Review of Extraordinary Attorney Woo / 이상한 변호사 우영우

I’ve been in the Korean drama hole for over a decade now, and that means I’ve seen many shows come and go. My obsession began with The Heirs in 2013, and over a decade later, I’ve lived in Korea twice on prestigious scholarships and would say that my language skills are pretty decent too.

While I only recently started blogging (recently being a relative term considering how long I’ve been watching these shows) and reviewing the kinds of content I watched, I’ve seen a ton a shows during my time. I always remember when certain shows are being hyped, and typically I don’t watch them right away because I have something else I’m in the middle of watching.

That said, I watched Extraordinary Attorney Woo months after the hype for it had died down. A lot of people I knew in real life were even talking about and watching the show, which was shocking to me because I had never pegged any of these people to want to watch a Korean show ever. The times have changed!

I wrote this blog post originally when it came out, but turns out I never published it. I revamped this introduction and did some light editing of the following parts, but this was my initial reaction to watching this show.

Let’s get into that review then, shall we?

Woo Young-woo might be autistic, but that doesn’t stop her from chasing her dream of becoming a lawyer.

As seen in the header above, our main character in this drama is Woo Young-woo. Raised by a single father, Young-woo wanted to become a lawyer and even graduated from one of the top universities in South Korea. All of this is despite the fact she is autistic—despite prejudices about what autistic people think and act like, she proves people wrong with her intelligence.

However, she is actively being discriminated against when she graduates because she is autistic. No law firm wants to hire her, but her father’s friend helps her land a job at a Seoul firm. Almost immediately her new coworkers begin realizing that she’s a little different, especially as her mannerisms and speech aren’t neurotypical.

That said, Young-woo wants to prove that she is capable as a lawyer despite everything people might perceive about her. With the help of the lawyer supervising her, Myung-seok, she’s going to take on more cases slowly but surely and gain her confidence in the courtroom.

Throughout the series we see that her photographic memory and attention to detail seriously aids her as a lawyer, allowing her to pick up on the more minor things that her coworkers and fellow defendants might not be able to catch onto at first listen or glance.

In the courtroom, too, she is able to recite facts that she has recalled with almost perfect accuracy, and when she does mess up, she’s willing to take it a step further and try to learn and retrace her steps.

It’s during this process she comes to befriend Lee Jun-ho, a legal staffer at the firm, who is very curious about her. Whales are a big thing with her, and he comes to realize that.

We do end up getting a romantic plot line with these two, but I don’t see that as the highlight of the drama at all.

Overall Thoughts

I think the significance of this drama comes from the fact we have a main autistic character, especially a woman, coming to prove her worth and intelligence at a big law firm.

That’s an incredible feat, and while it is only fiction for now, I can’t wait to see these kinds of stories more in the real world. They’re really incredible.

All of this is to say that I enjoyed the drama a lot. It’s a little unconventional from the standard Korean dramas, and I like this a lot about the show. I can see why it had gained international appeal upon its release.

If you have not watched it already and plan to, go ahead! What are you waiting for? Next time you’re debating what show to watch consider this one.

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