Post by ajk on May 17, 2020 2:46:13 GMT -5
This was the weakest episode so far--not even close. The final one-third of it wasn’t bad, but before that...all that needs be said is that the voice of reason for roughly the first half of the episode was angry old dad Ahgajae. Yikes! This Park Sulhee nonsense completely derailed the quality of the story.
Okay, good for them for including it in the story if it’s real history, but the way they presented it, not good at all. Like I said last time, it’s absurd that Goongyae would have shown up there without knowing that it was King Gyeongmun’s shrine. And if in real history this was a calculated, deliberate act by Goongyae, why show it here as a momentary freakout? And the blood or whatever that was coming out of the portrait, when the previous episode ended it seemed like this was a hallucination by Goongyae, but here we saw that it was real. What the heck? What was the stuff and where did it come from? And then two monks couldn’t pull the knife out of there but WG did? What is this, King Arthur and Excalibur? Later they tried to make it sound like some kind of omen...more of the “Wang Guhn destiny” stuff they keep trying to pitch. Ugh this just did not sit well.
WG: “Instruct them to maintain dignity, and to display respect and generosity.” And then he okays Park Sulhee as the emissary? No, no, no. The one and only thing that’s selling WG in this series as a major player who’s risen so high is that he’s a smart guy. He’d never do something as stupid as okaying a non-diplomat for this kind of job. Especially a soldier who’s proven that he can’t think straight about Sangju. This was totally, ridiculously inconsistent with the character.
And then Park gets there and starts fawning over Daeju and making goo-goo eyes at her like a lovesick teenager. He’s supposed to be a strong warrior and an emissary of an intimidating rival. It was embarrassing. The entire Sangju throne room was laughing at him. But then he recites a verse he memorized and suddenly he’s a learned scholar and Ahjagae is gushing all over him and throwing him a banquet (thereby ending his brief stint as voice of reason). And even the bitchy wife who hates everybody likes him. Good heavens this was weak stuff.
Ahjagae: “It must be a headache to have a man like you as a subordinate.” Okay that was darned funny. Had to get up from the computer and walk that one off. The fact that Ahjagae said it was really what made it so funny. (In contrast, Park Sulhee, not funny.)
I did try to dig up some information on the verse Park recited, but couldn’t even figure out what “The Grand Tome” refers to. Struck out; sorry.
By this point the series has earned enough trust to presume that the real Park Sulhee really did travel to Sangju as we saw here (although we haven’t gotten a narrated text to confirm it yet). But it’s almost bizarre how poorly his part of the story is being presented compared to everything else we’re getting. Did the writers read that bit of historical record about his weird eating habits and take it as a cue to turn him into a comic-relief character? In several other series we’ve seen attempts to add comedy to the story and it doesn’t work at all. It isn’t working here either...and here it’s damaging what otherwise is a first-rate series so far.
Incident at Busuk Temple. Goongyae drove a dagger through a portrait of his father. It was a tremendous act. By doing so, he publicly repudiated his connection to royalty of Shilla. History records this incident like this: “Upon witnessing a portrait of Shilla’s king in Busuk Temple, Goongyae drew his dagger and pierced through it. The dagger mark still remains.” Could it simply have been a burst of uncontrollable anger that drove Goongyae to commit such a wrongful act? Historians take a different view. They believe it was a device to win the hearts of Koryo citizens. With complete denial of his past, he was trying to firmly establish Koryo’s foundation of support. This view is correct in all probability.
Okay, good for them for including it in the story if it’s real history, but the way they presented it, not good at all. Like I said last time, it’s absurd that Goongyae would have shown up there without knowing that it was King Gyeongmun’s shrine. And if in real history this was a calculated, deliberate act by Goongyae, why show it here as a momentary freakout? And the blood or whatever that was coming out of the portrait, when the previous episode ended it seemed like this was a hallucination by Goongyae, but here we saw that it was real. What the heck? What was the stuff and where did it come from? And then two monks couldn’t pull the knife out of there but WG did? What is this, King Arthur and Excalibur? Later they tried to make it sound like some kind of omen...more of the “Wang Guhn destiny” stuff they keep trying to pitch. Ugh this just did not sit well.
WG: “Instruct them to maintain dignity, and to display respect and generosity.” And then he okays Park Sulhee as the emissary? No, no, no. The one and only thing that’s selling WG in this series as a major player who’s risen so high is that he’s a smart guy. He’d never do something as stupid as okaying a non-diplomat for this kind of job. Especially a soldier who’s proven that he can’t think straight about Sangju. This was totally, ridiculously inconsistent with the character.
And then Park gets there and starts fawning over Daeju and making goo-goo eyes at her like a lovesick teenager. He’s supposed to be a strong warrior and an emissary of an intimidating rival. It was embarrassing. The entire Sangju throne room was laughing at him. But then he recites a verse he memorized and suddenly he’s a learned scholar and Ahjagae is gushing all over him and throwing him a banquet (thereby ending his brief stint as voice of reason). And even the bitchy wife who hates everybody likes him. Good heavens this was weak stuff.
Ahjagae: “It must be a headache to have a man like you as a subordinate.” Okay that was darned funny. Had to get up from the computer and walk that one off. The fact that Ahjagae said it was really what made it so funny. (In contrast, Park Sulhee, not funny.)
I did try to dig up some information on the verse Park recited, but couldn’t even figure out what “The Grand Tome” refers to. Struck out; sorry.
By this point the series has earned enough trust to presume that the real Park Sulhee really did travel to Sangju as we saw here (although we haven’t gotten a narrated text to confirm it yet). But it’s almost bizarre how poorly his part of the story is being presented compared to everything else we’re getting. Did the writers read that bit of historical record about his weird eating habits and take it as a cue to turn him into a comic-relief character? In several other series we’ve seen attempts to add comedy to the story and it doesn’t work at all. It isn’t working here either...and here it’s damaging what otherwise is a first-rate series so far.