The King: Eternal Monarch
Accepting loss, but attractiveDisclaimer: this review contains extensive spoilers
The King: Eternal Monarch is a horrible title. It is a horrible title for an incredible drama, a sore mark on what would otherwise be one of the most riveting fantasy K-dramas of all time. Led by the wonderfully cast pairing of Lee Min-ho and Kim Go-eun, The King is as beautiful as it is complex. It’s not perfect, - plot holes in the final few episodes break immersion - but it also manages to accomplish in those final few episodes an emotional recovery that very few shows are able to make.
Though it found only limited success upon release due to some controversy over historical depictions in the show, The King has the hallmarks of a successful drama. Both the leads and all the side characters are attractive and portrayed by talented actors, every single one of them a critical part of the emotional backbone of the show. Even the comedic relief, the pairing of alternative reality doppelgangers Jo Eun-sup and Jo Yeong, carry intense emotion when they must, a daunting task given that the two characters are played by the same actor, edited together only in post. Yet their bromance is one of many highlights in the show, a hilarious take on the traditional best-friend role that accompanies every rich male lead.
The dimension-hopping gimmick of The King is one that was criticized for being confusing and hard to understand; for many, this may be true. But once you get it (and it’s not too difficult to do so if you pay attention during the first few episodes), it’s a really clever and well-written way of separating the two main characters throughout their burgeoning romance. In a way, it’s this masterful application of what is usually a poorly done gimmick that makes the final blundering of the core premise of the show so disappointing. The penultimate episode is full of logical contradictions that ruin every rule already established by the previous fourteen episodes of the show, frustratingly apparent in a cheap effort to build dramatic tension. There’s an attempt made to pay off the mechanic through its use in Lee Gon’s valiant march from the past back to the present, but even that is partially ruined by a spotty and inconsistent application of the time-travel mechanic.
The King is saved from its flaws, however, by some truly beautiful moments throughout the show and, most remarkably, the final ending. With flashes of ingenious cinematography scattered throughout, The King is definitely not an artistic anthology. But it is beautiful when it must be, especially in the scenes where the dimension-hopping ability of the protagonist and the antagonist causes time to stop. The most important thing, in any case, is the aforementioned final ending. Although many shows attempt the "everybody loses their memory" schtick, The King manages to subvert what one expects to be a disappointing, unsatisfying ending by cleverly allowing the two leads - and the comedic relief - to maintain their recollection. The effect is that of a happy ending despite sacrifice, the perfect finale to a show that is very much about accepting the weight of loss.
Images from Netflix