RHGHR is a drama that had a lot of potential on the outset, but was squandered by its delivery and directorial decisions. The main and persistent gripe I have with it is in its comical and quirky portrayal, both with the story and characters. Don't get me wrong, this style does have its strengths, but it ended up watering down the social commentary and overarching conspiracy plot. If, on the other hand, this drama was presented in a serious and heavier tone akin to Mr Sunshine (watch this if you haven't already), this review would be completely different. Understandably, I'm probably in the minority with this observation, but it's unfortunately an issue that I personally couldn't overlook.

The casting choices in RHGHR were either an unfortunate casualty of the aforementioned comical tones (looking at you main actor), or just purely wrong. I'm pretty much referring to a large proportion of the characters, except for the main actress, antagonist and other notable exceptions. For the sake of fairness and clarity however, I'll only nitpick on a few things. First and foremost, the Emperor/King. He was arguably one of the biggest weaknesses in RHGHR. The character/actor had no gravitas, no presence and was reduced to purely a moody kid. It's a stark contrast to the importance of the character in both the story and history in general. While you can argue that he was meant to be unsuited to the role (due to the conspiracy etc), that's really only a band-aid fix to the triviality of his portrayal. Secondly, the historian Min Woo (Lee Ji Hoon). While I can appreciate his past trauma and daddy issues, he ended up just being an unlikeable, angsty teenager 90% of the time. In the same vein, the historians in the Office of Royal Decrees were just basically caricatures, essentially undermining the importance of their role. I could write a lot more but I won't bother. All the other characters were just okay.

Now, onto what I enjoyed; the romance. It was cute, comical at times (yes I know), but overall it did feel natural. I did enjoy the chemistry between the two leads and I will commend them for making me actually care. Nonetheless, the writers glossed over talking about the inappropriateness of their relationship (a 3 year time-skip that just basically said everyone's okay with it), when really, that would've made for an interesting watch.

While we're on the topic of 'glossing over', does anyone remember the Catholicism plot line? No? Who cares right? Well, it's one of the many things that was simply abandoned and/or rushed.

Overall, RHGHR was a lot of wasted potential covered by some pretty sets and nice costumes. It can be an enjoyable watch to some audiences, but not for me.