Yes, Gu Won & Sa Rang's Story Is Overrated | King The Land K-Drama Review

Acting: 8/10
OST: 4/10
Story: 6/10
Rewatch Value: 5/10
Average: 5.75/10

Now that the buzz has ended and everyone has sort of retreated into the shadows, this might be the perfect opportunity to bring up the fact that King the Land is very much overrated.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the workplace romance trope in Korean dramas is bad, but it definitely got hyped a lot more than I would have expected, given the fact that I watched and dropped it.

And you definitely have to remember that ratings are very much subjective, and this article is a manifestation of my personal opinion, so don’t come in here blazing and trying to defend this drama — This isn’t a democracy in any way.

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The fact that I say that this drama is overrated isn’t a product of the trope. I love the CEO and employee romance trope more than anyone in the world, but I am not above mentioning it when the execution is poor or less than satisfactory, at least in my opinion.

I feel like Sa Rang (Im Yoon Ah) and Gu Won (Lee Jun Ho), the leads, had amazing chemistry, but the primary elements that sell me to a story (like the OST and drama) felt like contenders with the chemistry who were set up to lose from the onset.

A lot of people recommend this drama when they talk about very fluffy romantic shows that you can easily watch without the stress of thinking too much, and I feel that category is simply perfect.

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Again, this doesn’t mean the entire trope is whack, but I do feel there were loads of missed opportunities to make the story pop and add a flavor that isn’t of the romantic variety.

The way I see it, the attempts at even a difficult backstory sort of fell flat, and at a point, it was simply the chemistry between the leads that was sustaining the entire drama.

As I said before, I dropped it while it was airing, but I’m a sucker for a good edit, so I gave it one more go (have you heard of a drama coming to you at a bad time?), and was rather disappointed by the final episodes.

The events in this drama could very well have been condensed into fewer than ten episodes, and it wouldn’t have hurt the story development in any way.

I know I’m being super critical of this drama and all, but it did have its high notes – the chemistry between the leads, the visual couple, the side characters, and the mesmerizing setup.

Now that I’m through, I dearly wished the inheritance battle had been built up to be more than it was because there wasn’t any real sense of tension or anticipation (although, this might simply be a chaebol thing).

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And if you’ve watched this drama, you’ll see that there were a good number of guest appearances and little Easter eggs that absolutely made my day when I spotted them.

As I said earlier, the side characters were simply amazing, and you know I’ll always be there whenever a drama has a healthy friendship group — also, Gu Won’s people and the other attendant who fell for one of Sa Rang’s colleagues were super cute too.