Source: Kookmin Ilbo
Star writer Kim Eun-sook‘s SBS Friday-Saturday drama “The King: Eternal Monarch” ended without a sound.
The drama depicts a fantasy romance that crosses the Korean Empire under the constitutional monarchy and 21st century Korean time and space. The drama ended quietly after suffering from anachronistic settings and lines, unfriendly plot developments and blatant indirect ads (PPL). The ratings that stood at 11% in the first week, fell over the course of each episode and the final episode recorded 8.1%.
The anachronistic script… “What era is it now?” Anger.
Among the reasons why the drama failed was Kim Eun Sook’s Cinderella grammar. It did not work anymore. It failed to reflect the demands of the times and depicted women in a desperate “eul”.
Jung Tae Eul [Kim Go Eun] who fought criminals in current world moved to a parallel world and became a dependent character that did nothing without the help of her “emperor on a white horse” Lee Gon [Lee Min Ho]. Many viewers asked why women should become weak ordinary people who rely on absolute guardians.
The character of Gu Seo-ryeong [Jung Eun Chae] is more serious. Although she’s a female prime minister her lines like “Are you young?” “Pretty” were full of misogyny. Especially after losing the emperor’s attention to Jung Tae Eul she states “what on earth did you win with?” Kim Eun Sook’s unique outdated misogyny in a way sets a confrontation between the two women and shows her envy of “young and pretty women.”
So, what is a parallel world?
Another reason why the drama failed was the unfriendly drama setting and plot development. The virtual world of the Korean Empire with a constitution monarchy and king and environmental background of high-rise buildings that’s also no different than modern day Korea threw viewers into confusion.
Also, the romance between the two main characters was portrayed across parallel worlds however Kim Eun Sook’s writing focused on the message of changing fate and viewers had to accept a romance that suddenly popped out of nowhere. Many viewers were confused and left comments asking “why did those two suddenly fall in love” and “I don’t understand how they could be that in love so quickly.”
Many analysts felt that this was due to Lee Eung Bok‘s absence in the drama as she had worked with Kim Eun Sook in writing “Mr Sunshine“, “Goblin“, and “Descendants of the Sun.”
“Is the actor a salesperson..?”mocked PPL
Viewers also mocked the unreasonable PPL in the drama. In particular, in a certain scene Tae-eul is seen on the phone and states, “I was surprised. The coffee that Young-i [Woo Do-hwan] picked tastes the same as the imperial coffee.” Throughout the call, the coffee brand remained visible on the screen.
On another scene, two undercover detectives suddenly grab a bag of kimchi while eating ramen in the car. There was even a scene where as many as seven brands were advertised at the same time including chicken, cell phone, health foods and even vehicles.
PPL is an essential element in reducing production costs but viewers felt that ‘The King’ excessive use of PPL really took away from the drama.
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