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"It means disturbing what must never be disturbed."
The East Palace was a visual spectacle with numerous supernatural fights in the drama’s Upside Down World. There was a cute creepy creature suitable for mass sales. A likeable supernatural crime fighting duo. Yet the writing was inconsistent and haphazard.
Gu Cheon has the ability to see things others don’t and can even cross over to the spirit realm. He is “encouraged” to work for the king when the crown prince’s life is in danger. Truth be told, the crown princes have been dropping dead for over 30 years. It will be up to Gu Cheon and the ghost hearing banished princess Saeng Gang to lift the curse and save the day.
What worked for me:
~~For a drama, the special effects and sets were top notch. They believably brought an Upside Down World to life or death or unlife, whatever…
~~I liked that the two main characters had abilities that contributed to solving the mysteries.
~~Even though his face was often obscured it was good to see Kwak Dong Yeon.
~~Like the acting, some of the fights were better than others. The final fight’s overuse of sped up, slowed down, shaky camera action made me dizzy.
What didn’t work for me:
~~The writing was all over the place. It also didn’t help that they spent nearly the first two episodes on exposition. That’s a lot of ‘splaining to do, especially if they were going to disregard parts of it as they went along.
~~Characters healed miraculously and almost immediately from very, very serious wounds with no magical lore explaining it. And Saeng Gang suddenly being able to accomplish similar tasks as GC without a similar creation story made no sense to me.
~~I know chemistry is in the eye of the beholder, but I found it sorely lacking between the leads.
~~Nearly the whole lot of the royal family was rotten so the stakes weren’t particularly high. Characters died or were “mostly dead” (shameless Princess Bride quote) nearly every episode diminishing the tension of whether they would survive in the next.
~~The repetitive noble idiocy and trusting untrustworthy people made one character’s statement ring particularly true though they didn’t learn from it, “I was a complete and utter fool.”
~~The ghosts wandering around had no problem yacking, except for revealing key plot points until it was too late.
~~This was a made-up world full of mystical and magical powers yet women were still pretty much kept in a cage. Defying the laws of physics and nature was perfectly fine. Letting a royal woman step foot outside the palace---now that’s just crazy talk. No wonder the Dowager Queen’s wig was wrapped a little too tightly. Felt like a decided lack of imagination.
To sum up:
The East Palace was a spectacle to watch full of creative special effects and lots of purposeful hero walks. As long as you can turn off your brain’s notifications of, “Syntax error or that didn't make sense,” it can be a binge worthy drama.
1 October 2026
Trigger Warnings: Snake (biiiig snake), child death, dismemberment/decapitation, ghosts that bordered on zombies.
Gu Cheon has the ability to see things others don’t and can even cross over to the spirit realm. He is “encouraged” to work for the king when the crown prince’s life is in danger. Truth be told, the crown princes have been dropping dead for over 30 years. It will be up to Gu Cheon and the ghost hearing banished princess Saeng Gang to lift the curse and save the day.
What worked for me:
~~For a drama, the special effects and sets were top notch. They believably brought an Upside Down World to life or death or unlife, whatever…
~~I liked that the two main characters had abilities that contributed to solving the mysteries.
~~Even though his face was often obscured it was good to see Kwak Dong Yeon.
~~Like the acting, some of the fights were better than others. The final fight’s overuse of sped up, slowed down, shaky camera action made me dizzy.
What didn’t work for me:
~~The writing was all over the place. It also didn’t help that they spent nearly the first two episodes on exposition. That’s a lot of ‘splaining to do, especially if they were going to disregard parts of it as they went along.
~~Characters healed miraculously and almost immediately from very, very serious wounds with no magical lore explaining it. And Saeng Gang suddenly being able to accomplish similar tasks as GC without a similar creation story made no sense to me.
~~I know chemistry is in the eye of the beholder, but I found it sorely lacking between the leads.
~~Nearly the whole lot of the royal family was rotten so the stakes weren’t particularly high. Characters died or were “mostly dead” (shameless Princess Bride quote) nearly every episode diminishing the tension of whether they would survive in the next.
~~The repetitive noble idiocy and trusting untrustworthy people made one character’s statement ring particularly true though they didn’t learn from it, “I was a complete and utter fool.”
~~The ghosts wandering around had no problem yacking, except for revealing key plot points until it was too late.
~~This was a made-up world full of mystical and magical powers yet women were still pretty much kept in a cage. Defying the laws of physics and nature was perfectly fine. Letting a royal woman step foot outside the palace---now that’s just crazy talk. No wonder the Dowager Queen’s wig was wrapped a little too tightly. Felt like a decided lack of imagination.
To sum up:
The East Palace was a spectacle to watch full of creative special effects and lots of purposeful hero walks. As long as you can turn off your brain’s notifications of, “Syntax error or that didn't make sense,” it can be a binge worthy drama.
1 October 2026
Trigger Warnings: Snake (biiiig snake), child death, dismemberment/decapitation, ghosts that bordered on zombies.
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