‘Queen’…A so-so investigative drama revolving around crisis management.
Also known in romaji as ‘Sukyandaru Senmon Bengoshi Queen’.
As I navigate this newly found world of Japanese dramas, there is bound to be a few hits and misses (hits, implying the discovery of a good show, that is worth my time and misses, implying the shows which don’t appear intriguing enough to continue watching and hence are dropped within an episode or two). This is quite a tricky task, as compared to Korean Dramas, which are more widely publicized and hence easier to narrow down to which show you must watch, it is harder to come across Japanese shows, and therefore, I seem to be stumbling upon mostly manga adaptations and investigative dramas.
So, here I am, with yet another investigative drama (after a few fair misses that is), but this time involving lawyers instead of detectives, and scandals instead of murders.
What caught my attention (about this show) was a comment under the synopsis on the webpage that read ‘it’s nice that the Japanese have female-led shows that don’t involve romance or sex’.
I was sold, right there, and then.
The comment was right. Queen does have a stellar set of female protagonists (lead by the talented cast of Takeuchi Yuko, Mizukawa Asami, Saito Yuki), who are not characterized by a specific trait of their personality but rather by their professional abilities. Mano Seiko (Saito Yuki) dons many hats as the receptionist-cum-hacker-cum-impersonator, an all-rounder of sorts, and the go-to person to dig out information about the client or their perpetrator. She is quite witty and physically strong as well. Himi Ko (a marvellous Takeuchi Yuko) and Yoda Chie (a feisty Mizukawa Asami) are the lawyers, the former with some secrets that unravel over the course of the show but both are extremely good at their job. They are joined together by Fujieda Shuji (Nakagawa Taishi with a wonderful screen presence) to manage scandals of (mostly) prominent figures of the society with cases ranging from infighting in an idol group to extra-marital affairs, to abuse of authority, gender discrimination, and cases of sexual harassment. All of these are handled with a special emphasis on using and manipulating the ever-changing winds of opinions among the public, on social and print media.
What makes each case stand out are the characters — largely female (akin to Detective Yugami, social issues revolving around women seem to be ubiquitous in Japanese investigative dramas), who can be despicable, stupid, fragile, innocent, or lost, just like any male character. Take our leads themselves. Himi Ko and Yoda Chie are not morally upright lawyers. They use many dubious methods to dig up information, sometimes even about their own client, (which can be fueled by their own curiosity rather than as a part of the job) and blackmail or trade pieces of information to get the job done. But, never once do we find them questioning these methods or moping around about justice being sought unethically. It’s all just a part of their job, and they do it as professionally as possible.
But, having said all that, Queen is quite weak in the mystery department — a hook that is supposed to keep us guessing to what exactly happened in each episode. The drama largely involves a lot of amateurish detective work, with most investigations happening off-screen. Though we are treated to quite a variety of incidents, the nonchalant treatment of the cases combined with a rapidly moving screenplay gives way to unexciting episodic conclusions. This primarily occurs very often in the initial episodes, which tries to pack in way too much, with new episodic and recurring characters, backstories, and sporadic humour.
The second half fares decently better, with better screenwriting and editing, as the tempo of the show is slowed down to be more in sync with its characters. One of the best-made episodes comes right after the half-way point, involving a famous author and abuse of power. The episode was well-paced and gave us enough time to understand and empathize with our episodic characters so that when new information is revealed, it is more effective. But sadly, the ending ended up being too hammy. This was another complaint of mine with the show, where when the subject matter turns too dark or serious, humour is still injected in the scenes, which takes away the seriousness of the moment. Detective Yugami too operated on a similar mode, but when the subject matter turned dark, it stayed on that mode.
