I don't like the Saeguk genre. I started watching this due to the extreme hype & Shin Hye Sun. At first I was pleasantly surprised, the first 9 episodes were perhaps the best saeguk experience I've ever had. Despite the nonsense story I just felt an incredible amount of joy watching this. It was like 95% high quality humor & 5% political bullshit/scheming. Unfortunately the ratio completely flips around after episode 9. The humor is not enough the carry the story anymore. In fact if I ignore the comedy & look at this as a political romance the writing is on the weaker side of mediocre. The second half of the story has a lot of makjang with a really sloppy love story & a weird love triangle situation. I found the second lead to be the really really annoying, cartoon villain type, but the other villains had really unclear & unreasonable motivations as well. In general having characters that have teary eyes in every single one of their scenes is just a terrible chliche and this drama has 3 of them, yep.. (prince, drug addict assassin guy & second ML) The second FL's story is also kind of like something one would see in a lakorn, what a wasted bromance opportunity. (or more?!) Also about the guy with the scar on his face, it's just intelligence insulting that someone would have such a distinct scar on their face, but use a mask that doesn't cover that area. Even in the mask shop scene there were suitable masks on the wall.
Every moment with the OTP on screen was entertaining to watch, but the writers just couldn't commit to handling the whole genderbender, semi BL situation and this concluded in what I consider one of the worst endings I've seen in a kdrama. (typically I don't even start a kdrama, if the ending is bad) I'm sure that the fear of conservative housewives bombarding them with letters is part of it, perhaps even KCSC could have been considered, but good God there were so many ways to turn the situation tame in a more wholesome, happy manner. (there are some great ideas in the comment section)
While I was watching the drama I was thinking that perhaps the main writer wrote all the political stuff & the main storyline, while a group of writing interns were responsible for the comedy. Imagine my surprise, when I saw later that this drama has been written by a duo. I guess that could explain everything.


Despite the bad story I decided to give the drama a 8/10 rating. Partly because it's been an extremely memorable experience, partly because the comedy is just so on point and also because EVERY actor was trying so hard. Korean actors are almost always professional enough, but in this show nearly the entire cast has shown near tangible enthusiasm, even more so than in Crash Landing. As I said the saeguk makjang writing was bad, but thanks to the extraordinary acting performances - at least compared to other saeguk makjangs - it felt quite polished to me.
If Shin Hye Sun doesn't win a Daesang for this, then the award show season of 2021 would hold no meaning. (She is way more deserving than Jun Ji Hyun ever were) This is not the first time for her to carry a show on her back almost singlehandedly (not even the second time), but she was just too brilliant.

The production quality is very high, the sets, the OST, the cinematography were all up to standard. That "Bong Hwan-A" song is just perfection..

Shoutout to court maid Hong Yeon, I'd be more than willing to watch her in a leading role.