This went from a fun drama to an absolutely frustrating piece of work!

I really need to vent here... I watched this with my dad and we really enjoyed the first few episodes. They were somewhat funny with enough suspense that actually hooked me in. Possessed isn't my type of drama but I kept watching it anyway because of these first few episodes. The 2.0 rating for the story is actually for these episodes as I enjoyed these quite a bit. Granted, it was a bit slow but still enough to hook me in.

Like so many of the reviews here say, it got much much worse. The villain gradually got more and more OP after killing more and more people and became more and more unlikable. I will commend the actors who portrayed this villain very well and I imagine there must have been a lot of cooperation for so many to portray the same character. Around Ep 12-13, the story got more depressing. Kang Pil-Seong and Hong Seo-Jeong both became depressed and were on the verge of giving up. It was around this point when the writers clearly gave up on writing a decent story and just decided to kill everyone starting with the side characters. To make us 'feel the loss' more clearly, they gave them backstories and fleshed them out a bit more. I admit I didn't particularly cry when they died but it was more because of the ridiculousness of it all. For instance, when Hwang Dae-Du kidnapped Yu Seung-hui and Choe Yeon-hui and told their father and boyfriend to kill each other to save their loved one, it was painfully obvious he wasn't going to keep his promise, so why did they even bother trying to kill one another?

The main thing that annoyed me about these last few episodes was the writers still tried to add in comedy. They would put it in at the most suspenseful places but it would feel so out of place that it wasn't even funny and just made the drama seem like it was trying too hard.

The ending was even more ridiculous. After killing off most of the main cast, Kang Pil-Seong takes Hwang Dae-Du out to sea and kills him. HDD possesses KPS's body but KPS somehow managed to retain some control and drowns himself so that HDD's spirit is now surrounded by salt, which apparently makes his spirit dissipate since spirits and salt 'have antipathy'. If it was so simple, then WHY did they not just do that from the start? The whole thing was just so pointless and stupid.

I will admit though, the music was pretty good. Not really the thing I would chill to after a long day but pretty catchy. Probably songs to add to my Spotify once I find them.

As expected, I will not be watching this again. I don't think I could handle the stress of rewatching HDD kill off pretty much all the cast.

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A heartwarming, feel-good drama for a chill weekend...

This drama was marked as ‘Not Interested’ by me and for ages, I ignored the signs to watch it. My dad watched it and loved it. My friends watched it and loved it. Even Netflix has recommended it multiple times since its release and I stubbornly refused to watch it.

It was only after binging Dr. Romantic and Dr. Romantic 2 in a week that I finally wanted to start this drama. But no! Season 2 was airing and I would have to wait until SEPTEMBER to watch Season 2 so no, I must not start Season 1. What if I can’t wait for all of Season 2 to air once I finish the first season? (I plan to watch the rest of S2 as it airs)

So I put it off. At this point, it was difficult. Netflix showed Hospital Playlist at the top of every list they could think up. As expected, who has that much self-control when the drama you want to watch is basically being served on a platter? So obviously, I watched it.

Upon further research after watching Ep 4, I found that the writers are the same as Reply 1988! It was yet another one that I had put off for YEARS until a few weeks ago and which I love as well, but I digress. And armed with this knowledge, these Easter eggs stood out more to me, from a few seconds of the OST or even a cameo from the Reply 1988 cast. It was nice to see them. My only gripe is the timeline of Hospital Playlist (set in 2019) and Reply 1988 don’t fit particularly well (so that character cameos don’t quite make sense) but I can overlook that for fangirling’s sake.

So what do I like about this drama? Honestly, the list would go on and on. Every scene was meaningful. I could feel emotions for each character, as minor as they each are. But most of all, I love that this drama is mostly slice of life. There’s no super-evil villain out there to destroy what our MCs have built up, and the plot mostly revolves around the lives of our MCs. It’s heartwarming and fun, almost like I’m with my own group of friends that I haven’t seen in a while. I like that it’s not ridiculously fast-paced and suspenseful like other medical dramas, but more realistic, kinda like how one would expect a doctor’s job to be like at a big hospital: dealing with anxious patients, irritating colleagues that don’t pull their weight as well as night shifts, emergency calls, etc.

The finale wasn't my cup of tea, but watching this in 2021, I know there is a 2nd season that will hopefully address the things that the writers left to the audience's imagination. But it wasn't too bad, definitely cheering on a romance between a certain professor and resident!

The *main* thing I don’t like about this drama is probably the fact that the cast is MASSIVE! I felt so confused keeping track of names and faces and honestly, I even forgot the names and faces of characters if they got an outfit change. However, it’s completely understandable why there was such a big cast though. A hospital as big as Yulje would likely have even more doctors, nurses and patients in real life, so I really can’t fault this drama at all.

Other than that, the acting is spot-on, I loved how the actors really brought out their characters, and I absolutely LOVE the soundtrack! Using a song in each episode was really smart! The songs picked really fit the main events in each episode, plus, I got to expand my music taste, so no complaints there!

As for watching it again, I would definitely go through it all again. For this watch, I would argue that I’ve binged it since I finished all of it within a week. BUT, if I’m going to watch it again, I would probably wait a year or so, and then go through the episodes slowly, maybe a few episodes every weekend or something like that. It’s definitely not one that I would binge again.

If you got to the end, thank you for reading this review, and apologies for all the faff…

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EDIT: 02/03/23

So.... I gave this a 2nd chance. I still stand by my opinion that there is a lot of politics in it. For a historical drama, that is to be expected, but I seem to be feeling more historical/fantasy dramas recently, and this one was one that I wanted to give a proper chance. Needless to say, I definitely enjoyed it more this time around. I don't think it's absolutely brilliant, and there were many points where I zoned out, but I didn't feel like I needed to watch it at 1.25x speed, which I will take as a win.

Overall, it's a good drama if you just want a bit of a laugh but also have some court intrigue. Plus, the cooking scenes are brilliant! I don't think my original review was particularly objective, nor was it representative of the entire drama, so it only felt proper to update this.

Original review submitted 19/07/21:

I don't normally write reviews but there weren't many critical reviews of this drama I could see on MDL, so I thought I would add my two cents to the mix.

I initially started Mr. Queen because of the rating, the reviews and because my parents had watched it, so I had seen snippets of it (mostly the comedic scenes), which I enjoyed.

So things I like... I like the comedy, especially the cooking scenes, which I felt were executed really well. Props to SHS for really bringing out the funny parts in those scenes. I think some of the humour is a bit crass and unnecessary (and which fell a bit flat at times), but overall, the comedy was good enough that if you want to watch it as a comedy, you can do it.
I also like the premise, of a head chef transmigrating into the body of a queen-to-be. Transmigration is always something that I enjoy reading/watching.

The main thing I didn't like about this drama was the politics. It's the thing that made me drop it... I'm not one for court politics and conspiracies and this drama had wayyy too many of them. Perhaps they all tie in nicely towards the end, but I was already watching the drama at 1.25x speed, and I didn't have the patience or energy to sit through another 15 episodes of something that I might not even enjoy.

The politics also takes up a LOT of time. It's why I was watching it sped up in the first place. Some will enjoy the contrast between politics and comedy but I felt that it was this contrast that made it so much harder to watch all the political scenes.

Many reviews here talk about how the ending was disappointing or unfulfilling. I didn't get that far... To me, the beginning all fell a bit flat and I never felt like I was hooked onto the drama.

So would I rewatch it? Probably. Perhaps now is just not the time for this drama. I'm not feeling it and I won't give it a fair opinion if I continue watching when I already don't want to watch it.

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