Before continuing with the actual review, I would like to advise everyone who wants to see this heavy historical drama to watch Six Flying Dragons first. If you don't do it, you'll get so many spoilers about SFD, you'll get to know things that were very shocking in it. Moreover, you'll be able to appreciate the characters in Tree With Deep Roots more since you'll know their backstory. And, not gonna lie, Six Flying Dragons is worth seeing and it's much better than Tree With Deep Roots (and any other historical I've seen).

Maybe my expectations for Tree With Deep Roots were way too high. It's the first korean sageuk I watched after I completed its prequel - Six Flying Dragons, which became my all-time favourite drama. You can probably guess how much I wanted to like TWDR. However, even though it was quite a decent show, it fell short compared to SFD and couldn't live to its potential.

Tree With Deep Roots made me curious about how Korea would have looked if King Sejong hadn't created Hangul. Him creating letters was the main topic in the drama and I found it extremely interesting. The drama shows that knowledge is the greatest power. To be able to talk, read, write gives you power. Sejong is called ''the Great'' with a reason. I've never seen a king like him in the other historical dramas and movies I've seen. He has an unique personality, very strong will, he cares for his people and he is quite witty. His character is one of the best written characters I've ever seen. I could watch him and listen to him all day.

So let's leave King Sejong and his letters aside. Even though how and why Hangul was created was the main and most important topic, these 24 episodes don't show only this. Quite unfortunately, if you ask me. I don't think the drama should have been that long at all. 20 would do, but 24... Not really. The first four episodes aka the introduction was great and the start was very intriguing. The first half overall was very good. The second half though... It has too many filler scenes. I'm not a fan of fillers at all. Some scenes were extremely boring and the drama could have done without them. Some problems could have been fixed so much easily. Why did we have to wait so much for Kang Chae Yoon to finally understand Yi Do? Their scenes were one of my favourite so why didn't we have more of them? Why focus on useless characters and scenes that have almost no connection to the actual plot? It's beyond me.

The thing I didn't like the most was Mil Bon. Would Sambong really be against the kind? I doubt it. I didn't understand what was the purpose of the organisation at all. Very weak and unnecessary villains. Although Bon Won - their leader, was quite an interesting character. Yoon Pyung too, my baby. :c

The drama has its great moments though. I loved the interactions between the characters, especially between Moo Hyul and the king! Kang Chae Yoon also had his amazing scenes and he and Se Jong made me cry. I also loved So Yi who was a strong female lead without a doubt. The ending was also very well-thought.

Han Seok Kyu was brilliant as King Sejong and his performance was very outstanding. Jang Hyuk was decent, I think these type of roles really suit him. Shin Se Kyung was also quite decent here. Other remarkable performances are Jo Jin Woong's who played Moo Hyul and Yoon Jae Moon's who played Bon Won.

So overall, Tree With Deep Roots is a nice historical drama and I recommend it especially to people who love this genre. Even though it has some flaws, it was entertaining enough for me to give it 8.5 out of 10.