Post by ajk on Nov 4, 2017 13:42:59 GMT -5
This was another good episode. As usual the writing, production, acting and the rest were all solid. And we're in an important transition, with Yakson losing his position, so it deserves some episode time and a well-thought-out story, which we've gotten. But things are almost starting to feel a little bogged down right now. We're still a ways away from KJ even attaining his historical peak, much less anything about what happens when he reaches it. Especially with Choe suddenly bouncing back from what looked to be a fatal illness, it feels like we're not moving forward at the right pace with only nineteen episodes left.
"Park Seungson should be interrogated further...we should weigh the facts and the truth carefully." Thank you KJ. I was worried about this after the last episode, about one aide's testimony being so influential and nobody questioning that. But the way things shaped up in this one, it should be okay. Everybody seems to be so tired of Yakson's incompetence that they don't really care about a proper investigation, just get rid of the guy already. It's heartless but it's plausible. You can understand people having that attitude by now. The only surprising thing is that in all of the interrogation, nobody fessed up to plotting KJ's assassination. Somebody should have explained how they were conspiring against KJ and it was all misperceived and twisted into something bigger. I don't like that this has apparently gotten left behind.
"Only a short step for a Choe's ascension." Well there's a bolt out of the blue, wow. It was a good surprise to have this emerge unexpectedly as a motivation for what's been happening.
The guy playing Noh Jijong, he's another regular supporting guy we've seen repeatedly before. Kind of odd casting; he usually portrays somebody crazier than a high-ranking general. But he's in the middle of a big clan-versus-clan plot already so maybe he's the right guy for it after all; we'll see.
Anshim: "Kim Yakson's wife came to see me. Does she know about Wola and Chamberlain Kim?" HA!!
I just love that they're giving us such a generous dose of the story about the Tripitaka being remade. Especially because this is an MBC series, getting so much detail about something so un-charistmatic, it's surprising. Wow, 52 million characters in the thing, that's quite a statistic. And 300 men working day and night for 12 years.
One thing that was mentioned in passing but didn't get any other attention was Hwangyong temple being burned. Had never heard of it but Google came through yet again. This was actually a very big deal:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwangnyongsa
Yakson to KJ: "I was quite fond of you." The heck you were. Or maybe the sober Yakson really was on some level.
All of a sudden I got a huge Nancy Reagan vibe from Choe's wife. Of course that wasn't the intention of the character, but there are some big similarities. Nancy loved astrology too. Sheesh.
"About Gulpo. Let's forget it." Correct! Historically accurate as I discovered last time. Another thumbs-up to the series, mentioning a detail like Gulpo. Probably the fact that the work was just finally done in recent years was why they made a point of including it in the script...but whatever, nice going.
"When Songi is a widow...will you marry her?" Why does Choe have this in his head, like it's a job requirement? You can sort of understand his wanting the Director General to be in his family but this isn't the way to do it, especially not right away after what's just happened. And with Anshim standing there when he says it...no please, let's not keep spinning the wheels on this stuff while episodes tick away. Time to move forward.
"Park Seungson should be interrogated further...we should weigh the facts and the truth carefully." Thank you KJ. I was worried about this after the last episode, about one aide's testimony being so influential and nobody questioning that. But the way things shaped up in this one, it should be okay. Everybody seems to be so tired of Yakson's incompetence that they don't really care about a proper investigation, just get rid of the guy already. It's heartless but it's plausible. You can understand people having that attitude by now. The only surprising thing is that in all of the interrogation, nobody fessed up to plotting KJ's assassination. Somebody should have explained how they were conspiring against KJ and it was all misperceived and twisted into something bigger. I don't like that this has apparently gotten left behind.
"Only a short step for a Choe's ascension." Well there's a bolt out of the blue, wow. It was a good surprise to have this emerge unexpectedly as a motivation for what's been happening.
The guy playing Noh Jijong, he's another regular supporting guy we've seen repeatedly before. Kind of odd casting; he usually portrays somebody crazier than a high-ranking general. But he's in the middle of a big clan-versus-clan plot already so maybe he's the right guy for it after all; we'll see.
Anshim: "Kim Yakson's wife came to see me. Does she know about Wola and Chamberlain Kim?" HA!!
I just love that they're giving us such a generous dose of the story about the Tripitaka being remade. Especially because this is an MBC series, getting so much detail about something so un-charistmatic, it's surprising. Wow, 52 million characters in the thing, that's quite a statistic. And 300 men working day and night for 12 years.
One thing that was mentioned in passing but didn't get any other attention was Hwangyong temple being burned. Had never heard of it but Google came through yet again. This was actually a very big deal:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwangnyongsa
Yakson to KJ: "I was quite fond of you." The heck you were. Or maybe the sober Yakson really was on some level.
All of a sudden I got a huge Nancy Reagan vibe from Choe's wife. Of course that wasn't the intention of the character, but there are some big similarities. Nancy loved astrology too. Sheesh.
"About Gulpo. Let's forget it." Correct! Historically accurate as I discovered last time. Another thumbs-up to the series, mentioning a detail like Gulpo. Probably the fact that the work was just finally done in recent years was why they made a point of including it in the script...but whatever, nice going.
"When Songi is a widow...will you marry her?" Why does Choe have this in his head, like it's a job requirement? You can sort of understand his wanting the Director General to be in his family but this isn't the way to do it, especially not right away after what's just happened. And with Anshim standing there when he says it...no please, let's not keep spinning the wheels on this stuff while episodes tick away. Time to move forward.