Woo, una abogada extraordinaria (2022)

Worth the Hype

One of the best dramas I've ever seen! The concept was refreshing and the law cases were done in a really entertaining way. The episodic format of almost all the episodes helped it a lot. I don't usually like law dramas, but this one was able to mix all the law terms as well as the feels for the suspects and victims really well. I also like how it focused on the lawyer's jobs as a whole: how they have to decide between doing the "right" thing and the thing, which is the best for their client.

Young Woo was an amazing character (kudos to Park Eun Bin, she played her so well!) and as a person, who is an (undiagnosed) autistic, I was able to see myself in some aspects of her: the way she moved her hands, having troubles with social interactions, finding certain noises hard to listen to, not liking some kinds of food because of unexpected taste or texture... I'm not an expert but I feel like the role was done well. If anything it offered me a representation I didn't know I needed.
Another character that I absolutely loved was Geurami. Everything about her was great, from her fashion sense to her unusual friendship with Young Woo.

The romance between Woo Young and Joon Ho was so sweet! He was like a walking green flag, not pressing her into a relationship, respecting her when she couldn't hold hands with him, letting her take her time with their first kiss... There were rocky parts of course but overall it was slow-burn and cute romance.
One thing I disliked about this drama (and most dramas in general, to be honest) is the need to pair all the side characters together. The attorney Myung Seok didn't need to get back to his ex-wife but I can live with that. And also with Geurami having crush on Min Woo because it was only one-sided and also funny to see how confused he was with her flirting. But why did Min Woo did a total 180° flip on the Jeju Island and Soo Yeon fall in love with him out of nowhere? Just no.

Because of that I was originally planning to deduce 0.5 point from the rating but the pros definitely outweighted this one small con, and this drama deserved the highest rating. Hopefully season 2 will live up to the first one.

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Not a heavy law drama, but definitely heart warming

This is really a new type of drama, where the main character was an autistic person. I guess the author wanted to educate us from their point of views :" like, their feelings, struggles to fit into the society, etc.

The cases that they faced were easy to follow even though many law terms came out, and all of it was interesting. Being a lawyer, it's kind of a dilemma when you have to defend a client who was clearly the bad guy.

The drama contained love, friendship, family, and teamwork.
I laughed, I cried, and I definitely enjoyed this drama. For me. it worth the hype. Also, the acting was phenomenal! Kudos to the actress who played Woo Young Woo. Can't wait for the season 2.

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Totally loved watching...

This is by far the best kdrama this year. Heres why: 1 -Plot - its really very good! Refreshing, for the first 3 episodes i have watched so far it has made me laugh, cry and heartfelt touched coz the scenes and the stories really happens in real life. Its reality! 2- Scriptwriting- kudos to u all for an exceptional down to earth scripts infused with quirky funny lines. Was never boring. 3-Actors- i am already familiar with the actors on this show and i know how good they are, yet they outperform themselves in each episodes and gave their best performances by far even from their previous tv series. FL - is exceptional! Its not easy to act ur role being a person with autism. Simply talented! The rest is also amazing in their roles. I just love the whale eureka moments🐋 …… will update this review as the succeeding episodes airs in the coming weeks…..i wont be surprised this will be adapted by other countries with their own adaptation of this series.. 🐋 🐳🐋🐋🐋🐬🐬🐬

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Fantastic.

Amazing across all fronts. You really care about the characters and gives you plenty of sweet moments. It challenges character’s views and puts them in tough situations. It showcases the prejudice against her as a disabled person and how it affects her. Loved every second of it. The OST is GREAT as well, it fits the scenes perfectly and is simply beautiful. Park Eun-bin does a fantastic job in her role as well as the rest of the cast especially in those stressful scenes it really makes you feel what the characters do. All the awkward moments, the fun ones, the sad ones, it all culminates to this amazing experience.

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Breaking down so much stigma

Extraordinary Attorney Woo is an easy 10 in my books. A legal drama with a hint of romance and comedy, the show also manages to break down so much stigma not only surrounding autism but also in relation to other issues (won't say more as this may be considered a minor spoiler).

I absolutely loved Park Eun Bin's portrayal of Woo Young Woo ("whether it is read straight or flipped. Woo Young Woo. Kayak, deed, rotator, noon, racecar, Woo Young Woo."). Her research and dedication to the role is outstanding - from minor details like avoiding eye contact, to hand movements and ways of speech.

The supporting cast was also outstanding, although I wouldn't call it much a supporting cast when I think they 100% deserve to be called the main cast. I appreciate that they each had their own story, that was not directly tied to Woo Young Woo, their own character development and drama. Relationships were formed (or at least we are led to believe ) and many were mended.

The ending was left open to interpretation with a lot of unsolved issues popping up, however, now that I know the show was renewed for a second season I am really hoping these issues will be brought up.

I also wanted to say that I really liked Kang Tae Oh's portrayal of Lee Joon Ho, a young lawyer on the litigation team who was fascinated by Woo Young Woo from the moment he laid eyes on her in ep1. Kang Tae Oh has a knack for playing young likable characters (like his role in Run On) and it makes the audience root for him and swoon even more! Also, I love dramas where the male lead swoons for the female lead from the very first few episodes.

I knew this would be a good show as soon as I saw a cast I enjoyed watching in other shows (like Kang Tae Oh - was so excited to see him get a lead role too and Kang Ki Young who plays Attorney Jung Myung Seok, although I can't wait to see a drama where he is the lead romantic interest - finally).

Overall a great binge - a little tough when it comes to legal jargon, but if you enjoy watching legal k-drama's you get used to it quite quickly.

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Drama is not about autism

I'm no autistic and I have no full grasp about it. So I really can't dwell much on the autism coverage of the series but trust the people behind had done their research.

What interest me in the drama is the characters, how each characters contributes/challenges Atty Woo. I admire how the characters were incorporated in the story, in the cases that I must say its a masterpiece so kudos to the writers, director, the people behind it. The actors/actresses didn't disappoint, well portrayed.

My only indifference is toward the development of the love story, it was cringy by the latter part.

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Successfully Woo-ed me

This was a drama that when watching really grabbed me by offering sth different to most of other Kdramas on offer. Woo Young Woo reminded me of Han Geu Roo (of Moving) in many different ways. Gifted, poorly understood by masses, loved by their dads, fixated on things, socially awkward but have so much to give.

I was a champion of WYW even when I don't always agree with her decision and thought making process. I come to love her for who she is, faults and all, I attributed to Park Eun Bin's ability to make the awkward WYW so adorkable.

Society and its trials are present for every working person but more so for those special ones like WYW. They dont get the same opportunity and are expected to proof themselves even more. It's rather unfair but also the sad truth. We get that in the Good doctor too. I love that it's shown realistically in this aspect in the drama. Then there's Kang Ki Young's Jung Myung Seok, a fairy like character for WYW. He was more than just a comedic character, I love all the times he supported her and give her the leeway even when the stakes were against them. He was my 2nd fav character, on par with the ML.

ML, Lee Joon Ho, is characterised as a green flag character. He's so smitten and interested with WYW. He has a very open, and unjudgmental personality. Their scenes were all so fluttering, cute and romantic. And this is actually rather difficult, given that WYW is so awkward and clueless and has alot of restrictions. Case in point, girl hates hand holding. So she's not the easiest person to date.

The friendships were beautiful. WYW and her bestie and also the unexpected friendship with colleague Choi Soo Yeon. The episodic nature is nice, different cases based on different clients and their trials. We have a lot of range in their clients which was nice.

Lastly if I had rated and reviewed this earlier like immediately after watching, the rating probably would have been higher (but also more bias). Now in hindsight, this rating is more fitting. There are some issues with the plot. I dislike Kwon Min Woo's character and felt the last arc of him and Choi Soo Yeon was not believable nor acceptable. I also find WYW's mum hard to digest. There were just a lot of bits and pieces in the last quarter of the drama that didnt seem as good as the first three quarters.

I'm happy we have dramas like this. And I'm happy too for the recognition for Park Eun Bin, it was very well deserved.

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How to NOT love a drama like this ?

One must not watch this drama thinking that it's just another drama revolving around an autistic lawyer or autism. This drama is so much more than that.

Let me first acknowledge that I do find this drama overly romanticize autism by featuring a highly functioning autistic person as the female lead. We know this is far from the truth in real life. But let me just share with you why this drama is so great in our times.

I love how this drama made me reflect about very difficult issues in our society today.

1. The case where the female client's wedding dress slipped from her body during the wedding ceremony . It turned out that she is a lesbian who didn't want to marry her husband because she already has a longtime partner. She is forced to marry into a chaebol family because her father said so. Haven't we all heard stories like this in our life? Isn't it amazing to see this story in a drama that is so mainstream?

2. The judge who kept questioning other's family root. It incredibly patriarchal to have a male judge asking you about your family roots to check out which clan/ tribe/ lineage you are from. Yet, this is so common in our times. In our life, we often meet ppl who wants to know what family we come from so that they can decide if we are worth their time or not. This has become so common in our life that dramas don't even bother to talk about it anymore. It's that banal. Hence, I am so appreciative of the efforts the script writers to put small details like this so that we can reflect on how patriarchal our society has become.

3. Nepotism. Allegedly, WYW got her job at Hanbada be cause her father knew the CEO of Hanbada, Madam Han. She is accused of joining the company using "connections". Again, I am speechless at how the script writers made this into an issue. In our times, isn't this very common? We don't think about ppl like Attorney Kwon who has to work so hard to get into a lawyer firm like Hanbada (sometimes, they don't even get in because they don't have connections). The script writers really want us to think about the nepotism we see on a daily basis.

4. The "unindependence" of autistic person. This is probably one of the issue I spent a lot of time reflecting on. Very often, as members of the society, we hope that autistic people can be independent, ie have a job, be with the people they love, be fulfilled, not hidden from society. Unfortunately, we can see from one of the episodes, autistic people can hardly be independent because we don't allow them to be. Parents/ doctors/ organisations are so protective of autistic person that they don't have the right to say what they want and don't have the right to say what's best for them. It's like their feelings don't count because they are not able to articulate it. It's so difficult to find a balance between wanting to protect them and robbing them of their rights to love/ to do what they want . It's amazing that we are able to see this in this drama.

5. The position of women in society and family. Literary , women are asked to leave the job to protect their husband's ricebowl or face. It's so straightforward here. I am sure it's happening everyday in our life but no one wants to feature this in their drama coz it's not nice to be letting the worm out of the can like this. Well, it's here.

6. Social mobility. We see it in Attorney Kwon ; he is trapped and can't move upwards. Maybe that's why he hated WYW. No matter how brilliant you are, the only way to move up social mobility is probably to marry up.


How to NOT love a drama like this when the script writers give us an opportunity to reflect on so many issues in our society?

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Extraordinary, in every sense of the word

As time moves forward, the quality of Korean dramas seems to only increase, and this series is culmination of all that progress. From writing to acting, cinematography to the original score, it's hard to find a single flaw in this show. Add all these achievements to an engaging premise with an unusually inclusive message and you have something truly special. Extraordinary Attorney Woo has accomplished something even greatest minds in Hollywood tend to struggle with: respectful and engaging coverage of a character with autism, acknowledging their differences while highlighting their humanity. Even better, this detail (while important) does not occupy the entire breadth of conflict in the show, encouraging a type of inclusivity based not solely on the story potential of characters, but on their regular existence in our world. In general, being inclusive of those with disabilities can be a risky endeavor, inviting harsh criticism with every mistake, which makes it all the more commendable what has been done here.

Of course, a show must be judged in quality not by its efforts to be inclusive, but by the actual entertainment value the show provides. In this area, too, Extraordinary Attorney Woo excels. Like most good television, the show at its core is people and their journey- learning and changing- wrapping into an engaging plot to move us forward. The brilliant legal cases are used as a backdrop to support the moving arcs and emotions that the characters experience, bring the audience right along for the ride. Honestly, the sheer number of character arcs that exists in the show is incredible, not to mention the quality of their execution. And all this impeccable writing is beautifully portrayed by a simply stunning performance by every actor, all captured within gorgeous cinematography and played over a delightful score. The show expertly weaves between tones of lighthearted fun, nail-biting tension, and emotional confrontation, until the end, where every plot line is masterfully resolved in an exciting and fulfilling final episode. Everything is simply outstanding.

This is one of those shows that changes your perspective on media as a whole, a show so good you have to take a bit of time to mourn its ending afterwards. And likely, the kind of show which will induce heavy feelings of nostalgia with just a few notes of the open theme. This is what TV should strive to be. This is extraordinary. I emphatically recommend this show.

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