Let me preface this review by saying that my opinion is in no way influenced by the R rating/the inclusion of sexual scenes and nudity. I have seen the debates, and I know it is a divisive point for many, and because I am rating it on the lower side, I feel the need to make it known that the mature themes in this show have no effect on my opinion (there are some minor things I wish to say but I will say that later). I am a grown woman, I do not care whether or not a show has nudity - I feel that this show lacks for other reasons entirely.

I'd like to start by acknowledging that there is a lot to be enjoyed in this show. The technical side of production, that is the costuming, cinematography, music and so forth is very very impressive. I will say, the costuming especially is gorgeous. Nothing looks cheaply made, and nothing looks out of place. There's also clearly different choices for different characters, and a lot of time what the characters are wearing or even their hairstyles do a lot for them symbolically. Similarly, the music is well placed, the sets are impressive, and the cinematography is very pretty (also very dark at times in the night, which is just a pitfall of modern shows in general).

The acting, for the most part, is also very impressive - especially from lead characters. Jeon Jong Seo is a force as the titular character Queen Woo, and she puts a lot behind making her a fleshed out character. She is strong, smart, and she does what she must for her country - a nice breath of fresh air from the Queen's in a lot of historical dramas. Ji Chang Wook makes a compelling king, one that makes your heart hurt when he dies, and Kim Mu Yeol is magnetic as Eul Pa So - the most intriguing character to me by far. Many of the side actors are also wonderful, the Princes do well especially in making all of their personalities clear. I do however, think some of the acting from minor characters and extras was over the top, although I'm not sure at what point that is their fault, or the fault of the writing and directing.

As you'll notice, there is a lot about this show I like - which to me is a huge shame because it is completely marred and overwhelmed by the bad writing. This show suffers from the fact that is is based off true events - in other words, the viewers know how it ends (if you are one of the many who was curious and did research). So it faces a challenge: how do you make something interesting when people already know the whole plot? The answer of course is to take creative liberties. You see this a lot in adaptations of webtoons as well, the problem is that they often fall through. I very much feel like this is the case in this drama as well. The drama is also under the restriction of almost happening entirely in one night - you must find a way to fit a lot into a little time. That being said, the choices feel very poor - especially the amount of shamanistic intrigue. Yes, shamans were a thing in these times but their portrayal is often confusing, especially towards the end.

Due to this, the show can't really decide if it wants to be historically accurate, or something else entirely. There are moments that feel very ridiculous that take you out of the show because they feel so out of place for the time. Yes, the sex scenes included. We can acknowledge that people did in fact have sexual desires even in older times, but this show is not attempting to do something revolutionary such as changing the outlook of what life was like in Goguryeo. A lot of the sex scenes happen with no good reasoning, and many are sexual assault or border on such. At some point you have to ask yourself 'if this scene was taken out would the plot be the same?' and the answer is yes to practically all of them. This is an 8 episode drama, it only has 8 hours, and there are many scenes I feel wasted time that could have been spent elsewhere - for example in elaborating on the relationship between the King and the Queen. It is clear that the drama is trying to have that as an emotional strand, but it's hard because it doesn't have enough time to do so. It doesn't have enough time to follow a lot of its plots, which makes some of the writing choices so bizarre.

The thing is, this part of history is a lot scarcer when it comes to documentation than more modern Joseon drama. In fact, historians tend to disagree on if there were even five princes, or if there were four. That means the writer has more leeway with what they want to do, but what they choose to do with their creative freedom falls short. For example, portraying the Fourth Prince (who will later become king) as a coward and a pervert obsessed with the queen, seems odd when we are supposed to be supporting him. And also because he ends up being an important figure in Koreas history (that is not say he needs to be portrayed well because he is a historical figure, a lot of historical figures are bad people, but deliberately going out of the way to make him so unlikable is weird, especially if you consider what happens in history afterwards and what his end relationship with the queen as documented is). If there is one benefit of this show, it is that it has made me want to do research on this time to see what is actually true. I think this show would have benefited a lot more from being marketed as loosely based on something that happened because I feel that the historical inaccuracies in the writing are one of the worse parts. To be clear - I am not someone who is that knowledgeable on this time period, and there are many who could speak on it better, but even as an outsider, it feels odd.

At the end of the day this is a drama with a lot of potential that loses out because of its writing. You can really see where the high budget went in making a quality production and a having star cast, but that can only do so much when the script is poor. This is an incredibly intriguing historical event, there is a lot that can be done with it, but instead the script chooses to muddle itself down with odd creative choices which really seem to only be there to be 'different' or 'gritty.' I'm just, disappointed. I was enjoying it at the start, but the further it got with more characters, more side stories, it slowly became less and less interesting to me (in fact, I had to rescind it as a recommendation I made to a friend after the last four episodes came out). Queen Woo as a historical figure deserves better, and thats saying something because she's one of the best characters i the show. Overall, a fine watch, you can get through it because of the production value and the actors, but not something I would recommend or watch again.