Through Bong-hwan’s (Choi Jin-hyuk) constant internal monologue and his anachronistic behaviour in the body of So-yong, customs generally presented in other period dramas as charming and traditional were lightly ribbed for being outmoded or conservative. The concept of Mr. Queen has provided a unique platform to engage with the social standards of present-day Korea, especially gender-based ones which are in the midst of breathless and very welcome change.

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The modern man in a period woman’s body ploy slyly introduced several observations on gender double standards, but Mr. Queen’s boldest gamble was its allusions to homosexuality. In the show’s early run, Bong-hwan was repulsed by his new body but as his consciousness started to meld with So-yong’s, he steadily began to drop his defences.

Several episodes closed with breathless close encounters as So-yong and King Cheol-jong’s lips held in the air a mere finger’s width apart, but after much prevaricating they eventually did lock in a tender embrace later in the season.

If that wasn’t enough, So-yong subsequently prepared a late-night ramen snack for the king. The ramen sleepover is universally understood as a booty call in Korea, but poor King Cheol-jong, not yet up to speed with 21st century innuendo, refuses the snack.

Nevertheless, this is soon followed by one of the show’s biggest reveals: So-yong’s pregnancy, which suggests that the pair’s relations didn’t stop at a kiss. Of course, given that physically this remains a heterosexual coupling, the most serious charge conservatives could possibly level at the show is a kind of spiritual homosexuality.

After being shot down in the palace courtyard on the cusp of victory, the spirit of Bong-hwan is finally returned to the present. He wakes up from his coma in a panic, and escapes police custody in search of a library to learn the fate of his dear king.

Naturally, happy endings are forthcoming as the king regains his throne, and the schemers that plotted his ruin are either jailed, shamed or exiled to the West Palace. Bong-hwan, meanwhile, discovers that his jaunt in history has also somehow altered his own trajectory, making him no longer a murder suspect, but a victim. He is elated to read that King Cheol-jong lived and prevailed, but as we leave him in the present, the show doesn’t go so far as to show him heartbroken.

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Back in the past, the real So-yong is definitely in love with the king, whereas she wasn’t before Bong-hwan entered her body. The combination of these endpoints for Bong-hwan and So-yong douses the show’s homosexual themes somewhat, but it’s unlikely that it could have ended any other way. That queer themes were explored within lead characters in a hit prime time series at all is a welcome progression for Korea’s traditionally conservative small-screen stories.

Twenty episodes is on the long side for modern K-dramas these days but Mr. Queen had plenty of things on the go that justified that running time, even if a lot of it had to be spent untangling the typically tedious palace scheming that Korean period dramas tend to mire themselves in.

Thankfully, the individual elements within the palace were generally able to pick up the slack left by the back room political interludes. The royal kitchen, run by the Royal Chef Man-bok (a hilarious Kim In-kwon) were always a delight, as was the amusing interplay between So-yong and her loyal servants, Court Lady Choi (Cha Chung-hwa) and Hong Yeon (Chae Seo-eun).

Ending on such a high, Mr. Queen may leave quite a vacuum, but tvN is aiming big with its time slot, which will next be occupied by the mafia-tinged legal drama Vincenzo, starring Song Joong-ki, which kicks off this weekend.

Mr. Queen is streaming on Viu.