Mysteries Continue to be Doled Out in Dribbles as the Tepid OTP Romance Dominates into Episode 12 of The King: Eternal Monarch with 6.1% and 8.1% Ratings

View Comments

• Definitely didn’t expect the bombshell that the head court lady is originally from South Korea.......or that the damn prime minister somehow managed to get through to the other universe??!? Plus the scar thingies and how they only seem to affect some people and not others. This drama churns out twice as many problems as it does answers and expects to be patted on the back for it for some reason.

  The OTP is just exhausting to me at this point. From her going from annoyance to true love mode in like three episodes to him announcing her as the future queen to the guards without any preambles or considerations. The bullet train doesn’t seem to be stopped anytime soon and I now fully expect her to be pregnant in the next few episodes if they really did bone in this one (and not just kiss lying down on a mattress -_—)

  • I agree!

    The biggest question is WHY? I could care less if Lady Noh is from planet Mars at this moment. Why are they trying to make her relevant when there’s a circus number of characters they need to develop? They cray cray

  • I’m with you on this one lol! Cheers to a show that fans say you need to be ‘super intelligent’ to enjoy! ? Smh. Apparently if you find fault with this ‘masterpiece’, you’re too dumb to understand it. This drama is not rocket science. It’s just a failure in entertainment, smh.

  • From what i can see, scars appear only to those who have counterparts that are already dead. Lee Lim, Lee Gon, lim's right hand man, the horse stable man and... prime minister???

    • @Watcher.

      Great point. You could be right. It would explain why it’s on some, and not on others. I guess that little boy IS God in the drama, and what he said to Jung about restoring the balance, finally makes a lot of sense! So, we are to assume that old Court Lady’s doppelgängers is alive, somewhere since she doesn’t have it? But hasn’t Shin Jae’s counterpart been dead since he was little? And he’s never had the scar, either. I’m guessing the scar only shows up on people whose doppelgängers were murdered or died from unnatural causes before their time. Or even only on those whose doppelgängers were killed as a result (either directly or indirectly) of Lee Lim’s actions. Very interesting.

    • The prime minister koo' doppleganger still alive in Republic of Korea but she has the scar too... My head has been non stop thinking about the scar... i think there's another reason for the scar...

    • Maybe the PM’s doppelgänger is dead? At least at the time when the Prime Minister has the scar. It may be a part of the PM’s agreement to cross over to the parallel world. Timelines in this drama is unreliable at best, but it wouldn’t surprise me, if one day the doppelgänger’s dead body showed up and Jung Tae Eul was called in to investigate.

    • If i observations didnt failed me, those ppl who crossed over mostly lured by promise of a better life.

      So my question is, why PM Koo crossed over whn she is at the top of her game in kingdom? U knw being the youngest female PM, powerful, beautiful,etc etc . In republic, her doppleangle is a nobody.

  • Hahahaha. Exactly. You know sometimes there is a need for a clue to show what they did. Like...flowing white curtains or...yea idk. Usually it is the holding of the hand.

• Is anyone reminded of king2 hearts scene with seung gi and ha jiwon ?
  I haven't seen the TKEM SCENE but the pic reminded me of TK2H where hang ah was hurt and jeah comforts her

• I think I saw someone mentioned that no one watches TV anymore nowadays and TV is outdated. Well, I am sure TWOTM with its explosive rating was showing in Saturn’s or parallel universe’s TV station.

  • let them delulus enjoy being delusional ?

  • Because TWOTM was not on Netflix so where else will the people watch? Hence , the ratings.

    • @Anj

      Internationally, TWOTM was and still is available on VIU since the beginning, and don't know about other countries, but here in Indonesia, one of our national channels have been airing it around 2 weeks before its last two episodes in South Korea.

      So, won't be surprised if there's also a streaming deal made for the drama to air in South Korea other than with Netflix?

      Hence why I don't think the ratings were high because it's not on Netflix, on the contrary, ratings were high because it's popular, with or without the help of streaming sites (legal or illegal sites).

• hey i mean who tf cares about korean tv ratings anymore? international fans love this series <3TKEM<3 who cares about korean viewers only us LMH die hard fans have the mental capacity to appreciate a complex story (that quite literally can be processed by anyone with less than half a brain). like cmon? surely the whole japan vs corea trope wasnt fanservice to spur feelings of patriotism among koreans. like cmon the war in 1950?? who will get that unless you are a korean or have studied korean history. I wonder if the die hard *intelligent* fans even caught on to what the court lady said at the end of episode 12 without heading to soompi forums for some kind of explaination because this drama requires a lot of *thinking*.

  but still, am i the only one here who actually enjoyed the PM going to the ROK, the hurting scars and the court lady plot twist? at least something was happening LOL. honestly i think the latest 2 episodes are passable and interesting at times. i watched it while scrolling through my phone and just ignored most of the otp moments and it made the drama more tolerable.

  • I loved this drama. Not the traditional drama. Very complex and complicated. The scar/burns may have to do with killed doppelgängers. Per LMH’s character, something about rule broken and perhaps restoring balance?

  • Dude I agree ....i can't wait for the next episodes. Too much suspense! The thing which pissing me off is the reviews that I am reading after every single episodes...like whyy

• I think we can all agree that it did not meet expectations in SKorea in terms of tv/cable ratings, but I doubt this has much impact to the careers of the actors and actresses in the series. So I hope no one gets depressed or anything, especially hearing how stressful the SKorean entertainment industry is for the actors/actresses. It might slightly impact the careers of the screenwriter and PD though, but again, one miss is not a career-killer. Curious how this fares in Netflix streaming compared to the other series.

  • I agree with you I don't think this will particularly deter any of the cast from getting roles from now on as they are all pretty talented and lee min ho and kim go eun are already A-listers so this is probably a blip on their resumes. i just feel bad for the rising stars as they probably assumed that a kim eun sook drama would have given them that boost but unfortunately and unexpectedly this was a massive flop. Still I don't see this massively affecting any of their careers. Except for maybe lee min ho who would have to diversify th kind of roles he takes in the future since everyone is tired of seeing him play the same roles again

    • I wouldn't say that's totally a bad thing for Lee Min Ho,though. A good wake up call that it's time to reimagine himself and his career. It's time to grow.

    • I agree. Though the guy is good-looking and eve he needs to change his roles.I am sick of seeing him in the same role.

  • Agree. When many more rising actors/actresses getting attention nowadays who are also handsome and beautiful who also good at acting (like Han So Hee for female).

• I get what you mean how the build up of romance wasn’t there it was just forced. Although I for one liked their kissing scene. I saw so many people who watches it went crazy about it. If from Ep 1 they were more substantial evidence of falling in love not just him finally meet his crush for 25 years this would have been a really good side of romance for the drama. I also wished the writer wrote the king character with more meat so LMH has more to work on and not overshadowed by the other characters. KGE characters were both tough so it is hard to have that soft romance going on when she’s a tough cop with a black belt and being weepy lovesick isn’t what she should be. They doppelgängers should have more use in early episodes, especially the prime minister instead of trying to be queen (while wearing that mask?) and that in itself was baseless too. I will watch til the end. I know it’s not a masterpiece but I like the cast and I’m entertained. I wish it could be better but I’m just going to enjoy it as it is.

  • the writer, KES is to be blamed for this bombing ratings of TKEM and no one else. Shes failing to make the story relatable and easily understood and appreciated by viewers (exluding the cast fans , of vourse) KES is like a smart, well known professor who fails to clearly explain to her students the subject matter. it is not that the students ARE DUMB
    it's just the professor is failing to do her/his job well. in short,
    To those who love TKEM and are enjoying it, Congratulations,

    But please atop saying that TKEM can only be appreciated and liked by smart person only. OH MY thats so cruel.

    • For all you know,a professor may prefer to watch TKEM than the Secret of Forest, and an ordinary Joe may prefer to watch Signal rather than My Love From the Stars. So,stop judging someone's intelligence based on whether that person watched TKEM or not, unlessyou have a proper data orstats about IQ level and this drama

• Episode 12 biggest downfall is giving the nauseating couple 3/4 of the screen-time. They did nothing to earn this.

  I barely remember what happened this episode because I was trying hard not to upchuck my breakfast.

  That ending was one of the worst cliff-hanger. I don’t care that lady noh is a korean. Can they just focus on the other stories? There’s only 4 episodes left for goodness sake

• i really love koalas blog but TBH, im getting tired reading anything related to TKEM
  theres nothing new to talk about. It's a bad drama,Poorly written expensive drama, ratings are bombing, only the fans of the leads ( espcially Lee Min No nos
  fans) are loving it, no chemistry between the leads, the Femaile lead is unpleasant to watch/to look at/ she is supppppeeeeeeer annoying

  i just want this drama to end Excited For Backstreet Rookie/Comvenience store. The Female lead, Kim Go Eun, shoyld take acting lesons from Kim Yoo jung.

  TKEM is hopeless.

  • it's all hyped. Too much promotion and gimmicks.

    • No offense to Kim Yoo Jung fangirls, but Kim Yoo Jung’s acting in CwP was mediocre at best. She was exaggerating her cute acting too much, so she overacted.

      She was better in darker roles like in Angry Mom instead.

    • I took a little peek at a scene where LMH was running to the physically-hurt KGE and she was waiting for him to hug her. That was so ... eeekkk. I said this before, her countenance is in perpetual haughtiness and exhaustion. That is a big problem with me. I'm psychologically exhausted and depressed just watching her. Same thing happened when she was the lead of Goblin. I didn't realize it before but it is so pronounced here. Plus LMH in love is... not feeling it.

      They should have replaced the female lead at Ep 3, really. Especially if they're focusing on the love story. Who does casting like that. It is so obvious on screen right at the bat that they are not visually, emotionally, physically and psychologically matching.

  • At this point for TKEM when it has failed to get a strong footing in, any buzz is good buzz, all good or bad criticisms included. Koala and people here are actually talking about it, which is probably better for this drama where opinions skew wildly than if it was to quietly finish airing and disappear without leaving any footprints. Many dramas wish they had this type of reception.

    Also Koala is probably contributing to that international Netflix rating that fans love to toot so much, so telling frustrated viewers who have been voicing their criticisms to stop watching isn't going to help TKEM.

    • Truth! All of these frustrated viewers, at the end of the day, are added revenue.

  • I agree with what you said on the lack of chemistry between the leads. Just saying KGE was better portraying her characterin Goblin compared to TKEM. I honestly felt like she was a bit lackluster. Most of the time she lacks expression in her eyes. No hate on her though but she really needs to study her character well in the future.

• I enjoyed episode 11 and 12. It cannot be helped the story was poorly told in the first episodes so it is a bit messy. But I can't deny that it is interesting esp these later episodes.Looking forward to next episodes.

  • you are right. The latest episodes have been quite great really. I am enjoying it a lot. I would say it's a better drama than goblin story wise. But just my two cents of course lol.

  • But I think it's a little too late at episode 11 & 12? Only 4 more episodes to answer all the questions that keeps on cropping up.They would have more time to put more depth to the storyline if they minimized the half-baked romance story from the beginning.

• ep 11 should be ep 1, then we go to flashback about how it all unfold in 6 episode and episode 12 can be ep 7,

  I think this drama need re-edit into 10-12 episode with better pacing so it actually become enjoyable

  • @hhhh I agree with this. If the sequence was done differently. I for one had to explain to my friend when she started the drama and by Ep 3 got confused with the timing etc. Although I’ll still finish till the end as I’ve invested 12 episodes already. It’s fine I don’t think it’s that amazing but its ok for me not the best one I’ve seen but certainly not one of the worst. As I would’ve dropped it by Ep 3 too if I didn’t find it interesting.

    • I think one of the entertainment value of this show is figuring out how the story should've been told. It's like an exercise in creative writing. "Here are the things you shouldn't do".