Ongoing historical comedy romance drama The Haunted Palace, Episode 7 aired last night to grab its highest ever ratings — both in Seoul and nationwide — and with a big jump in its viewership versus Episode 6.
Those ratings, according to Nielsen Korea, were 9.8 percent nationwide versus the K-drama’s previous episode of 8.8 percent in that region, and 9.6 percent in Seoul versus the 8.6 percent it garnered for Episode 6.
Now let’s see how Episode 8 performs later on tonight as the SBS drama’s Saturday episode usually earns lower ratings than the one airing on Fridays.
International viewers comments after The Haunted Palace, Episode 7 airs
Interestingly, while ratings continue to rise in South Korea, some international viewers now seem to have a slightly different take on the Korean drama after Episode 7 aired/streamed.
Now, let me preface this by saying I dropped The Haunted Palace after Episode 6 as there were too many things that bothered me about it (the directing, the not-funny comedy popping up during serious events, Bona’s acting skills), so many of the comments now being left by viewers on My Drama List definitely resonate with me.
And, yes, while the Korean drama is still being rated a healthy 8.1 out of 10 on the site, what were once overwhelmingly positive comments after every episode have now changed into largely positive, but with enough people complaining about basically the same thing.
The direction.
Comments on director Yoon Soo Jung’s direction style range from a starting point of:
I’m enjoying the drama a lot but I need to vent something.
Why do they just stand there and watch for a few seconds before acting??? Disgusting creature throwing up in her mouth, homeboy Kang freezes and watch her struggle. Disgusting creature jumps on Kang’s neck to bite, she stands there and watch before Kang tells her something and she remembers that knife… so many examples and now creature grabs the leg and drag hot king, Kang watches. Idk, where are the reflexes? Where is the survival instinct?
to someone explaining
That would be the director. I’m sure the actors may not like the dramatic pauses either, but they have to give the director what he wants.
followed by
I’m annoyed at this kind of direction, too. I mean honestly, he’s a serpent deity, his reflexes, though in a human body, are good, yet all he does is stare?
Meanwhile, another viewer also mentioned the plot:
Please stick to the story FFS. Since ep4, every ep is like 90% fillers and 10% cliffhangers, it’s annoying!!
Having said that, though, the drop rate for the K-drama via users of the site is still very low with only 0.8% percent (112 people) out of the 11,615 currently watching The Haunted Palace saying they have dropped the series so far.
So, no, I don’t see a substantial number of viewers dropping it before it ends.
The Haunted Palace stars Yook Sung Jae, Bona, and Kim Ji Hoon.
The Korean fantasy rom-com’s next episode hits tonight at 21:50 (KST) in South Korea, and on Viki internationally.
You can watch the first seven episodes of The Haunted Palace via Viki now.
Update: The Haunted Palace, Episode 8 earns its highest ever Saturday audience share