I've never been a huge sageuk fan, but I can't resit a good ‘what if?’ historical retelling. What if, Jang Ok Jung wasn't the evil, conniving woman that history paints her as? What if she wasn't totally about greed and power. What if it really was all about love between Lee Soon and herself, to hell with all else…? Pshh.. This is well documented Korean history. But that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be more to the story than history has to say. Or that the inner motivations of these highly visible personages were ever truly known by more than themselves or a few other people. In other words, history always gives us this much leeway to make a romance out of nothing. If you want to approach Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love as infallible history, don’t. But if you’re in the mood for a sweeping epic love story set in historical period based more or less on real people– this might be a good drama for you. We’re certainly not working with highbrow historical revisionism here. JOJ: Live in Love is a snapshot of Joseon history ca. 1680s. It's a complicated and very violent story of King Sukjong (before, Crown Prince Lee Soon) and his wives/concubines- among whom are some of the most well known female figures of the age, including the famously tragic Queen Inhyun. JOJ, however is a romantic and simplified spin on what’s probably 10x more complicated than the drama depicts. I’m actually okay with that, because it does a decent job of making all these events make sense in a way that won’t make your head spin. But it’s also romantic in that the story it tells is exactly opposite from what history tries to tell. Give a quick thought back to last year’s hit drama Queen Inhyun’s Man, and the depiction you get of Jang Ok Jung is of a conniving bitch. So who wants to see Ok Jung get a makeover? Apparently not Korean audiences, because the ratings were just not there. It took an extra dose of romantic scenes to garner interest in the show. I think it’s shame because despite the unconventional retelling, Jang Ok Jung wasn’t all that bad. The actors were fabulous, particularly Hong Soo Hyun- she just does sageuk figures so well, and I loved how they played with her Inhyun character in tandem with Ok Jung's dramafied character. Overall, it was compelling. However, this is history, and history has an outcome that won’t be undone by fiction no matter how good your script is. As for the love between Lee Soon and his beloved concubine/queen, I bought it completely. Even within the grounds of how unhistorical it was that King Sukjong could’ve only had one person he ever loved (or even slept with – because, history says he had tons of concubines and a parcel of children). But I liked how the relationship between the two worked as an anchor for the overall political story. Ok Jung was portrayed as smart and wily, King Sukjong as a master politician, and as such their teamwork was a boon to the storyline. It kept things fresh and interesting at least 80% of the time.