Captivating the King (2024)

DISAPPOINTING AT BEST, INSUFFERABLE AT WORST.

***DISCLAIMER: THIS IS JUST MY OPINION. YOU DON'T HAVE TO AGREE AND I'M NOT HERE TO ARGUE WITH ANYONE.***

To sum everything up in simple terms:

- Disappointing storyline, plot and flow of events.
- I lost interest at episode 9 and forced myself to watch the rest.
- Watching became a chore and it felt like the biggest waste of time.
- Female MC was badly written (I hate her character and I wish she died)
- If not for the ML (Jo Jong Suk) most people wouldn’t think of rating this drama kindly.
- This drama totally missed the mark for me and to be honest it was boring.
- I definitely would not recommend, you’re better off watching any other ongoing drama or critically acclaimed historical drama.
- I didn't even find the political schemes interesting because it seemed like child's play and was not very engaging. I felt like they were going around in circles for the entirety of the drama. ML did not have anyone on his side and they were all trying to undermine and sabotage him in some way / shape or form. The worst part is the woman he loved tried to kill him even though he tried being very honest with her.
- The whole narrative of being captivated and how they tied it in was bs. If you watched from the beginning you could easily see see that the FL falling for ML would be her downfall and she was the one who would end up captivated.
- The chemistry between the leads were lacking and their love / kissing scenes sucked. In the last episode especially it was painful to watch them interact because it seemed so forced. Their love was not believable at all and the FL looked very uncomfortable. I wish I could erase their scenes from my mind bc they just gave me the ick.
- The drama pissed me off, especially due to the fact that they were sleeping together and he didn’t even figure out her name or demand to know it until the last episode. They’re just so irksome. FL especially she is so trifling ughhh.
- I believe FL should try another career. She's pretty so she can model or do brand deals instead. I feel like I have given her enough chances to redeem herself but she is still the same as she was in Black Knight. She has the same expression (looking like a damn deer in the headlights) throughout the entire series and was almost always crying.
- If you want to watch this drama for the romance I advise you not to. You will be disappointed. If however you still want to give this drama a chance because you love Jo Jong Suk and political schemes (which imo were cliche) then by all means be my guest. I however, would not put myself through that again because I believe that one person should not be expected to carry the weight of the entire drama on their back.
- With all that said, I give this shit show / mess of a drama a 5/10

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perfect FL casting, horrible actress for a horrible role !

the writing is so good up until episode 8. episode 4 is so amazing it was so unexpected, i felt it defied every saeguk trope and for that I was hooked (killing the queen father). I also feel like the romance/romantic tensions made the stupid writing less obvious in the beginning because her revenge plot was dumb from the begining. But after he finds out her real gender the writing goes to hell so fast it made me laugh. There where so many weird homophobic comment about how the heterosexual romance needed to start but jokes on them once he found her out the romantic/sexual tension completely left the drama as well. after that all he wanted was to protect her and she wanted to hurt him. no chemistry at all between them.

episode 8 is so disappointing why did he have to find out so quick and like this too. I needed a kiss or a true/explicit confession of love before he found out. It always feel a little cowardy from the writer to put all this romantic attraction and tension but only make them act on it when its 100% sure its heterosexual ! oh the King's Affection you will always be superior for that !!! they even put that little scene with his soldier to make sure we know that he is NOT gay he just like the femboy because he is a girl hihi 🙄🙄🙄🙄
I guess I'm going to have to be satisfied with the kings confession under the rain that was really nice.
the acting at the end of ep 8 by JJS is insane tho !!! all his micro expression with his eyes blew me away.

the worst thing about the drama is by far Shin Sae Kyeong/Kang Hee Soo both respectively. All SSK knew how to do was have watery eyes and bite her lip, avoiding eye contact and acting scared. Her acting was so stiff so bad and absolutely not believable as a man. Also why did she have lipgloss on ? Now Hee Soo was horribly written, I don't think she made one good decision the whole drama. Annoying from the start and then annoying things about her just start pilling on. And then at the end she ask to go to pekin was the last straw. after all the king did for her she's like I kinda want to see my father and idc about you. just pissed me off. would've been happy with an ending where she dies 😭😭😭.

I may have watched a different ending because at no point do they explicitly say that mongwoo will stay in Joseon with the king. its a very weird open ending and I don't like that. Horrible ending where nothing happens and the creators dont know what to do. the uncle acting was great tho, made me feel bad for him. JJS the only saving grace of this mess.

So basically there was no romance, no cool fights only intellectual mind game like baduk, the whole drama rest on them but they weren't even that crazy complicated or cool which made the drama boring. To put simply the writers we're not good enough. waste of time and super disappointing.

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