The (Heartfelt) Extraordinary Attorney Woo
Representation and Meaningful Storytelling
Attorney Woo Young-Woo (Park Eun-Bin) is an amazing lawyer, graduating with top honors from a prestigious school in South Korea. She has memorized every law with lazer-like precision and her sense of justice and what is right is the main thing that inhibits her from being a truly cutthroat lawyer.
Oh, and the fact that she has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which makes her conversations and delivery of law neurotic and somewhat stilted, though always accurate.
Despite being unparalleled in her understanding of the law and its nuanced history and her photographic memory, she has been discriminated in her job search from the get-go of the series, and this follows her journey in toppling that stigma and reaffirming her right to be here, and, at times, even her right to live.
But where would we be without a splash of romance, burgeoning friendships, and rascal colleagues trying to exploit and one up each other?
With a completely different show, that’s where.
I think a big part of the charm of this drama is how lovable Attorney Woo is and how much we want her to succeed. The conflicts she faces and the problems she overcomes are very real, very harsh problems that lawyers have to face on the daily and she tackles them with verve and expertise, and, oddly enough, childlike enthusiasm.
Even the most gruesome or emotionally manipulative cases have our Attorney Woo analyzing it and taking it apart with a preschooler’s fascination.
Every character in this show is lovely. Except maybe one or two of those bitches, I could’ve done without but they did an excellent job raising the stakes (I’m side-eyeing Tactician Kwon Min-Woo [played by Joo Jong-Hyuk] and Han Seon-Yeong [played by Baek Ji-Won]) and being wholly unmoved by the protagonist’s wants and needs.
I don’t usually watch things as they come out, much less if they’re serialized, but I kept coming back week after week to find out what shenanigans Attorney Woo and Co. had gotten into and how they get out of it.
Representation
There has been viral and violent debate about representation.
Woo’s actress even expressed in an interview her worry on accepting this role and not doing the Autism community justice. She worried on the backlash and the potential ostracizing effect it may have on people and she didn’t want to hurt her fans in doing so.
She approached this with an open heart and with good intentions, but even then faced criticism for either doing too much or too little in the role to adequately represent this group (which is impossible to adequately represent each varied case of ASD in the constraints of a case-by-case driven drama like this where her autism is a core part of her identity, but fades into the background and is accepted as a part of their daily lives).
Nowadays, it’s so easy to have an opinion on something and then to share that angry, intrusive thought with the world. It’s literally a click away and the only editor/PR team, you have to convince is yourself.
There is the forever question about who should be writing BIPOC characters or who should be acting them and there is the deep, primal desire to see ourselves walking across that silver screen.
Representation is important. So important that sometimes words can’t really explain how important it is because it’s a feeling you get in the pit of your stomach as the tilted mirror of the movie screen shows you a face that looks familiar, that looks like you, and they are the hero of the hour.
There is a beauty in representation that has been lacking in Hollywood and the media in general that calls for more BIPOC or LGBTQ actors to take the stage and demand to be seen.
I’m here for it, I love that.
But at what point do we hold these cultures and these identities so close to our hearts that it becomes its own form of elitism, of gatekeeping where we refuse to let any outsiders in the door?
You can’t possibly understand my struggle.
Who are you to write these stories when you’re not a person of color?
Why are you writing this story when it hasn’t happened to you?
I understand the privilege and the struggles that come from these mentalities and these are all valid questions. But a story is a story.
I’m not going to even pretend to understand the socio-political nuances that these questions raise, and to each person they own, but everyone has a a voice and a story to tell and to reprimand someone for wanting to share an experience in a way that resonates with them, that is in line with their life and their choices?
That sounds terrible to me.
The Justice System
It was great seeing how the justice system works in South Korea. I’ve seen the occassioanl Law & Order, and Brooklyn 99 had the occasional courtroom appearance, and what with the televised Depp/Heard trial I felt pretty well-versed in courtroom drama that could happen
[don’t even get me STARTED on my queen Judge Judy. Sassy, badass 85 year old woman. She’s probably not 85 but she looks and sounds great whatever her age be.]
According to this show, SK has much more tame, fact driven cases. There is the occasional emotional appeal of course, but with Woo as our lead and her penchant for statistics and literal law readings, they didn’t prey on our emotions for clout and I really enjoyed that aspect of the show.
Woo is doing her best to interpret and represent the law in a way she sees fit.
However, this idealism gets thrown asunder multiple times as Woo finds her big-name, powerful law firm going against the underdogs and defendants she more morally aligns with.
She can squeeze the most logic out of the law to best benefit her client, but we see that internal struggle of wanting to do what’s right and help people, even when it’s not her client.
She wonders if the law is truly just because those who can afford the top dog lawyers come to her. Those who can’t, often suffer and lose, even if they have a good enough lawsuit claim.
It’s easy to say that Attorney Woo loves the law and how organized and practical it is. Her growth comes as a question to the morality of her lawyering and if what she is doing is the right thing to do because often enough, it isn’t.
The people with money, brand names, and networks often trample those less fortunate. The law is difficult and convoluted enough, but to add the jargon and nuance that most common people would turn glassy eyed at makes it an almost impossible field to understand.
Woo, in a fantastic metaphor for her inability to relate to people, is able to bring some sort of semblance of understanding of the law to her clients.
If, in a room full of normal people (or perhaps audience members like ourselves) who don’t understand the law, Woo is the great equalizer for all as she breaks down information into digestible chunks that makes sense.
The scale immediately tips once Woo takes a side.
Adaptations
Beginning as a WEBTOON, now one of the most popular K-dramas on Netflix’s platform and breaking all records in the Top 10 category, Attorney Woo is finding her IP traded, shared, and bought internationally. AStory knew they had a hit on their hands and learned from their past dealings with Netflix to keep the IP to profit off any and all iterations of Woo and subsequent characters as well as further pursue other creative projects.
There are musicals being fashioned after this success story as well as a confirmed second season to the drama and a play. Even America has set its sights on a remake in the hopes of riding off the high ratings and audience adoration to make something that is somewhat similar yet completely lacking in originality.
[I’m not a fan of remakes. Ask me why. I dare you.]
In terms of comparison, it has similar themes to The Good Doctor, with a smidge of genius from Holmes and House, but unique and charming in its own way. Which is probably why it’s been such a massive success online.
Yet I want to argue that a lot of the appeal comes from the setting in South Korea, the mutual respect and deference for authority, the overwhelming desire to excel and succeed in a field no matter the hours and obsession.
The actors breathe life into what could otherwise be mundane scenes and the editing to show emotion and thoughts is superb. There are a lot of little things that make the drama work, but remakes focus on numbers and the BIG PICTURE when it’s the beauty in the details that make a show like this a show worth watching.
I’m surprised I don’t have more K-Drama Newsletters! Is that something you guys would like to see more of? I have a tad written on Romance is a Bonus Book and then another snippet of a Chinese drama called Love O2O (which I somehow made it through, don’t ask me how…)