The King: Eternal Monarch (Review)
The King: Eternal Monarch was one of the most popular K-Dramas on Netflix in 2020. And still, it is quite popular on social media, as one of the most memorable romance dramas. It also features some very light fantasy setting (or urban fantasy, to be precise).
The premise for the show is based on alternative worlds/multiverse idea, including some time travel elements as well. The main protagonist, Lee Gon (Lee Min-ho), is the king of the kingdom of Korea on the alternative Earth. I’m not going to explain how, but his earth gets connected to our earth (obviously). When he travels to our earth the first person, he encounters, is Jeong Tae-eul (Kim Go-eun), a local policewoman in our world Korea who also helps her father running his taekwondo academy.
Besides the romance arc between the two main leads there is a conspiracy plot involving the main villain of the show, prince Geum (Lee Jung-jin). When Lee Gon was still a boy, prince Geum assassinated his father in a failed palace coup in the kingdom of Korea. Unbeknownst to all, Geum then escaped to our Earth from where for years he was building another plot to finally seize the throne of the alternative Korea. Lee Gon and Tae-eul investigate the conspiracy to thwart Geum’s plot. While I am not going to reveal the details, it is enough to say that the plot of the show is pretty compelling.
There is a plethora of supporting characters in the show. Among the most important there is Koo Seo-ryeong (Jung Eun-chae), as the prime minister in the Kingdom of Korea and secondary antagonist of the show; and Jo Yeong (Woo Do-hwan), as a sort of sidekick for Lee Gon, a captain of the Royal Guard often serving as his actual bodyguard and his closest friend.
Despite some criticism, I don’t find the “multiverse” setting of the show to be overly complicated. It mostly serves as a gimmick and a plot device, like some critics observed, the alternative Korea doesn’t differ that much from our Korea. This is sometimes the problem with K-Dramas: they often fail to create a compelling worldbuilding and fantasy setting in their shows, what we get is usually very superficial and usually completely unnecessary for the main plot (I think the great exception from this rule were Alchemy of Souls and Hellbound though). So, we don’t really need the whole multiverse thing in The King: Eternal Monarch, but yeah, that’s what we got. And the multiverse there works almost exactly like in Marvel’s universe: the alternate earth(s) have alternate versions of everybody from our world, but they have different names, jobs, lives (although, as we would learn in this show, they often have jobs in the same broad area, or live in the same places).
The main leads are definitely why you would watch the show, not the setting. Lee Min-ho is indeed royal as Lee Gon, an all-around compelling character in a solid performance. Kim Go-eun as Jeong Tae-eul delivers, as usual, a very emotional performance, and she is the reason why the audience gets teary-eyed so often while watching this show. The show is not a comedy (although, as usual it has some comedic elements here and there), which actually benefits the show and allows lead actors to show their acting chops. The moments when the pair of leads reunites a few times during the show, as they try to navigate multi-world relationship and their lives, are particularly moving. The Eternal Monarch is also one of the shows focusing on family relationships, what often happens in K-Dramas. The most important is the bond between Tae-eul and her father (Jeon Bae-soo as Jeong Do-in): this heartwarming relationship forms a sort of secondary arc of the show, and is important to show Tae-eul as a fully fleshed out character.
The show was apparently criticized for excessive product placement, and sure, the characters in the show eat fried chicken in a particular restaurant chain so often that it makes you wonder why they don’t complain about diet diversity. But I guess, that’s just a feature of K-Dramas you have to learn to live with (and it’s actually more believable than the claim many K-Dramas make that they prefer Kopiko candy instead of real coffee, yeah, sure . . .).
Overall, The King: Eternal Monarch is a must watch for all K-Drama fans, an engaging romance with very good performances.
The King: Eternal Monarch on Wikipedia and MyDramaList
