Uh...I'm one of those who stopped watching when Mishil exited the show...
Sssshhhh....

I'm still watching, but the story lines aren't as interesting as before with Mishil. Bidam he only looks evil, but doesn't have as much influence? power? as Mishil his mom does/did. I think it's b/c even though he wants to take everything away from her, a part of him still loves Deokman which I think is his BIGGEST achilles' heel. But I haven't watched 55 & 56 yet so we'll see how the story lines pick up. Right now, it's kind of a bore to me but I'm still watching since I have a rule that if I start a drama I gotta finish it.

I hate extension... most of the time they ruin a show... even if the rating is not bellow 30% they could have ended the show with a bang and that could have been Go Hyun-jung big exit...

Lee Yowon...<3

i noticed the rating actually started to decline once they announced the extension..
and now after mishil departure the decline was expected..
make me think what will happen if bidam also departured..

Gotta keep in mind that QSD had previously dipped back into the 30s, and for weeks, before they had started the Mishil Rebellion Arc. In other words, interest had only risen because viewers were preparing for the fall of Mishil. The previous peak in the ratings involved the reunion between Deokman and her mom.

The show actually has been terrific post-Mishil; it's just taken awhile to reset the storyline. By Episode 53-54, the Bidam vs. Yushin arc is fully on their way. And episode 56 really kicked ass.

QSD is a strange drama in that, essentially, Deokman was a straightman for Mishil. They were rivals, but because Mishil was also Deokman's greatest mentor/teacher, that actually enhanced Mishil's aura as this godlike person. Whenever Mishil would defeat the royal family, you were kinda "oooooh sucks to be you Deokman!!" Whenever Mishil would have That Look, you would be "onos. what is she going to do now?" Whenever Mishil actually felt like a human being, you almost mesmerized that she was not fully uber-evil. The scenes between Mishil and Bidam, ALL of them were great.

Similar thing with Bidam. He's gone through a full villain turn, but frankly he's STILL a lot more popular than Yushin lol. Even in Korea, they call Bidam the Anakin Skywalker of QSD. My hunch is that they kinda rewrote the story in order to give Bidam a more romantic vibe, since he was getting so popular with viewers.

Since Mishil's exit, this drama has become BOOOOOOORIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGG. I just don't think the storyline around Bidam and Yushin is compelling or even remotely interesting. They try to fill conflict and interest with really boring fighting scenes. How can I be compelled to watch people killing each other over and over and over again for over half an hour? Also, I find Dukman to be really annoying with her shaking and quivering lips all the time. I am one of those who stopped watching. Go Hyun Jung did a really good job of Mishil. I never knew she was such a good actress since I have never seen her in anything else.

Mishil was a magnificent character and definitely enhanced the whole intrigue of royal politics. I wished they hadn't added extensions without Mishil, she had such an amazing aura on screen. I loved her character--such a great villain! I'm still watching the drama and while it isn't as compelling to watch without the Saeju, I am still very much interested. We get to see Deokman, Yushin, Bidam, and Chunchu struggle with their own problems whereas I feel like Mishil's presence just kind of made them insignificant. It must be disheartening to know that the ratings are dropping. But I love this drama all the same. <3

Worth mentioning that the Bidam vs. Yushin arc was planned from the beginning of the show. The writers had mentioned from the very beginning that Bidam would be the final adversary of the show. That itself had nothing at all to do with the extension.

"if you really want to be impressed with Go Hyun Jung, watch What’s Up Fox. "

Ehhh I'd go with One Spring Day. In that one, she plays a mute and Jo In Sung just goes absolutely BALI for her. :D

Go Hyung Jung is one of my favorite actresses, and she is THE "noona is pretty" (moreso than even Kim Sun Ah) actress. She has a lot of mannerisms, which generates love/hate responses from musos. She invented new ones for Mishil.

I'm still watching QSD even without Mishil. Just caught up to ep53 and while there is less tension for the villain, at least Bidam is there to get the story moving. Everyone should already know that Mishil was going to die eventually and Bidam is Deokman's final contender with his crazy self.

Not much to say about GHJ since I haven't seen any of her other dramas .... probably not planning on it either because not a fan of ahjumma dramas sorry. Tried watching What's Up Fox before and One Spring Day ... but they're so melodramatic eekkk.

This drama couldn't make up its mind. It shouldn't be about Mishil but they made it about Mishil. Of course the rating will drop. It's all about how they made the characters. They should emphasize on QSD. The whole thing is just awkward.

Now that there's no more cat fights between QSD and Mishil, I've stopped watching. Unfortunately, none of the remaining cast can match Go Hyung Jung's charisma or acting chops.

Maybe if they had given QSD a romantic arc, I would have been willing to stick to the end.

"when I was checking out the last OT and saw your post on the top dramas of 2009."

Oh, that was the Muso Top Shows List. I hadn't actually seen most of them yet (plan to though), but those were considered the critical buzz shows. I wasn't sure whether to include YAB on it or not, but SBS hasn't had a lot of critically great shows this year. I enjoyed a lot of shows this year, including Style (which felt like a drama that was losing its handle . . . and therefore made it interesting), Brilliant Legacy, Temptation of Angel, etc. I loved 2009 -- I really enjoyed every show I watched.

"Well, in Bidam-speak, I hanjanman predict a sweep for QSD in the yearend MBC drama awards. And why do I think that? My reply is, jeonikkayo(because I’m me)!"

Yeah, the interesting buzz going into the 2009 MBC Drama Awards is whether to give the Daesang to Go Hyung Jung, even though she's technically not the lead of Queen Seon Duk. If you give it to GHJ but leave out LYW, that looks bad (and I would feel bad for LYW.) But if you give both awards, you have East of Eden-gate all over again. Know what I mean? It was ridiculously stupid to give Daesangs to both Kim Myung Min and Song Seung Heon; you opened up a Pandora's box that'll now show up ever year around December.

The other thing to look for, listen for the audience pop when everybody gets their awards. Specifically, listen to the resposne when Kim Nam Gil wins his award. My hunch is that he'll get a louder pop than everybody but Go Hyung Jung. That'll reinforce the perception that Bidam ended up more popular than Yushin . . . which was NOT the original intent of the writers. :D

"I have followed almost everything she’s done since, like What’s Up Fox and HIT."

Yeah, the thing with Go Hyung Jung, because she was in both Eyes of Dawn and the lead female in Sandglass, is that she's kinda viewed as a Progressive Archtype for Korean women (even with the celebrity gossip over her divorce.) GHJ is also viewed as somewhat tragic, because she's not allowed to see her own children until they grow up. And, so, if you choose to, you can watch the relationship between Mishil and Bidam reading her own life in that way. When Mishil tells Deokman that she represents a legacy or generation, that is also a meta-moment because GHJ *is* part of that 90s generation of Shim Eun Ha, Chae Si Ra, and Choi Jin Shil (RIP) Her taking a true star role on a MBC weeknight drama is effectively her asserting her own identity as a 39-year old woman who defies being viewed as an ajumma or matron of the housewive drama. That 20-something men still fall in love with her. That she can play the head of a police force (HIT -- she was good in that one BTW, and she was paired up with a pre-Chaser Ha Jung Woo), date a man 10 years her junior (Spring Day), or play a silly kid (What's Up Fox.) When Mishil challenges Deokman in her late-episode speeches, it is also Go Hyung Jung challenging women in her age to go "do not accept that the kids can take it from you. you have your own greatness."

So, enjoying her Mishil is in part enjoying GHJ's singularity (and really the greatness of the actresses of her generation as well) in the K-dramaverse.) Even though Mishil was on paper a "support role", the drama was really about her and she became not merely the focal point, but the seductive, stormy vortex of the show. Mishil's defeat is really GHJ's victory as a relevant force in K-drama. It's one thing to be a great villain, it's another to be the dominant character of 2009 K-drama, when you're not even on paper the lead.

Now, is Queen Seon Duk actually a great show? Haha. Well, no. But I enjoyed the show more than any other this year.

"They should emphasize on QSD."

When Go Hyung Jung was offered the role of Deokman, she opted to take Mishil instead. Why? The press clips, then, implied that Mishil would bet the real focal point of the show. However, because she is the villain, well you gotta set up Deokman. At the time, I thought "huh, well I guess Mishil will be a super-villain then." But she was more than a super-villain in this show; she was depicted as something approaching a demigod. There was something "meta" about the way Mishil was defeated in the show (has a villain ever looked more majestic in defeat?) -- it as if the show was winking at the audience as to recognize that this was the true valediction of Go Hyun Jung as Celebrity Icon, which people have been searching for since Sandglass. 14 years later, she has demonstrated that this A-list Diva can not only carry the show, but impose the reaches of her image onto the trappings of a historical drama, to literally bend the show according to Mishil's will, to Go Hyung Jung's will. (Not unlike how Sympathy for Lady Vengeance can be watched as an exploration of Lee Young Ae's Jang Geum image, as well as its story on face value.)

The Yushin vs. Bidam arc is important, because -- for some kind of historical credibility -- the show has to establish the Chunchu and General Yushin as the eventual duo who unifies the three kingdoms. The time jump is actually showing the twilight of Deokman's reign, when she's ready to make Chunchu her successor and consolidator between Shilla and Kaya.

@news,

"Now, I’m not really understanding Kim Sun Ah’s popularity (not trying to offend any of her fans here)"

When she started out, she was kinda along the same track as Chae Rim (and at one point, her agency was considered putting in a boy-girl group. That group would become G.O.D..) Comedy, melodrama, etc. didn't have her distinct style which would make her the Queen of Comedy. But she also had a quirky way of speaking, which was actually an impendiment to her career, due to not growing up in Korea for much of her life. (She's obviously not unique in that regard now, but this was the 90s.)

So, it's worth noting that before she did reinvent herself as the Queen of K-Comedy, she was promoted at different points in career, a sexy babe, a potential idol singer, a Yunjin-esque tomboy, a everygirl drama-lead, etc. etc.

I think the "Kim Sun-Ah, Uber-Noona" kinda developed after S Diary and She's On Duty, both which included her opposite a younger Gong Yoo. But, by then, she started developing a persona of a comedienne with a unique set of idioms. In some respects, Kim Sun Ah's comedic rhythms is somewhere between "onos, it's ajumma with a brromstick!!" slapstick and the "neurotic woman" comedy you see in the Office Lady genre of J-drama.

KSA and GHJ are on opposite spectrums of the noona is pretty experience. KSA is the subversive one. In a way, it's cougar-like without associating it with financial power or sexual privilege. GHJ is actually closer to the boy fantasy of "noona is pretty", the notion that an older woman can mother and open up the childlike soul in you. This is partially why Spring Days led to persistent rumors about GHJ and JIS, who at the time was known for his aggressively infantile performances. It just fits too much. Even when you watch Mishil and Bidam, there's a slight whiff of erotic chemistry between them in certain scenes. That she kinda looks him in "that way", and he kinda hungers for a deeper connection without really understanding it.

To me, the next "pretty noona" should be Eugene. Seems like men from 20-35 still are in love with her. And of course, Yoon Eun Hye has been qualified as Kim Sun Ah's heir apparent for awhile.

I didn't really enjoy the character of Mishil. Too evil for me. I don't understand those who put her up on a pedestal as a hero for committing suicide. She was too greedy & selfish. She was a coward to accept defeat. For her role - too much focus only in her facial expression. I was not comfortable watching Mishil. Sometimes I thought she had a poker face, not sure what expression she had on. But I enjoyed Go Hyun Jung in What's Up Fox.

Lee Yo-won is playing her role really well as Queen Deokman. I'm enjoying her spunk as a ruler. Her trust & loyalty to Yushin is admirable . Unlike Mishil, Deokman had more acting to do than facial expression. I am enjoying QSD without Mishil. But her role did add spice to the drama.
I enjoyed all the dramas of Le Yo-won. Fashion 70s. Bad Love. QSD.

"I didn’t know Yoon Eun Hye has been qualified as Kim Sun Ah’s heir. "

In a very informal sense. KSA is viewed as Queen of Comedy. YEH is viewed as a future Queen of Comedy. Both have strong female fanbases.

"I’m unfamiliar with the MBC Drama Awards. Can someone clarify the difference between the Deasang and Beaksang?"

The TV division of the Baeksang Awards is the equivalent of the Emmys. The MBC Drama Awards (like the KBS and SBS shows) is basically a year-end party (they go on December 31st) where the company rewards its employees and it's taken about as seriously as the MTV Movie Awards (i.e. "best Netizen couple", "best kiss", etc.) Personally, I love it.

For award watching, it kinda expresses how the station percieved itself for that year. In other words, the fact that MBC went nuts with East of Eden in 2008 showed how desperately they wanted East of Eden to validate an otherwise poor-performing year. In 2007, there was a lot of mutual partisanship, reflecting a great year for MBC: Yi San, Legend, Coffee Prince, and Time of Dog and Wolf all got serious love.

Also, by listening to crowd pop, it's a good way to guage which shows and actors/actresses the audience really loved. For example, Yoon Eun Hye got a big pop in 2007. But Han Ji Min got a BIGGER pop, which belied her popularity from anchoring Entertainment Weekly. And girls went absolutely nuts for Lee Jung Ki.

It goes without saying that Queen Seon Duk will dominate the MBC 2009 Awards, but it'll be more interesting which other shows MBC spotlights. Will it be Queen of Housewives, their only other major hit? Will it be Soul, a mania hit? Will MBC nominate Tamra at all, considering that right now they don't even show Tamra on their MBC-D channel. Will Return of Iljimae get a lot of awards?

So, again, think of it like the MTV Movie Awards for each stations. The SBS Drama Awards is going to have major representation from the kids. You got their biggest show of the year -- Brilliant Legacy. We'll probably see an AnJell reunion (and in fact, YAB's status as buzz hit with the kids is going to REALLY show during the SBS broadcast.) You could argue that 2009 was the year of Bae Soo Bin.

And of course KBS is going to be Boys Before Flowers, My Fair Lady, Iris, Story of a Man, and Sons of Sol Pharmacy House. Also, KBS loves to feature their big couples of the year. Plus, we may see Yoon Eun Hye with one of the major stars from the other show? YEH + LMH? YEH + LBH?

The year is going to end with Anjell vs. BBF. Oh it's on people!! :D

I stopped watching this drama since Lee Yo-won came into the pic.. I loved the young dukman.. and couldn't stand the quivering lips and subpar acting on the older dukman... Even though I loved Mi-Shil, she couldn't carry the whole show seeing as how everybody else's acting was not so great and the plot was blah..
If only there were more people like mi-shil, alcheon, and young dukman... I would sooo watch the show..

P.S - I sound like an anti for Lee Yo-won.. LOL

Haha, I never thought that I'd come across comments about Kim Sun Ah on this post... but I've met a number of KSA fans that likes GHJ and vice versa so I guess I shouldn't be THAT surprised.

Ms. Go is such a respectable (and beautiful) actress - someone that I just want to look up to (and want to look at - literally) and watch.
Kim Sun Ah, aside from wanting to watch her - of course, is someone I would like to embrace, hold hands with, talk to until midnight, smile with and laugh with.
Ms. Go is like a 선생님 while Suna is like an 언니.

Going back to the topic, I was with a Korean friend last night. She has been watching QSD and have told me once or twice to give it a try. Even if I like Ms. Go, I've been procrastinating because it's saguek and it's looong. But I happen to get to watch the Chuseok special and I can't help but like it. So I told her, after all the Christmas buzz I'll start watching QSD. Her reaction was something like "Ohh... 재미 없어 (no fun anymore)... Mishil died!". Mishil's death indeed really made a lot of impact with QSD viewers.

I also love the young deokman more... and i'm not really into LYW, but I was impressed with her - probably because 1.) I wasn't really expecting much from her (lol) or 2.) I've loved deokman as a child - so the love didn't go away even when LYW came into the picture.

@new
I have sandglass eng subs here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ndwwrv
forgive me, a friend just gave it to me, i dunno where it came from. you might need to retime or re-edit though...

hello there, icarusfalls! i just visited this website a while ago and i was caught by the comment you posted, and yes,i would like to agree with your P.S note, you actually sounded like a 'anti-lee yo won' saram...

well as for me, she did great.. LYW's performance is really remarkable just as she performed in the 'surgeon bong dal-hae' drama...

chuaso, lee yo won, unni!!!

1st i love watching it but now just so-so becos deokman is so unfair towards bidam....its favoritism...just becos of her love for yushin she kept on defending him and ignoring bidam's opinions....but most of all i love mishil tho she's the villain but watching her feud with deokman makes the story even more exciting...she is just so brilliant...BRAVO!!!

i like young deukman but when LYW appear in QSD lalo q nagustuhan ang tv series,she is pretty,simple and good actress.i watched also surgeon bong dal hee and bad love. wala akong masabi magaling talaga sya!!!! un lng....

o i loveeeee this movieeeee i like korean dramas they are so cool

I LOVE LEE YO WON SHE IS THE GREAT ACTRESS IN KOREAN DRAMA QUEEN SEON DEOK...GREAT JOB... GO LEE YO WON.. I HOPE MORE DRAMAS AND MOVIES TO COME WITH YOU....

I LIKE YUSHIN & DEOKMAN.. I DONT LIKE MISHIL

I wonder where I can get Surgeon bong dal hee, is it available in the Philippines?

i love the character of yushin...bidam's character is useless...it's unfair that doekman chose bidam in conjugal ties while in fact she's aware that yushin still loves her...i am wondering why they (bidam and deukman) won the couple's award it should be between yushin and doekman...the story is unfair...it is better that bidam should be out of the story....the stroy betwween yushin and deokman in the firstbpart is the best compared on the 2nd...YUSHIN is the best in the story...

I LOVE THE CHARACTER OF BI DAM

lee yo won we love you!!!

LOve LEE YO WON SO MUCH.

Imi place le yo won,dar mai mult lee young ae.Foarte frumoasă!

LEE YOO WON ...............
i like you so much

jangan lupakan aku

i love lee yo won. she was great in queen seondeok.

bidam and deokman for the world~~ best couple ever. how can their love be unfair? i mean, it's great that yushin loves deokman... but dude.. he's married.. or got married to mishil's granddaughter? hello? not keeping up with the story there... LOOL.

bidam loved deokman from the start.. and it is up to deokman whether or not she loves bidam or not. i DO admit that there were glitches in the plot. the writers should have written some of bidam and deokman's love progress in the plot. but oh well, the last few episodes were the best for me. a short romance, but a strong and powerful ending, kept me crying for days. and i still feel sad about it after months.

overall, i simply loved the drama (especially the ones with bidam in them)

PS. i think the reason why kim nam gil became so popular even though his popularity wasn't supposed to surpass yushins was that he understood and portrayed his character better. and maybe his character (bidam) had more depth... bidam was evil, insane, but somewhat still innocent and pure. he purely loved deokman so much and he just wanted to receive love in return, for which he never had. Kim Nam Gil portrayed his character in the best way possible. Just like how Go Hyun Jung portrayed Mishil. I believe this is why he became so popular. [although his looks are partly why as well, he is HOT]

our queen yo won and bi dam are the cutiest ones in that drama.. also the greatest ones esp yo won.. that drama is for our beloved yo won.. fighting unnie!!! some comments are because f jealous on u... they are nothing...

Hahaha stop deluding yourselves.
Go Hyun Jung CARRIED the drama. On her back. With her indisputably FLAWLESS acting.
She's the ONLY one who could have done the role justice, and she probably could have done Deokman better than Lee Yo Won. Not hating on Lee Yo Won, I love her, but her acting suffered in comparison to GHJ.
And don't compare Kim Sun Ah to Go Hyun Jung. I think we all know GHJ's the better actress.

I liked this drama up until around the time Mishil died. The storyline got worse after that. Mishil was a great villain. She was a great character on her own, well-acted by the actress. Plus, going up against Mishil's character made Deokman seem more like the threat and power she was going to become. Hwarang Deokman and Princess Deokman were fierce, intelligent, and brave. Deokman's clever and intricate plots to defeat Mishil were really exciting to see unfold for me.

The extension really ruined this drama series for me. I hated how obvious fan pandering was ruining the story, making Deokman (out of the blue) start having romantic feelings for Bidam, when it was just an unrequited love before that extension. In my opinion, a story starts suffering when the writers switch love interests or muddle it up, like how Deokman's obvious love interest was Yushin for much of the movie, then the extension happened, and Bidam's popularity, and then the changing of the romantic angle to reflect that. To me, making Queen Deoman's reign more about Deokman & Bidam's tragic love story, instead of ending the drama in a political struggle, as how much of the movie was, was a bad call. The writers should have kept showing Queen Deokman's fierceness, intelligent, braveness, all the qualities she had beforehand, throughout the last 12 episodes, instead of weakening her character with that Bidam love story. I know can't stand to rewatch the drama knowing that ending. If I ever go back to it, I'll avoid the drama once Mishil dies.

I became a fan of Lee Yo Won's after watching QSD. She did a great job in this drama. I cared for her character and felt her emotions. She made me root for her character. This is was the first drama I've ever seen her in, and I was so intrigued, I searched out her other dramas. Lee Yo Won is now my favorite Korean actress. She absolutely amazed me in 49 days recently. Looking forward to more of her work!

queen seondeok is my favorite drama