Mr. Queen was somehow shot in the dark when I decided to watch it. I basically seen one scene somewhere and it seems crazy enough to make me watch it. And it was so worth it.

This drama is weird and one needs to understand it, but from the first episode we get full force of weirdness of this show.
This drama starts off with a self absorbed womaniser waking up in woman’s body somewhere in Joseon era. And obviously this woman is no other than a queen. Go figure. And right away we get full freakout in fear of losing genitals and this may not sound good, but thrust me, this scene is pure comedy gold.

From the very beginning thing that I noticed the most was acting. And here a moment of sidenote. We have a situation where we have a man in woman’s body. All voiceovers were at this point made by Choi Jin Hyuk, actor who played main character before we has brutally misplaced to a different body. And this was reason why we couldn’t forget that the queen is not exactly the queen, but not only because of that, but also thanks to Shin Hae Sun’s class A acting. In my opinion it’s crucial to watch some other drama with Choi Jin Hyuk before Mr. Queen to know how amazing job is Shin Hae Sun doing with recreating his mannerisms. It was absolutely amazing.

It was around second episode when I notices how well balanced this drama was. Comedy mixes with mystery in great proportions. Plus amazing OST making it feel like we’re watching contemporary drama, not quasi historical one, and it doesn’t let us forget who’s trapped in Queen’s body.

The pace slowed down a bit by ninth episode, but it was saved by bringing up the subject of Jang Bong Hwan’s comatose body. Honestly I think that screenwriters could’ve focus on this subject more, because it was at this point just showed once and then immediately dropped.

By the tenth episode I noticed that drama was slightly loosing it’s appeal. We were deep into the palace intrigue which is not the most interesting motive of this drama. Plus there’s less and less Mr. in this Queen. His internal voice was suddenly changed to actual queen’s voice (at least it was properly explained why it happened) as well as scenes from the hospital that were just cut and till the last episode not to be seen. As the drama progressed is gradually turned from time travelling to period drama. Pace slows down and even though there’s some amazingly funny scenes, the drama loses its spirt which made first episodes so unique.

Because honestly, this drama could solely focus on cooking scenes and still would be amazing, since they’re truly highlight of the show. Just imagine recreating instant ramyeon during Joseon period or making veggie burger for very official palace meal!
Absolutely fantastic acting of Shin Hae Sun carried this drama. The most amazing part was that the viewer could clearly see when Bong Hwan took control of the body and when the queen was back., The difference in movements and even tone of her voice was staggering.

I was surprised that writers decided to change person doing voiceovers. I think that first choice- Choi Jin Hyuk was a very interesting idea and changing him, for Shin Hae Sun made it lose a bit of character. By then the viewer sometimes had to remind himself who’s mind was in queen’s body.

Chemistry between main characters, even though sometimes a bit confusing was working very well. Reintroducing the queen and some of her memories made the story less chaotic compared to the scenes when only Bong Hwan was in charge of the body.

Some background characters were not so distinguishable at first, but this issue was solved later on. I mostly mean here two older queens and duo of Kim Byung In + Prince Yongpyeong who at some point were barely distinguishable and it was hard to tell who’s on which side. Or maybe that was just my feeling but I felt a bit confused there.

And I cannot forget about the music, with very contemporary sound perfectly fitted with character of the drama not really being a period series but a time travelling one.

Overall I think that Mr. Queen was very good drama, the one you just watch with pleasure. Some pacing problem and filler episodes were easily balanced by comedic scenes. And the most important, acting was absolutely top of the class.