King the Land review

King the Land is a romcom with no obstacles, and that is both its selling point and its problem. Lee Jun Ho plays Gu Won, the heir to a hotel empire who cannot stand a fake smile, and Yoona plays Cheon Sa Rang, the hotel clerk whose smile is her job. They clash in the first episode and fall for each other fast, and from there the show refuses nearly every source of friction a romance usually runs on: no love triangle, no long misunderstanding, nobody hiding a secret for eight episodes. What it offers instead is two decent adults who talk to each other, a lovely pair of friends around her, sharp suits, a trip to Thailand and some of the best kissing scenes the genre has managed. Lee Jun Ho carries it with good comic timing and a slow thaw. Yoona is warm but plays the same note for most of the run. The costs are real. With nothing to push against, the middle goes slack, and the succession fight inside his family is too thin to fill the gap. Around the halfway mark whole episodes feel like filler, and sixteen episodes of seventy minutes is a lot of sweetness to sit through. If you have seen Business Proposal or What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, you have seen this blueprint done with more bite. Most of that is the show being exactly what it promises: fluff, done expensively, and it will bore anyone who came for more. Watch it for the couple, the kisses and a healthy love story after something heavy. Give it until episode 3, when he loosens up. Skip it if you need stakes, surprises or a plot that grows.