Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022)

My rating is based on how this drama made me feel in the first part.

The first part of this drama was so good, it made me feel good watching it. The cases were interesting. I loved seeing Youngwoo's evolution as a lawyer.

But in the second part, the cases stopped being so interesting, the characters started to have attitudes different from the personalities that we were introduced to before, with no development to explain. Several plots were thrown into the story without enough time to develop properly.

In the end, I didn't care so much about what happened in the story.

The only thing that stayed good from start to finish was the acting, but I don't know if that is enough to make me watch a second season.

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Great characters, great moments, and a great story of Woo Young Woo

An autistic attorney Woo Young Woo works at one of the top law firms in the country. Her life is eccentric and weird, but meaningful and valuable. Despite having a disability to interact, she manages to defend her plaintiffs in court cases with her creative reasoning and wit. These cases are unique as they tackle a lot of really important social issues that are rarely discussed, such as false homicide, defamation, patent battle, North Korean defector issues, and heritage tax issue... and they're handled in a very organic and non-preachy way. There are a lot of character development moments that happen thanks to these cases. For example, our female lead is given a case with another autistic person who she's defending and she had some challenges dealing with that because some people said her thought process is not justifiable because they're both autistic but of course just because two people are on the autism spectrum does not mean that they're the same.

Each episode hinted at Woo Young Woo's parent's backstories and it doesn't end with suspenseful cliffhangers, yet I want to keep watching. Without giving away any spoilers, her mother's backstory is a bit of a mystery and all the clues we have throughout the episodes lead to some wonderful interactions and moments. The mother-daughter relationship is not what you think of and I love that it's a really refreshing part of the show and it's not following any stereotypical kdrama formula.

I love the subtle adorable romance because it's very rare to watch an autistic lead in a romantic relationship. But beyond the romance, what I enjoy most is the whole cast with great strong personalities. I really enjoyed her friend Dong Geu Ra Mi, the episode when she became friends with Woo Young Yoo is so cute. Woo Young Woo's colleagues, friends, and everybody else included got their own satisfying arcs on their work-life balance and dating. The most memorable one is her direct boss, he's just such a wonderful person. At first, he was a bit ignorant and pessimistic about Young Woo's autistic behavior, but quickly apologizes and makes adjustments to interact with her. It's like really nice to see that kind of character on screen, he's also had issues with work-life balance and his ex-wife later on in the series. Attorney Woo herself also learns to understand her coworkers' points of view and communicates her thought process.

The humor is very genuine and believable when characters interact together, because they introduced lots of little character quirks and mannerisms in episode one to look at that left a good impression on me and they use these details as a source of nitpicks and icebreakers. The fact that our female lead takes three counts before she walks into a new room and keeps organizing everything to be perfectly tidy. Later on, her boss also tries to do it at one point and he quickly gave up. It's really funny, it's such an inside joke moment.

Acting, I want to highlight our female lead. Without discrediting anybody because they are all great, Park Eun Bin deserves a standing ovation. She is Attorney Woo! I'm so happy the show waited for her because I can't think of anybody else who could be Woo Young Woo. She originally turned this role down because she wasn't confident to portray the role correctly and she didn't want to hurt anybody so she turned it down and then she went off and did The King's Affection (Btw, she's amazing here too!!). When she was done with that the offer was still valid and that's when she took it.

All of that said, even though I like the romance, there is a small miss I feel from our male lead's role. Don't get me wrong, I really like him 90% of the time, his love and care are very sincere, like when he's trying to care for our female lead or calm her down when she's having an episode or when she's over-stimulated, also when they're just hanging out on really unique dates. But there's a part that is missing is that he is sometimes quite stiff and his subtleness isn't coming across as perfectly. He just stands there and smiles at her it doesn't work for me but nevertheless super cute romance I love what it represents and overall I ship them wholeheartedly.

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16 Episodes Are Not Enough To Tell A Story That Will Satisfy You Fully

Extraordinary Attorney Woo is a light-hearted, legal then semi-romantic drama that is able to go through its emotional (and legal) beats well enough to be very easily likable.

I understand that the story mainly is about Attorney Woo and how she deals with being a working adult with autism, I can't help but feel that there's something lacking in the romance department. With 16 episodes, I was yearning for some more screen time for Jun Ho's character to be developed and not just be relegated as the "really nice guy." The romantic parts of the story were all well and good but sometimes, it felt that he was just that, the really nice guy and barely Attorney Woo's love interest. Aside from displaying the traits of a guy that gives off the green flag vibe, I just really couldn't help but feel that he's underdeveloped even when I really liked him and their dynamics a lot.

The same goes for Min Woo, the tactician. I felt that him being this semi-antagonist wasn't really given much weight and was only there to add tension. His actions barely had any consequences, it's as if when he was being written, the writers were pulling their punches. Maybe because they had his and Soo Yeon's pairing in mind, which if I think back to it, for me was too little too late.

At this point, I know I'm nitpicking, but regardless of whether this show would have a second season (it's confirmed), I'd have liked for the characters to have had more room for growth than what they did. But don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed this show a lot and it had me in tears a few times. JH's genuine love and care for YW , his "I like you. I like you so much that it feels like… I'm sick inside." were all enough to melt me into a puddle of warmth and tears, their relationship was so good, and I'm being objective. It also deftly and gracefully handles the nuances of the stigma that people with autism face without becoming preachy but instead carefully weaving the point cohesively to the theme of the profession.

TLDR:
Although they stumble sometimes, I still think that the writers did well enough to balance the legal and romantic aspects of the show somehow, which is no easy fear. My wanting more character development did not make me love the show less, if anything, it made my desire for a season 2 with more backstory even stronger!

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A Blue Whale Compared to other Kdramas

After reading all the reviews, I agree with them about loving this drama. I have a handful of k-dramas I've really enjoyed and this is becoming one of my faves.

A few clever things in this drama have poignantly allowed it to shine. The ingenuity of the FL's autistic mind and her "AHA" moments always include some form of CGI or videos of whales or dolphins. There are also a lot of comedic moments which are timed perfectly.

Another interesting take is how the FL innocently manages to make some characters "fall in love" with her, or side with her, and as a viewer, you quickly understand why too. Besides becoming surprised by the way her genius mind works, there are also scenes in which you take pity on her or emphasize with her. You also become more aware and educated on the hardships autistic people face in their daily lives.

I'm rooting not only for her but for all her supporters as well. I'm glad that they somehow managed to give her a love interest as well.

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WOO to the YOUNG to the WOO, DONG to the GEU to the RAMI

This Drama Series I can say is really extraordinary

The plot and story of this drama is very good. First of all, it can be said that the female lead, Woo Young Woo, is not ordinary, because of her Autism. But he is even more different because of his very high IQ of 164.

This series got even better because Woo Young Woo's character, Park Eun Bin, acted well. The characters who acted here are not that famous, but it can be seen that the characters of this Korean Drama stand out because of their good acting. One of the things that everyone, as viewers, is really looking forward to is the whales coming out of Attorney Woo's mind. Everyone knows that this scene is a signal that Attorney Young Woo can save a life or the day of his client.

Another point is that the character interactions and the chemistry between the character of Woo Young Woo and his male lead are also good. The point of how Woo Young Woo faces his extrovert nature and his fear or challenges in facing people is also beautiful and creative.

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so in love with this

at the beginning, i was curious about the story and when i started to watch it, i have been addicted to it and fell in love with the story and the casts especially with the main characters woo young woo and lee jun ho. their chemistry together is so amazing. they are good together. while i am waiting for the next week's episode, i tend to watch the episodes all over again and i never felt bored. i cannot wait for its next episode to be aired soon. i hope and pray that there would be a second season and the main characters will still be played by park eun-bin and kang tae-oh. i love them so much. congratulations and more power!

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Hidden Potential?

I honestly think this series has a hidden potential not explored fully yet.

While the story and acting are definitely on good quality, some things about the side characters doesn't really convince me that they are written well enough. On the other hand, the main character who has autism spectrum was greatly potrayed by
Park Eun Bin, like little gestural details and body language made the character feel and look very convincing.

However, did they tell her to tone it down a bit since she was playing a lawyer after all? Yes she has autism disorder but it was not clearly explained why her social awkwardness didn't continue to be present by the 6th episode. By that time she seemed to interact quite normally with others, and her perfect memory was just one talent also not fully utilised. Each 1-2 episodes there was a different case too, which to me broke the flow of the story quite a bit.

I say this everytime, I don't care how "unique" and "challenging" a storyline is. As lons as it is entertaining and flows into a specific resolution then it's a series worth watching. This feels like another wasted potential. Could've been a true masterpiece.
But by the 8th episode, I felt like there was no purpose to the story anymore. The romance? I don't even wanna talk about it. Was it even necessery for a romantic interest to be there from the begginning? Or did they add it there as the "icing on the cake"? it is quite boring and awkward on top of that.

The people who rated this 10/10 are just your typical overhypers, nothing else to explain there. I guess modern kdramas have reached a new standard, a lower one at that. If this series deserves a 10/10 then I deserve to get paid for these honestly critical reviews I am writing for each shit show :D.

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So good, what else is there to add.

I'm not familiar with any of the main actors past work but I'm a new fan to this entire cast they are all superb. It really is wonderful not just the acting but the story within the series. There's the overarching themes of love and acceptance, family in all its forms but then each week is a new insight into what it is to be human by following whatever case Attorney Young Woo and her fellow co workers are fighting for that particular week. I love that it challenges some of those things we take for granted, it's not afraid to tackle some of societies prejudices without ramming it down our throat. It makes you think and cry and laugh, get angry and I agree with all of life's uncertainties and sadness that we sometimes need just fluff in our tv watching diets but it its also nice to be reminded that not everything is so black and white. This has been a pleasure and a joy to watch each week and thank you creators and artists of all kinds who came together for this project, thank you very much.

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watched weekly as it came out

when i first decided to watch this i was unaware of park eun-bin playing the main character, and i loved her in “hello, my twenties” so i was quite surprised to see her bc i havent watched her recent dramas. to start off, i think the first couple episodes were a good start. woo young woo’s childhood, the cases. most of the side characters were pretty good aswell. i liked the format of different episodes, different cases type of thing but still keeping the characters storyline all throughout the drama. some of the cases made me tear up and some were crazy.

now onto the characters: i loved young-woo. i think the way she would stand up for herself and do what was right for her was something i adored about her. jun-ho was a loveable character too, tho i think everyone can agree that they should have given him a little more “depth in character” instead of just being “young-woo’s love interest”. BUT nevertheless their relationship was the cutest throughout except for their rough patches and random breakup in the LAST COUPLE EPS?!? but happy ending for them made it up so. i was a bit iffy on su-yeon at fist but then i loved her later on ofc. dont even get me stated on min-woo. he didnt deserve his little “redemption arc” or wtv it was that happened in the last eps because not once did he apologize to young-woo for trying to bring her down many times and the writing pushing this relationship btwn su-yeon and him was ridiculous. she doesn’t deserve him.!!!!! i think everyone else was alright i did like more characters than other and some i just did.

overall: it may have had rough patches and random storylines that i dont think fit in, as well as i sometimes it would feel like the storylines weren’t going anywhere?? idk, but overall it was still good and a light watch for most of the time! 8/10

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Captivating Drama!

I don’t usually leave reviews but this drama blew my mind. The script was written very well, and I found myself captivated by every episode! I am very impressed and happy with how amazing the actress portrayed someone with autism and the challenges they face. The chemistry between the fl and ml is another thing I cannot praise enough. You can see very well how the two fall in love and show their love. Everything that they do is for a valid and realistic reason. Additionally, the supporting characters are also very realistic and go through character development throughout the drama. This drama just overall exceeded my expectations and I cannot wait for season 2!

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