Earth Hour

Saturday, March 2, 2019

Kingdom on Netflix: Royal Intrigue, Period Setting and Zombies

The hottest topic online today is the Korean series on Netflix: Kingdom.

Kingdom tells the story of a crown prince whose father is suffering from a mysterious disease.  The king's wife, a young daughter of the Chief Counselor, refuses access to the sick king even by his own son.

from the Internet


The prince decided to investigate the matter, bringing him and his aide to the Southern part of the kingdom.  There he found a bigger problem that could be related to his father's affliction.

The series runs for only 6 episodes and has all the ingredients of a compelling drama: political intrigue, family conflict, and zombies. Yes, zombies.  All of these ingredients are masterfully meld into one fantastic story that you, as the viewer, would be drawn into.  As in other Korean series, many questions are answered before you could ask them, but many are also left unanswered to make you continue to watch.

Another point that separates the series from the rest is the production. The decision to make this a period piece/historical drama meant period costumes, scenic locations, and other things that contribute to the production value.  At the same time, the series was beautifully shot and captured on screen.

And the zombies! Let's talk about zombies.  These are not the run-of-the-mill type you see on any show. You know, the ones that groan and drag their feet.  These zombies move fast and even run.  They also hibernate in the daytime and avoid the sun, but there's more to that than meets the eye.  They don't appear until near the end of episode 1, but you should see how they rise from their dead state when night falls.

Kingdom is one of the shows that you will binge on until you've seen all episodes.   I did it in one sitting, and I want more.  The creators made sure that there are enough cliffhangers for viewers to wait for the next season.  Hopefully, it will come soon.

Kingdom is available for streaming on Netflix.