Post by ajk on Jul 12, 2019 21:37:21 GMT -5
A couple of things kept this series from being much, much better than it was. One was the writers disregarding plenty of real history in favor of making up fictional characters and emphasizing conflict that maybe never even occurred. And then scrambling to try to “fix” it after people complained, instead of just sticking to their guns. The scrambling just made things worse.
The other was KBS shortening the series from 70 to 50 episodes and then later lengthening it back to 60. This is old ground for us here in the forum, about the harm that comes from shortening or lengthening, and here we got both. We lost important material when the cut was made, and then when it was partially reversed we got stuck with boring filler.
Pretty serious problems. But in spite of them, in many ways this wasn’t a bad series and in some ways was it very good.
The first fifteen episodes were excellent, consistently strong. Things got a little wobbly when the story shifted partly over to China; the writing for the China storyline was noticeably weaker than the Baekje material. And then after that too much time was spent on the Liaodong conflicts. In later episodes there was confusion because of the episode reduction—tried to cram too many subjects into too few episodes—and then we got stuck with all of that prince/princess stuff when the series really should have ended with Sayu’s death. So it never got back to the level of the first fifteen episodes.
I think what saved it was its consistently good writing of scenes and dialogue. Bigger-picture writing decisions may have been questionable, but from episode to episode it was almost always written with intelligence and sophistication. Characters were developed well and talked like you expected them to, and there were many, many individual scenes that stood out for being well-written and insightful. So there were some smart people working on the series and their work on a smaller scale was enough to distract from the bigger-picture issues.
Some other positives and negatives:
POSITIVES
--Start with the things the series didn’t do. It didn’t K-pop up the music, and for the most part there was no ridiculous cartoon physics or combat scenes like one-defeats-thirty. And with a couple of exceptions it didn’t turn anyone into a good or evil caricature to give us a good-guy-bad-guy story. For instance, very little of the evil laughter that even very good series have overused. Good for the producers and writers for not being tempted to resort to these kinds of gimmicks.
--This subject matter was so much earlier in time than nearly every other historical ever, it needed to look and feel different. And it did. The casting helped a lot--with a few exceptions it was a cast we hadn’t seen in historicals before. It’s fun to spot the familiar faces in historicals but this time it was more important to move away from them. And visually, things like the armors—people here had mentioned how authentic the armors were, and also the buildings and outdoor settings, they were distinctive and helped remind us that we weren’t watching a Joseon series. Good work on that.
--Many of the supporting characters were quite good. Several that deserve mention: The actor playing Biryu did very well and made Biryu an excellent character in the early episodes. Then Sayu, he was a better character than Geunchogo! More on that in a minute...but things usually perked up when the scene shifted to Goguryeo. And then Choe Myeong-gil playing Biryu’s first queen, well you wouldn’t expect anything less of her but she took over nearly every scene she was in. She was the biggest exception to the new-faces casting choices and what a good decision that was. Prince Yeohwi was also a good character and was portrayed well by the actor.
--Speaking of characters, has there ever been a better minor character in a historical than Dandan? She gets on a horse and rides all by herself straight into a war zone to let her king know about conflict in the palace. She flees with the baby prince and loses her cushy palace life so she can raise the baby in an outlying region with no more than a working-class standard of living, with a sort-of husband she had no choice on. And then she comes back and helps convince Yeohwa into giving up the nobles’ rebellion for the good of the country. All that from an attendant. Easily the Mrs. Guk MVP of this series. (And the runner-up has to be the royal physician who saved Yeogu from a fatal dose of poison in episode 43. Give that guy his own series!)
--The drinking scene in Episode 37. KG’s ministers had spread that chamyo song about Yeohwa’s baby and wouldn’t fess up, so KG took them out partying and was so nice to them that their guilt cracked them and they confessed. You could see the wheels spinning in everyone’s heads during that sequence and it was a clever piece of writing.
--Lots of scenes of visible breath in cold-weather situations. Yes it’s just a small thing but it adds authenticity and shows they’re serious about doing good work. So give me this one.
--The continuity and consistency were outstanding. Very few continuity issues, and I don’t recall a single loose end that was left unaddressed. Lots of times something from the past came back to become important in the present. Shows intelligence and good attention to detail. And like I’ve said, those kinds of things reward the viewer for sticking with the series and paying attention, which makes it more fun to watch.
NEGATIVES
--The main character. At first I liked the way the actor was playing Yeogu. Calm and stoic as all of the chaos in the palace unfolded around him. But he never changed and it got to be irritating. Never showed much genuine emotion or motivation about anything. I mean, he spoke the words but there always seemed to be something lacking. Maybe the actor was trying too hard to play it like Choi Soo Jong would? That would make sense, for a guy doing his first historical lead to emulate someone who’s been popular in similar roles. But his character wasn’t even as good as Sayu, and you certainly don’t want your lead character to be less interesting than his rival.
--Not a fan of seeing little children being manipulated and traumatized in movies and TV. The storyline early on with the young boy prince being convinced to lie and then see his mother killed and the rest of it with the fear and the crying, did not like that at all. Poor decision by the writers.
--Time and time again characters would disobey they king, cause some kind of trouble, even incite a rebellion, and there would be no consequences! KG would just forgive people over and over again and it got to be ridiculous. Not every time—he did have princes executed twice—but far too often. And let’s not forget Hae Geon pretty much getting away with murdering a king. Every time you saw him after that, how could you not wonder why a king-killer was even allowed in the same room with a king, much less holding a high government office.
--Wi Hongran sort of came around by the end, as an older queen, but was a very annoying character for most of the series. Early on all of that waving Yeogu’s ring in front of him after she stole it from him, it wasn’t a good start for the character, like she was an obsessed groupie. (Well actually her start was as a cross-dressing pirate with the worst fake beard ever. Let’s not talk about that.) Then she was consistently mean to Yeohwa, even after Yeohwa got her released when she was caught spying, and after Yeohwa helped her through childbirth and probably saved her baby’s life and maybe hers as well. Never showed any gratitude for any of it. The cattiness between them, if it was supposed to be a rivalry well it didn’t work at all because Yeohwa was just so far out of her league in maturity and wisdom and intelligence.
--The whole Who’s-Your-Daddy storyline with Yeohwa’s baby. What a bad idea that was, and it was milked repeatedly for story material when it was obvious to anyone watching and paying attention that there was no doubt about who the daddy was. Yecch.
--Prince Yeohwi dying for no good reason in episode 34. An excellent character flushed right down the toilet. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
--The music score. It wasn’t bad but I thought it was the weakest of any historical I’ve watched. Mostly because so many of the others have had really excellent music...but there just wasn’t anything that stood out about this one. Very ordinary. It was especially weak in the earlier episodes. It did get better over time, but nothing about it would make me want to go looking for a soundtrack CD like I have for nearly all of the others.
--My usual complaint about not seeing enough of what goes on in the larger country, in favor of conflict within the palace. Seems like it’s a problem in nearly every series but it was especially noticeable in this one.
--Nothing is wrong with bringing some new characters into a series to liven it up. But the K-pop twentysomethings suddenly showing up all at once, it felt like purely a ratings grab by meddling executives. The writers actually did the best they could with it, especially working in the Wae angle, but most of it was lightweight and uninteresting at a time when we should have been entirely focused on KG conquering Mahan and fighting Goguryeo.
YEOHWA
Saved Yeohwa for last.
These historicals typically struggle to come up with female characters who are believable and fit into stories of times when very few women were influential in any way. We’ve had a few good ones in the series we’ve watched here, but at least for a fictional character Yeohwa was set up to be the best one ever. There was so much to admire and respect about her. She wasn’t just smart, but very smart in both ways: educated and intelligent like you’d expect of a noble’s daughter, but also full of common sense and savvy about real-world things like political scheming. She had strong character and determination; the king, the high council, nobles, soldiers, nobody ever got the better of her. She could stare them all down and intimidate them into backing off. But on the other hand she wasn’t egotistical and always put the greater good first, even to the point of leaving her country and becoming Sayu’s wife for her father’s sake.
There was so much sadness in her life, how could you not feel for her. Wasn’t able to be with the man she loved. Saw her own mother and brothers betray her and her grandfather forsake her. Constantly under attack by everyone around her when she became queen. Had her baby taken away and (she thought) killed. And she bore it all with as much dignity as you could ever expect of a person.
And on top of it all, she and Yeogu made a great couple. Not a fusion-y, ship-y, goo-goo-eyes kissy-face couple but a complete relationship between two intelligent, sophisticated adults who loved each other. They did both do some flat-out foolish things for each other during those China episodes, but otherwise most of their scenes together were among the best scenes of the series. They were both so good for each other, and you could easily see them running the country together someday.
But we never got that, apparently because of the outside problems that the actress had. Instead she was written way down to a part-time rebel leader, and that was a tragic loss of such a great character. Obviously the series had a much different path set out for her when it was planned. KG died with Yeohwa’s ribbon clutched to his heart—what does that tell you. Maybe someday a writer or producer will tell us what the original plan was.
So the bottom line: Considering we had few other options this past year, I’m not sorry to have watched KG. It was far from the worst series we’ve watched here. Hardly a classic, and I wouldn’t be in any hurry to watch it again, if only because it disregarded so much history and shame on the writers for that. But it had its positives too. And let's face it, any series with Choe Myeong-gil is worth watching for that reason alone.
The other was KBS shortening the series from 70 to 50 episodes and then later lengthening it back to 60. This is old ground for us here in the forum, about the harm that comes from shortening or lengthening, and here we got both. We lost important material when the cut was made, and then when it was partially reversed we got stuck with boring filler.
Pretty serious problems. But in spite of them, in many ways this wasn’t a bad series and in some ways was it very good.
The first fifteen episodes were excellent, consistently strong. Things got a little wobbly when the story shifted partly over to China; the writing for the China storyline was noticeably weaker than the Baekje material. And then after that too much time was spent on the Liaodong conflicts. In later episodes there was confusion because of the episode reduction—tried to cram too many subjects into too few episodes—and then we got stuck with all of that prince/princess stuff when the series really should have ended with Sayu’s death. So it never got back to the level of the first fifteen episodes.
I think what saved it was its consistently good writing of scenes and dialogue. Bigger-picture writing decisions may have been questionable, but from episode to episode it was almost always written with intelligence and sophistication. Characters were developed well and talked like you expected them to, and there were many, many individual scenes that stood out for being well-written and insightful. So there were some smart people working on the series and their work on a smaller scale was enough to distract from the bigger-picture issues.
Some other positives and negatives:
POSITIVES
--Start with the things the series didn’t do. It didn’t K-pop up the music, and for the most part there was no ridiculous cartoon physics or combat scenes like one-defeats-thirty. And with a couple of exceptions it didn’t turn anyone into a good or evil caricature to give us a good-guy-bad-guy story. For instance, very little of the evil laughter that even very good series have overused. Good for the producers and writers for not being tempted to resort to these kinds of gimmicks.
--This subject matter was so much earlier in time than nearly every other historical ever, it needed to look and feel different. And it did. The casting helped a lot--with a few exceptions it was a cast we hadn’t seen in historicals before. It’s fun to spot the familiar faces in historicals but this time it was more important to move away from them. And visually, things like the armors—people here had mentioned how authentic the armors were, and also the buildings and outdoor settings, they were distinctive and helped remind us that we weren’t watching a Joseon series. Good work on that.
--Many of the supporting characters were quite good. Several that deserve mention: The actor playing Biryu did very well and made Biryu an excellent character in the early episodes. Then Sayu, he was a better character than Geunchogo! More on that in a minute...but things usually perked up when the scene shifted to Goguryeo. And then Choe Myeong-gil playing Biryu’s first queen, well you wouldn’t expect anything less of her but she took over nearly every scene she was in. She was the biggest exception to the new-faces casting choices and what a good decision that was. Prince Yeohwi was also a good character and was portrayed well by the actor.
--Speaking of characters, has there ever been a better minor character in a historical than Dandan? She gets on a horse and rides all by herself straight into a war zone to let her king know about conflict in the palace. She flees with the baby prince and loses her cushy palace life so she can raise the baby in an outlying region with no more than a working-class standard of living, with a sort-of husband she had no choice on. And then she comes back and helps convince Yeohwa into giving up the nobles’ rebellion for the good of the country. All that from an attendant. Easily the Mrs. Guk MVP of this series. (And the runner-up has to be the royal physician who saved Yeogu from a fatal dose of poison in episode 43. Give that guy his own series!)
--The drinking scene in Episode 37. KG’s ministers had spread that chamyo song about Yeohwa’s baby and wouldn’t fess up, so KG took them out partying and was so nice to them that their guilt cracked them and they confessed. You could see the wheels spinning in everyone’s heads during that sequence and it was a clever piece of writing.
--Lots of scenes of visible breath in cold-weather situations. Yes it’s just a small thing but it adds authenticity and shows they’re serious about doing good work. So give me this one.
--The continuity and consistency were outstanding. Very few continuity issues, and I don’t recall a single loose end that was left unaddressed. Lots of times something from the past came back to become important in the present. Shows intelligence and good attention to detail. And like I’ve said, those kinds of things reward the viewer for sticking with the series and paying attention, which makes it more fun to watch.
NEGATIVES
--The main character. At first I liked the way the actor was playing Yeogu. Calm and stoic as all of the chaos in the palace unfolded around him. But he never changed and it got to be irritating. Never showed much genuine emotion or motivation about anything. I mean, he spoke the words but there always seemed to be something lacking. Maybe the actor was trying too hard to play it like Choi Soo Jong would? That would make sense, for a guy doing his first historical lead to emulate someone who’s been popular in similar roles. But his character wasn’t even as good as Sayu, and you certainly don’t want your lead character to be less interesting than his rival.
--Not a fan of seeing little children being manipulated and traumatized in movies and TV. The storyline early on with the young boy prince being convinced to lie and then see his mother killed and the rest of it with the fear and the crying, did not like that at all. Poor decision by the writers.
--Time and time again characters would disobey they king, cause some kind of trouble, even incite a rebellion, and there would be no consequences! KG would just forgive people over and over again and it got to be ridiculous. Not every time—he did have princes executed twice—but far too often. And let’s not forget Hae Geon pretty much getting away with murdering a king. Every time you saw him after that, how could you not wonder why a king-killer was even allowed in the same room with a king, much less holding a high government office.
--Wi Hongran sort of came around by the end, as an older queen, but was a very annoying character for most of the series. Early on all of that waving Yeogu’s ring in front of him after she stole it from him, it wasn’t a good start for the character, like she was an obsessed groupie. (Well actually her start was as a cross-dressing pirate with the worst fake beard ever. Let’s not talk about that.) Then she was consistently mean to Yeohwa, even after Yeohwa got her released when she was caught spying, and after Yeohwa helped her through childbirth and probably saved her baby’s life and maybe hers as well. Never showed any gratitude for any of it. The cattiness between them, if it was supposed to be a rivalry well it didn’t work at all because Yeohwa was just so far out of her league in maturity and wisdom and intelligence.
--The whole Who’s-Your-Daddy storyline with Yeohwa’s baby. What a bad idea that was, and it was milked repeatedly for story material when it was obvious to anyone watching and paying attention that there was no doubt about who the daddy was. Yecch.
--Prince Yeohwi dying for no good reason in episode 34. An excellent character flushed right down the toilet. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
--The music score. It wasn’t bad but I thought it was the weakest of any historical I’ve watched. Mostly because so many of the others have had really excellent music...but there just wasn’t anything that stood out about this one. Very ordinary. It was especially weak in the earlier episodes. It did get better over time, but nothing about it would make me want to go looking for a soundtrack CD like I have for nearly all of the others.
--My usual complaint about not seeing enough of what goes on in the larger country, in favor of conflict within the palace. Seems like it’s a problem in nearly every series but it was especially noticeable in this one.
--Nothing is wrong with bringing some new characters into a series to liven it up. But the K-pop twentysomethings suddenly showing up all at once, it felt like purely a ratings grab by meddling executives. The writers actually did the best they could with it, especially working in the Wae angle, but most of it was lightweight and uninteresting at a time when we should have been entirely focused on KG conquering Mahan and fighting Goguryeo.
YEOHWA
Saved Yeohwa for last.
These historicals typically struggle to come up with female characters who are believable and fit into stories of times when very few women were influential in any way. We’ve had a few good ones in the series we’ve watched here, but at least for a fictional character Yeohwa was set up to be the best one ever. There was so much to admire and respect about her. She wasn’t just smart, but very smart in both ways: educated and intelligent like you’d expect of a noble’s daughter, but also full of common sense and savvy about real-world things like political scheming. She had strong character and determination; the king, the high council, nobles, soldiers, nobody ever got the better of her. She could stare them all down and intimidate them into backing off. But on the other hand she wasn’t egotistical and always put the greater good first, even to the point of leaving her country and becoming Sayu’s wife for her father’s sake.
There was so much sadness in her life, how could you not feel for her. Wasn’t able to be with the man she loved. Saw her own mother and brothers betray her and her grandfather forsake her. Constantly under attack by everyone around her when she became queen. Had her baby taken away and (she thought) killed. And she bore it all with as much dignity as you could ever expect of a person.
And on top of it all, she and Yeogu made a great couple. Not a fusion-y, ship-y, goo-goo-eyes kissy-face couple but a complete relationship between two intelligent, sophisticated adults who loved each other. They did both do some flat-out foolish things for each other during those China episodes, but otherwise most of their scenes together were among the best scenes of the series. They were both so good for each other, and you could easily see them running the country together someday.
But we never got that, apparently because of the outside problems that the actress had. Instead she was written way down to a part-time rebel leader, and that was a tragic loss of such a great character. Obviously the series had a much different path set out for her when it was planned. KG died with Yeohwa’s ribbon clutched to his heart—what does that tell you. Maybe someday a writer or producer will tell us what the original plan was.
So the bottom line: Considering we had few other options this past year, I’m not sorry to have watched KG. It was far from the worst series we’ve watched here. Hardly a classic, and I wouldn’t be in any hurry to watch it again, if only because it disregarded so much history and shame on the writers for that. But it had its positives too. And let's face it, any series with Choe Myeong-gil is worth watching for that reason alone.