The Queen's Umbrella: Under the Queen's Umbrella
December 4, 2022 8:04 AM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe

A spirited queen tries to rein in her rowdy sons in order to make one of them the next king of Joseon, while her competitors vie to snatch the throne.

MyDramaList show page

Dramabeans show page - also recapped at The Review Geek

Kpopmap - Cast & Summary (non-spoiler listing of main cast/characters, teaser & official posters)

Zapzee review: ‘Under the Queen’s Umbrella’ A Mother’s Love for Her Children -- "How did the royal family educate the future king? Weaving the answers to this question with novel imagination, Under the Queen’s Umbrella depicts the struggle of the queen of Joseon who has entered the “war of education” for her troublemaking sons. The devotion that parents put into their children’s education has always been the same, in the past and the present, so at first, the interest was in how the education of the princes would be portrayed. But the more I watch the show, my eyes are more drawn to the love of a mother who becomes an umbrella for her children, just as the title suggests – Under the Queen’s Umbrella. Queen Lim Hwaryeong (Kim Hye Soo) is the busiest person in the palace. She oversees the lives of all royal ladies, from the queen dowager to ten royal concubines, and takes care of all the big and small affairs within the palace. Her dependable first son – the crown prince (Bae In Hyuk) – faithfully commits himself to education, but her four other sons are troublemakers called “the only flaw of a sage king” or “the king’s hellions.” Her sons who always cause trouble only give Hwaryeong a headache. Meanwhile, when the position of the crown prince’s baedong (a friend who studies with the prince) becomes absent, the king declares that he’ll choose the new baedong among the princes. With this unexpected decision, Hwaryeong suspects that the queen dowager (Kim Hae Sook) is scheming a plan to threaten her and her children. Around that time, it’s revealed that the crown prince is sick, and Hwaryeong must save her eldest son while turning her four other sons into “reliable candidates,” just in case."
posted by oh yeah! (1 comment total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I was surprised to see this is the first credit on MyDramaList for screenwriter Park Ba Ra, I'm impressed. While I admit to getting a little mixed up at times in the beginning about who the various princes and concubines were in relation to each other, this was probably the least confusing palace-intrigue-sageuk I've seen so far. Everyone had understandable motives, nobody was just out there being evil for the sake of evil. Not even the Queen Dowager, ultimately, though she was certainly the most villainous in her actions. Overall, there was just a really good balance of dramatic & comedic moments - no mid-season slump, or fumbling the finale.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:35 AM on December 4, 2022


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