*deep sigh*

Well. I guess that's one way to get me to drop a 3K drama I've been waiting two years for and was fairly adamant I could sit through despite how bad it might decide to be.
There's "NC17 History" and then there's whatever the everloving gratuitous shit that was.

Oh, but it also wasn't actually good outside of *that* either.
For one, the directing was a nightmare, especially regarding pacing and the direction of a lot of the actors. Talk about telegraphing.

And I was tragically bored on top of everything and could not find it in myself to care about what was happening.
Probably because it seemed to be more interested in shocking me with continuous gratuitous nudity and sex scenes and jumping between events and timelines like piñata on a pogo stick, than it was in establishing its characters and story properly, and in a truly engaging way. This is the cheapest of all tactics, people, come on.

And he pulled out an arrow! Boooo!

So, good riddance!

The gratuitous violence and pornographic sex scenes were nothing more than a smokescreen and a lazy attempt to distract from the weak writing and bad direction (the classic hallmark of a creatively bankrupt hack)

"Moving" was extremely violent yet it still managed to tell a compeling story with characters that you cared about, it also managed to leverage the talents of a stacked and talented ensemble in ways that this drama completely fails at.

Oh well, it will get attention which is likely why the production team made the choices they made

I quit watching Hollywood TV dramas for a reason: Excessive sex and nudity. I am no prude or whatsoever. I do read historical romance novels (with bedroom scenes). But, the amount nudity and sex scenes is too much for me to handle. Let's hope the second half does better. Otherwise, it will be the third drama that I am disappointed with this year.

it's hard to shock me these days, but i was shocked. why would they have to show so much nudity and sex/rape to aid the story? there seems to be no one with any redeeming social value in line with the throne... so will they stop with the graphic crap and get on with the story?

Personally, and this might be an unpopular opinion, I don't think this show is that gratuitous. I've seen way worse, and I've seen female characters be treated way worse (including in a lot of other sageuks I've seen). The women in this show, for the most part, feel quite powerful. The men are either busy playing politics, or catch-up to something we already know, while the women are taking action. Yeonbi & Sabi use their bodies, and other people, because they can, and they have the power to do so. Does that make them sexual objects? I'd even argue they are doing things that normally a man would do. Honestly, so far, in more ways than one, the women are running the show. The only reason this plot even happens is because a woman took action.

But really, I think everybody's opinion on the sex & nudity is a personal thing, and it will either bother you or not. As is the case with the graphic scenes in regards to violence and stuff. It's an endless discussion that will probably just go in circles.

I'm not gonna pretend this show is perfect, it's not, far from it, but none of my problems are connected to the graphic nature of the show. I think a lot of aspects could do with more development, but I kinda think part of the problem here is that there are only 8 episodes, and there's a lot of ground to cover, so the show would need more episode to really explore everything in depth. Regardless, I really like what we've got so far, and I'm excited for the last 4 episodes.

I admit, the trailer didn't really prepare me for what to expect in the first four episodes, but after I adjusted my expectations a bit, the episodes really captivated me (but I also like series like Game of Thrones, Hannibal, ...). I really liked episode 3 in particular with the dark, menacing mood that engulfed everything else.

Are the sex scenes really necessary? No, certainly not, but the same can be said of the violent scenes. And I personally find violence more problematic for a younger audience (we're talking about a drama with a very high age rating here) than a few naked upper bodies, for example. But that's just my opinion, of course, and I understand if others see it differently.

@solstices Thank you for the recap! I see its not worth it, I can happily drop this. I was very intrigued by the stills and costumes. But I never liked any historical dramas as it always has a tragic ending.

The beauty of kdrama is and always was the way the characters are chiseled and story is edited. I'm no prude, this just isn't my cup of tea.

Well, that sucks. I was really looking forward to this show. Nevertheless, I had a fun time delving into the historical background of this era, and I can't stop yet. I'm very good at using the ff button when needed.😂

The nudity and sex scenes didn't bother me so much. The women had desires or will and acted on them.

I was disapointed by Lee Joo-Suk character, he was a caricature. At least in The Scholar who Walks the Night, he was a vampire.

Ji Chang-Wook was really good in this role. I never liked his characters in sageuk. I'm happy there were a lot of flashbacks with him. I wonder what was the story with the Crown Prince, it looked like it traumatized the 3rd Prince.

I liked the Queen was a badass but they could develop her and other characters more.

What will be the future of Eul Pa-So, the ministers were against his appointment.

The show was fine. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. The nudity was unnecessary. It added nothing to the story at all. It was just shoehorned in. I'll watch the back 4 too.

Re: shaman having visions with her Samantha and Rachel out - I believe there WERE some traditions in the ancient world where divination rituals included nudity (to ease connection to gods and whatnot), but I don't think I've ever heard of that detail being a thing in Korean shamanism specifically. Can someone clarify or perhaps redirect me to a more knowledgeable sources? Maybe it was just a personal preference of hers - girl was FAST to drop her top in sex scene with Sister Moron too.

I also don't fully agree with recapper about show objectifying women - I think it was objectifying everyone, more or less (JCW has shown more skin than anyone so far), with an interesting bit of NOT doing so in the only one semi-romantic bed scene - between King and Queen (then prince and princess) in flashbacks. Where they just kissed, started undressing (without flashing more than we've seen before in standard sageuks, really), kissed some more... aaand camera panned out to the outside of their tent. Which made me wonder if that was a deliberate attempt to visually draw stark contrast between their clearly loving intimacy and brutal soulless copulating everyone else in the story indulged in. Critique of gratuitous violence against women still stands, but I mean, that's the show which starts with entirety of royal court conspiring to force a woman into obviously unwanted divorce from the husband she loves - or get rid of her in even more nefarious way, if needed - simply because that's beneficial to said court politically. Hardly the time and place to expect any human rights, I'm afraid.

But yes, writing IS weak, pace is not good, directing is clearly obsessed with "we are a grim and dark period show, not your vanilla romcom fusion sageuk!" approach to the point that it becomes unintentionally funny (capital is somehow as sunless and fugly as dreaded Deadly North royal couple spent their most happy years in) and I expected much more from Queen's performance as adult (but liked teen actress, what's her name btw?). Other actors did well enough, but when everything else is pretty mediocre at best... Overall I doubt this drama will earn any beans from me - with exception of "too much skinship" one perhaps^^

I didn't enjoy the drama "my dearest S1" level but I did like it, I liked the politics (it was in some aspects confusing tho, for example I can't understand why Yeonbi is trying to help Queen Woo? Doesn't she want the crown for herself? 🤔), I liked king and queen past stories and their characters and I liked the story of how she should complete her Misson in 24 hours ( times like this I am fascinated by how tiny of a country is Korea, in my country you can't get pass the next city with a carriage overnight.)
I prepared myself for some GOT level sex scenes so the scenes were not shocking to me but they were unnecessary and not even well displayed, plus Balgi killing for sports scenes were so unnecessary and exaggerated too, I could do without them.
All in all it wasn't a total disappointment imo, and I'm looking forward to the part 2, but it's nothing that I'd recommend to others as a really good kdrama!

Thank god I didn't watch it with my family. 🤣 I think the sex scenes and nudity in this are not as offensive as in Somebody with Kim Young-kwang (dropped it at ep 3 or 4) or felt out of place as in Squid Game. Jeon Jong-seo is so pretty. And I screamed when Ji Chang-wook got killed in ep 1, Oppaaaa..... he was not in the drama's press conference! He could be just an guest appearance! But hey .... there he is on next episodes 😍

I want to say first that I found these first four episodes to be largely gripping and exciting, with an interesting narrative structure, strong performances, and suspenseful tone that makes for a compelling watch. And I want to urge others who aren't immediately turned off by the presence of graphic sex and violence to watch at least the first episode and make up your own mind. Of course, if graphic sex and violence absolutely aren't your bag under any circumstances, then by all means skip this one, because even though some aspects of this show are objectively worthy of praise, they're not so outstanding and unique that you need to suffer through the other parts you're certain to hate.

I already discussed my reaction to some of the sex and sexuality in the drama in the recap post, so I don't want to be repetitive. I did find some of it to be gratuitous in the sense that with the exception of the rather tame and quite lovely mini-love scene between the King and Queen in ep. 2, none of it really advanced the plot or characters in any meaningful way. Additionally, some of the violence also fits that definition, especially the scenes of Go Bal-ki taking distinct pleasure in brutally torturing and murdering his subjects. Yes, that technically showed us what kind of sadist he is, just as various other scenes showed us that the shaman, for example, sees no issue with exploiting or manipulating others' desires for her own (sometimes sexual) gain. But overall, I wouldn't say I thought the show's creative team was endorsing any misogyny or extreme sadism; instead, I think the goal is to show the brutality of this world, and the fact that all kinds of desires--for love, sex, and power--cause some to dehumanize others, be they male or female.

And as @kurama said, we do see both men and women owning and expressing their sexuality; in addition, many of the women are shown to be as smart, cunning, and strategic (or moreso) than many of the men. So I can't say I agree with @soltices that what we're seeing is more of the same "women objectified and fetishized on the pretext of making a show “dark,” “gritty,” or “realistic” that continues to be all too common in media.

What I'm seeing instead is a creative team that's clumsy about the integration and use of shocking scenes to move its story along and build its world. Some of it feels organic, intense, and exciting, but a lot of it seems staged and awkward, and some of that leads to objectification of certain characters, the King for one (was it really necessary for us to see the Queen's sister's graphic fantasies about him? I don't think so).

"Queen Woo" seems to be a show that's trying to be complex and nuanced, and sometimes failing, but not one that's indulging in gratuitous violence to titillate its audience in a way that's designed to demean women. That's what I'm seeing so far, anyway. We'll see if I feel that way all the way to the end.

The story and acting wasn't extraordinary, but the show was watchable. Very much reminded me of Korean movies that I haven't seen in a long time. I could have done without the excessive sexual scenes.

I haven't seen Ji Chang Wook much recently - I liked his acting here. His character had a little something to it. He was able to show different qualities. He could care for and love his queen, but make no mistake that he will be violent and brutal to his enemies. He tried to play the palace politics even though he was not the initial one to be king. He had a good amount of screen time (extended cameo?).

It was annoying and typical that the spies and betrayers are the ones close to the royal family. I would have liked the queen and king to have been more suspicious. I had prepared for the king to die on the battlefield, but he died from 3 drops of poison (XD;).
The king's man? Minister Song Woo is looking mighty shady. I thought bodyguard Mil Woo would be on the neutral/good side, but he had a suspicious moment when he checked Eul Pa So's burned note. I guess he could be wary of Eul Pa So though.

I could hardly recognize some of the actors. Won Hyun Joon! He makes for a menacing villain anytime! The chasing after the queen in the dark forest was suspenseful and thrilling. And omg, Song Jae Rim! I did not remember him being in this drama and had to do a double take and check if it was really him, haha. He looks like a scary opponent already.

Go Bal Ki is completely evil. No redeeming qualities. The rape scene was SO unnecessary when they had shown his viciousness beforehand.

I didn't read up on the history before watching so I let things play out on screen. I was curious about Yeon Bi whose role was unclear to me. I did read some history after which is likely a spoiler.

Queen Woo did not get much to do during this first half and she was thrown front and center into the politics so hopefully, in the last half, she will have a strong role. And maybe the show can be past all sexual scenes and there can be a focus on the political battle between the queen and the princes.

I’ll skip this one as it sounds like a WhollyWeird production and not a K drama sageuk . I kind of miss the torches and the ministers crying Chooona !

I liked it.

I thought it was fast paced and I'm engaged in the story. I do like the actors involved in the drama, and there are a lot of familiar faces playing the support roles.

As I was watching Queen Woo the line from Game of Thrones came to mind...“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”

I didn't expect the nudity, but I didn't give it much thought.

It sounds like Game of Thrones, except they jumped straight to Season 8.

Thank you so much @solstices for sparing me the watch. It seems like while Western shows and movies - mostly American - are somewhat (a big “somewhat”) improving (or rather taming themselves for the sake of political appropriateness rather than genuine reform) with regards to respecting women on television, Eastern shows are devolving down the destructive path. And I have no tolerance for it. Want to respectfully depict the historical objectification of women? Imply r*** off-screen and show the emotional impacts it has on her in addition to her recovery from such a horrifying event. There is NO reason to show such a traumatic thing on screen. NOTHING will ever convince me that explicit r*** scenes on screen are not gratuitous torture p***. F*** that. Hard pass on this one since I come to Korean dramaland to avoid gratuitous sex not to fall back into the rabbit hole. But unfortunately I am afraid that just as I continue to watch Western shows and movies with gritted teeth and lots of eye-rolls when I am flashed for no good reason, I will start to watch Asian shows in the same manner as it is becoming more and more common.

Episode 1: Meh.

So there was a reason why the only thing people are talking about is nudity/sex scenes. The show is so boring and basic that the "rarely seen in kdramaland" content became the focus.

"QUEEN Woo" but the only memorable thing about the first episode was Ji Chang Wook telling those snakes his wife isn't going anywhere.

They directed this like most movies these days, and that's not a good thing.
I wasn't expecting them to sing Muyiya and make me cry like in SFD or anything, but this episode had zero impact. Just the same old men talking the same old politics.

Also, if you have all your characters scream "I'm good" "I'm bad" "I'm gonna die" "I'll take the crown" "this is my plan" ALL THE TIME. Then what's the point of watching the show? They really killed any suspense, or excitement in one episode. They even made the king's death feel so pointless and empty.

They started with all the drama and tragedy but made you feel nothing about it...

Conclusion: someone get Park Chan Wook to film a remake and I'll watch that instead.

Hi, thanks for the write up @solstices. And taking your time so we won't have to! So disappointing, I've been looking forward to this one for awhile but it is getting terrible reviews all over the place and for all the same reasons you have named. I have to say, a NC17 warning does not bother me, I have less of a problem with sex than with violence. That being said, it has to add to the story, not detract from it, make up for poor writing or exploiting women for the sake of exploitation. Which is sounds like this show does all three, with graphic violence as well. Thanks for the heads up.

All right, finally done. Another bean on its way into my kitty.

It was dark. I couldn’t tell who was who. By the time I did, the episodes had ended. There was a love story, but it was as obtuse as the lackluster lovemaking that panned out to the top of a tent. There was a political story, but it sank as clumsily as those bodies in the pond. There was a cohesive narrative waiting for justice somewhere, but it was hung to death as grotesquely as those corpses from the trees.

Everything was always dark. Everything screamed, "Hey, I am gritty and violent, FEEL me." Every female character was either wriggling a head or a butt that had been stripped of its decency.

The King needed to show he was pushing 'the love of his life' away for her own good by having half a dozen half-naked women frolic on him. Got it. Then might as well show the damn stuff. Picking at his shins and shoulders by those said half naked women like they were hunting for bugs while wiggling their bored bottoms would not be the way a King would have an orgy.

Lee Soo Hyun can crank down the temperature of a screen to freezing just by appearing on it. Drowning people in the pool or raping the wife before driving a sword through her was overkill. I have never, ever seen a scene of violence and felt so detached and unaffected.

It was show, show, and more show, with absolutely zero tell. It tried to be Shogun and shot itself in the foot.

Yet, it's a fantastic story. The potential to draw blood, sweat, and tears in a way that mattered would have been so easy in the hands of a good scriptwriter/director. Imagine a powerhouse female lead who changes the course of history in 24 hours.

But the most problematic thing is the casting of Jeon Jong-seo. She is a total misfit. I did like her in the fight scenes, though, but that's about it. The girl shows no depth, which I found surprising because I liked her in WI.

However, JCW is the only one who has put some semblance of heart and effort into the role he was given. He looks good.

So far, the most exciting part for me was thinking Jung Jae-kwang was Sansang, but he isn’t the one.

But this is my bean count watch, and for the time being, I’ve decided to take a hiatus from bubblegums, so I’ll slog through it. Who knows, the next four episodes could be awesome.

Thank you for the recap, @solstices!
I finally made it to eps 4, ff through unnecessary crap.
I still think Prince Crocodile Tears (Yeon-woo) will be her next husband because Gye-soo is a Nam-mu fanboy and Goguryeo loyalist. I don't see him betraying his idol by marrying his sister-in-law. He is also married, and he doesn't seem to be ruthless like Balgi.

The last vision with the 5 crows on the throne kind of makes sense—the war between the 5 tribes has already started.
I also want to know how it ends, so I'll tune in for the 2nd part.

Baek Hyun Woo's parents in Queen of Tears