An army of well-trained soldiers being led by a manipulative and sly grandfather wanting to kill you and a horde of flesh-eating zombies wishing to have you for a midnight snack? What could go wrong? The Netflix original series Kingdom Season 2 is expected to be released on March 13, 2020. In anticipation of the new season and my avid love of zombies, I decided to watch the show.
Kingdom is directed by Kim Seong-hun, who directed Tunnel and was written by Kim Eun-hee. These two make quite a storytelling duo. They created a show that showcases politics and the downfall of the Joseon Dynasty and then added their twist to this historical story. The clothes, dialect, and architecture are unbelievable and seem to suck you into ancient Korea. I probably know more about the Joseon period than I do about my own countries history, even though that could be said about most Americans.
Kingdom Season 1 has a significant story build-up, and it leaves you anticipating what is to come. With only six episodes in the first season, the writers do a fantastic job of moving the story along without feeling like they are wasting your time. Ahem, Game Of Thrones. The show revolves around the main character, Crown Prince Yi Chang, who tries his hardest to keep his people alive from the zombie horde but also, trying to protect himself from Lord Cho, who is the father of the queen that wants to take over Korea.
A show with court intrigue, betrayal, deception, and scheming to become the next ruler of South Korea in itself makes for quite a show. Adding zombies into the middle of all of this mayhem makes it more challenging for the characters, and more entertaining for the viewers, which is a good thing for this story since most of the characters are kind of dull. Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy the Crown Prince but, I feel like there could have been a little more character depth to him but, maybe they did that on purpose since he is supposed to rule a country.
The Crown Prince travels with his guard Moo-Young, who is probably the most entertaining of the group. He is also accompanied by Seo-Bi, who is a nurse, a man named Beom-Pal, who is afraid of everything and always wants to run away, and another man named…actually, we still don’t know the character’s name. He is a dark and mysterious person who has a secret that he would like to keep buried. I don’t think they give the characters any real personality due to all of the plotting that they do behind each other back, although I could be wrong. Maybe they just wanted to focus on the suspension of the show.
Besides the lack of character personality, I highly recommend it. Kim Seong-hun and Kim Eun-hee can take zombies and make it their own thing. It is almost nearly on par with Train to Busan, and that is saying something.
