CaliKdramaFan
Starts out amazing, loses momentum
Let me first of all say that I'm a huge fan of the main characters. They and their relationship were the reasons I stuck with the drama to the end.The story was very interesting, and it was fun to watch during the first several episodes when everything was being laid out. However, I feel that 16 episodes were too many for this drama. It led to a lot of long, drawn out conversations between characters that were just rehashing the same plot points because nothing new was added. That brings its rewatch value way down for me.
The visuals are very pretty, and the special effects were some of the best I've seen in Kdramas.
The love triangle felt like an afterthought and unnecessary for the story as the second male lead was a kind person anyway and it would have been plausible for him to do the things he did for the FL without being in love with her.
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Don't understand the negative reviews
This was the second Kdrama I ever watched, after Crash Landing On You. Lee Gon was immediately my new image of a knight in shining armor.The acting is top notch. I completely believed in Lee Min Ho as a king. It took me a lot longer to warm up to Tae Eul, but not because of Kim Go Eun's acting. Woo Do Hwan stole every scene he was in as Eun Sup and absolutely nailed playing his alter ego's polar opposite personality as well.
My method of judging the quality of a show's soundtrack is whether or not listening to it on its own recalls the emotions I felt while watching the drama. Most of the tracks in The King's OST definitely do that for me.
I will say that the story and pacing had some issues. There was a LOT going on at any one point, and it wasn't always clearly explained. However, I have now watched this drama all the way through twice now and on the second watch I realized that a lot of the things I thought were plot holes actually weren't. Without the constant speculation about the plot, character relationships, etc. that's usually going on in my head during my first viewing I picked up on a lot of things that I didn't notice the first time around. I think the writer tried to be a little bit too clever at times, but it wasn't incomprehensible at all. The plot does kind of start to collapse under its own weight towards the end, meaning some of the episodes feel a little slow and plodding as the characters try to sift through some of the various threads, but overall I felt the cast pulled it off.
Some have complained about the relationship between the main leads feeling off as far as how quickly it progressed, but that also gets more or less explained. Saying too much would be giving spoilers, but it's very in sync with the characters' personalities and the situation they find themselves in.
Product placement is another criticism I see a lot of people have, but maybe since I'm not in Korea and don't see most of the advertised brands in stores it doesn't usually bother me that much. As long as the "commercial" doesn't interrupt the narrative flow (which it doesn't with this show, imo) a lot of the time I don't even notice it.
It's a beautiful drama with great acting, a unique story and compelling soundtrack. It's not without its flaws, but those flaws don't ruin the whole thing. I will probably watch it for a third time in the near future. :-)
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Stick with it past the first couple of episodes
It really is worth it, I promise. The FL stops shrieking (there really is no other word for it) whenever something happens and isn't so much of a ditz later on. I came very, very close to dropping this drama because of her but I'm very glad I didn't. That being said, she never really grew on me as a character.The 9.0 rating I gave for acting is based on both Ji Sung and Park Seo Joon. Ji Sung does a great job of playing multiple, very different characters and Park Seo Joon is adorable and funny.
I feel the sountrack is dated and repetitive, but it didn't ruin the show for me.
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Sweet, but flawed and sometimes irritating
As you can see by the review's title, I'm conflicted about this drama. I, like many others, am tired of the prosopagnosia trope; but this show at least had an original twist on it. It also went a little deeper into the medical aspects of it (causes, symptoms, etc.) than I've seen elsewhere.The disease, however, set the show up for one of the most annoying plotlines I've ever seen. Almost everything contrived to prolong the secretary's deception, even if characters had to make ridiculous, illogical decisions in order for that to happen. The deception itself was pretty despicable, no matter how much justification the show tried to provide. I found myself unable to enjoy some of the cute/romantic moments because I couldn't stop thinking about what the FL was doing to the ML simply because she was, well, selfish.
I found the overall wrap-up interesting and more satisfying than many dramas I've seen. In the end I was ok with the way the relationship between the ML and FL resolved itself, but along the way there were many times when I considered not watching the rest of the show because the deception just wouldn't end. I'm glad I did finish because both the main and secondary romances were ultimately very nice.
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