K-Drama Review: Queenmaker

Greysuitcase - K-Drama Review: Queenmaker | Photo Courtesy: Netflix

Synopsis

“After a crisis of conscience, a powerful fixer uses her skills to boost a civil rights lawyer’s mayoral campaign and take down her former employer.” —Netflix

My Take

Starring two strong female leads, the story focused on the partnership formed between Hwang Do-Hee, a former powerful fixer for a chaebol family (the Eunsung group), and Oh Kyung-Sook, a human rights lawyer who often went up against Eunsung Group to fight for the weak.

This was the first Korean drama that I watched that has the plot revolves around a powerful fixer (I think there were other dramas where the scenario of a fixer came in, but the story never really focused on the fixer themselves).

The progression of the first three episodes were a little slow for me. But afterwards, I think the drama hit the right pacing of unfolding of the story. It’s not too intense but it‘s not necessarily slow either.

The characters are interesting, the actors acted well, and there were plenty of interesting sub-plots that made me want to keep watching. They definitely dramatized the incidents that happened, but they all still believable enough to have happened in real life (at least for viewers like me who doesn’t know a lot of or work in Korean politics). Nothing feels overly dramatized, which I appreciate.

There are also some moral issues and dilemma that are being discussed throughout the drama with the main message being the fight between the good and evil and how much sacrifices you have to make for the good to win the war.

I also like the fact that they show how somebody who has done the wrong thing ended up taking up accountability for their actions and not just skate by while still having the message of there’s hope of a better future ahead.

Being a big fan of Olivia Pope (who here also watched “Scandal”?), Hwang Do-Hee’s character certainly reminded me of Olivia Pope. They both are helping somebody to get elected to one of the most powerful office in the country, their fashion and appearances are always put together and their war rooms are definitely reminiscent of each others’,

Overall, I quite enjoy this drama and would definitely recommend it to those who like political drama.

My Rating: 8.5/10

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K-Drama Review: Extraordinary Attorney Woo

Greysuitcase - K-Drama Review: Extraordinary Attorney Woo | Photo Courtesy: ENA/Netflix

‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ is a very lighthearted courtroom drama with a positive outlook on life filled with hope. The series has very little intense moments, cutthroat competitions and evil villains that are usually present in other courtroom drama series.

My Take

Comparing it to the other Korean courtroom TV shows I’ve watched in the past like‘The Devil Judge’ or ‘Juvenile Justice’, or the American shows like ‘Suits’ and ‘The Good Wife’, ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ definitely feels very lightweight.

But since the main character is a woman on the autism spectrum, I can see why the show is different from all those other shows. There’s a certain type of innocence and simplicity in the way Attorney Woo thinks, which I think is reflected on how the scenes are set and shot. And in that sense, I feel the lightheartedness of this drama is part of the way for us to understand her perspective without making the subjects too heavy.

The pace is a little slow for me and it took me quite sometimes to get invested in the characters. But overall, albeit finding myself fast-forwarding scenes on a couple of different occasion, the drama is quite enjoyable for me and it required little brain power and energy to watch this show.

If you’re looking for a feel-good courtroom TV show with a very positive outlook in life, ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ is definitely it.

Here are some of my comments about the show.

// Warning!May contain spoilers from the show. //

Woo Young-Woo

Woo Young-Woo’s character is definitely unique and different. Apart from the fact that she is a laser-focused genius with a photographic memory, I think the thing I like the most about her is how self-aware she is. She knows what her strengths and weaknesses are and tries her best to not to rely on others.

Also, despite the fact that she usually unintentionally became the center of attention, instead of focusing only on herself, she also has great empathy for others. With her struggle of identifying people’s emotions and the nuances of facial expression and body languages, she still try her best to understand others by asking questions.

Korean Court Law

One of the things I like about watching courtroom drama is that I get to learn about other country’s laws and court system.

This drama is a little bit hard for me to do that since a lot of the arguments or law recitations that Attorney Woo did are usually in rapid-fire delivery that made them hard to digest. So a lot of the articles she quoted during her arguments in court flew over my head completely (watching it without knowing what the law exactly says doesn’t really affect my understanding about the plot so it’s still fine).

Since we’re on the subject of court and law, I also do think some of the cases in the drama are light with best-case-scenario verdicts. The situations that the characters were in also feels like the most ideal or positive situation they could be in.

Woo Young-Woo’s Coworkers

Other than his supervisor, Jung Myeong-Seok, who feels like somebody who (sometimes) knows more than her, I feel like Young-Woo is the only one who’s carrying her team in terms of work since most of the solution came from her (and I understand that’s probably mainly because she’s the main character).

But I kind of wish to see more on her coworkers’ knowledge of the law and how they interpret it. Other than the fact that Kwon Min-Woo is ambitious and Choi Su-Yeon is passionate about justice, I don’t feel like I really know the lawyer side of them. There’s not a lot of brainstorming or dialogue between the team to reach a solution. It’s mostly Woo Young-Woo who has an epiphany on how to solve the case.

Romance Plot

Although the romance plot is not the main plot of this drama, I wish they could explore more on the subject, especially on how the society views Young-Woo and Jun-Ho relationship, as well as the reality of it if they were to continue with their relationship.

The whole subject felt kind of brushed off with the easy solution of you can’t judge somebody who’s on a spectrum (which I agree with).

Although some reactions were inappropriate, I also do think Jun-Ho’s friends and family’s preconceived notion of Young-Woo was warranted for. I think it’s normal for them to worry (and I do think this apply to every significant other one introduces to their family and friends, especially if they don’t know the person. I think it’s normal to be worried). His expectation of everybody just accepting Young-woo as she is like he does is a little much for me. Especially when he never really talks about Young-Woo to them. I feel like if you want people to understand, you have to at least tell your side even just a little bit or introduce her to them perhaps so they can get to know her more. If not, then how would people understand?

Underdeveloped Plots

After watching the whole season, there are definitely a lot of underdeveloped plots.

But now, knowing that ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ is going to have a second season in 2024 (although I don’t know if I’ll still remember the story of the first season if the second one will come out in 2024), I guess the underdeveloped plots and slow pace kind of make sense. There are a lot of loose ends after the last episode ended that have the potential to be explored more.

Will i watch the second season?

Honestly, I don’t know. It’s not like I’m holding my breath for it right now. I guess I’ll just have to see when the second season comes out.

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