King's Affection & Secret Royal Inspector

Korean Programming

Culture Shock: It sure has been awhile since I last posted something. Perhaps it has something to do with the shows I've been watching recently. Lately, I've been seeing a lot of Korean shows popping up on Netflix. Since I have never seen any of these programs before, I figured I would give it a shot. What I received was quite surprising. The two shows I picked out were The King's Affection and Secret Royal Inspector & Joy (to which I will explain my reasons of my choices further down below). As much as I was interested in the era of the empire, I found it very peculiar how their class system is displayed front-and-center. There are also a wide-range of annoying tropes that kept creeping up in almost every episode in both shows. You also have to be aware that each episode runs 60 minutes long. Unlike American programs where they run around 45 minutes with enough room for commercial advertising, these shows will actually extend a few more minutes over the full hour to include credits. That is why it is important to sort of brace yourself before beginning an episode. Despite their similarities, I chose to continue watching both shows since their production and presentations were drastically different. While the King's Affection carried a more methodical route with serious overtones and repercussions, Secret Royal Inspector & Joy felt more like a Saturday Morning Cartoon with all the slapstick comedy and silliness. What were some of the things I noticed?

The King's Affection

Keeping a Secret: I am going to admit that I am a huge fan of Mulan (the cartoon, not the live adaptation). Honestly, it isn't because I liked the concept of a woman trying to pretend to be a man in an era where their roles were severely enforced. I liked it because of how well it was presented. So when I read that there was a show where a woman needed to pretend to be the leader of a nation, I wanted to see how well they handled it. Ironically, the "deception" proved to be way too easy. You see, anyone who made mention of it would have been instantly killed. Those who knew would never tell. Those who thought about it would never linger on the notion. This switcheroo lasted years straight to the point where our protagonist was even declared King. Long hair was never a problem because they all tied their hair up in a bun. Physique was never a problem because the royal wardrobe and distance people had to maintain kept them from touching the girl. This thing could drag on for quite awhile.

Power Struggle: So if the audience is supposed to extend their disbelief in playing along with this charade, what is the main plot of the show? For the most part, the episodes are going to revolve around people fighting to stay on top. There is a lot of bloodshed, including children, random guards, army officers, and main characters. The foundation of the show happens within the first few episodes where pretty much everyone around dies. Episode 7 introduces some sort of crazy shenanigans when an angry envoy shows up and disrupts the family. There's some major turnover in Episodes 11-13 when a bunch of stuff happens one-after-another to keep the audience guessing at what happens next. The final episodes have some giant clash of people killing each other in an epic showdown. Honestly, I'm a little confused on how so many of these things can occur. We are supposed to believe that The King's command is law but in the same breath we are also supposed to believe that family can have influence over those decisions? How in the world do they maintain so many guards after every battle? Oh wait, I forgot that these things happen because it is "convenient for the plot" and we must have big stakes to keep the audience interested.

Bad Romance: Another central theme of the show is this long-lasting love between a boy and a girl. If you must know, they do get their happy ending - not so much for everyone else since the majority of them die along the way. The ones that did live are thrown into an unhappy position. But I guess watching the rom-com aspects between the two main characters during Episodes 3-7 was worth it? There's also another sub-plot that happens mid-way through the show when the family pressures the Crown Prince (our lady) to marry... or wait, have sex with the Queen even though they aren't married? This concept was bound to happen, but I wished the producers presented the dilemma a little better than what was shown. In the meantime, you'll constantly be seeing someone trip into another person's arms as some sort of instant love-producing moment. At one point, I had to roll my eyes when a man "blocks" an incoming ball from hitting the woman by turning his back to it. I wish that was the only thing that made me cringe, but the Korean-Pop romantic music dragging on sometimes for minutes at a time was also really getting on my nerves. It might have been the volume or the tone of the lady singing, but it did not make me blush for the couple on the screen at the time.

Secret Royal Inspector & Joy

Comedy: Of course, if you really wanted to see how unrealistic things can get in a Korean show, look no further than this one. As I mentioned in the premise, the show encompasses what you would see in any typical cartoon. There is slap-stick humor, romantic comedy, heroes who save the day, and villains who only want power. There are a ton of childish sound effects and over-reactions to the simplest things. At one point, you'll be greeted with a shaman that sporadically gives all sorts of radical supernatural powers - premonitions, voodoo magic, visions, talismans, ability to make people tell the truth, etc. Let's not forget to include a whole bunch of dying kids that work as slave labor into the mix. Wait a second, that one is actually kind of alarming now that I say that out loud.

Presentation: This show started out giving me a sort of Sherlock Holmes detective vibe. We do get an inspector who tracks down multiple cases all linking back to a mysterious mastermind. There are several flashbacks piecing together clues he discovers in each episode. He uses his authority to outsmart and outwit his opponents. The show does a splendid job throwing all sorts of interesting special effects at you. There's one I recall where a line separates two people arguing over a case until it finally breaks when they get close enough to each other. Subtext is displayed for the audience when people "communicate" with each other by only using their facial expressions. The main woman of the show talks with her dead friend as she converses under a thinly-veiled blue light. There's a point at the end of one episode where I freaked out a little when a bloody ghost skipped closer towards the screen in a matter of a few seconds. These scenes and many like it are blown out of proportion to reflect what is perceived and not what is actually happening. I applaud them for their effort, but it made the show way too silly to be taken seriously. The sudden switch of tones between the scenes of our "funny" characters and the devastating realness of the situation at hand is incredibly jarring.

Overview

Reflection: After looking over about a hundred different Korean shows, I made the decision to pick two that appeared to be both interesting to me and popular. And as intriguing as the experience was, I somehow regretted watching them. The culture presented in the shows' ideologies and class system was a bit too much for me to handle. The way the producers added oddball tropes to engage the audience was kind of revolting. How the stories unfolded was a bit unrestrained and over-the-top. If you are a fan of K-Drama, maybe I can understand why someone would like to watch these shows. Sadly, they were definitely not my cup of tea.

 

1-10-2022