A Review on Extraordinary Attorney Woo Season 1 – An extraordinary K-drama with ordinary moving parts

A review on the movie Extraordinary Attorney Woo puts on display a dysfunction in society and workplaces. It also shows the importance of being thoroughly educated before passing judgment on someone no matter the situation.

The show is about an autistic lawyer or attorney, who creatively solves her client’s cases yet has to struggle immensely with her interpersonal life, social interactions and the assumptions colleagues, clients and others make because of her autism.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo is an extraordinary K-drama with an ordinary ending and unclear moving parts. However, the movie, can boast of exemplary acting, some solid cases and an amazing group of characters. unlike others, this K-drama got really popular over the weeks that it was on air. Starting with a meagre 0.9% share of nationwide viewers, Attorney Woo ends its final episode with a 17.5% share, not to mention massive number of people watching around the world all thanks to Netflix.

Bringing this up is not really necessary, but it is important to note that for Attorney Woo because in many ways, this widespread appeal is both a positive and negative for this drama. On the other hand, more eyeballs on a project is never a bad thing. Furthermore, the extra pressure and expectation to deliver, especially during the latter episodes of filming after such a good reception, can sometimes make or break an interesting series. And unfortunately, that feels like the case for this one.

Why Should I Watch This K-Drama? Extraordinary Attorney Woo

Categorically, Attorney Woo is a fun watch but with the bubbling subplots, alongside the different cases each week, eventually fade out and collapse with some conflicts and a rather hasty final few chapters to try and wrap everything up in a neat little bow.

Brought to life by the fantastic performer, Park Eun-Bin, the show centers on 27 year old Woo Young-Woo, who graduated top of her class at both college and law school. Her absolutely interesting memory and thought process are only held back by one thing, the fact that she is living with autism spectrum disorder. This makes her struggle in social interactions, Young-Woo tries to navigate the highs and lows of law through her work at Hanbada Law Firm.

With about 16 episodes, the series essentially juggles episodic cases with a longer running plot-line. With several different subplots sprouting across the run-time from that. The main focus here is, largely, on the different cases and there is a good deal of accurate law drama put into this. The main subplot that then blossoms from this movie is, will they or not romance with office heartthrob Jun-Ho.

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Around that too is a long-running saga involving Young-Woo’s parents. It is rumor that she is the daughter to Tae Su-Mi, the prospective candidate about to take on a big office in front of the public.

Coinciding with this is drama involving Min-Woo, a lawyer who does not take kindly to the preferential treatment Young-Woo is receiving at the firm according to the movie. There is another subplot involving Myeong-Seok’s health and wife, while Su-Yeon is visibly desperate for romance.

All of these issues essentially heat up across the episodes, with some even teasers as big bouts of drama at the end of each chapter. Unfortunately, they are screen out for so long that by the time the final week of episodes crop up, Extraordinary Attorney Woo chips in a couple of longer run-times to try and hurriedly tie everything together with a neat little bow.

Latest Movies Websites for Extraordinary Attorney Woo Movie

The other problem with this show, and perhaps a more personal grudge than anything else, is the way the series relies so heavily on “lightbulb” moments to resolve its tougher cases. Young-Woo is a woman absolutely fascinated with whales and this crops up in very funny ways across each episode. However, Young-Woo has a tendency to suddenly make a breakthrough, complete with seeing dolphins or whales, before coming to a conclusion that wins the day. While appreciating the movie is directly about her, it sometimes feels like a cheap “get out of jail free” card to use.

Thankfully the series gets around that by including some morally ambiguous cases and some subjective endings. Sometimes Young-Woo finds herself on the wrong side of the moral compass, defending some rather shady characters. Other times the actual resolution like a young man kidnapping a bus full of kids to let them have a good time away from the stresses of school – is likely to spark fierce debate on both sides of the argument. This is one of the best movies from K-drama world.

Take nothing away from the characters and acting here though, because both these elements are fantastic. Talking about he character Eun-Bin earlier but everything from her mannerisms to general demeanor is absolutely on the money. She is so good in her role that it is difficult to ignore her. This woman is 100% in line for some Baeksang Awards next year!

Conclusions From The Movie Extraordinary Attorney Woo

With all that said, Extraordinary Attorney Woo isn’t the best law drama out there and in many ways, its ending is disappointingly perfunctory. However, the show does manage to elevate its material with a great ensemble of likable characters and a solid premise. This is certainly a thought provoking drama all the same and easily one of the better K-dramas released this year.

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