Honestly, the zombie genre felt dead before 2019. It was rotting. We had years of "The Walking Dead" dragging its feet, and it seemed like every possible story about the undead had been told, retold, and then rebooted. Then Netflix dropped a period drama set in Korea’s Joseon Dynasty. It had silk robes, intricate political backstabbing, and terrifyingly fast monsters. If you’ve been on the fence, you need to watch Kingdom tv series because it isn’t just another horror show; it’s a masterclass in tension that makes most Western horror look lazy.
The show works because it treats the "monsters" as a secondary problem to human greed. It’s 16th-century Korea. The King is "sick," but nobody is allowed to see him. Rumors of his death are spreading. Crown Prince Lee Chang, played with a perfect mix of vulnerability and steel by Ju Ji-hoon, smells something foul. He isn't just fighting the undead; he’s fighting a coup led by the Haewon Cho Clan.
The Politics Are Scarier Than the Zombies
Most people jump into a horror show for the jumpscares. Kingdom gives you those, sure, but the real dread comes from the courtrooms. Queen Consort Cho is a terrifying villain. She’s young, pregnant, and willing to let the entire world burn to keep her grip on the throne. While the peasants are literally starving to the point of accidental cannibalism—which, by the way, is how the plague actually starts—the nobles are arguing about lineage and protocol.
It’s a brutal commentary on class. The plague spreads because the poor have nothing to eat, and the rich refuse to acknowledge the problem until it's literally banging on their ornate wooden doors. You’ll find yourself screaming at the screen not because a zombie is hiding in the bushes, but because a government official is refusing to burn bodies because of "Confucian burial traditions." It’s infuriating. It’s brilliant.
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Why Kingdom's Zombies Feel Different
Forget the slow, shuffling corpses of Romero films. These things sprint. They're animalistic. But writer Kim Eun-hee introduced a mechanic that changed the entire stakes of the show: the sun.
In the first season, we’re led to believe the zombies only come out at night. This creates a rhythmic tension. Daytime is for politics, travel, and frantic fort-building. Nighttime is for survival. But as the physician Seo-bi (played by the incredible Bae Doona) discovers, it isn't the light they hate. It's the heat. This subtle shift in the "lore" means that when winter arrives, the rules change completely. The safety net of the sun vanishes.
The Production Value Is Ridiculous
Every frame of this show looks like a painting. We aren't talking about cheap CW sets here. Netflix poured money into this, and it shows in the architecture of the palaces and the vast, sweeping shots of the Korean mountainside. The costume design is so detailed that "Kingdom" actually sparked a global interest in traditional Korean hats, known as gat. People were literally tweeting about the fashion while characters were getting their throats ripped out.
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The cinematography handles scale better than almost any other show in the genre. When you see a thousand zombies cascading over a wall like a waterfall of gray flesh, it doesn’t look like bad CGI. It looks like an inevitable natural disaster.
Don't Skip Ashin of the North
Once you finish the first two seasons, there’s a feature-length special called Ashin of the North. A lot of people treat specials as optional filler. Don't do that. It’s a prequel that explains the origin of the "resurrection plant."
It stars Jun Ji-hyun as Ashin, a woman from a marginalized tribe who discovers the plant while seeking revenge. It’s a much darker, more singular story than the main series. It reframes the entire plague not as a random biological fluke, but as a weapon of vengeance. It adds a layer of moral complexity that makes you look at the events of Season 1 in a totally different light.
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What Most People Get Wrong About the Subtitles
Look, I know some people hate subtitles. They want to "watch" the show, not "read" it. But please, if you’re going to watch Kingdom tv series, turn off the English dub. The original Korean performances are nuanced. The way the characters use formal versus informal language is a huge part of the power dynamics in the Joseon era. When you hear the English voice actors, half of that cultural weight is lost. It feels like a different, flatter show. Trust the subtitles. You’ll get used to them in ten minutes.
The Future of the Series
There’s been a lot of chatter about Season 3. It’s been a long wait. COVID-19 and the busy schedules of the A-list cast (Bae Doona is a literal international superstar) slowed things down. However, the ending of Season 2 and the post-credits of Ashin set up a massive expansion of the world. We’re moving away from just the palace and into the broader mystery of who is distributing the plant across the border.
The show hasn't been "canceled" in the way Netflix usually axes things. It's a flagship property for their Korean market, which is now their biggest growth engine. They’re taking their time to get the script right because the bar is so high.
Actionable Steps for New Viewers
If you’re ready to dive in, here is the best way to consume the story without getting overwhelmed:
- Watch Season 1 and 2 back-to-back. They function as one continuous 12-episode arc. The cliffhanger at the end of Season 1 is brutal, so don't start it at 11 PM on a school night.
- Watch Ashin of the North immediately after Season 2. It bridges the gap and introduces the character who will likely be the protagonist (or antagonist) of the next chapter.
- Pay attention to the color palette. The show uses colors to signify health and rot. The vibrant reds of the palace contrast sharply with the muted, sickly blues and grays of the infested villages.
- Research the Joseon period briefly. You don't need a history degree, but knowing that this was a real dynasty with very strict social hierarchies makes the character motivations hit much harder.
The beauty of this show is that it rewards your attention. It’s not "background noise" TV. It’s an immersive, terrifying, and deeply moving political thriller that just happens to have monsters in it. Go watch it. Now.