> Dragged show ! It didn’t need 20 episodes

The King's Affection felt like an exaggerated version of Lovers of the Red Sky. I can't help but compare these 2 because they are produced around the same time period. The former is obviously a lot better than the latter but still the amount of dragging the script to produce more episode is the same.

SCREENPLAY ( 0/10)
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Its fair to say the Most Disappointing Show of 2021 given the excitement that was bought upon in the first 4 episodes. This series was written by a woman who intended to write the romance purely to create a "forbidden love" out of historical implications behind King's/Prince's position but remembered, last minute, it was still historical so they slapped together some cheap politics to create tension.Screenwriter Han Hee Jung and director Song Hyun Wook’s ‘ The King’s Affection’ attempted to offer viewers the best of two worlds; a Sageuk ( historical drama) and an arguably more “ modern” love story. However against its more intriguing setup ‘ The King’s Affection’ found itself shoehorned into a slow-paced trope extravaganza by the second-half.

I'll start off by saying I don't understand why this ended up being 20 episodes. It could have been concluded with the typical 16 episodes. HALF of the show didn't progress for it to deserve more. This is a classical example of bad writing. If it was shorter, the flaws of the drama would be less glaring. There were some excellent shows that deserved more airtime than this one

**Ok that's enough rant about pacing for today **

CAST ( 6/10)
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Main actress Park Eun Bin undeniably offered one of the strongest performances of the series; adding an air of charm to her onscreen counterpart. The female lead Dami was undeniably the epitome of the “ inserted” and frequently-used cross-dressing trope by having to play the role of her brother l the Crowned Prince Lee throughout most of the events of the series . Whilst with plot context it was necessary for driving the storyline, there were a lot of loose threads considering other story points including exactly why her grandfather ordered her to be killed ( aside from merely just being an “ unnecessary girl”), as well as one evident fact; the female lead’s feminine features and vocal intonations are evident even as her male counterpart . Admittedly whilst this may have just been passed off by members of the royal court it did hit a point blank in plot logic when many scenes and close-ups easily giving away Park Eun Bin’s softer features. Later episodes did little to truly allow Dami to come to terms with these cut-out subplots surrounding her storyline, ultimately reducing her seemingly intriguing character-drive to the equivalent of cannon fodder by the latter-half.

Costarring alongside Park Eun Bin is idol-actor Rowoon. Rowoon’s performance as main lead Jung Ji Woon did undeniably see some surprisingly bittersweet performance moments as his onscreen persona comes to terms with his sexuality and growing feelings for the Prince, as well as his initial motives for entering the palace. However Ji Woon’s initial establishment as the “ mysterious tutor” is subverted in later episodes to the “ lovelorn sweetheart”; pledging his own life to “ protecting” Hwi ( despite his initial reasons early on in the series) and benignly chasing after the female lead’s affections in a dragged-out and anticlimactic love story. This often resulted in a test of patience for viewers as Ji Woon and Hwi’s sense of gradual chemistry and growth was shoehorned into a lacklustre onscreen relationship despite dominant screen time.

As a consequence of lacking development time potentially intriguing characters such as Lee Hyun-Hwi’s protective cousin ( Nam Yoon Su), the Prince’s mysterious bodyguard ( Choi Byung Chan), **Shin So Eun** - the daughter of the Minister of Interior ( Bae Yoon Kyung) and **Noh Ha-Kyung**; the youngest daughter of the Minister of War ( Jung Chae Yeon) were often enforced into staid plot setups and cliches with their character arcs and drives often being cut short. If you are going to make love triangle make them interesting by giving the secondary characters more time and emotions and not just plot conveniences that come and disappear.

Production ( 7/10)
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The cinematography and OST of the series could admittedly vary from scene to scene. Whilst there were some admittedly beautiful shots and powerful soundtracks combined with scenes of the palace and period outfits presented by director Song Hyun Wook, more subtle emotions and scenes could often feel lackluster from poorly-placed camera angles and song choices onscreen. To many slow-motion scenes about catching falling potential love interests.

OVerall (7/10)
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So what is left to say about ‘ The King’s Affection’? Is it worth watching or is it a waste of time? The ‘ King’s Affection’ is the epitome of a “ hot mess” series - stunning outfits, an intriguing premise, a fairly good cast lineup and an especially dynamic performance from main actress Park Eun Bin undeniably remained the drama’s greatest takeaways. However the twenty-episode formula applied to a story-line which was written better for no more than sixteen- episodes, created a slow-moving and disengaging second-half for viewers with intriguing subplots and characters left in the background in order to make way for a lackluster romance which gradually dwindled to an unsurprisingly anticlimactic resolution. Overall whilst the 20-episode drama whilst not unwatchable and certainly decent enough if you are willing to watch out of sheer boredom, it does admittedly lack a more definitive spark of feeling well-rounded also.

P.S : I have applied MAX(rating) and the only reason it gets a 7 is because i thoroughly enjoyed the first 4-6 episodes as the story of star-crossed lovers unfolded since childhood to adulthood ; the introduction or the lack of story there-after has diminished the experience drastically and it was a struggle to finish the last 4 episodes with all the cliches in it .