wooooo, congrats on getting published @wishfultoki ✨

we really did have a TON of sageuks almost back-to-back this year and I must confess I only watched two of them 😹

But I do agree that Rookie Historian was such a perfect summertime sageuk. The bright colours, the music, the foliage, the gorgeous costuming... I expected almost nothing from the drama when I went into it and it turned out to be a true gem ♥️

What kind of sageuks will 2020 bring for us?

@wishfultoki, you almost make me want to watch a sageuk. Wait, Kingdom counts as a sageuk, so I did watch one this year, and with Kingdom 2 on the horizon I have one on the to be watched list. Seriously though, this is lovely, and I really might give My Country a chance sometime.

Well-written, Toki. As always. I was disappointed with The Crowned Clown and My Country as you said. I love Nokdu Flower. Nit sure if that is the best drama for me this year, but it is way up there in top 3 for sure.

Beautiful writing. You make me miss Nokdu Flower.

I really like the way you related the dramas to the seasons, @wishfultoki. You really should watch Haechi. I don't think you'll be disappointed. I watched three sageuks this year and ffwded through another, and Haechi was the best. It was the most realistic and most thoughtful, and didn't depend on a heart-pounding/heartwrenching romance. I enjoyed Rookie Historian more, but RH was too lighthearted to compare with Haechi.

Thank you for publishing my review @db-staff and polishing it a bit! Sattoo! 😘

P.S.: I really wanted to cram in “the employees are kings” somewhere, and PEGASUS MARKET’s hilarious use of sageuks to improve customer service... but it was too random (like everything in that wacky little show).

Wonderful write up @wishfultoki
I love your analogy to the seasons. 💕

I watched only two 😂
Mu country and Rookie Historian. I’ve been on sageuk draught for nearly 5 years until Cha Eunwoo chose his next project to be a sageuk. Haha. Although he’s one of the weakest link in that drama I managed to follow through until the end. I’ve been meaning to watch Nokdu Flower, if only for YSY.

This was so goooooooood!!! Congrats! So I saw Summer and Autumn and LOVED both of them! Thank you to you and all the sageuk beanies who make watching so much more fun and enlightening!

Congratulations!!! @wishfultoki what a nice piece of work. I also like sageuks and watched almost all that you have mentioned,athough I still have to finish Nokdu Flower despite some glowing reviews. I finished Historian and glad about the story for having featured trailblazing and courageous ladies in the Joseon era. Sad to say, however, I did not enjoy it as much as I should even with the preswnce of Cha Eun Woo. He is such an eye candy but I have never been a fan of Shin Se Kyung. I liked Haechi and will choose it again over the Crowbed Clown regardless of the acting prowess of Yeo Gin Goo. My runaway winner of course will be our stabby OTP in My Country. I agree with you that the writing sort of went downhill starting from epi 14 (like the writer was a little sullen). Two or more episodes would have done it for the story with 2 for proper melding with history.

I'm not a saguk person and haven't watched anything from these dramas... however... I thoroughly enjoyed reading your review. Beautifully written. Really. 💕

I'm not a sageuk person and watched only one proper saguek, Nokdu Flower but I agree that, it is drama of the year in term of writing and production quality, not to mention amazing acting.

Such poetic writing @wishfultoki ~ it makes me yearn for changing seasons amidst a gray winter day...

You captured my feelings perfectly for Crowned Clown (amazing opening episodes but loss of (and logic) post twist), and My Country (a fun ride but played fast, as in it fastforwarded, over history).

I watched Tale of Nokdu, and enjoyed it for what it was. Nokdu Flower is high on my to watch list, and you almost make me want to try Rookie Historian ~ truly, it was a fine year for sageuks, here’s hoping 2020 continues the trend!

Wonderful take on the year. Thank you!

Crowned clown was great. Still salty that yeo jin goo didn't get baeksang for best actor over lee byung hun- in the context of the role they played, I felt YJG deserved it more despite LBH being a big name
.
Haechi was so underrated! It was kim yi young's second best work after yi san IMO. Certainly better quality than dong yi- too bad the ratings didn't reflect it. And I thought the writer/production did a commendable job adjusting the plot considering go ara got injured.

I really appreciated Gu hae ryung. Yeah, CEW is still green as an actor, but it was really refreshing to see the male lead for once not be Mr.Capable right off the bat. The growth in his acting and the character lee rim throughout the drama was nice to see. And SSK is really made for sageuks, isn't she?

Jumpin’ jiminy, I completed 7 sageuks this year? And still missed apparently the best one, Nokdu Flower, which I am waiting to find a home on Viki or Netflix so I can easily stream it via Roku.

Thank you for the wonderful write up, WishfulToki, and congratulations!

Ahh, @wishfultoki, you make me want to watch the first few episodes of The Crowned Clown for the acting and cinematography. But I'm a bit of a completionist, so I'm afraid I would end up suffering through it to the end.
Nokdu Flower and Rookie Historian are both on my watch list. I'm in the middle of episode 7 of My Country - currently on-hold to be finished at an unknown time.
Lovely write-up, by the way :)

Thank you @wishfultoki for writing this lovely piece for the sageuk crowd! I love historic pieces, the more eye-popping the costumes and sets, the better! I also happen to love action scenes with flying swords and high kicks, and can tolerate quite a lot of political intriguing if I can find logic to it, so sageuks were this year's great discovery for me! I watched 5 of the ones you mention. Nokdu Flower is high on my to-watch list, Crowned Clown not so much, but read such good things about the ML's acting that it's there... I'm still on the fence about Different dreams, didn't see many comments about it online, and my to-watch sageuk list is already unrealistically long anyway, because I'm a freaking nerd and keep on adding old 50 episode long dramas that I don't have the time to watch.

Kingdom was my first kdrama ever, and I loved it! It felt really short, and I craved for more downtime for character development, but I was blown away by it, admittedly because it was my first contact with the genre.
I found Haechi pretty solid plotwise and the bromance in the Prince's crew (FL included) was charming. Shame that the loveline felt a bit contrived - I don't think neither of the leads are very good at romantic scenes anyway -, although I really like Jung Ilwoo and felt moved by his character's development arc.
Rookie Historian left me a bit cold. I loved the prettiness and the FL's feistiness, though, and the historian crew was also cute. Tale of Nokdu was super cute, but my favourite 2019 sageuk was My Country, stabby OTP, plot-holes and all. The battle scenes and the cinematography in this one really blew me away, and the acting is superb

whoah, i did watch quite a lot of sageuks this year - the crowned clown, rookie historian, flower crew, my country and tale of nokdu. also tried watching different dreams but i didn't finish it. my fave has to be tale of nokdu but i also loved the crowned clown and my country.

Thanks for the review @wishfultoki. Nokdu Flower has been on my watch list and what you wrote just push it up to the top. Now I just have to steel my heart and grab a big box of tissue...

In this year of several sageuks, there was a little something for everyone and Nokdu Flower and My Country were standouts for me. I share your sentiments as to what made them a treat to watch.

Thanks for your review @wishfultoki. Great write up.

The comparison of the dramas to the seasons is perfect. I wouldn't have connected Spring to Nokdu Flower. It was such a heavy watch. I'm still not sure how I feel about it overall, but now I can see how it fits the fresh, renewed start that the springtime symbolizes.

Thank you for the awesome review. ^^

Nicely done @wishfultoki! Though I've only watched 2/4 of your picks, I defo stand behind Rookie Historian as Summer and My Country as Autumn.

Oh my gosh! Thank you so so much @wishfultoki <3.

What a wonderful sageuk review!
I wish I was able to watch them all like I used to but I'm getting rather picky lately especially when there is a lot of sageuks to choose from.

NOKDU FLOWER without reservation was the one that I looked forward to the most because of writer Jeong Hyun-min.
Love the beautiful, memorable and logical writing that I've come to expect from him.
Director Shin and the cast were nothing short of magnificent . Finally, a leading lady who can do a proper sageuk. Best actress in a sageuk for me definitely goes to Han Yeri.

HAECHI was another sageuk with a familiar writer that I wish had better ratings. YI SAN and HAECHI are definitely my fave from Kim Yi-young.

MY COUNTRY and CLOWNED CROWN deserves my affection despite not being a huge fan of the writings.

If I were to pick my fave performance in a sageuk, it'll be Jo Jung-suk, Jang Hyuk and Yeo Jin-goo (bias alert). A full sageuk with these 3 would be a dream come true.

Sageuk rookie of the year for me would be Woo Do-hwan. I'd love to see him headline a sageuk in the future. I was really impressed with him in MY COUNTRY.

Good-luck with "THE WAR BETWEEN WOMEN" Toki. I think I'll end the year with THE MANDALONIAN and baby Yoda.

Congratulations @wishfultoki for being published and for the great essay. I don't know when we will have another year of consistently very good sageuk's. Here are some short random thoughts on the dramas I watched in the order of airing:
1. THE CROWNED CLOWN (16 episodes) .My first Yeo Jin-goo drama. I was in awe of this 21 year old's performance especially his work in episodes 7 and 8. Those episodes have to be some of his finest performances in his career;
2. HAECHI (24 episodes). My first Jung Il-woo drama. Early on it was difficult to watch not because of the performances but because it overlapped TCC and how the drama was lit as in dark. It was hard on the eyes at first. JIW gave a very good performance in his comeback drama after his military service. One surprise for some was early on anyways the comic performance of Kwon Yool as Officer wannabe Park Moon-soo. He was a delight. (I truly think some people were shocked that he had this comic ability.) I also thought that Lee Geung-young was outstanding as Minister Min;
3. NOKDU FLOWER (24 episodes). Maybe the best drama of the year for me. Great cast. 5 star performances all around. The producers I am sure made a gamble in casting Choi Moo-sung as General Nokdu but it paid off in spades. It was hard watching Yoon Shi-yoon go dark; and
4. MY COUNTRY (16 episodes). All the cast was terrific but I can't praise enough the performance by Woo Do-hwan in his first sageuk (I believe). There might of been a tad too much sword play which time could have been used for story development.
PS. One sageuk disappointment for me was what happened to JOSEON SURVIVAL. It was an odd little drama but I liked it and it was available on ODK. The budding romance between the second leads was so sweet and then the whole thing was jinxed.
Thanks again @wishfultoki.

oh i love this! i didn't see most of the ones you wrote about, but i am definitely intrigued now--and i lovelovelove how you framed them like seasons. i feel like i'll use that to guide me in choosing which to watch, depending on my mood <3