The King: Eternal Monarch

 The King: Eternal Monarch

7/10

The King: Eternal Monarch

Genre:                                   Episodes: 16                     Year: 2020

Romance

Melodrama

Synopsis:

Jong Tae Eul is a detective in the violent crime division. While on patrol she arrests a strange man with no identity who claims to be the King of a parallel world, The Kingdom of Corea.

Cast:

Lee Min Ho (Lee Gon)

Kim Go Eun (Jong Tae Eul)

Kim Kyung Nam (Kang Shin Jae)

Woo Do Hwan (Jo Young/Jo Eun Seop)

Lee Jung Jin (Lee Lim)

Jung Eun Chae (Goo Seo Ryung)

Kim Young Ok (Noh Oh Nam)

Kim Yong Ji (Myung Na Ri/Myung Seung Ah)

General Thoughts:

This was an interesting show. This writer has penned many huge hits, and a lot of hype seems to follow whenever a new project of hers is announced. I wasn’t a huge fan of the last show of hers I watched (‘Goblin’), but I have heard that ‘Mr Sunshine’ is absolutely amazing.

Is this another sweeping romance, or a hyped up dud?

Similarly to ‘Goblin’ I enjoyed ‘Eternal Monarch’ and what was happening, but it just didn’t grab me 100%. There was SO much going on in the different storylines to keep the show moving at a steady pace, but I never really felt myself connect with either of the leads.

Basically how I felt when the romance came before the story

In the first few episodes, rather than exploring the two different worlds and Lim’s plan to do…to do whatever his plan was, the show opted to focus on the romance between Tae Eul and Gon. And I think this was a big misstep. By focusing on the romance so early on, we missed a lot of development of our two leads. We didn’t even have a fully formed understanding of who Gon and Tae Eul were before they were being shoved together and were falling in love. I kind of get that we were pairing them up so quickly so that we could get right to the high stakes, but because we bypassed so much of the character introductions it was hard to connect to them emotionally. Gon was just a king, and Tae Eul was just a detective. Opening the show this way also left the viewers a bit in the dark to what was driving the plot. We knew Lim was a bad guy, but we were never really shown why he was a bad guy, or what his ultimate goal was. The opening scene was literally Lim killing Gon’s father to set him up as eeeevil and we just went from there. The idea of the pipe connecting these worlds was cool (albeit not exactly explained), and it was really quite fun to see the different people that shared the same faces in each of the worlds. I’m so glad that the show wasn’t stingy with who was going across the worlds- I fully expected it to be only Gon for a good long while, but before we were even halfway both Tae Eul AND Young had gone across.

I was literally cheering when Gon took Young over

This kept the story moving at a nice quick pace, and the plot never felt draggy. It also introduced a good amount of humour, particularly with Young and Eun Seop. The pacing of this show was nice and quick and there was always, always, always something happening in the story. I was never bored- and that’s honestly a huge accomplishment for this show, as finding enough story to fill out all 16 episodes of a show is not something that K-drama’s succeed at often.

Man, military did Lee Min Ho good

There’s usually always a little bit of a lag at or just after halfway, but not in this show! The casting was done really well for ‘Eternal Monarch’ It’s Lee Min Ho’s comeback from the army, and I think he did a great job. While Gon wasn’t exactly the most developed character, Lee Min Ho injected a good amount of goofiness and fun into the character. Similarly, Kim Go Eun was able to put a lot of fire into Tae Eul’s character- but I did roll my eyes (as I’m sure everyone watching did) when the writers made her go all weepy in the middle section there. The chemistry between the two of them wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either- I think the main love line struggled to find its feet and come off as something substantial due to it being pushed so hard at the start without giving the characters a chance to warm up and actually fall for each other. The supporting cast were all absolutely brilliant, and gave such well-rounded performances that really fleshed out the two worlds. Having such engaging side characters is also something that helped the drama from becoming repetitive or boring. When there wasn’t too much going on in the main love line, we focused on Young, Eun Seop and Shin Jae, which really gave their characters a chance to develop and shine. Lee Jung Jin gave a solid performance as our villain, Lim, but I won’t even pretend I fully understood what Lee Lim’s plan was- get the pipe, stay young forever, and…?

Ah yes, our villain who is evil and *checks notes* ...evil...

Lim’s scare factor was essentially based around the dramatic opening scene of him murdering Gon’s father and attempting to kill Gon, and from Lee Jung Jin’s creepy performance. The plot was interesting enough but did feel a bit confused at times. I wasn’t quite sure why Lim was so desperate for the pipe- it didn’t seem like it was to become king, and beyond being able to go to different worlds (where I’m unsure what sort of benefit that would have anyway) the pipe didn’t really do much? It seemed as though it could only time travel when it was broken?

Also what up with the weird lightning scars cuz those just never got explained

The characters were definitely the ones driving the drama forward, and dragging the plot along with them. I was a little bit disappointed with the way the show wrapped up too- don’t get me wrong, I love rainbows and sunshine and unicorns,

This is like...such a cop out ending

but after how much pressure the show was putting on that balance had to be restored by putting everyone back in their original worlds, things tied up perhaps a little too nicely. Our heroes seemed to have a pretty easy ride all around, and didn’t suffer too much (I mean they had to spend a few stretches of time apart, but in the grand scheme of things that’s really not too bad). It just felt a bit like the stakes had been set too high for the 100% happy conclusion we were given. Even Gon and Tae Eul never sorted out the issue if them being from different worlds- they just hung out in other separate worlds together on the weekends. Forever. Like, what about having a life together? Or kids together? There was no discussion on how this was supposed to work long term, we were just supposed to buy that they were both happy with this weekend only relationship that never occurred in either of their worlds for the rest of their lives. Yeah, not sure I buy that. I also have absolutely no idea who that bookshop yoyo kid was. At the end we were given flashbacks of him being in various scenes we had seen in both worlds as if that was supposed to mean something, and unless I somehow managed to miss a very large point of the show, it didn't. I'm annoyed that we never find out how he knows exactly what the magic pipe's deal is, because that sort of feels important. 

What Was Great:

Sweeping Saga:

Production quality for this show was high. It was beautiful and absolutely lovely to watch on screen. Gon and the palace felt real and authentic, and certainly didn’t come off as cheap. Had the costumes or the set been a bit tacky, it would have really challenged the idea that Gon was an actual king, so I’m glad that the show went to the extra effort of making sure that everything in Gon’s world felt rich, and real and, well…expensive.

Yes, Prince/King on a white horse is SO cliche, but I gotta admit, it's still pretty cool

The white horse was really the cherry on top of the kingly cake, and totally completed the picture. The cinematography was really breathtaking, and every shot was extremely visually appealing. I would argue that sometimes there was a touch too much blood than was realistic, but hey, it really created atmosphere and tension. The fabulous cinematography paired with the swelling, emotional soundtrack (even if the music sounded pretty similar to ‘Goblin’) really made this show feel dramatic and extraordinary.

Supporting Characters:

Without a doubt one of the absolute greatest aspects of this drama were the supporting characters. Or specifically Young/Eun Seop and Shin Jae. Honestly, Shin Jae was the hero of my heart for this show. 

Oppa, why are your characters always so heartbreaking?

He got soooooo much more development that Gon, and also had an interesting backstory that tied into his development. His crush on Tae Eul was adorable, and I’m sure there wasn’t a heart left unbroken when he was turned down because Tae Eul was into Gon. As if Shin Jae wasn’t 100 times more interesting. I wondered early on if Shin Jae was from Gon’s world, purely because we hadn’t seen his copy there and the show had hinted at something in his past- so I was really excited when that happened two be the case. Righting all the wrongs and putting everyone back into the worlds where they belonged seemed a simple and happy task. Until it was Shin Jae! With the revelation that Shin Jae had been brought over to Tae Eul’s world by Lim, the whole situation got a lot trickier. Most of the other characters had been brought over when they were adults and knew what was happening. They were taking over another’s life rather than making one of their own. However, Shin Jae didn’t recall much about his original world, and due to the actual Shin Jae’s comatose state, he had built a life all his own without needing to impersonate someone else. So while he technically belonged to Gon’s world, Tae Eul’s world was the one he knew and where he had spent most of his life. It added a great sense of tragedy into the idea that to fix the balance everyone had to  return to where they belonged- because that meant Shin Jae, who we had spent so much time learning about and loving, would lose everything he had ever known.

I would have been so mad if Shin Jae had ended up as collateral in all this

Kim Kyung Nam is a wonderful actor and he can do so much with the roles he is given- I remember he absolutely tore my heart to shreds as the marshmallow bad big brother in ‘Come Here and Hug Me’, and he brought the same conflicted emotions here. Even when he was pushing Tae Eul away, it was easy to connect with Shin Jae because Kim Kyung Nam has such expressive eyes that just shout about the pain and suffering that his character is going through. While Young and Eun Seop weren’t as serious as Shin Jae, they were a great source of comedy, and did still have great development.

Scene stealer if I ever saw one

Young learned to relax and connected with Eun Seop’s younger siblings (though I do wish we were shown more of this), and Eun Seop became braver by needing to step up and protect Gon as his bodyguard. While these two didn’t have the sort of character arc that Shin Jae had, they were a tremendous source of fun and the episodes that didn’t have either of them in it definitely felt like they were lacking the spark that made the show special. Woo Do Hwan is an amazing actor, and with duel roles you really get to see who can step up their game, and boy did Woo Do Hwan step. He portrayed the two different characters perfectly, and it often felt like there were two actors as well as two characters- they were just that different. 

What Wasn’t:

Too Many Bloody People:

There’s just way too many characters in this show. Especially when the two worlds have some shared cast and the same actors tended to look drastically different in each world.

Who are you and why are you doing this? No seriously...I don't know

There were times I was sitting there like ‘wait, is that the bookshop guy in Gon’s world? Is he from this world originally? Is he the one that did that thing?’ It made it tricky to keep track of who was Team Gon and who was Team Lim, and some scenes I just had no idea what was happening- I didn’t know if Gon was being threatened simply because I had absolutely no idea who the character in the scene was and why they were doing what they were doing. With Lim bringing so many people across the worlds, it was also hard to keep track of who belonged to which world. While this confusion did work well for some characters, such as Shin Jae, it completely undid the tension in many scenes where I simply didn’t know who the character on screen was. In fact, the whole transition between the two worlds could have been done a lot better- quite often as well as struggling to tell which version of which character we were seeing, I also struggled to identify which world our characters were in. With all of the people swapping over, I wish that the show had given us some sort of cue as to which world we were in- such as a change in score, or even a slightly different colour scheme or filter. Similarly, I also had no idea how much time was passing.

What world is this? How much time has passed? Why is Tae Eul weeping? So many questions left unanswered!

When Gon would go back to his own world, it felt like he’s only be gone a few days, maybe a week, before he was back with Tae Eul, and yet when he got back Tae Eul wept as if he’d been gone for months and months. And yet, the pregnant lady Lim was switching between worlds never seemed to get any more pregnant or give birth, so I still don’t know whether Tae Eul is a whiny crybaby, or if there’s some spooky magic baby that has been in utero for like 2 years. 

This Is Not How You Time Travel:

The time travel in this drama was all over the place. It was introduced quite late in the series, even though we all knew it was going to happen- did anyone NOT know that it was Lee Min Ho who saved young Gon?

The only way you wouldn't know that is Lee Min Ho is if you have never seen him in anything ever

Even with his hat and mask I went ‘oh cool, it’s Lee Min Ho’s character!’, which actually then confused me for a bit as I didn’t quite peg that the young kid was ALSO Lee Min Ho’s character. I digress- the time travel. Not done well. The show seemed to be setting up time as linear, despite having changes in time.

I do love that Lim killed his future self though- sure was unexpected!

But then sometimes it was linear and sometimes it was a loop- like how some characters got new memories when Gon played with time, and some didn’t. Like, if Gon went back in time to save young Gon and the pipe was never broken, why did Tae Eul and Young still have memories of all of those events? If past Lee Lim always kills future Lee Lim when he goes back in time, shouldn’t Lim have known this and then…not gone back? Lim HAS to have gone back originally when Gon saved young Gon because the pipe only does time travel when both halves are together. So then…why did Lim go back again? Shouldn’t he have just not gone back and then older Gon can’t go back so past Lim would have killed young Gon and had both pieces of the magic pipe? For an evil overlord that’s a pretty daft move. And doesn’t this mean that once Gon gets back to the present, there should be no more Lim? Because he dies- and yet, somehow he’s… still around? There were all kinds of plot holes that were introduced with the idea of time travel, and quite frankly it was all very poorly thought through and ended up being a bit of a shemozzle. 

Recommend?

If you liked dramas like ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’, ‘The Lonely Shining Goblin’, and ‘Descendants of the Sun’ this will probably be right up our alley. If not, then probably give this one a miss.

It was fun but kinda riddled with plot-holes