Intriguing zombies
After covertly dropping Rise of Phoenixes, which has too much palace intrigue, I watched another palace intrigue drama with my mom. This time, it has the addition of zombies because...why not?
I went in expecting nothing from Kingdom since the similar-themed movie Rampage was underwhelming and I'm very tired of zombies. But it's only six episodes and I just need to find something to watch with my mom on Sundays and she loves zombies and Korean dramas.
Cast, Characters, and Plot
Dazed zombie slayer, Crown Prince Yi Chang, is played by Ju Ji-hoon.
Zombie-slaying abs.
How he gets any zombie slaying done is beyond me.
To insert palace intrigue into the story, Yi Chang is the son of a concubine and most likely probably about to be replaced by the pregnant queen's embryonic potential son. Since the emperor dad had been "sick" for a long time, Yi Chang decided to get a bunch of supporters together and declare himself the emperor hopefully before the queen has a male child. In order to do that, he has to go to Dongnae to find the palace physician that treated his emperor dad to uncover the queen's plot.
Once the Crown Prince arrives in Dongnae, he finds a bloody mess at the physician's residence. The zombie plague has spread from the palace to Dongnae. The only survivors are Seo-bi (played by Bae Doo-na) and Yeong-shin (played by Kim Sung-gyu).
Bae Doo-na.
Kim Sung-gyu, getting all that cha-ching!
Before the physician died, he said that he treated the emperor with a resurrection plant and he was certain if they could find that plant again, he could make a cure (it's plant vs. zombies!). So Crown Prince, Seo-bi, Yeong-shin, and Crown Prince's bodyguard go about trying to:
1. Prove that the queen and her father are evil.
2. Cure the zombie disease.
3. Save peasants.
4. Kill zombies.
5. Don't die in the process.
Pros and Cons
Pros: Superior zombie battle strategy!
Coming off from watching last week's Game of Thrones, Kingdom does a far better job at playing tower defense.
First, use terrain to your advantage. One of the ways in and out of Sangju, the city they ended up in, is a narrow isthmus. So they made choke points with road blocks and fire/killing devices along the isthmus.
Then since zombies (in this reality) can't be in water, they had rafts with archers facing the isthmus.
Then, they placed their people behind the road blocks and up behind walls.
Amazing!!!
Cons: Zombies...again?
This is probably more an issue with me than the drama. I just watched too many zombie movies/television series in my life. They're just not very interesting to me anymore since they always follow the same pattern. There are some elements in the story that are fairly okay. But overall, I just can't appreciate it.
Pros: Those good story elements and general mood
It's very heavy handed, but the story of poor peasants turning into mindless mobs that crave human flesh after eating tainted human flesh works because people love to hate on the rich that sit around being rich.
Meanwhile, ignoring the poor that are so darn poor...
...that they resort to cannibalism.
The drama is also pretty good at setting mood. I'm not easily scared or creeped out, but I can still appreciate a nice setting. Here's Seo-bi looking for herbs in the dark because she fails at basic logic.
Then of course, she hears creepy noises in the night. Turning around, one can expect any of those random dark shapes to be a zombie.
Conclusion
I suppose this is a fairly good palace intrigue with zombies drama if that's the genre one needs. I don't really care for either unless there are several actors I like in it. Or if there's humor. Or good fight choreography. The fighting isn't terrible in it, but neither is it good. I mean, zombies don't necessarily fight back with any good style, as a rule.
I can see if one loves the zombie genre, they would like this drama. If someone ever thought that a palace intrigue drama could use more zombies, then this would be the drama.
For me, the drama is kind of just there. I'll most likely watch the second season with my mom when it comes out. But I'm not eagerly anticipating it.
I went in expecting nothing from Kingdom since the similar-themed movie Rampage was underwhelming and I'm very tired of zombies. But it's only six episodes and I just need to find something to watch with my mom on Sundays and she loves zombies and Korean dramas.
Cast, Characters, and Plot
Dazed zombie slayer, Crown Prince Yi Chang, is played by Ju Ji-hoon.
Zombie-slaying abs.
How he gets any zombie slaying done is beyond me.
To insert palace intrigue into the story, Yi Chang is the son of a concubine and most likely probably about to be replaced by the pregnant queen's embryonic potential son. Since the emperor dad had been "sick" for a long time, Yi Chang decided to get a bunch of supporters together and declare himself the emperor hopefully before the queen has a male child. In order to do that, he has to go to Dongnae to find the palace physician that treated his emperor dad to uncover the queen's plot.
Once the Crown Prince arrives in Dongnae, he finds a bloody mess at the physician's residence. The zombie plague has spread from the palace to Dongnae. The only survivors are Seo-bi (played by Bae Doo-na) and Yeong-shin (played by Kim Sung-gyu).
Bae Doo-na.
Kim Sung-gyu, getting all that cha-ching!
Before the physician died, he said that he treated the emperor with a resurrection plant and he was certain if they could find that plant again, he could make a cure (it's plant vs. zombies!). So Crown Prince, Seo-bi, Yeong-shin, and Crown Prince's bodyguard go about trying to:
1. Prove that the queen and her father are evil.
2. Cure the zombie disease.
3. Save peasants.
4. Kill zombies.
5. Don't die in the process.
Pros and Cons
Pros: Superior zombie battle strategy!
Coming off from watching last week's Game of Thrones, Kingdom does a far better job at playing tower defense.
First, use terrain to your advantage. One of the ways in and out of Sangju, the city they ended up in, is a narrow isthmus. So they made choke points with road blocks and fire/killing devices along the isthmus.
Then since zombies (in this reality) can't be in water, they had rafts with archers facing the isthmus.
Then, they placed their people behind the road blocks and up behind walls.
Amazing!!!
Cons: Zombies...again?
This is probably more an issue with me than the drama. I just watched too many zombie movies/television series in my life. They're just not very interesting to me anymore since they always follow the same pattern. There are some elements in the story that are fairly okay. But overall, I just can't appreciate it.
Pros: Those good story elements and general mood
It's very heavy handed, but the story of poor peasants turning into mindless mobs that crave human flesh after eating tainted human flesh works because people love to hate on the rich that sit around being rich.
Meanwhile, ignoring the poor that are so darn poor...
...that they resort to cannibalism.
The drama is also pretty good at setting mood. I'm not easily scared or creeped out, but I can still appreciate a nice setting. Here's Seo-bi looking for herbs in the dark because she fails at basic logic.
Then of course, she hears creepy noises in the night. Turning around, one can expect any of those random dark shapes to be a zombie.
Conclusion
I suppose this is a fairly good palace intrigue with zombies drama if that's the genre one needs. I don't really care for either unless there are several actors I like in it. Or if there's humor. Or good fight choreography. The fighting isn't terrible in it, but neither is it good. I mean, zombies don't necessarily fight back with any good style, as a rule.
I can see if one loves the zombie genre, they would like this drama. If someone ever thought that a palace intrigue drama could use more zombies, then this would be the drama.
For me, the drama is kind of just there. I'll most likely watch the second season with my mom when it comes out. But I'm not eagerly anticipating it.