The King : Eternal Monarch (2020)

Beautiful Star Crossed Love Story

Guys, this show absolutely, completely, and totally wrecked me. WRECKED ME. It is sure to satisfy the most die hard romantic with dynamic leads, stunning cinematography, and angsty romance. Let me count all the ways this show had me falling in love.

❤ I wasn’t 100% invested in the romance between charming Lee Gon and pragmatic Jeong Tae Eul initially. Their chemistry increased the more time they spent together, each of their moments one more step toward building an epic romance. I felt their ending fit with the overall narrative of the story.

❤ I loved Lee Gon so much. He was smart, charming, and incredibly nerdy. It never felt like he looked down on anyone despite him being pretty much the smartest person in the room.

❤ The visuals and cinematography are breathtaking. The production set a romantic and intriguing tone with beautiful twinkling lights, seductive fog, an endlessly array of cozy sweaters. Like, seriously, I just need the catalog they used to buy all those sweaters. The CGI wasn’t always great, but it was probably the best I’ve seen in a long time.

❤ The supporting cast gave me all the feels. I could not be happier with the secondary characters in this series, particularly Kang Shin Jae and Jo Yeong. Honestly, Jo Yeon was MVP for this series. While all of the actors did some sort of double duty as characters existing in multiple universes, Woo Do-hwan’s performance was phenomenal no matter his character.

❤ I couldn’t resist the story. Typically, I hate time travel and parallel universe stories. Trying to keep track of all the threads over multiple universes and time lines can be a bit exhausting. I found this story to be utterly fascinating as it threaded together elements of mystery, science fiction, and romance.

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Not Recommended For Watching

all I see from this drama are pornographic scenes, every episode must have scenes of hugging or kissing or touching. the author is crazy about touching and advertising scenes rather than clarifying the plot.

the friendly relationship between the king and his generals, which i thought would be very close, turned out to be mediocre, throughout his life the king only thought about the person who 'saved him'.

scenes of silliness and egoism continuously occur here. the author even made to forget the antagonist's powers, just to make them look like clowns. the scenario really sucks.

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The King: Eternal Monarch is the most complicated drama I've ever witnessed and even after reading bunch of threads and explanations about the episodes and parallel universes, I still can't wrap my head around this story. You have to be really observant, pay attention to every little detailed and even take notes just to grasp the direction of the plot. The different universes are the main pain in this drama. Especially at the end, it became really confusing and annoying, I've never known in which universe we are now, and the attempts to understand the plot, when it's pace was so fast, took away all the joy I had.
And to be honest, the beginning was really boring, the side plot about japanese threat unnecessary (probably they put it just to maintain the typical 16 ep duration), the whiplash of Tae eul emotions gave me headaches. In first eps she is so against Lee Gon - and as she should, she didn't know him then - she's really wary of him BUT by ep 3-4 they already kiss kiss, and then bum, the love confession from TE (which was the most unemotional and driest confession I've ever watched) and whooop! after 10-11 ep we have crying and love-confessing Tae Eul almost in every ep - it's just not really believable! (I think it's because soemone noted the lack of emotions from TE side and decided to change that... but in my opinion the change was too drastic at this point of drama).
And of course, the most annoying thing this drama had - THE FREAKING PRODUCT PLACEMENT. The could tattooed all the promoted logos on the Lee Minho forehead and it would be less irritating then puting products in almost every freaking scene (WE GET IT, YOUR BBQ CHICKEN IS GOOD, STOP MAKING LEE GON EATING ONLY CHICKEN, THE POOR BOY MUST BE REALLY HATE IT AT THIS POINT).
Of course, there were some ray of sunshine - for example the scene when Lee Gon comes Tae Eul to the rescue (CHEF KISS! ICONIC!) and... basically all the scenes with Jo Eun Sub (Woo Do Hwan was the best part of this all drama, his acting was superb, and at one point, I just watched it only for his charakters).

All in all, this drama wasn't the best Kim Eun Sook work, I would much rather put it at the The Heirs level than Goblin or Descendants (it's not even clode to this two drama jewels). In short: this drama is really complicated, but not really satisfying.

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A LENGTHY WASTED SUSPENSE THRILLER ROMANTIC DRAMA

Story was good, no doubt. But extra sequences made the drama completely boring. Emphasis on useless emotions at some point by the female lead role, made a bit boring.
40% of the budget used on food,
45% of the drama goes on eating food, I don't know if the female lead made a deal on food in exchange for payment. Why should a suspense thriller movie always have scenes on eating. Are they always hungry. And this is a complete waste, interrupting the thrilling goosebumps
Old times drama between lead roles.

Ok, the story how it began, was great, but needless plots and scenes is a complete waste. Many times, the main story theme is forgotten, leading to unnecessary direction. Some scenes even don't have connection with main theme.
A Slow drama, too lengthy as per the central Storyline.
Time lapse, was a good idea, but poorly presented that doesn't made a great sense.
Better watch some other kdrama, instead this.

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Hands down, Lee Min Ho's portrayal of Lee Gon is very good. I understand why people said it's a different side of him compared to his past works and I've seen them all. That being said, my low rating of this isn't due to his fault- it's the script. Everyone was talking about how the first half of the series was slow and the plot lacked substance- I agree. I found myself watching most of it in 1.5 speed and still manage to read the subtitles fast enough and shrink my 1.1 hours down to 30 mins. K dramas are very good at creating suspense and building tension- at least from the ones I've picked to watch. I've never been really disappointed in a k drama when I choose one to watch but this one was just begging me to get to the end fast because I was bored. The latter half was better but then the tension would be lost. The romance part was beyond disappointing- absolutely did not feel a thing from their chemistry (if any). We went from, zero interest to interest in a matter of one episode and I'm left with, huh? I felt more from Lee Gon and Yeung's interaction than anything.

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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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The King: Eternal Monarch is a drama made to binge-watch. Trust me when I say this, taking this drama slowly would only do more harm than good. Watching this in a span of 9 weeks kept me in the dark most of the time; not knowing what's happening and how they're happening. Naturally, like other dramas, there are things you wouldn't understand at the start but would eventually understand as episodes pass by, but in this case, a lot of things didn't make sense and the drama would just keep on going as if the viewers understood everything.

This drama deals with parallel universes and anything related to it. Whatever knowledge you have regarding this, forget it; it's much better keeping your mind open on the rules of parallel universes because the whole drama has rules of its own. It would be easier to understand everything if you don't try to overanalyze how things happen.

Now let's talk about why The King: Eternal Monarch was a decent drama despite all the shortcomings:
-The cast is nothing short of amazing. On the surface, just the thought of Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun is amazing in itself; they are definitely stars, albeit Woo Do Hwan was personally my favorite in this drama.
-Woo Do Hwan: He deserves all the love in the world. His acting versatility was somewhat showed through this drama and his role itself was just the best.
-The visuals of this drama are amazing! This is to be expected from a high production cost drama.
-There were a lot of nice scenes in this drama and I loved all of them, but the underlying problem comes from the overall combination of all these scenes and how they mesh.

If you were expecting some kind of bubbly, full of heart-fluttering moments kind of drama, this isn't it. The romance was fairly nice, despite the speed of it all, but it isn't the main interest point of this drama. What makes this drama special is its complicated structure, which is parallel universes. It's very interesting but confusing at the same time; a double-edge sword. I rated the rewatch value 10/10 because this is the type of drama where you'd want to watch everything again to catch all the details. As I said, this drama could've been a lot better; if only they managed to write a more cohesive plot. Overall, this drama is interesting, and something new; certainly not the best but would still recommend.

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I must say that I liked the storyline and felt that the characters had the appropriate progression in their storylines. I actually looked forward to each episode and some of the episodes were very good, tense and exciting.

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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A Mind bender but Complicated to Watch Drama

"The devil is in the details " because this was one hellish movie to completely enjoy. Week after week after week the viewer is challenged to remember intricate details of the lives of multiple characters in two dimensions and in two kingdoms. After 13 episodes the drama seemed too complex and convoluted and the temptation to drop or give it a low rating was in my heart. However, I realized that the questions I kept asking were "Who is this character?" " What Dimension or Kingdom? " and "What Time frame Is This ?" This is the quandary I was in and it needed to be asked constantly. and while watching it was often unanswered. The writer had brilliant ideas but the execution of them were lost -- first in translation (simple translation notes or aides would have helped the viewer understand what as going on each week. Helpful also would have been a refresher summary since the drama was so convoluted. Having criticized the production and visions of the director I must now explain why in the end I found enjoyment in the drama.

The Acting - A+ The expressions and chemistry were extremely good for the leads and supporting actors did an excellent job. Many had to play dual roles in two worlds and had to exhibit different character traits to carry out the distinctions of the two worlds. Kudos for their efforts.

The Story -- B- Unable to follow consistently. I had to binge watch (rewatch) after 7 weeks. I also needed to use other websites to find reviews and recaps to try to follow each episode during the rewatch. I also needed to read several comments to try to find hidden meanings and clues to the stories progress throughout the drama. Basically could not watch without a CHEAT SHEET

Once I had my Cheat Sheets and Techniques -- well the drama felt like I was watching Inception. Time twisting, parallel universe, mathematical principles and theories all were worth researching in an attempt to understand this jewel in the rough. The only question as a future viewer (if you haven't seen this drama) is - are you willing to research and study recaps to get a full understanding because the editing the story just makes you frustrated. Living on the rewind button during the rewatch to understand was no fun.

For the Future Viewer -- Watch - it is a beautiful drama and a good romantic drama. The ending was satisfying.

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My journey with TKEM is a bit complicated as its been with most viewers of this drama. I was extremely excited about this show when I found the news of it releasing. I had hopes like everyone else on what the show was and was thinking a sort of Fantasy/thriller romance. However when the premiere dropped like everyone I was underwhelmed. It was confusing and frustrating yet not in a good way. Yet I continued watching it as many dramas don't have great premiers but after finishing the first half I got slightly busy ( and bored ) so I decided to drop it and come back when it finishes.

Starting the review on a sour note may not be the best of ideas however this will give you a better understanding of why I rated the drama so high (at least for the review). So going back to the review, when I rewatched it, (I wasn't looking forward to watching it) but when I did something just clicked. The show that was so hard and complicated to watch while it was airing finally made sense. It was just an enjoyable and fun show.

The show has several plot inconsistencies and many plot holes if you paid attention. Yet it's enjoyable and fun which is the main criteria for rating dramas. However, there are so many better directions this show could've gone and the duo roles were complicated and hard to know. While some were obvious solutions others weren't. I think the greatest flaw of this drama is the Parallel Worlds story itself.

The story is often too complicated and fails to capture audiences eyes until the second half. It's quite confusing and often irritating to watch. The science in the show is quite basic and didn't give a very complicated air to it. The writer bit off more than it could chew with the story. Thus causing certain parts of the story to look laughable. The story's main fault was definitely that it lacks focus and adds too many characters.

The acting wasn't flawless but rather satisfactory. LMH at first is unconvincing as a king yet in the latter episodes when they have to show a more ruthless side shows a charismatic performance. Do I think he was perfect in the role? No. However was he bad? Not really. He displayed his acting well and with this role showed some great performances. Yet like both the leads, he lacked in carrying this show as Lead.

KGE is also pretty good in this role. She delivers her performance well and even though this wasn't her best role it is still a good one. WDH is also good though lacks screentime however when he is there he captures the screen fully and to best of his abilities. He was also the only character who played a double role throughout and does it well. KKN is equally good though he gets even less screentime as we've seen KKN is a great actor and is wonderful in whatever he does.

LJJ is wonderful as a villain yet as many of these characters he also doesn't have enough screentime though he's the main villain. His story is interesting and can be expanded yet isn't like many of the characters. I firmly believe that the writing was more at fault than any other aspect of the show. As the messiness of the writing caused the drama to underperform (at least to what it was expected to get).

Now here's the main reason why this show is worth watching. It's fun. It's a very fun show to watch. I've been having a certain Kdrama drought but this show is really fun to watch. The story as stupid as it gets at points is enjoyable. The show overall is so fun when you binge it because it's more interesting to watch and its easier to put things together. Especially the second half pulls you in and I think if they utilised the action sequences and made the characters greyer the whole show would've done better.

These small solutions like reducing the main(ish) characters and making an overall more tight story the show could've easily been one of the best shows. I think the ending is really what made me happy. Especially how nicely tied everything is for how messy the story was. I think for me the ending was what made the story worthwhile the most yet there were other things.

In a short review of the story, it would go like:

TKEM is an enjoyable show with numerous plot inconsistencies yet is fun and worth watching. If you watch it while it airs the show is disappointing but if you're watching it casually the show is fun and engaging. Overall, I would recommend you to watch the show if you're looking for something enjoyable.

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The ending was unexpected, but it fit well with the story line.

This drama has been promoted so much that I always expect more when it's finally released. This drama had so much potential, but there was just too much information for 16 episode drama.

Lee Gon (Lee Min How and Jung Tael Eul (Kim Go Eun) had no chemistry filming. One episode they were in disagreement the next they were in love. It didn't make sense. There was no relationship development. True the main points of the dram was related to the flut, but for any good relationship the audience needs to be able to see the evolution of the characters feelings for each other.

Those who had to play two roles showed a lot of acting potential. They were able to stay in character as the universe changed. The one actor that was extremely convincing was Woo Do Hwan who played Jo Young and Eun Sub. His characters were the polar opposite of each other.

The relationship between Lee Gon and Jo Young was the best. King and bodyguard, brothers and best friends. They are perfect for having each others backs.

One main Con side of this drama was that there were TOO much product placement. Where there was one there was always another nearby. It was almost as if they had to be put in last minutes that made them stand out so much. as the products were being promoted it didn't help that the actors had to say some cheesy lines that work better in ads then in a drama.

The one actor that I had no love for was Kin Go Eun. I did not believe that she was the perfect fit for her characters.

The story line is one of the most confusing ones I have ever seen. You really have to think and find all the hidden clues that connect everything together. Each episode gives us a little bit of information. Any story line that has any relation to time travel and alternate universes has the right to be a little confusing.

This drama was worth it because of Woo Do Hwan. I think he was the main attraction and may have stolen the action light from his fellow actors.

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