I am a sucker for a period drama, even more so a Korean period drama. When I started “Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung,” I expected the usual aspects you would see in K-drama: romance, humor, and the classic enemies to lovers. I got that part, but I also received so much more. It’s a story of standing up to those who would keep people in darkness, breaking old, misogynistic traditions, and being true to yourself.
The show opens up with the titular character, a 26-year-old upper-class orphan with a penchant for speaking her mind, without care of who she is talking to. She also has a love for reading and works as a reader for upper-class women, who prefer to hear steamy romance stories rather than the books she prefers to read. She is unmarried, a strange thing at that time for a woman her age. She finds a posting from the palace about the hiring of female royal historians, typically a male position. A royal historian is a person that writes the lives of the king and royal family to keep as a record generations, and she found this as an opportunity to escape marriage and make money for herself. Hae-ryung and the other female historians find themselves fighting against the male historians who feel as if their positions are being jeopardized and the other court ladies who don’t approve of their presence. She encounters several events that were erased from the historical records and sets out to right the wrongs that were incurred.
What I enjoyed so much about this show was the force of a character that Hae-ryung was. She did not care if she was talking to the crown prince or a little boy, she always spoke frankly and to the point. She was confident in her intelligence and her abilities, and through every trial she faced she stood up for herself and her colleagues. Her passion for the truth really shone in the 20th episode when she delivered this message: “Even if you slash my throat, our brushes will not stop writing. If I die, another historian will take my place; if you kill that historian, another will take their place. Even if you kill every historian in this land, and take away all the paper and brushes, you won't be able to stop us. From mouth to mouth, teacher to student, elder to child, history will be told. That is the power of truth.” Goo Hae-ryung is one of the best female characters I have had the pleasure of watching and I hope I can see more like her in Kdramas in the future.
“Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung” is available to stream on Netflix now.
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