on with it regardless, but after wrapping it up, I could see what everyone means.
The beginning, to me, was not that bad. I really loved the world-building and all the characters that were introduced. Sure the story's main conflict wasn't revealed until much later, but for some reason, I didn't mind watching this beautiful world come together. I mean seriously!! I would love to watch a show all about the Kingdom of Corea and the world it resides in. Sure there were some questionable character choices but nothing too out of the ordinary.
The problem with this show comes in the second half... more specifically, episode 13 and beyond.
The show could be a little confusing since the setting was continually changing from one world to the next without any clear way of knowing which is which. Unless it's explicitly stated or some prominent symbol is shown, you can get confused about exactly where the character is. So you always have to pay attention and use your head—something I wanted in a show at that specific time. But even with all the other not so clear choices and events that happened, the show didn't become difficult for me to comprehend until they brought in time travel.
THAT is when things went wrong for me.
The writers just kept adding new things into the already full supernatural mix. You already had parallel universes, but now there is time travel, alternate timelines (I think), and moments that I still can't understand even after doing so much research!!! Like... why writers!?
The characters started becoming unpredictable (not in a good way), and so many things were added just for a dramatic flair without consideration of what was already standing.
* sigh * It was like having to solve some complex math equation.
But then again, I always found a way to explain things to myself and even went out of my way to look up other people's theories and explanations. I think just doing that was somehow really enjoyable for me.
(I sound messed up... right) XD
I'd also like to mention how the scene order for this show makes NO SENSE!!! What I mean is that an episode will end on a cliffhanger, and then the next one will begin god knows where. They try and build things up while leaving other stuff a mystery. An example is how they'll show a scene, you watch it through and think it's done, but then two episodes later they'll cut back to it with whole new dialog that the writers wanted to be left a surprise...
like... NO... that's not how scenes work!!
Putting together everything I just said: the beginning was enjoyable since I personally enjoy fantasy world-building, but other stuff got incredibly confusing towards the end. After research and just talking to myself, I can put together 98% of the scattered pieces, but I know most people won't go out of their way to do that. So instead, this show is going to seem like an incredible unplanned out mess.

Acting ｡゜(｀Д')゜｡: As I mentioned earlier, most of my problems are in the writing and filming itself. I personally enjoyed the actors a lot. I didn't always like the characters, but that's because of the writing rather than the actors. I've seen these people in other works and know that most of them are incredibly talented. And when having to show it, they can.
For example, Woo Do-hwan had to be two different people with two different personalities. He pulled it off really well, and everything from posture to just tone of voice was carefully portrayed.
So I know that the flatness and unpredictability of a character comes from the writing instead of the actors.
Of course, some people may know more than me since I'm not an expert on acting, but using what I saw from the past, I know that these people have talent and don't want to say they don't because of this show's poor writing.
They tried hard in my eyes.
The relationship chemistry was... okay, I guess.
The romance kind of just popped up out of nowhere and shocked me a bit, but it was cute to watch nevertheless.
I liked the bromance and trust between some characters much more than the couple stuff.
Too bad the show was too focused on it, which ended up sacrificing a lot of what I loved...

Music ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪: I really did like the music. I think the music and all the scenery fit well together.
There were those happy songs that played at happy moments and sad ones during sad moments.
What made me raise the score a bit was the songs that played during the opening and ending portions of the show.
I could honestly re-watch the opening over and over again! The music and the whole abstract editing bit looked so flipping cool.
I know that doesn't connect much to music, but It was just soooo cool!
Overall, music was more enjoyable than those from other shows I've watched, but nothing revolutionary.

Other (ง°ل͜°)ง: Oooooof
Where do I begin with this mess?
I'm just going to repeat that I didn't mind having to solve a lot of the loopholes. For some reason, I found it fun and brain-racking, which was something I wanted in a show at that specific moment.
I was still irritated since it definitely was much messier than I would've liked, but not so much to where I wanted to drop the show.
The parallel universes bit wasn't the part that was hard to grasp... it was everything else. What the legendary flute could do, the boy who likes yoyo's, memories from alternate times, just the whole shebang was so disorganized.
From that disorganization comes so many unanswered questions and plot lines that just don't make one ounce of sense.
I will not say which ones, but just be warned that past episode thirteen, your brain will want to explode.

Although I've listed so many problems (that were major ones), I still couldn't give the show that low of a score.
I did like a lot of it and would watch it again one day. Maybe if I watch it again, then things will finally make more sense XD
I'm a huge fan of world-building, and TKEM brought me something so interesting that I just wanted to know more about the kingdom and its monarchy.
I don't think I'd recommend it since the main things I loved about this show are more focused on my interests rather than what I'd think most people would like. In fact, I wouldn't recommend it to any curious person.
This show had so much potential and was beautiful in all things except the writing and editing.
If you're ready to use all your brain power, then go for it. But otherwise... run
Happy Watching <3

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Few episodes were good

Starting few episodes were good then story was getting bored as it was too much stretched and uselessly creates the scenes to entangled the audience , I didn't understand that it was about two world or about living once again in the past to correct the error.
Last episodes confused me a lot that gate was separate two worlds but at the end when they crossed the gate they all the time reached in some years where same person but in different character and their professional was different .I think it would be better if they get engaged at the end and she became the queen of his world and they manage to leave in both the world.

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