Post by ajk on Dec 10, 2017 3:44:58 GMT -5
Hmm, except for the ending this was not one of the better episodes at all. Besides the fact that it kind of dragged along and wasn't all that interesting, the level of writing didn't measure up to the standard of excellence the series has set. This may just be because of the series being extended and the seemingly inevitable dropoff in writing quality that happens when a series gets extended and more episodes suddenly have to be filled with material.
This stuff about people talking to themselves to advance the viewer along in the storyline...Blecch, please stop that. Or our finally learning Choe U's succession strategy by hearing his thoughts? Lazy writing. At least have conversations, or better yet come up with sequences that reveal these things in clever ways. Same with Mrs Choe just suddenly out of the blue griping about her father and son being reassigned. That was abrupt and disorienting, like What the heck is she talking about?
Im Yon and his two fellow former soldiers, I don't like these new characters at all. They seem shallow and flaky and annoying, not at all good fits with so many excellent strong characters in the series.
Speaking of which, here's the narrated text:
You know what, Choe U is supposed to be in his 70s at this point but Jung Bo Suk looks way too good for that age and for the poor state of his health. I know, it's TV and they're not going to make him look bad enough to cause people to change channels, but come on do a little more than gray his hair a bit. But hey, Choe coughed up blood! Korean historical, of course he did, how could he not!
Kim Kyongson showing up again and taking over the whole situation. What a great character.
That scene where Im Yon just starts randomly smacking around guys standing there outside Manjong's building, what was that? An awful, pointless scene.
Good grief, Subeop seems like he's turned into a zombie. Guess those years of no sleep and a pine-needle diet isn't good for a person, is it. Who'd have guessed.
"They'll end up traitors anyway. Better to root them out now." Wow. I trust this series enough to believe that Choe U really did drown all those guys. And it's an interesting question , whether or not he's right. People reacted to it all with horror but I kinda felt like Choe had a good point.
"And you'd think he'd hold a grudge about that Wola business." Did anybody else wonder if KJ was going to jump across that table and rip Manjong's beating heart out of his chest? But no, treated him professionally and kept his cool.
"Kim Jun will do the rest. He'll choose Manjun over Manjong. He's only human and Manjong killed his woman. After this Manjun wiil owe Kim Jun. He'll bow to him and, ultimately, Kim Jun will run the Guard Corps." A reveal like that is always fun, to suddenly know something new or get a big insight. But I don't follow the logic here. Choe has said he doesn't want to name KJ the successor because of the former-slave thing; thinks too many people would resent KJ. How does this plan solve that problem? I don't get it. Does he expect that Manjun would occupy the office but allow KJ to make all the decisions and do the real work? Maybe that's it but it wasn't clear.
I will say, the ending was good and the cliffhanger was probably the most intriguing of the whole series so far. We saw nothing in KJ's scene with Manjun that showed Manjun to be any worthier than Manjong is. Nothing at all. So KJ very quickly asking him to come back to the capital--apparently choosing him over Manjong--why did he do that? Was Choe U right, did the Wola thing influence him, consciously or unconsciously? And KJ's little twitch of apparent contempt in the final second, that was interesting. And then there's that message that Manjong was sending to Manjun...we never heard anything more about that but it's hard to believe we won't get a surprise from it later on.
So hopefully the clever ending is a good sign that the next episode will be better than this one.
This stuff about people talking to themselves to advance the viewer along in the storyline...Blecch, please stop that. Or our finally learning Choe U's succession strategy by hearing his thoughts? Lazy writing. At least have conversations, or better yet come up with sequences that reveal these things in clever ways. Same with Mrs Choe just suddenly out of the blue griping about her father and son being reassigned. That was abrupt and disorienting, like What the heck is she talking about?
Im Yon and his two fellow former soldiers, I don't like these new characters at all. They seem shallow and flaky and annoying, not at all good fits with so many excellent strong characters in the series.
Speaking of which, here's the narrated text:
Kim Jun and Im Yon. Records indicate they weren't that far apart in age. Nevertheless, Im Yon served Kim Jun as a father. But, who knew that the day would come that Im Yon would be the death of Kim Jun.When Im Yon's two buddies saw him with KJ in that city street, why did they express no surprise at all to see Im there? They should have been stunned to see him still alive, much less a free man. Bad continuity error there.
You know what, Choe U is supposed to be in his 70s at this point but Jung Bo Suk looks way too good for that age and for the poor state of his health. I know, it's TV and they're not going to make him look bad enough to cause people to change channels, but come on do a little more than gray his hair a bit. But hey, Choe coughed up blood! Korean historical, of course he did, how could he not!
Kim Kyongson showing up again and taking over the whole situation. What a great character.
That scene where Im Yon just starts randomly smacking around guys standing there outside Manjong's building, what was that? An awful, pointless scene.
Good grief, Subeop seems like he's turned into a zombie. Guess those years of no sleep and a pine-needle diet isn't good for a person, is it. Who'd have guessed.
"They'll end up traitors anyway. Better to root them out now." Wow. I trust this series enough to believe that Choe U really did drown all those guys. And it's an interesting question , whether or not he's right. People reacted to it all with horror but I kinda felt like Choe had a good point.
"And you'd think he'd hold a grudge about that Wola business." Did anybody else wonder if KJ was going to jump across that table and rip Manjong's beating heart out of his chest? But no, treated him professionally and kept his cool.
"Kim Jun will do the rest. He'll choose Manjun over Manjong. He's only human and Manjong killed his woman. After this Manjun wiil owe Kim Jun. He'll bow to him and, ultimately, Kim Jun will run the Guard Corps." A reveal like that is always fun, to suddenly know something new or get a big insight. But I don't follow the logic here. Choe has said he doesn't want to name KJ the successor because of the former-slave thing; thinks too many people would resent KJ. How does this plan solve that problem? I don't get it. Does he expect that Manjun would occupy the office but allow KJ to make all the decisions and do the real work? Maybe that's it but it wasn't clear.
I will say, the ending was good and the cliffhanger was probably the most intriguing of the whole series so far. We saw nothing in KJ's scene with Manjun that showed Manjun to be any worthier than Manjong is. Nothing at all. So KJ very quickly asking him to come back to the capital--apparently choosing him over Manjong--why did he do that? Was Choe U right, did the Wola thing influence him, consciously or unconsciously? And KJ's little twitch of apparent contempt in the final second, that was interesting. And then there's that message that Manjong was sending to Manjun...we never heard anything more about that but it's hard to believe we won't get a surprise from it later on.
So hopefully the clever ending is a good sign that the next episode will be better than this one.