The King : Eternal Monarch (2020)

Um...what?

What started out with a great story and premise falls amazingly flat. We are immediately introduced to what seems to be a wonderful plot of fantasy, realism, intrigue, and action, but somewhere after episode 2 this series decides to turn into the average soapy romance of long stares, slow motion wide angles, and a main lead who can't seem to be convinced that his character is real. In all honesty, I was utterly disappointed with this series because it could not deliver what it promised in the description. Is this a case of bad writing, poor casting, or something else? I'm not even sure.

But. What I do know is that the side characters carry this show.

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I really liked this concept of this show, but the ending wasn't very satisfying. In the first half of the show, we were introduced to all the characters and given many questions that were left unsolved. This show had so many characters, so I was able to excuse the first 8 episodes for being slow as I expected the pace to start building up after we learned more about the world. I didn't mind all the questions, motives, or the other confusing things that couldn't be explained yet, but my issue was that the explanations would be pretty lackluster. The prime minister's motive was kinda lackluster for me; She climbed all the way up somehow and then wants to be a queen. That's a kinda dumb motive. Then there's Lee Lim who wants to be the king. That motive for me was ok, but then he goes back in time and kills himself? Adding on to that, how did he get all the way back to the present so quickly after he died, but Lee Gon had to take so long? Also don't get how whenever some went through the portal who didn't have the flute could move, because you could only move if you possessed it. Also don't get how time resumes whenever it's convenient later on when time was supposed to stop for long periods of time. Also don't get how some people retained memories and some didn't. I never understood how Tae Eul ended up falling for Lee Gon since that was never explained.

BTW, what did Luna even do with the key card?

pointless reveals/scenes/underutilized stories
the captain detective's meetings, going to visit the kid
lady noh's past
koo's mission/story
lee lim using lee hoon's mom to cause chaos but also wanting to be the king???
Jo yeong and jo seob and their promise
corea vs japan
pregnant woman

the ending was bittersweet for me. in the end, everyone had a happy ending but i wish they had all kept their memories. It doesn't make sense that only 3 of them got yo-yo boy's mercy but not everyone else involved.

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This drama definitely had its problems but I think many of the reviews are unnecessarily harsh. The show does start off slow with a lot of build up of the characters as "perfect". I think a lot of these earlier episodes would have been better used setting up the plot and developing other characters but thats off topic as that is not what happens. Instead the characters are mainly kept 1 dimensional and there are a lot of little hints and sub plots that the writer tried to embed into the story (the writer on this obviously thought they were being more clever than they really were).

There is a lot of hate online that the leads had no romance and that their acting was bad. Personally I like LMH and think he did a good job with this drama and pulling off the arrogant King. I think their were a lot of unnecessary side characters who them we really dont get to learn about because the writer waste all of our time in the first 10 episodes. On top of that the timeline is confusing (episode 12 I literally was like "WTF that doesnt make sense").

This drama is not all bad and does have a cool and interesting premise, including sci-fi, multi dimensional, time travel, and I personally love the "kingdom of corea."

It just fails to deliver on all that it promises.
I think it might be worth rewatching just to see if it make more sense the 2nd time around (I kinda doubt that it does).
I also think that if you are in the early episodes and having issues I suggest just jumping to episode 12+ as most of the story seems to really take place in episodes 12-16.

I still give it a 7 overall because I actually enjoyed the main characters and the concept of the drama even if I dont think it was executed well.

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This drama is watchable, but nothing special

I expected a complex storyline, and a happy ending, but I only got the later. The writing was rather lazy, and it tried to create a façade that it is a complex and twisted storyline, but it really isn't. I felt very few heightened trilling moments, or suspenseful and climactic points in the drama. The story aside, the rest was quite enjoyable. Kim Go Eun is rapidly becoming my favorite actress and her screen presence is just phenomenal. There is something simplistic yet sophisticated about her, and and it just makes me appreciate her even more. The rest of the cast was good as well, specially the 'unbreakable sword' guy. The drama does end happily and I didn't regret watching it. It had its moments, but I will not watch it again. Give it a go if you like fantasy-sci-fi dramas and like happy endings.

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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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not perfect, but good

at first, i was intrigued by this drama because of it's similarities to Goblin as well as eventually being pulled in because of it's strong casting. although i have to admit that the drama isn't perfect, it's still a good watch and i would strongly recommend it - the plot combines fantasy, romance, comedy, whilst not focusing too much on the political side of it which may bore some viewers.

story;
the plot of the drama isn't original, but it's a genre that keeps giving and giving and directors manage to put their own unique twists into them. in this instance, it's a parallel world comparing a modernised korea with a cultural monarchic korea being run by heart-throb Lee Min Ho ;) on the one hand, the plot is quite refreshing as it combines so many different elements of a typical kdrama and combines them into one: detective, historical, romance, fantasy etc... however something that puts me off is the initial weak chemistry between the two leads. it's presented as a one-sided love but quickly rushes into a romantic relationship with not much development other than a kiss pretty much.

acting/cast;
as said before, i was pulled in because of it's strong cast. this drama has stirred up a storm because of it's casting of legends like Lee Min Ho and Kim Go Eun. they both play pretty badass characters however they show their cheesy cute sides whenever it comes to developing their relationship with one another.
Lee Min Ho plays the role of a young attractive king very well, seeing as that's pretty much what he already is in real life anyway.
meanwhile Kim Go Eun plays a badass lieutenant in the police force who beats and chases down criminals. i'm somewhat in love with her character seeing as she's not generic in the way that she is vulnerable and allows her male counterpart to do all the work. she's sarcastic, funny, and charming in all the right places and i would definitely rewatch this show if it's just for her.

all in all i'd definitely suggest that you give this drama a go! it's refreshing with such a good cast that you don't want to miss out on :D

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Drama of the year? Are you kidding me?

I spent at least 2 days to finish just the first ep. The drama is boring in every sense of the word.
This drama had all the potencial to be good. Before it come out i was very excited about it, the trailer was good, the cast is perfect, the story is interesting, but the drama? Well i don't think so.
Everything happened so, so fast and it destroyed the drama.
The lead couple just do not match, they have 0 chemistry.
Everything is so confusing. There are people who didn't understand the story of this drama until today.
Do you know what is it good in the drama? Just the visual fx.
To finish, this drama is so close to be similar to Goblin. Even a song of the ost is similar. I know that this two dramas have the same screenwriter, but, are you kidding me?? Do you wanna have success again copying a old drama from you that is famous???

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Very disappointing, I had really high hopes for this show.
The production was great and all when it came to the setting, animation, director, and acting cast, but sadly this all couldn't carry the overall show when it didn't even have a half decent delivery. The product placements were BEYOND disturbing and cringe inducing, and I didn't even complete the show to see the rest of what I'm sure was going to be even more of a cringe-fest . The chemistry between the male and female lead was simply bad; the sole reason he was even interested in her was because of some admiration due to him thinking she "saved him" and his vague knowledge that she was female, THAT'S IT. It honestly felt like it was targeted at 12 year olds on freaking wattpad! She was constantly treating him like sh*t (literally, she called him dog sh*t basically) and he would just take it, she was supposedly the female lead who was immune(?) to his charms I guess? And she was never grateful to him or even nice when rejecting him, it was truly infuriating and painful to watch someone in such an obviously toxic relationship from the get-go and obviously it was glossed over because it's a girl, the music playing would either be romantic or playful, and that he was supposedly "letting her do it" or "happy with whatever". He was obviously starstruck and blinded by the illusion he made of her in his head along the years, and couldn't see her toxic behavior, it honestly reminded me of 'Boys Over Flowers' how Junpyo would just let Jandi do hurtful things to him. Let me guess what happens next, he has to leave her for her own good, says a bunch of hurtful sh*t and pushes her away, then she realizes her feelings for him because apparently girls need to be hurt to feel and realize love or something. I'm not gonna lie, the side characters were the best thing about the show (at least up to where I watched the show), and I couldn't wait for the main couple's scenes to be over as quick as humanly possible. I really wanted at least some of the feels the main couple delivered in some of his other really great dramas that I loved him in like Legend of The Blue Sea, The Heirs, and Personal taste. At the very least I want to see a healthy, or trying to be healthy couple who genuinely care for each other's happiness, is asking for a healthy relationship with compatible personalities that hard to deliver?
The acting of the other characters was the best thing about the show, especially the evil uncle, he really knew how to set the mood for the scenes he was in.
At the end of the day, after this show I wouldn't blindly expect too much of a show just because it a huge production, good casting, and a famous director.

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Not the best, not the worst

I'm on episode 11 so I can't yet review how I will like the ending of it but I feel like some people are giving this show too much credit and others not enough. If you want to watch it because it seems like a romance drama, don't. The romance starts off cute with potential but then they skip the whole dating and getting to know one another part and when she randomly blurts out I love you I literally said "What the hell?" out loud, it was that random and awkward. If you want to see a dramatic love story that will move you, this isn't it.

That being said, I think the overall story is actually somewhat interesting. Yes, it's a bit cheesy but as the show went on I got more into some of the characters and how they are linked to one another and the past. We all have different tastes in films, so some people hate this plot and think its awful but I think the storyline is actually pretty cool. Will I rewatch it again? No. I think it's a good show to binge real quick when you have nothing else to watch or are waiting for new seasons of your favorite shows to come out.

The actors were decent, the set was pretty. Not the best, not the worst.

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I'm a big fan of Kim Go-eun and this is my first time watching Lee Min-Ho's work of any kind. I really thought, the plot of the series would be more interesting and captivating, we would see demons and gods disguised as humans or whatever but it's one of those typical cliche drama plot in which an evil family member betrays the main characters and escapes to another dimension/parallel world.. Watching episodes 2 to 4 felt so slow to me. Instead of dragging the problem of him convincing her that he came from a parallel word of her world for 3 episodes, the writers could've resolved this in only just one episode. This problem slowed down the storyline and put the main storyline in a limbo kind of stage. Furthermore, I feel as if there are a few inconsistent storylines that aren't just flowing together, for instance the murder case Kim's character is trying to solve, time pausing and slowing down, etc. The natural chemistry between characters isn't there at all sometimes, I feel like they're just talking each to other but not expressing their emotions. The bromance between yeong and Lee gon is flat out dead, yeong is this stern serious bodyguard but yet younger self is very cheerful, bubbly and kind and I wanna see that side of more. As of right now, I hope the storyline progress more. The promotional poster is what really captivated me and of course, Kim Go-eun and cinematography and visuals of this series is top notch.

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The premise of this show is so interesting and has so much potential for development so it’s really disappointing to see that this mistake ruin the whole show. As this show happens between two different worlds, the viewers are constantly questioning exactly which world are they referring to as there aren't any big signs that show the difference between the two and it only gets more frustrating as the show progresses.

The saving graces within this show are all the actors beside Lee Min Ho, the cinematography and the osts but I’ll get to that.

The cinematography and color correction is done so perfectly as it sets the mood for the show that it makes me as the viewer even become more aggravated that the fact that most of the story isn’t well done and rather choppy which causes the viewers to pinpoint mistakes out instead of enjoying the show as a whole .

The osts are all sang by so many big names like Ailee, Gummy, Davichi and many others. And the worst part is that all of them are really good compared to the pacing. The difference is so big that I want to separate the show from the osts because it's a shame the this lovely songs came out from this horrible example of a k-drama.

Lee Min Ho has many years of experience as a actor and has a sophisticated aura which allows him to play many roles of certain luxury which I personally think is both his biggest advantage and flaw. Whenever there is a scene that requires him to be emotional and cry, there is a film of pretentiousness that creates a gap between his feelings and the viewer's empathy towards his character, making it hard for the viewers to put themselves in his shoes and empathize his highs and lows along with him. It was so bad that I was actually laughing at him while he was crying miserably.

The other lead actors, Woo Do Hwan & Kim Kyung Nam all have embodied their characters perfectly especially in the case of the “one actor, two characters” roles which is a job that is hard to accomplish and yet both of them have embodied both characters perfectly and that it’s clearly distinguishable. I’ve only come to know Kim Kyung Nam as an actor through this show and i think his body language is possibly one of best with this cast and I’m deeply impressed by his portrayal of the character Kang Shin Jae. And to mention Kim Go Eun, she was nothing less than the perfect embodiment of a police officer and was extremely enjoyable to watch unlike her partner.

Great cinematography, a lukewarm delivery and a underwhelming outcome.

5/10

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