[star rating=”4″] EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO. With Eun-bin Park. Netflix.
MEGAN CHORITZ reviews
I have been falling more and more in love with Korean content, and Extraordinary Attorney Woo has been the latest in my little obsessions. This strangely wonderful combination of law drama, love story, soapie and comedy has all the ingredients for a terrible flop – sentimentality, over acting, horrible stereotypes, and yet, Extraordinary Attorney Woo manages to pull everything off in the most charming and endearing way.
When I went to search for info on this series on IMDB I discovered that its original English title was Weird Lawyer Woo young woo. This says everything about it. Unashamedly, rudely what it is. Woo young woo (Eun-bin Park) is a young law graduate with autism. She is obsessed with whales. She struggles to come into a room. She has audio sensory issues. She can’t recognise or describe or show emotion very well. She starts work at a big Korean law firm (how she gets the job is part of the convoluted soapie plot) and each episode cleverly tracks her personal and professional development through her interactions with her team and the interesting cases they work on.
Aside from being a window into a Korea that I know nothing about – law, reactions to autism and disability in general, the corporate world in sharp contrast with family – each legal case, from issues of cultural heritage to the hacking and phishing of digital content, is fascinating and revealing.
Quaint and agonising love story
There is the quaint and agonising love story, perfectly balanced between sweet-tooth sweet and utterly lovely. There are bitter family secrets and powerful, manipulating women, jealous and unkind colleagues who shift and learn, a hilarious and on-the-spectrum best friend, the devoted dad, and a range of whacky, wonderful and weird clients and their bizarre legal cases.
And the whales. Thought whales, idea whales, help whales that float through the sky, the courtroom and break through the waves to help Woo young woo navigate the world and everything she knows.
I was sad when I finished all 16 episodes. I hope there are more coming.
What: Extraordinary Attorney Woo
Where: Netflix
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