I never expected to write that one of the best acting ensembles I’ve encountered in k-drama consisted almost entirely of twelve-to-fourteen-year-olds. Placing child actors in major roles is always a risk. Asking an entire class of them to carry most of the dramatic weight of a sixteen episode show is lunacy. And, yet, in The Queen’s Classroom, that’s exactly what they do. Obviously, Go Hyun Jung is on hand with her megawatt star power, but she’s not the protagonist. That honor belongs to the dogged Kim Hyung Gi and the three frighteningly talented young actors who play her comrades-in-arms in their struggle against their dreaded new teacher. These four tweens display emotional range and dramatic presence that would shame performers twice their age. Their skills are needed, as the script tackles bullying, broken families, academic pressures, personal tragedies and class conflicts of both the educational and social varieties. The characters may be children, but the issues they face are alarmingly adult. The writing occasionally dips a bit too far towards sensationalism or sentimentality, but most of the time it stays grounded in a difficult but psychologically honest place. This is a show that understands the exquisite awfulness of middle school, and it lets its young cast shine as they struggle to survive its ravages.