Perfect Crown
12 episodes
Starring IU, Byeon Woo Seok, Noh Sang Hyun, Gong Seung Yeon
Disney+
Just as MBC TV’s Perfect Crown places its characters on the edge of major changes to South Korea’s monarchy, so does the series find itself faced with the opportunity to bring its well-established K-drama elements to fresh, new territory.
The show begins as a romance—a contractual marriage between a chaebol heiress who runs her family’s beauty empire, and a Grand Prince who serves as regent for the current eight-year-old King—before becoming a larger political drama that questions the value of the monarchy in today’s world.
In some ways, the series displays strong self-awareness of its own tropes, using them to make greater statements about the major themes at play. And with great performances from both of the show’s leading actresses, there’s always a prominent feminist lens applied to the drama, even within its highly patriarchal setting. At the same time, the series falls short of committing to anything truly bold or subversive. Whenever it arrives at a seemingly crucial impasse, it’s all too happy to default to the status quo and to leave things essentially unchanged.
This isn’t to say that Perfect Crown isn’t well made or enjoyable; it is, in fact, an entertaining, comfort viewing that executes a familiar formula with breezy confidence. Directors Park Joon Hwa and Bae Hee Young make use of all the requisite glamorous production design, dreamy cinematography, and balanced ensemble work to make this version of present-day Korea still feel like a bustling, romantic escape.
And controversial historical inaccuracies notwithstanding, the show’s blending of traditional and contemporary fashion often becomes one of its strongest assets—with matching or contrasting outfits pointing toward the tension between cultural heritage and modern industry. The central romance, then, gestures toward the possibility of these two worlds merging peacefully and towards a common good.
Still, the show is mostly generic with its storytelling. It isn’t immune from gratuitous product placement, or defaulting to safe choices and clean resolutions even when it seems like the story is building up to significant twists.
The editing also tends to mask slower stretches through that bad habit of cutting off scenes dramatically, then “flashing back” moments later to reveal what we missed. This is just an exercise in empty suspense-building, which is a shame given how many promising vantage points the series has access to.
At its best, Perfect Crown can create its intricate world through multiple points of view, and flashbacks that show us past lives that these characters can never return to.
In the hands of a charismatic actress like IU, the chaebol heiress Seong Hui Ju somehow manages to become an underdog in this story. IU continues to prove her ability to execute a broader style of comedy, while adjusting appropriately to her every scene partner, allowing him to help her illuminate different layers behind Hui Ju’s initially arrogant personality.
And as Queen Dowager Yoon Yi Rang, Gong Seung Yeon takes what could have been an overly aggressive villain and injects a staggering amount of pathos into her. In the end, Gong Seung Yeon communicates every bit of her character so clearly that every antagonistic choice she makes can be linked directly to the impossible situation she finds herself in.
Unfortunately, the male leads have difficulty bringing the same level of nuance the leading ladies do. Noh Sang Hyun makes for a suitably tough and imposing prime minister in Min Jeong Woo, but as the character’s primary motivation is revealed, there’s little that the actor seems to be able to do to keep this dignified politician from looking shallow. And as the main romantic lead, Byeon Woo Seok is certainly able to sell the Grand Prince I-an’s growing admiration for Hui Ju. But otherwise, his stoicism often reads as disinterest—this already emotionally limited character isn’t helped by how the actor doesn’t respond all that strongly to what his co-stars give him to work with.
It’s a happy surprise, then, that the romance in Perfect Crown works as well as it does, especially because writer Yoo Ji Won knows not to hinge the entire show on whether or not Hui Ju and I-an stay together. Both protagonists exist in a grey area where they enjoy status and privilege, but are still regarded as outsiders within their own circles, so their coming together becomes a way to examine why these arbitrary divisions are imposed in the first place.
As more political intrigue makes its way into the plot, the series paints quite the compelling picture of just how long these people have been forced to suffer just to keep up appearances for the monarchy.
With that said, just as the show takes major steps towards this idea of an outdated system of royalty in Korea, it retreats—refusing to examine the effects of its climactic moments on the ordinary populace. It maintains status quo and shows little interest in really dissecting this story’s class politics. This really isn’t anything new for the series, as it tends to back away from any conflicts that threaten to shake up the story structures pinning everything down. The fact that the show is willing to bring up these contentious issues is definitely worth praise, but at the end of the day, its idea of a more egalitarian society is kept a distant fantasy.
Perfecrt Crown is streaming on Disney+.
