I’m really enjoying Mr.Queen – and this is in spite of some glaring flaws. I saw the original “Go Princess Go” a while back and while full of laughs, it was paper thin on everything else (plot, character, acting) so I had to drop it. This adaptation kept the best part – the humor – and upped the ante on everything else (I mean, the bar was low, but they did good!) I love, love, love Shin Hye Sun in this, but what else is new? Well, what’s new is this role let her exercise all of aspects she had excelled in her previous dramas: the comedic timing from “30 but 17”, the charisma from “Stranger”, the intensity/drama from “Angel’s Last Mission: Love”. It’s a masterclass in acting!
 
Episodes 3 & 4 had more cooking scenes, which I love, and more palace scheming, which I would have loved if it was a Chinese drama. Korean dramas very rarely do this well, and this is no exception. The scheming here is simplistic as usual, which should raise no ire, but this week both Jo Hwa Jin and the King’s brother made some really stupid, exasperating moves that could only be forgiven because they led to more Shin Hye Sun’s scenes.
 
In any case, the best thing about this drama right now is how we as the audience can see all of the Queen’s thoughts and motivation, her character is consistent and believalbe (well, except how good she is at history), but everyone else has a completely different view of her.
 

To the King, she’s a contemptible foe, a dangerous enigma, and (based on the preview for next week, most likely starting to be) a “cool” woman (if only he knew why she’s so cool LOOOOL).
To Jo Hwa Jin (the concubine), she’s scheming and fake.
To the cousin, she’s pure and pitiful.

^ note, none of these is really accurate lol
 
I can’t wait for all of them to find out who “she” really is (at least personality wise, if not gender wise). As for the big question about romance, so far, Jang Bong Hwan (the chef inside the queen’s body) shows no romantic feeling for the king whatsoever, but he’s starting to acknowledge the king as someone with complexity and integrity. As for the king, with how cool our queen is being, I’m certain love is in the future for him, and it’d be so hilarious for him to be rejected. My theories for the possible outcome of this romance are:

We get a BL (maybe not likely, given this is a mainstream drama)
We get an Oh My Ghostess: real queen’s soul comes back, king gets the girl he didn’t fall in love with (boooo! Given the precedent, this seems likely)
King dies early (which did happen in history) and reincarnates into 2020 as a girl, and meets Bong Hwan again!

What are your theories??

9
13

    Better yet, the king dies and reincarnates in 2020 as a boy and Bong-hwan ends up with him! We can hope, right?

    Anyway, this little post makes me tempted to pick up this show and try to give it a go for a few more weeks.

    1
    2

      that was my thought at first but they really went out of their way to portray BongHwan as a straight frat boy, it seems highly unlikely 🙁

      1
      0

      yes please! “for a few more weeks” – did you see the first eps and not like it? 🙁

      1
      1

        Watched the first two. I thought it was okay but not my cup of tea. SHS is great, no doubt, but I found the show uneven, especially when it moved between comedy to more serious things. Also, the humour wasn’t working for me (not sure why).

        1
        0

    havent watch ep4 but ep3 with samyang ramyeon and her competition with the head chef are hilarious

    3
    1

      It’s also interesting to compare and contrast the ramyeon scene from CLOY to the sequence from Mr. Queen. Someone needs to start a clip collection for “I need ramyeon!”

      Also, now that she/he has an oven, are we going to get a pizza sequence?

      3
      1

        Is this…”Three meals a day, Joseon edition”??? XD

        2
        1

          May be “Let’s Eat! Joseon Edition”… we just need Mr. Queen to be a bit more expansive in her descriptions of the meals she’s creating!

          2
          0

    original chinese drama also has like 4 different endings 🙂

    I would like to veer towards the BL ending… in C drama, he wakes up from coma, runs out and meets the Doctor 🙂

    0
    0

    btw, i couldn’t sit through go go princess..

    care to tell what is queen’s real personality?

    I thought she is nice.. and tried to commit suicide.. no?

    0
    0

    I’m actually hoping that they follow the ending from the novel (which was an extremely happy ending for the hero/heroine). I was sadly disappointed in both of the endings given in Go Princess Go as neither followed the novel and both were unhappy endings.

    Of course, as explained in the novel, the heroine was actually sent to the wrong gender (male) in current day (2020) so when she transmigrated, she transmigrated into her correct gender (female).

    1
    1

      oooh thanks for that info! lol I can’t tell if that’s a gender normative attempt to “normalize” the romance, OR a nod to transgenderism?

      0
      0

    These days, this is the drama I love the most! The comedy is just my style! I don’t care about the ending, I’m enjoying what they are giving us^^

    2
    0