Drama
All American
‘All American’ takes us into the lives of two different football players, Spencer and KJ, hoping to make it big despite familial struggles.
The King of the palace has a problem. It’s not that his Korean subjects are threatening to revolt, or that a rival nation is waiting for the right moment to strike. Those would actually be favorable to the darkness that stalks the palace corridors.
The King has found himself with a deadly pest, a vengeful spirit that has already taken the lives of three of his sons and has now attached itself to his youngest. The King’s mother, the Queen Dowager, suspects it may be the same spirit that has relentlessly haunted the royal bloodline for decades, and it may be making its final moves to wipe the family out entirely.
After seeing a terrifying vision of the spirit in all its murky glory, the King enlists the help of the lazy, reluctant Gu-cheon, the son of a deceased shaman. Gu-cheon has the ability to not just see ghosts, but to temporarily become one—allowing him to travel to the spirit realm and slay those specters. Gu-cheon’s curious, powerful skills may be exactly what the royal family needs to put an end to this cursed mystery once and for all.
Oh, and if Gu-cheon can’t or won’t help the King solve its ghostly problem, the King has an answer for that, too: Send Gu-cheon to the spirit world … permanently.
Korean entertainment is having a huge moment around the globe, and Netflix has been a prime beneficiary. Netflix’s Korean-made Squid Game is the most popular show in its history, boasting nearly 600 million views. KPop Demon Hunters became its most popular film, garnering more than 650 million views and becoming a pop-culture phenomenon. And the streaming giant continues to place big bets on its Korean titles, including The East Palace.
While fans of Netflix’s recent Korean dramas may enjoy the supernatural mystery haunting the palace, its twists and turns may leave audiences feeling cursed—not by an enraged spirit, but by endless exposition steeped in heavy spirituality.
The spiritual realm is a constant point of discussion, as these entities taunt, haunt, and in some cases possess their victims. Ghostly landscapes feel oppressive and sometimes infernal. Characters engage in lengthy rituals to enter the spiritual realm, which often include cutting themselves and smearing their own blood on an object. Gu-cheon sometimes fights with these entities, as well: Imagery can be disturbing, and interactions can be deadly. Another character has the ability to hear and talk with the spirits, as well.
If the dark themes at play aren’t enough to ward off viewers, perhaps the fact that the beginning of the series features very few likable characters. Gu-cheon is lazy and reluctant. The King is ruthless and curiously cavalier about the fate of his sons. The sole character who (at least in the show’s early goings) seems truly concerned with the living is a court inspector named Saeng-gang—who, by the way, has some serious supernatural abilities of her own. The characters sporadically use foul language as well.
Dramatic, swooping camera movements and impressive set design are far from enough to make the plunge into this bloody, murky mystery worth the venture.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
The king convinces the stubborn and lazy Gu-cheon to help with his other-worldly problem, with the alternative being that he would not leave the palace grounds alive. While Gu-cheon begins his investigation, viewers are forced to fight through the same heavy spirituality that he and Saeng-gang do.
A boy is possessed by the spirit, writhing around and foaming at the mouth. He attempts to shove a sharp object into his own eye, but he’s stopped at the last second. Spirits lurk in the shadows, appear in visions, and take the life of a crown prince who dies in a pond polluted by his own blood. Gu-cheon fights a spirit with a sword, cutting through its dark tendrils and stabbing it through the gut.
A brief mention of a shaman being cursed by the gods, as well as a Buddhist monk, adds to the near constant discussion of spirits and their realm. Characters travel in and out of said realm, typically after cutting themselves.
Mild but notable language included four uses of d–n, and one use of b–tard.
Jonah Parker’s first interaction with Plugged In came when he was just five years old, after his parents read a review for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and deemed the content too intense for a child. What started out as a contentious relationship between Jonah and a staff of reviewers who knew not of his existence would later turn into an appreciation for the site’s ability to present media content in a way that was accurate and fair. Jonah enjoys analyzing how our entertainment echoes the creativity of our Creator, while finding glimpses of Biblical truths within every genre. He also believes that Robert Pattinson’s Batmobile is the perfect mix of cool and …
‘All American’ takes us into the lives of two different football players, Spencer and KJ, hoping to make it big despite familial struggles.
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