The Beginning - no preview

[Soju]

"The Iron Empress" began tonight in Chicago, without the Preview special other markets have seen. OK by me, since those often give away more of the story than I'd like. Those kind of things belong at the end of the series, if you ask me.

I enjoyed this show quite a bit. I share some of the misgivings Mikey et al. expressed in the other thread, but they sayit becomes less of an issue by the second ep, so I guess I won't worry about it.

Boy, Lee Dukhwa sure is cool. That garrison commander sure isn't, though

That Khitan General looks to be one to watch. In that brief flashback, we saw he has some history of cruelty involving Cheonchu. I expect he'll stick around as 'The One You Love To Hate' for a while.

[zorro]

I've been looking forward to this drama, and the cast and the look is excellent.

That said, the writing is already pushing the envelope in the very first episode.

One minute, a 20,000 member enemy army (with some really cool advanced weaponry and strategies) is demanding surrender from the Anyoongjin fort defended by only 1000 soldiers, give or take the 30 or 40 member band the Queen brought with her.

The next minute (or maybe 5) we see the totally outnumbered defenders (led by their Queen) outfighting their attackers to the point that when the 1 or 2 hundred reinforcements finally arrive, they open the gates and chase the 20,000 enemy army away… not only that, they pursue them to supposedly wipe them out. HUH?

Add to that, we later see Hunae and Foreman Kim escaping on horseback after being completely surrounded by "tree people" and one starts to wonder if she'll be able to fly in upcoming episodes. BTW she sure is a screamer.

I know KOW, EOS, and especially DJY stretched the truth along the way, but this one is starting out almost like a fairy tale. At episode's end, she faces off with Wuji Buji (Captain Crossbow) in the freeze frame. I suppose he'll fire first and she'll split his arrow with hers?

I guess the best way to look at it is the same as DJY, more of a comic book than a real life drama.

But with all my whining, I can hardly wait for Monday to see what happens next.

[ajk]

Yeah, no preview episode aired in Chicago. Considering how weak the preview for GKS was, no great loss, and I agree, soju, I certainly didn't want to hear any spoiler info. Save the making-of stuff for the end like they did with IYSS.

Over the next few days I'll get a schedule thread and spoiler thread started for this board, and will also start a charater roster like I did for GKS. I'll also get a summary up for Ep1 and will try to continue doing summaries for the whole series. They're going to have to be a bit more concise than my GKS summaries, only because my time is tighter this year than last year. But they may actually be easier to read with a little less detail, and I also don't get the impression that this series will be as complicated as GKS was (although it's too early to be sure). Anyway, I have to get a second pass through the episode before I post anything because Ep1s are always tough to summarize with all of the new characters and situations. Obviously I want to get it right.

That being said...zorro, I had some of the same concerns about the writing. My very same reaction--uh-oh, we may have us a comic book here. But I know they have to make a splash right away to get the viewers hooked in, so let's hope some of those plot oddities don't become a habit.

Actually, the one thing that most stuck in my head was when the queen was in the fort and shot and killed the enemy who was standing in front of her, unarmed and delivering surrender conditions. What a totally classless act. She's supposed to be the hero of the series, and she pulls a stunt like that? That was a horrible thing to do. Just horrible.

[BungalowDweller]

I can't believe I missed the first episode. What TIME was the broadcast? And does anyone know the days and times for RE-broadcast? Thanks.

[teacher]

Bungalow Dweller,
The show began at about 7:45 Tuesday night, and the rebroadcast was at about 2:00 this afternoon.

I've sent you a PM about the first episode.

[MTR]

We just finished ep 5
Anyway i do like it but it just feels like something is missing from this drama ,it does not hook you like other Historical Drama's have done in the past ,after ep being" Xena goes to Coryeo "it changes tone and becomes "The Tudors move to Coryeo ".
I think this may be its problem because all the stuff in ep 1 is going to come back and you will be left with a drama that cannot make up its mind ,does it want to be Sejong or DJY ,Its trying to take the best from both and coming up short .

Historical Accuracy is out the window in this one ,we got spoiled in Sejong as far as Historical Fact this makes DJY look like I Claudius .

Still it is good just not up to the standard we have been used too .

Musical Score kicks in at ep 4 ,decent music but again lacking compared to other historical dramas

[Knov1]

This is just a reminder that anything that happens ahead of the Chicago timeline is considered a spoiler and should go in the spoiler thread.