This was the second Kdrama I ever watched, after Crash Landing On You. Lee Gon was immediately my new image of a knight in shining armor.

The acting is top notch. I completely believed in Lee Min Ho as a king. It took me a lot longer to warm up to Tae Eul, but not because of Kim Go Eun's acting. Woo Do Hwan stole every scene he was in as Eun Sup and absolutely nailed playing his alter ego's polar opposite personality as well.

My method of judging the quality of a show's soundtrack is whether or not listening to it on its own recalls the emotions I felt while watching the drama. Most of the tracks in The King's OST definitely do that for me.

I will say that the story and pacing had some issues. There was a LOT going on at any one point, and it wasn't always clearly explained. However, I have now watched this drama all the way through twice now and on the second watch I realized that a lot of the things I thought were plot holes actually weren't. Without the constant speculation about the plot, character relationships, etc. that's usually going on in my head during my first viewing I picked up on a lot of things that I didn't notice the first time around. I think the writer tried to be a little bit too clever at times, but it wasn't incomprehensible at all. The plot does kind of start to collapse under its own weight towards the end, meaning some of the episodes feel a little slow and plodding as the characters try to sift through some of the various threads, but overall I felt the cast pulled it off.

Some have complained about the relationship between the main leads feeling off as far as how quickly it progressed, but that also gets more or less explained. Saying too much would be giving spoilers, but it's very in sync with the characters' personalities and the situation they find themselves in.

Product placement is another criticism I see a lot of people have, but maybe since I'm not in Korea and don't see most of the advertised brands in stores it doesn't usually bother me that much. As long as the "commercial" doesn't interrupt the narrative flow (which it doesn't with this show, imo) a lot of the time I don't even notice it.

It's a beautiful drama with great acting, a unique story and compelling soundtrack. It's not without its flaws, but those flaws don't ruin the whole thing. I will probably watch it for a third time in the near future. :-)