I’m always poking around Netflix’s international section, even though Netflix remains my least favorite streaming service. Yes, I have a love/hate relationship with the place. I was around when Netflix meant getting DVDs in little red envelopes, so at this point we’re basically in a long-term dysfunctional relationship.
That brings me to The East Palace, originally titled Donggung, an eight-episode Korean horror series involving a cursed royal bloodline, a spirit slayer, a woman who can hear the dead and enough varieties of supernatural entities that I briefly considered making myself a study guide. Netflix dropped the series on July 17, 2026.
Season 1 Episode 1 is imaginatively titled “Episode 1,” and it wastes very little time getting creepy. A man stands bleeding beside a pond near the palace while eerie music and water immediately make me think of that wonderfully disturbing British Lonely Water public information film narrated by Donald Pleasence.
Yes, my brain goes places.
The palace has a problem. Crown princes have been dying under mysterious circumstances, and the king (Cho Seung-woo) isn’t particularly interested in hearing his mother’s supernatural explanations for what’s happening.
That becomes considerably harder to maintain once water starts creeping through the palace at night, something comes for another one of his young sons and the kid ends up possessed.
Okay, Your Majesty. Maybe Mom had a point.
Meet the Spirit Slayer Who Doesn’t Give a Damn
The king eventually seeks help from a monk who dealt with the spirit decades earlier. The monk recommends Gu-cheon (Nam Joo-hyuk), a young spirit slayer who gained the ability to see the supernatural after a near-death experience as a child.
I liked this kid immediately.
He’s cocky, grungy, playful and has absolutely no interest in helping the king. Even better, he’s willing to tell His Majesty that perhaps the spirit is haunting him because he did something to deserve it.
Unfortunately for Gu-cheon, challenging absolute authority has certain occupational hazards.
The king essentially kidnaps him.
Gu-cheon tries to escape. That doesn’t go particularly well either, and the king eventually makes him an offer he can’t refuse: destroy the spirit and earn his freedom and whatever else he wants. Run again and he’ll lose both arms.
Well, that escalated quickly, no?
To conceal what Gu-cheon is actually doing at the palace, he’s passed off as a feng shui master and paired with Saeng-gang (Roh Yoon-seo), a guarded young woman who can hear the dead and was banished from the palace because of her abilities — even though she’s also the king’s daughter.
And that’s when The East Palace really started working for me.
They’re two outcasts with completely different personalities and complementary abilities. She’s going to teach him about the palace. He’s going to teach her about the supernatural world she can sense but doesn’t completely understand.
Gu-cheon is playful and cocky, while Saeng-gang is much more proper, and something about the two of them together kept reminding me of The Thief of Bagdad, which I first saw on Frazier Thomas’ Family Classics when I was a kid. Thomas introduced me to so much stuff back then.
It’s not that The East Palace is telling the same story. There’s just something familiar about watching two very different people get thrown together and start navigating a strange world.
They make a great team.
I’m Going to Need Flash Cards
This is also where The East Palace started becoming homework.
Gu-cheon explains that ordinary spirits come from dead humans, while gwi-mae are manifestations of bad natural energy. Then we get won-gwi, vengeful spirits carrying grudges. There are rules governing what Gu-cheon can see, what Saeng-gang can hear, what these creatures are and how they can be destroyed.
At some point I realized I needed a fricken guide sitting next to me.
And if I got some things wrong? Bite me.
That’s not necessarily a criticism. I like mythology when the mythology is interesting, and this is. But this is definitely a show that wants your attention. I rewound more than once because I’d missed something, and I’m not above admitting that I semi-watched a YouTube explanation to make sure I knew what the hell was happening.
Fortunately, Netflix offers both English subtitles and an English dub, which makes things considerably easier.
Of course, I’ve also been known to watch Spanish-language movies and telenovelas I’ve found wandering around the Free TV Frontier without understanding a f*cking word and simply invent stories in my head.
My personal favorite is finding an English-language movie on Tubi that was only available dubbed into Spanish. I can’t remember the name of it now.
And no, I’m not high when I do this.
Muted Doesn’t Mean Ugly
One thing jumped out at me almost immediately: The East Palace has that muted modern look.
Maybe I noticed it because I’ve been bouncing around television and movies from completely different eras. Go from old Technicolor to the natural look of something like Harry O and then straight into a modern Netflix production, and the difference is pretty damn jarring.
But here’s the thing: The East Palace is beautiful.
The muted aesthetic doesn’t hurt it. If anything, the show knows exactly how to use it. The palace world leans toward cool, subdued blues, while the supernatural realm shifts into reds and oranges. When Gu-cheon crosses between them, the visual language helps you immediately understand where you are.
There are moments when the thing looks like an anime series brought into live action.
It’s stunning.
And the sequence in which Gu-cheon ties himself to a rope, takes a peach-tree branch smeared with his own blood and enters the pond to cross into the spirit world is where the episode really shows off.
So What the Hell Did This Royal Family Do?
Gu-cheon manages to fight the entity tormenting the young prince, but there’s a problem: he doesn’t understand its true nature.
And if he doesn’t know what it really is, he can’t kill it.
That finally gives the premiere its larger hook. Something happened. This spirit has a reason for targeting the royal bloodline, and I’m betting we’re going to start finding out what the king — or somebody who came before him — did to earn this particular supernatural grudge.
I’m speculating because I’ve only watched the premiere.
But the episode ends with Gu-cheon demanding to know the spirit’s true essence.
Ooooh.
Yeah, you really got me.
🔥 Our Verdict: WATCHABLE. The East Palace is creepy, visually gorgeous and packed with enough supernatural mythology that I occasionally felt like there was going to be a quiz afterward. Gu-cheon and Saeng-gang are the reason I’m coming back. I just need to be in the mood to do my homework.
- ➝ 📡 Keep Exploring: Looking for something else to watch? Head into the Free TV Frontier for the good, the bad, the forgotten, and the stuff hiding in streaming’s weirdest corners.
- ➝ 📇 The TV Rolodex: Looking for a specific legend or forgotten loser? Search our TV Rolodex: A–Z Archive to see every show we’ve embraced or chased.
- ➝ 💡 PTC Streaming Tip: Streaming availability changes constantly. Check our FAST TV Streaming Guide to see what’s currently hiding out there for free.
