Kingdom - TV Review

For those who don't already know, I'm a major fan of zombies. I've read books on them, played games about them, and watched TV shows and movies about them. They have been a fascination of mine for many years. Last year though came a piece of zombie media that went above and beyond what I've seen from zombie culture in a long while, something that broke the mold of what zombie media: Kingdom. Last week the second season of the show premiered and with the coronavirus now dominated everybody's' fears and worries (well, unless you're an American who can't imagine a day without going out and partying with friends like all those people in Miami).

Before I talk about the show I want to talk a bit about zombies, more specifically their portrayals in recent media. While they have looked scary and disgusting over the past couple of decades zombies have been kind of neutered in terms of their original purpose: Horror. Most zombie things of late involve people with lots of automatic rifles and such mowing them down, whether they're slow or fast, normal or mutated with superpowers. Look at Call of Duty, every single one for the past several years have had a zombie mode where you just gun them down while they're charging at you. That's not to say it's wrong to like zombie stuff like this, I highly enjoy games like Left 4 Dead 2, Telltale's The Walking Dead, and hopefully soon World War Z when it comes to Steam, because I do get scared sometimes when I get attacked by a special zombie or a horde is overrunning me. To summarize, zombies aren't that scary anymore because we can squeeze our finger and pop a bullet into their brains, leading to an instant kill and no more zombie problems.

This leads me to Kingdom. Imagine the better seasons of The Walking Dead, but instead of lightly sticking your toes into ideas of class and differences in status, it's full-blown Game of Thrones politics (intricate plotting and backstabbing included). Now we set all of this in a feudal Korea, right after the attempted Japanese invasions from the 1500s. No cellphones, internet, or fast news coverage, no electricity, no automatic guns, and right after a horrible series of battles. And through mysterious circumstances the dead suddenly begin to rise and are ravenous for the flesh of the living. Now only the crown prince and those loyal to him have to investigate and stop this plague and discover if it's related to a political conspiracy against his family.

BOOM, you got yourself a unique premise and setting with high stakes and a likeable main character to lead the story. The setting especially is perfect because we're not too far back to have just sword and medieval weapons, but not too far ahead to have weaponry that makes zombies hardly a threat. There are katanas, bows and arrows, old muskets where you have to use a tube to push the bullets down the barrel, and at times a few old cannons. It's very new, but also just the right about of tech to make old zombie fans interested in the show. You can still insta-kill the zombies, but you got the shots count because if you miss you got to pull out a new arrow or take a while reloading your really old-fashioned rifle.

So with all these weapons of war, how are the zombies in this show? Well, this is just me, but I think these are some of the scariest zombies I've seen in a long while. They don't have super strong bodies or have unique mutant powers, but they're much more aggressive than most zombies out there, run fast like their previously living selves, and can spread their virus faster than most zombies. They also have a very unpleasant reanimation to them. Most zombies in media basically rise or sit up slowly from the grown and give a soft growl or moan. In Kingdom though it's like all the bones and joints in a human are both breaking and snapping back together at the same time. It's gruesome how their bodies are continually cracking and contort their bodies as they begin to regain life and chase after the living. Drench them in lots of mud, blood, and guts, add a open mouth smile with some nasty growls and roars and you got nightmares after you, hellbent on devouring your flesh.

Now I've been going on about the zombies and the weapons to kill them with, but a good zombie show can't just rely on the zombies, there are the humans as well. And thankfully the zombies only come out at night, allowing us sequences where the humans can interact with one another. There's lot of good chemistry with the characters, both in a positive and a negative sense. Heroes, villains, and those in between had qualities that made me admire them, even if they were really big f#cking jerks. There's one character, Cho Beom Pal, who was often the cowardly comedic character and who I didn't like very much at the start. Oddly though he grew on me because he grew as a character and became a bit more than who he started off as. Some of these character make some very hard choices that aren't always the right ones and like Game of Thrones some of your favorites will not make it to the end.

With the only other South Korean media I've watched being Parasite (which is just a perfect film), my knowledge on South Korean actors is very small and their names aren't always easy to pronounce. I hope it's not because I might be an American barbarian, but even if I don't know their names and have to read subtitles to understand them, I can really tell these are well-trained actors on screen. They all display great ranges of emotion and subtly throughout the show, leading to some really good scenes. The man playing our main character, Ji-Hoon Ju, especially put on a great performance. You can instantly tell his character should be highly respected, yet is capable of being personal and down to the level of those beneath him. His presence on screen was captivating.

Now I'm also going to admit that I'm not an expert when it comes to old Korean culture and history, but thankfully I watched the first season with someone who was. I wish they could have watched the second season with me as well. But what they did tell me is that a lot of the sets and clothing for the characters was very realistic to what was worn back in feudal Korea. This does make sense because this show was produced by South Koreans, but knowing that they really worked hard to get the look of the world right really shows that these creators cared for the show. As this was my first experience with these design elements I could still tell, even with my lack of knowledge, that the outfits look very real and I bet if i didn't have my Asian friend along for the ride that I could guess these cloth were very fitting for the setting.

Most media now-a-days has some inner message or theme to it. For Kingdom it's a very interesting theme of the differences of social class and political intrigue. The politics of the show can be related to current times and you'll think a bit over how situations like our virus scare affects everyone in some way, even when the powerful try everything they can to be immune from it. Only the main character, a man who was the crown prince before all this began, seems to be trying to break this cycle. Unlike Dany from Game of Thrones, who tried to break this wheel through utter domination, our MC, Prince Chang, seems to have a much more level head and isn't overreaching their level of control and power. You'll have to experience it for yourself, but this is definitely a strong and well-executed theme for a TV show.

And if all of this wasn't epic enough we come to the action and cinematography. I mentioned this in my previous review of The Invisible Man, but great horrors often have scenes where the camera is allowed to linger a bit and let what is happening or what is about to happen sink in. But Kingdom goes even further than that though with some epic action. Wide-angle shots, barely any quick cutting, combined with the actors or their doubles performing some really great stunts and fight sequences with humans against other humans and hordes of zombies. Now these aren't action heroes, they're not just slaying zombies left and right. These fights feel very realistic by seeing the characters scowl and sweat in combat with some added flare to just make them look so f#cking beautiful to watch. I was both in awe of how badass some of these characters were in combat and worried for their lives because of how dangerous some of these battles with the living and the dead were.

If I have to criticize this series, if I really have to, I think if your knowledge of Korean culture or if you're just an uncivilized American barbarian (like some of my Asian friends have jokingly called me) you might not feel as connected to the show as other American shows. Names might be more difficult to remember or you might not understand the culture as much, it's just sadly that it takes so much effort to get international stuff out to Americans. But I urge you to watch this show though because it has story elements and character moments that even uncivilized barbarians can connect to. And as this show also tells us, names aren't everything. It's your actions that matter.

I hope the movie and streaming industries, after the success of Parasite, will change that release more media from other countries. Kingdom has been an absolute wonder to experience and I do hope they can give us another season after this. The zombies were so scary, the characters great fun to watch on screen, and the plot just... Yes... All the yes. God bless you Netflix, you keep giving us wonderful content and I will keep loving you guys forever.

Tentative Score: 9.5/10

Definitive Score: 9.25/10

South Korea has been nailing it with their media. First Kingdom, then Parasite. And there's another film from South Korea I need to watch and probably will now that everyone is getting quarantined called Train to Busan. Been putting that film off for way too long. But for you all who need something to watch in quarantine its two seasons on Netflix (so far) will give you something highly enjoyable. They're short, but they're just so great you you'll be in awe throughout all of both.