I promised myself to write a review for this Drama even before watching the ending, because simply, it deserves that much after all what it gave me.
My review contain 2 parts. The first one is directed to those who haven't seen the Drama yet and confused whether to watch it or not after seeing different kind of reviews; people who rated the show 10/10 and others went as far as to give it 1/10 which is complatly unrealistic if you ask me, despite the fact that people taste differ from one to another, but it's unbelievable to have such a huge gap. And so for that reason I didn't classify my review as "may contain spoilers" even though it does because the first part is spoiler's free, so if you didn't watch the show yet you can read the first part BUT not the second.
PART 1:
1- Why I started the drama? I wasn't planing to watch it at all before it started airing because I read the plot and I felt that it's not my cup of tea, a man in woman's body? that's weird, the romance will be weird and the ending will be tragic and I'm not a big fan of any of the main cast, so why should I, but quickly after the first 2 episodes aired, I started seeing many posts and screens and it looked really funny so I said why not, I started it with the Idea that I'll watch the first funny episodes and when it gets boring or dark I'll drop it, as I do a lot recently, and that I don't care about the end because I won't bee watching it maybe hearing about it that's all, but I found myself hooked for 20 episodes not thinking for one time to actually drop it, in the contrary I was longing froward to the weekend and watch scenes from raw before it get translated and think about it a lot during the week, I didn't do that since a long time, I can't even remember when was the last time I was obsessed with an airing drama like this.
2- I'm not going to repeat what is already mentioned in the plot, but I guess the first thing comes in mind after reading it, is "so is this a BL story?" Yes and No it's not exactly gay 'cause we are talking about a relatonship between 2 souls in 2 bodies with opposed sex (I'm talking about the queen and the king's bodies) So if you are into BL, this is not exactly what you used to watch but you certainly won't dislike it, and if you don't like BL's stories as myself, I asure you, you will looove this one 'cause there is nothing wrong about it, after all, as I said it's a woman's body and you will ship 2 souls together not who they are. So if you are hasitating because of that matter, you should stop and start the show, YOU WILL FEEL confused at the beginning not knowing even what to call the queen is it a "He" or a "She" , but in some point, that won't matter anymore.
3- If you are looking for a drama that will make you cry from begining till the end, then stop and go look else where as there is plenty of those, most good historical Kdramas are tragic, BUT if you are looking for a change, the entire opposite of what you used to see in historical's, or that you hate historical dramas because they are too dramatic, too sad, too frustrated, too much injustice and dark. Then you are in the right place, I didn't have that much laugh while watching a Kdrama, or any type of drama for that matter, for a long time, so this one is a cure for every broken heart, the word "boring" won't dare to come out of your mouth as you'll be so busy laughing all the time and the hour will feel like a 10 mins, you'll laugh watching a manly man's soul (a womaniser actally) coming from the present days, trapped in a woman's body and not any woman, it's a married woman, it's THE QUEEN from 200 years ago, you'll be laughing at many side characters that gave the show a strong comedy, not just the good people that are in the queen's side but even the drama's main evil characters, because simply, everyone act funny dealing with our queen's personality.
4- If you hate historical dramas because they are too old fashion, too many rules, everyone is talking and acting coldly, too much formal speechs even between a married couple. Well, our queen was capable of changing all of that, having a wild soul coming from the future inside a palace can do that, you'll see too much running inside the palace not only by servents but royalty as well, you'll see many rules get kicked in the wall, and you'll be hearing the king's name beeing called more than you did in all the historical drama's that you've watched or will putting together,because the name of the king is not something that you can just say it whenever you want, well, you can if you are our queen.
5- You hate when the main characters are royalty because there is too much drama, plots and schemes, and as a consequence, too many misunderstanding between the couple and mostly that's because there is a love triangle made of the main couple who loves each others and a concubine who is trying to separate them and destroy their love, I'm not going to lie and say that we don't have a love triangle here, but it's just not the typical one, it's not 2 women fighting over the love of the same guy but it's more like a circle because they are not completly two women, you will laugh while watching our queen upset seeing the King and his concubine together but just not for the usual obvious reason LOL.
6- looking for a perfect acting with a wonderful chemistry between the main couple, you'll find that here. I don't even remember where I've seen Shin hye sun before (which I regret deeply now I which I could remember her roles because I've seen her in many dramas as side character but didn't even remember in which dramas until I googled it) and I've seen Kim Jung Hyun in CLOY and liked him there too but just not as much as I did here. They both were magnificent SHS will make you believe that there is actually a man's soul inside her and deliver every single emotion her character is feeling, and KHJ wasn't any less than her, he too gave his role justice beeing funny, pretending weakness and stupidity in front of everyone, mysterious and manly. Not just them but everyone in the cast was awesome.
6- you will like how the OST is well fitting to the drama and to the scenes that get played in.
7- You maybe wondering by now why someone will rate this drama with 1-3/10 after all this, it's one simple and huge reason: THE ENDING! what I can say without spoilering it is everyone watched the same ending but not everyone feels the same about it, there is those who may consider it a SAD ending, a HAPPY ending,an UNSATISFIYING ending, a LOGICAL ending, even a PERFECT ending. which answear is the right one? I'll say none, because it's depend on how we want it to end compared to how it DID, because this time, every single one watched the show was hoping for a happy ending, even me who said at the beginning that I won't care about it, but eventually each one had his own definition of that 'happy ending" it's a matter of: did the ending match what they had in mind and heart or not, but whetherway, we can't judge the entire book by the last page of it, I don't regret watching such a wonderful drama and I wished it'll never end more than wishing for a happy ending because watching the journey was a real cure for my heart; I just hope to move on quickly and find something as good as this one soon.
So my final advice; watch the show you won't regret it, enjoy every single episode and judge the ending by yourself.
I'll leave the second part to another day.