![]() Young-woo is in unfamiliar waters here, as she is forced to work under attorney Jang Seung-jun (Choi Dae-hoon) while Myeong-seok recovers from his cancer surgery. In its last week, Extraordinary Attorney Woo offers a third double episode, this time involving an e-commerce giant, Raon, which inadvertently leaks the data of its 40 million users. Myeong-seok, fresh from his cancer diagnosis, has changed his married-to-the-job outlook entirely, while Young-woo's formerly antagonistic colleague Kwon Min-woo (Joo Jong-hyuk) also seems to be mellowing in front of his colleagues, especially Choi Soo-yeon (Ha Yoon-kyoung), who is grappling with her own unexpected feelings towards him. With this lacklustre legal squabble stretching itself in leisurely fashion across the two episodes, a lot of time is left over for the characters, who spend most of these episodes not working. In Extraordinary Attorney Woo, the case in question involves a cranky old man who wants to sue a Buddhist temple on the island over a 3,000 won ($532.107) admission charge he felt was unfair, hardly the stage for an epic legal showdown. When characters in K-dramas abscond to Jeju (or occasionally another tourist spot, Gangneung on Korea's east coast) it sometimes feels like the shows they are in are taking a break. Hard-working but soft-hearted senior attorney Jung Myeong-seok (Kang Ki-young) suddenly develops stomach cancer Young-woo and Jun-ho take an obligatory, but unnecessary, timeout and the whole gang - which inexplicably includes Young-woo's buddies Dong Geurami (Joo Hyun-young) and Kim Min-sik (Im Sung-jae) - head off for a two-episode case down on Jeju Island. Then it did what every K-drama does when it runs out of ideas: it defaulted to the medium's most tired cliches. Meanwhile, the romance between Young-woo and Jun-ho (Kang Tae-oh) loses its pep following its heart-pounding courtship stage.Īfter establishing itself so confidently, Extraordinary Attorney Woo seemed to lose some of that confidence. Young-woo's legal loop-the-loops fall flat here, as she repeats some of the more prosaic tricks she performed earlier in the season, such as noticing a secret relationship in court and recognising a logo carried by someone involved in the case.Ĭonfirmation hearings for Tae Su-mi (Jin Kyung) to become justice minister and the revelation that Young-woo may be her daughter born out of wedlock continue to loom without really moving forward. Women's solidarity provides the focus for the next case, as Hanbada's legal team finds itself on the wrong side of a case of discriminatory employment termination. In episode 11, a case involving a dispute between friends concerning lottery winnings takes us on an uncomfortable path through illegal gambling dens, suggestions of bribes, adultery and domestic violence, only to brush them all under the rug with a convenient car crash. ![]() The legal scenarios became less interesting, while the overarching story arcs hit the pause button. Normally running for 16 episodes, each of which lasts between 60 and 90 minutes, Korean dramas can occasionally be guilty of padding, which happens through repetition or just stretching things out.Įxtraordinary Attorney Woo deftly balanced episodic and serial narrative elements, but towards the end ran out of steam. ![]() Shows are designed to run for a single season - renewals are still rare - and their stories offer a sense of completeness and closure that most Western dramas, which are always trying to avoid cancellation, can seldom achieve. Meanwhile, on Netflix, which is streaming it around the world, viewership continued to grow, albeit slowly.Īfter 10 episodes of getting to know the delightful rookie attorney Woo Young-woo (Park Eun-bin), who has autism spectrum disorder, and her colourful cohorts at the Hanbada law firm as they dealt with heart-warming legal cases and office romances, something went wrong.įans often point to the closed-loop narrative style of Korean drama series as one of their strong points. It clinched the year's highest ratings for a drama series in its fifth week, then once again did something unexpected: its ratings in Korea fell. Having launched with relatively low viewing figures on the little-known Korean cable channel ENA, Extraordinary Attorney Woo lived up to its title and then some, exploding after its debut to quickly become the most beloved K-drama series of the year so far.
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