Letter #101: Captivating the King

Good morning, Erin.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: having just reached our milestone 100th (official) letter, wouldn’t this be the perfect time to announce the shift to Phase IV of my K-drama odyssey? 

Why yes, Erin, it would. 

But, as you are no doubt aware, I don’t make sensible decisions, so that’s not happening—yet. 

No, rather than closing things out on a nice, round number, I’m going to wrap up Phase III with Letter #101, because I quite like the number 101. And also maybe starting Phase IV with Captivating the King would immediately undermine the entire point of Phase IV—the details of which (and whether they would be undermined by starting with Captivating the King) we will save for another time—but also definitely I quite like the number 101.

The question, though, is do I like Captivating the King as much as I like the number 101? Well, there’s only one way we’re gonna find out:

1. I really only watched this show because it had Jo Jung-suk, my second-favorite Korean actor, in it—and, whatever else I can say, his performance is probably the reason to watch the show. He brings it at a level even the best of his co-stars never quite reaches.

1A. Also: it’s not a great show, apart from that. It’s kind of fine, leaning towards—but never really becoming—bad. If you’re interested, go ahead. But I think it’s forgettable, outside the lead. I’ll get into specifics (or vague-ish specifics) later on, but…short answer: skippable series.

2. Which might be the best place to start—that is, with the list of people I recognized, not with a more detailed critique of the acting:

• Joon-ho from You're the Best! as our male lead, the (eventual) Captivated King

• the lead female historian from Rookie Historian as our female lead, Mong-woo

• Coach Choi from Weightlifting Fairy as the Queen Dowager 

• the evil first councilor from 100 Days My Prince as…well, the evil first councilor

• the librarian bae from Summer Strike as Court Lady Dong

• the pawn shop owner from Vincenzo as the slimy ladder-climbing lackey

• Grim Reaper from Hotel Del Luna as the Captivated King’s bodyguard

• the step-dad from Start-Up as the Queen’s father

• the Chief’s lackey from Inspector Koo as Mong-woo’s cobbler associate

• teen version of Stewardess Bully from The Glory as an amorous kisaeng

3. The show starts with a 15-second overview of the geopolitical status of the time, which was as helpful to me as it was useless, because my knowledge of inter-factional Chinese strife pre-unification is, y’know, not a thing, so it was nice to get an idea of the important background for the setting—but also the little 15-second lesson assumed I had some vague understanding of what it was talking about, which I absolutely did not, so it may as well have just left that background information out, when it comes to someone like me. Which, of course, there’s no reason for the show to think about, but…you really only need to know that the Ming and the Qing were competing for control of China, and that this was causing trouble for Joseon as it tries to navigate a relationship with both factions. Which the dialogue makes pretty darn clear without need of a history lesson. At least, that’s how I see it.

4. In a similar vein, I’m certain all these historical shows assume a bit of foreknowledge on the part of the viewer about the structure of internal palace life, and I know I’m still kind of hazy on who’s who and why some people have political influence when, by my reckoning, it feels like they shouldn’t…but I could not for the life of me figure out how all the major royal family members were related to each other. At a certain point, I just made up what seemed to make sense to me and assumed I was right. (See, this is one of those moments where I was sad I couldn’t just run over to check in with you about what I was watching. You know everything and would set me straight. Or you’d confirm my instinct that something was strange. And then you’d tell me to stop watching that and swap over to something more sensible.)

5. Oh! While I’m going to do my best to avoid spoilers (in case you want to watch this one), there are two things I am going to comment on that I think the trailers and promotional stuff make pretty apparent: that the female lead poses as a young man, and that the crux of the story is a battle of wits between the two leads. And I’ll get to both of those in a bit, but I just wanted to make sure you knew.

6. Court Lady Dong is #bestgirl. I frikkin’ loved her. Easily my favorite character, and I’m annoyed she wasn’t utilized better, in terms of the scope of her place in the story. 

6A. Though, in (backhanded) defense of the show, literally every aspect of the show needed to be utilized better, so…it’s not like it was just their handling of Court Lady Dong. 

7. In Episode 2, we get this line: “Does the wind smell differently in other lands?” And I had to pause the show just to rant to the TV about how bad that grammar is. Because differently is an adverb, which means it describes a verb—that is, here, it’s modifying smell, which means the sentence is asking if the wind’s ability to smell things is different in different places. What the character is trying to ask, of course, is whether or not the wind has a different scent in other countries, which means using the adjective different to describe the noun smell—that is, it would be said as: “Does the wind smell different in other lands?” Do you not have editors over at Netflix?

8. So, overall, the show is mostly okay. Watchable. Again, if you’re watching, it’s to see Jo Jung-suk put on an acting clinic (the poor female lead was just outclassed), but it’s otherwise got more issues than it does successes—though there are certainly enough successes to keep you interested…or, I guess, willing to sit through the parts that really lag. Like, for me, it was the strength of the romance that gave a pass to the silliness of the plot. Because I was rolling my eyes and throwing my hands up in disbelief at pretty regular intervals—but dammit if I didn’t get sucked into every one of the longing stares the leads shared with each other. 

8A. So, as I just mentioned, the main plot is…sloppy. Possibly veering into not making sense. This is particularly true of both Mong-woo’s entire storyline and the narrative framing of the Captivated King, with the latter being sort of a victim of the former, because her story needs certain things from him (in terms of decisions or perspectives on his actions) or else it would seem like her entire motivation was based on something that didn’t exist in the story. Which…honestly, is still exactly what it seemed like. 

8B. To that point: the battle of wits between the leads feels absolutely perplexing. Of course, it makes sense for there to be a battle of wits, given our leads and their cross purposes, but the structure of that battle is…well, it’s just wrong. A bad storytelling choice. We simply know too much about the Captivated King. Which…okay, this is going to take a minute to explain. Stay with me.

8C. So, the point of the plot is that there is, um, a fundamental philosophical difference between Mong-woo and the Captivated King, where Mong-woo feels that she needs to oppose him. To do so, she must carry out a strategy to undermine him. The thing is, their opposition is based on circumstances that the audience does not believe, because we know the Captivated King—as a character—would not do what Mong-woo cites as causing her to oppose him. Which would be fine if the show gave the audience access to the full perspectives of both characters and was about (as an example) watching the tragedy of a  misunderstanding play out. But it’s not. The show holds back key information so that there can be an excuse for the drama to play out, but it’s information the audience already assumed to be true and which IS CLEARLY HINTED TO BE TRUE because of how much is not held back from the Captivated King’s side of the story. So, there’s no tension, and Mong-woo seems foolish more often than she does clever, because she’s making deductions based on information the show has unintentionally led us to believe is in some manner critically inaccurate. As such, the battle seems pointless.

8D. Or put another way (and though I am loath to make this comparison): imagine if, in Harry Potter, the narration had always somewhat obviously hinted that Harry’s perspective on Snape was based on a misunderstanding—but then it also did the whole reveal at the end.

8E. And then there’s the strange pacing, even beyond the main plot not starting until Episode 5, which doesn’t help anything.

9. Again, a big positive for the series is the romance subplot. It has its hitches, sure, but it’s pretty solid all the way through. (Like, they crackle, those two. And, I totally ship it, as they say.) For me, though, the relationship is most exciting because of the mystery of the Captivated King’s attraction: is he aware that she is a woman in disguise? is he straight but not sure why he’s falling for a man? is he gay—and, if he is, what’s it mean that he’s fallen for a woman dressed as a man? I mean…I think we all know how it’s probably going to play out, but the show never quite makes the answer as specific as you think. Which, as a fan of stories about complicated feelings, I appreciated.

10. Now, I don’t want you to think the only one putting in a good performance is my guy as the Captivated King. Because you know who did a good job? The pawn shop guy from Vincenzo. He is creepy as f***. And it’s great.

11. I also quite liked…um…the dude who thinks he’s good buddies with Mong-woo. Though I thought his performance was a little too “modern” for the setting. He doesn’t really serve much of a purpose, but he’s good vibes, as they say. 

12. And have I ever mentioned that I love Coach Choi? Because I love Coach Choi. Put her in everything. I don’t care if she’s suited for it or not.

12A. To wit: I don’t know if she was suited for this role. But I also kind of don’t care. 

13. There’s a scene where the royal physicians have to rush to an emergency, and one of the female physicians has to carry a tray full of cups of liquid—and she spills nothing. Like an absolute boss. 

14. There may or may not be a really well performed kissing scene. 

15. One of my favorite moments in the series happens between Mong-woo and Court Lady Dong. It’s so emotionally honest and believable. I won’t say what it is, but it’s great—apart from how it somehow manages not to ripple out and affect anything else. 

16. It’s difficult to write really, really smart characters. But it’s really easy to dumb characters down so that they can be duped by “smart” characters. Which sucks. But it’s worse when the dumbed-down characters were the “smart” characters just a couple of minutes ago. 

17. Between this and The Matchmakers, I think I more fully understand the concept of “filial devotion” as it pertains to moments in other (modern-set) series that made me question why people seemed to act in ways that didn’t make sense. Very different base rule set. 

18. The Captivated King’s uncle has the absolute perfect obsequious puppet master face.

19. There is a character death that is drawn out, over-dramatic, and cliche as hell—and I frikkin’ loved it. The way the scene was done, I mean. I was bummed that the character died. 

And…I think that’s it for Captivating the King, a kind of enjoyable nonsense of a show with a pretty great romance and a (predictably) star turn by its male lead. I wouldn’t want you off it, but I also wouldn’t tell you you had to see it.

…unlike The Matchmakers, which is amazing, and I’m not going to shut up about it until you watch it. 

Phase IV next.

Hope you’re having the best April ever. 

—Daryl

P.S. Have you heard of My Sibling’s Romance? It’s from the same people who made Transit Love, except it’s secret brother-sister duos in the house for this dating show, not exes. Sounds intriguing.