“The King: Eternal Monarch” ratings have declined even further from its last week episodes.
The highly-publicized SBS blockbuster “The King: Eternal Monarch” ratings have been unpredictable. It premiered to excellent ratings making SBS history but ever since its first episode, the ratings kept going down.
Last week, “The King: Eternal Monarch” episode 8 scored 6.1% and 8.1%, marking the lowest for the series at the time. However, its 9th episode did even worse.
According to Nielsen Korea, “The King: Eternal Monarch” episode 9 received an average of 5.8% and 6.3% for (part 1 and 2) marking a new low for the series, it’s also the first time “The King: Eternal Monarch” has achieved 5% in ratings, half its highest point with its premiere.
Despite its popularity on Netflix overseas, “The King: Eternal Monarch” failed to generate the same reception in its home country, South Korea. The drama had cost roughly $20 million in production cost.
“The King: Eternal Monarch” is screenwriter Kim Eun Sook lowest rated drama in recent memory and probably her least well-performing drama ever.
What do you think of this?
My Personal Thoughts
This is so sad… I didn’t expect it to reach 5%, I honestly thought it would waver around 7% to 9% but damn it…. the production must be punching walls right now.
“The King: Eternal Monarch” will still likely be able to breakeven with broadcasting rights sold to other countries. Lee Min Ho has a solid fanbase that would watch anything for him.
Thus far, “The King: Eternal Monarch” has been okay…. it has a lot of issues that even the naked untrained eye can spot, but if you love the actors in this production you’ll probably enjoy it. But from a plot point, it’s shockingly lacking and only picks up around episode 7. I plan on writing a full review of the series when its done.
Kim Eun Sook really set the bar too high for herself after “Mr. Sunshine,” I don’t blame netizens for giving up if there are better things to watch on TV. These days, the types of standard scripts Kim Eun Sook writes wouldn’t fly and I’ve seen many comment about this. And in comparison to whats airing on TV, “The King: Eternal Monarch” doesn’t really standout from a plot perspective.
“The King: Eternal Monarch” lost its chance to make a good first impression, we, international fans, are more open and a lot more patient but it’s not the same for the average viewer in South Korea.
It appears, at least to me, that the writer believed fans would stick through the lackluster introduction for the sake of the actors. The most crucial time for any drama was spent on trivial scenes that didn’t matter and I think that probably was the biggest hurdle for “The King: Eternal Monarch” and it couldn’t overcome it.
It was indeed a boring & confusing series. Then after the boring first few episodes, then the mystery starts, I guess it’s too late. The audience already lose interest and stopped watching. With the confusing mystery, it’s also tired out the viewers. These days, viewers want intelligent mysteries, not confusing mysteries. The writer used to write heart fluttering dialogues but I think she really lost her sparks or running out of ideas for this series. And to portray a king riding a white horse in this era is so cringe. The old Disney story plot is overused and cringe for people these days. That’s why Disney already have a shift in all their movies these days. I think this writer should do more realistic stories. I don’t enjoy her Globin and King, her fantasy stories are so slow and painful. Her “Descendants of the Sun” and “Mr Sunshine” are much better. By the way, LMH and KGE are not super good in acting so I’m not very sad to see their efforts go wasted for this flop. LHM is just a pretty face who can’t act. His acting is always so stiff and boring. Only fans will like him. KGE became well known because she first acted in erotic film. She used nudity to gain attention but in fact her acting is dull and without sparks.
I lost interest in watching episode 9so boring i am a big fan of Lee Min Hoo….what is the production thinking. I know that something can be done because i love what i see and everything about my big cutie………..Thanks
The bad rating of this drama can be explained, and is inevitable.
The plot is very smart and without plot-hole. Great logic everywhere. A cohesion using a lot of correlations and philosophy. Some good comedy and romance scenes. Punctually, excellent dialogue. The actors are correct, with sometimes very good performances.
However, too many characters. The main plot doesn’t advance, and is drowned in secondary scenes. Emotion fails to express itself, except on a few occasions. Nothing hectic, few plot-twists falling flat, it’s quite boring. The direction is beautiful but lacks punch.
The narration/realization uses a process deliberately (or awkwardly) intended to make the viewer confused, unable to notice the essential details and the meaning. This is the opposite of proven methods facilitating cognitive acquisition, found in most dramas. This makes it even more difficult to immerse into the story. It is more of a conceptual game about cinematography or the way of narrating, rather than about the story itself, which presents simpler facts than they appear. It is not the mysteries of the story that are the problem, but the confusion of the process used to tell the story. You can call it a kind of art if that suits you. But this will remain hermetic to the general public, or anyone who first wants to experience a story and its emotions in the usual way.
Appreciating and memorizing situations or characters is close to the impossible. Some places and characters appear for a very short time, and can’t be recognized or situated during another episode, during isolated scenes. And very often useless characters.
The action keeps jumping from one situation to another, without any direct link, or exposing scenes without context, indication of places or time, reason to be there, or having an undetectable chronological inversion. In fact, no storyline manages to be followed naturally. The entire drama refuses to imprint itself in the viewer’s memory, making it even more painful to get.
Insofar as drama is neither exciting, addictive nor thrilling, the viewer has even less reason to delve deeper into the subject, or to want to explore the content further to better understand it, at the risk of revisiting boring scenes. All that will be remembered is that it’s a huge mess, despite the writer’s willingness to take the risk of offering original content, which is basically very elaborate.
I reserve part of my opinion, waiting for the last episodes. Although I think most of the damage has already been done, and it’s irreparable.
The plot is interesting but the pace is boringly slow. It could have been a 10 epi drama and that’s actually ok. So many slow motion flash back scenes which are unnecessary and unwittingly slow down the tempo that was built up. And too many 3sec frozen scenes to ‘capture’ expressions of both LMH and lead actress that they becomes excessively boring and frustrating. You get bored eating lobsters everyday too you know. Especially when the female actress is not pretty type, no matter which angle. And can’t just get into the mood with this couple.