Binge, Stream or Skip? Drama Review // The King's Affection 《연모》

 

You can watch the trailer above or start watching episode one here on Netflix.

Warning! Spoilers ahead.

Finally, I finish this drama. It took me longer than I thought I would though it is partly because I've been so busy and partly due to this drama not giving me the urge to sacrifice my sleep to watch more of it. However, this drama did make me cry so much in just the first couple of episodes. It was so sad and so touching when the male lead (ML) and female lead (FL) were still kids. Perhaps because they made me cry so much at the start when I wasn't expecting it at all, I may have subconsciously expected a lot from this drama. Which the later episodes failed to reach it. Hence, I would say that this drama is borderline skippable. Not entirely skippable because I have to give credits to the child actors and actresses. Their scenes deserve to be watched. I persisted on watching till the end to see if there is a chance of redemption in the last few episodes, but sadly, there isn't.

Synopsis: (taken from Netflix)

During the Joseon Dynasty, the Crown Princess Consort gives birth to twins but sends the girl away to spare her life. Years later, the twin son dies in an accident and his sister must assume his identity and throne, all while hiding her true self.

What I like about this drama:

Gender bender drama. A cliche romance trope just like contractual marriage that I like. So far, every gender bender show that I have watched, except for She's the Man, all dress up as a guy in order to meet their crush. But this show, the girl had to pose as the prince, subsequently made the crown prince and even sat on the throne as the king. Which made it interesting but this is also where many things didn't really make sense which I will rant about later down in the dislike section below.

Touching relationships between most of the characters, which is different from other periodic dramas that I have watched. Other periodic dramas show parents using their children for their own political gains and to up their social statuses. Whereas in this show, you can see how all the parents actually love and care for their kids, albeit some may take a different approach in showing and a perhaps not so righteous method in providing for and supporting their family.

The antagonist side is actually the same side as the protagonist, half the time. Sounds weird? Well, in all periodic dramas, you always get half the court versus the other half of the court. In this case, the "main" fight is not about which faction being able to put their side of the prince on the throne as the king. But rather, it is a fight between the Lord Sangheon, also the FL's maternal grandfather, who wants the country to be under his control, versus everyone else who wants to revamp the unfair system which includes the female lead and her father (the king before her). But for Lord Sangheon to be in control, he needs a puppet king on the throne, hence pushing his grandkid to be king.

The original soundtrack (OST). The main song/opening song sang by Lyn gave me Moon Embraces the Sun feels. Probably because she also sang the OST for that periodic drama.

Who I like in this drama:

Jung Ji-Un is probably the cutest character in this drama. Him and the siblings who he took under his wing.

Lord Jaeun, he is the typical nice second lead. I find him pitiful...he didn't get the person he loves and in the end, after everything that has happened, he also had to take the lonely seat on the throne as king. But nice second leads are not my type. Hoho. Putting him here because he ain't annoying and out of sympathy for this character.

What I don't like about this drama:

Boring political drama but perhaps the "fight" is not as intense because nobody is actually entirely bad, with exceptions like Lord Sangheon, the main antagonist, and the FL's uncle (Prince Changun) and older cousin (Prince Wonsan). But the latter two I would say, aren't entirely devious either. They just try to play the right cards at an opportune time as they see fit. They weren't exactly building their own private army and try to rule the country, unlike Lord Sangheon. I think the writers tried very hard to do a tug-o-war, where the antagonist wins, then the protagonist strikes back with a mini blow, then the antagonists takes back control again, so and so forth. But it was so badly done, in my opinion. I couldn't really feel the tension and get frustrated from watching, unlike the other periodic dramas. Unless, that wasn't their intention. Hmm.

So is this a plot hole? Because Lord Sangheon clearly knows that the FL do not see eye to eye with him, so why would he push so hard for the FL to be king, then time and time again condone the FL getting in his way and wrecking his plans? In the drama, he was the one who greatly assisted the FL's paternal grandfather (i.e. his in-law) to become king back then. I believe he could easily place someone else on the throne who would be a much better puppet king then the FL?

So I feel that there are many events which seemed forced, thus boring to watch. Like in episode 16, Officer Yoon's death is quite badly written. He and Kim Gaon were both forced to the edge of a cliff. While Gaon jumped off to escape with the ledger, Officer Yoon took all the arrows shot by the enemy to his chest. In the first place, if it is possible to survive the jump off the cliff, why couldn't they both jump? And perhaps risk getting shot by an arrow in the back. But at least there was a chance for survival. I don't think it made more sense for him to tank all the arrows when there are so many archers, the other archers couldn't take a shot at Gaon? It wasn't like as if Officer Yoon is the hulk being able to completely block off one other person, could he? And then in episode 17, they wanted to show how/why the ML's father appeared in the time in the nick of time to save his son from getting slashed, which is the ending of episode 16. Inspector Jung was paying respects to Officer Yoon when he noticed a suspicious group, which is actually lead by the FL's uncle. He wasn't far off behind the group so why did it take him so long to appear to help? The two leads managed to take down a number of people (I counted six lying on the ground) before the FL's uncle cut her shirt loose. Either Inspector Jung runs slower than a tortoise or the leads are that skilled in fighting. A couple of examples, so you get my point? I get that there are some events that need to occur and some which they try to explain so that it doesn't seem out of nowhere, while I don't think some scenes are redundant, I just find them badly written hence they seem forced.

At the end of the day, the "war" ended with brute force. With Lord Sangheon and Prince Wonsan creating an uprise in the palace using their private army. The result of this violent treason is the FL surrendering to the other party as she did not want anyone else to die (because of her). After the surrender, the FL and Lord Sangheon had a short little tea time heart to heart talk (LOL) which the FL tricked him into drinking tea that contains poison. She herself drank it too, wanting to take him down together with her. Which begs the question...couldn't they have just assassinate him right from the start? They were putting evidence to sentence him to death anyway. And besides, previously an entire department(?) was murdered in order to keep the birth of twins in the palace a secret. It is an event that was so hard to cover up, pretty sure killing Lord Sangheon wouldn't cause an uproar. Especially when there were petitions after petitions requesting to remove him from court.

The plot. The plot. The plot.

Who I don't like (or possibly even dislike) in this drama:

I actually don't like the adult version of the FL. Can't put my finger on it as to what exactly.

Other notes:

The only reason I didn't watch this drama on 1.5x speed was to practice my Korean listening.

I couldn't really feel much chemistry between the two leads. Although, this is not a deal breaker for me. However, mushy romantic scenes would have been much better to watch if they had. Without chemistry, I kinda cringe and feel awkward.