In Captivating the King (Netflix), a Korean romantic historical drama, a prince forced into exile through conquest returns to the royal court of the Joseon Dynasty where he was raised, only to find it in utter turmoil. Who will succeed the king? Some say him; others…don’t. And what of Joseon’s ongoing struggle with the invading Qing Dynasty? Captivating the King also sets up the potential for romance between the prince and a mysterious woman who is both nobility herself and a spy – a master of the ancient board game Baduk (Go), she gathers and makes her own moves toward retribution while masquerading in public as a male gambler.   

CAPTIVATING THE KING: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: Korea, 1636. Titles inform us it’s been two months since the peninsula’s invasion by the Qing dynasty, which demands tribute from ruling Joseon and the severing of their alliance with competing dynasty the Ming. Joseon Grand Prince Jinhan (Jo Jung-suk) overlooks the bloody aftermath of another fruitless battle with tears in his eyes.

The Gist: Jinhan is frustrated when he and his troops are ordered to return to the palace, because it means those who died in this latest dust-up did so for nothing. King Yi Seon (Choi Dae-hoon), his older brother, has capitulated to the Qing. But because Yi Seon does not yet have an heir, the invaders demand that Jinhan accompany them to Shenyang as a political hostage. The Qing say that if anything happens to the king, they’ll install Jinhan on the throne. 

The king is morose about sending Jinhan away. And their mother, the dowager queen (Jang Young-nam), is mad at the king. Without a male heir and with Jinhan in exile, her influence over the line of succession to the throne is in question. But Jinhan himself pledges to learn as much as he can from the Qing — in understanding how they became so powerful, there might yet be a way forward for Joseon. 

In Shenyang, Jinhan plays a lot of Baduk with the Qing royals. And back home, a Prince Royal is born. But eventually, when Jinhan’s release and return is finally negotiated, he finds a Joseon court turned angry and insular. The king is sick, seemingly close to dying. Factions amongst the aristocracy vie for power. And Jinhan is seen variously as a usurper, a Qing spy, or just plain in the way.

Banished from court by an ailing, paranoid brother-king who now sees him as a threat, Jinhan encounters a masterful Baduk player whose prowess at separating challengers from their money has become local legend. No one knows his name, though, which makes more sense when we learn that the gambler is actually Kang Hee-soo (Shin Se-kyung), the daughter of a royal advisor who disguises herself as a man in order to win Baduk matches and surreptitiously use the spoils to pay the ransoms of Qing captives. Hee-soo is familiar with Jinhan’s Baduk brilliance. But their chance meeting upends everyone’s elaborate plans in unpredictable ways.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The limited series Under the Queen’s Umbrella also returns to the courtly intrigues of the Joseon dynasty, exploring the attempts of a queen to place her preferred son on the throne. And Alchemy of Souls twists layers of fantasy and swordplay into a setting not unlike seventeenth-century Korea.  

Our Take: It takes most of its first two episodes for Captivating the King to really lock into place. It needs to establish the geopolitical landscape in which it’s operating, introduce the various players with competing plans for succession, and the groups of loyalists each of them control. There are the royals to keep track of, obviously, but also their throng of advisors and counselors and teachers, each of them angling for a perch of their own in the court of whoever will be the next Joseon king. So many nobles in tall black gat hats, pulling at their wispy beards and conversing in cryptic, metaphor-drenched side conversations. But once we know the players, it’s enticing to look deeper, especially once Grand Prince Jinhan returns from exile and begins his run-ins with Hee-soo. It will likely require some suspension of disbelief to buy Shin Se-kyung in her guise as the male gambler Kang Mong-woo, because she looks exactly like a beautiful woman wearing a hanbok and gat with her long hair in a tight bun. But when Hee-soo is in her disguise, it’s fun to watch Shin play up the role of a swaggering male gambler who puts pushy male challengers in their place with lines like “I love to win, but I cannot put up with boredom.” 

It seems like there’s also more to Jinhan that he has so far revealed. Outwardly, he’s the picture of benevolence toward the commoners, and sensitive to the point of being tearful. But early on, he sniffs out the thugs a rival puts on his tail, and plays up the look of a carefree, rakish drunkard so as to hide in plain sight. His plans for reentry into the uppermost levels of the royal court are not yet clear, but it’s likely he learned more while living with the Qing than just how to beat the rival dynasty at Baduk. Combine these interesting characters with sumptuous costuming and loads of palace intrigue, and there’s plenty to keep us watching as Captivating the King rolls out its 16 epic episodes. 

Sex and Skin: None. Even visits to courtesan houses are portrayed with respect to decorum and bits of halting suggestion. For example, one customer is asked to express his desire in the form of recited poetry.

Parting Shot: To the delicate strains of the pop ballad “Daydreaming” by Shin Ji Hoon, we catch a few glimpses of what Captivating the King has in store. Jinhan and Hee-soo playing Baduk while staring into each other’s eyes – that counts as flirting in these parts – and inside the royal court, continued struggles for control. 

Sleeper Star: In an aristocracy where raw emotions are rarely displayed if at all, Jang Young-nam really gets the chance to let her anger and ambition seethe as the dowager queen, especially as she demands intelligence on court movements from underlings and royal observers.   

Most Pilot-y Line: “His Majesty’s symptoms are worsening by the day, but he will not let us speak of the appointment of the Crown Prince. That is what concerns me most. If he passes away all of a sudden, what do we do then?”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Captivating the King combines a dynasty’s worth of royals and their hangers-on all trying to seize the throne with beautifully-appointed costumes and smaller, more personal mysteries, like the journey of Joseon’s best Baduk player as she drapes her motives in the false identity of a man.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.