This review may contain spoilers
High Quality Comedy
What a hilarious show! Only two dramas with historical set ever made it to my watchlist, and this is one of it. This show has an impressive mixture of comedy and romance, in an unusual setup: Joseon era. Even with all evil plans scattering all around the palace, you still can find the comedy. There are a lot of twists as well. I also like how they potray King Cheoljong as an intelligent king disguised as a dumb man. He set up an incident, and put spies here and there. Most of the casts did an outstanding performance here. Shin Hae Sun is the only correct person to play as the queen. She played a lot of characters: Kim So Yong, Jang So Yong, and the mixtures of them both. Extraordinary job! The visual effects team also did a great job. I love the beautiful scenere of the palace, and I also love the royal wardrobes!
The comedy level is very generous and pretty consistent, but there are several episodes with no comedy at all. As other historical shows, the pace is painfully slow. There are also several plot holes. I can't understand why Queen Dowager Jo kept siding with Kim Family until the end. The original plan was to replace the queen with Lady Uibin. However after she got deposed, whoever took the reign will be from Kim Family and Queen Jo would gain no advantage. Judging by her nature, she normally would come up with another plan, especially when she had no idea about the pressure on his family by the treason letter. Lady Uibin threatened her family if they ever harmed the King. But after the King disappeared, she took no actions on them. On the day before her escape, the Queen visited Prince Yeong Pyong and Captain Hong at the prison, but nothing happened. Jang Bong Hwan lived 200 years later than the period, but he rarely used his knowledge about the history. I don't like the ending, not because they're not "together", but because how easy it was for Secretary Han.
The soundtracks are good, especially in latter episodes. The ending is visually sweet but considerably sad. The King was left with someone he didn't love. The one he loved was the eccentric (Jang) So Yong. Jang Bong Hwan was left alone in the modern days. It's worth to rewatch for the humour, but maybe the ending will stop you from doing so.
The comedy level is very generous and pretty consistent, but there are several episodes with no comedy at all. As other historical shows, the pace is painfully slow. There are also several plot holes. I can't understand why Queen Dowager Jo kept siding with Kim Family until the end. The original plan was to replace the queen with Lady Uibin. However after she got deposed, whoever took the reign will be from Kim Family and Queen Jo would gain no advantage. Judging by her nature, she normally would come up with another plan, especially when she had no idea about the pressure on his family by the treason letter. Lady Uibin threatened her family if they ever harmed the King. But after the King disappeared, she took no actions on them. On the day before her escape, the Queen visited Prince Yeong Pyong and Captain Hong at the prison, but nothing happened. Jang Bong Hwan lived 200 years later than the period, but he rarely used his knowledge about the history. I don't like the ending, not because they're not "together", but because how easy it was for Secretary Han.
The soundtracks are good, especially in latter episodes. The ending is visually sweet but considerably sad. The King was left with someone he didn't love. The one he loved was the eccentric (Jang) So Yong. Jang Bong Hwan was left alone in the modern days. It's worth to rewatch for the humour, but maybe the ending will stop you from doing so.
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