Looking for a Legal Drama to Stream? Extraordinary Attorney Woo Showcases the Legal Profession from a Different Point of View
At the library, we often get excited about legal dramas of any kind and the Korean streaming series Extraordinary Attorney Woo is no exception. Premiering on Netflix on June 29, 2022, the show was an instant hit and spent 21 weeks on the Netflix Global Top 10 TV (Non-English) list. It is easy to see how it has achieved such success!
Woo Young-woo is a new lawyer who has landed a position in a large law firm. Although she found success in academics, graduating top of her class at law school, she still struggles to adjust to the social expectations of the working world when they conflict with her natural tendencies. Those tendencies are shaped by her neurodivergence as a Korean woman with autism.
The series follows the usual pattern of any legal procedural drama. Each episode focuses on a single case to spotlight one or more issues that the main characters are dealing with in their life. As Young-woo negotiates the tricky world of practicing the law we see how she adjusts to the people around her, and how they in turn adjust to her and discover the true asset she is to the firm. This series has plenty of humor and even a good dollop of cheesiness even while it shows emotionally difficult situations.
Media depictions of people with autism still tend to fit into tropes of either extreme dysfunction or savant genius. The character of Woo Young-woo tends to the latter depiction, but as the first season progresses the portrayal is more positive and nuanced than many media representations of autism. Young-woo is more than the sum total of her autistic behaviors and abilities. She is a young woman navigating life in her own particular way.
Reactions from people with autism to Extraordinary Attorney Woo have been mixed. Some feel that the main character’s behaviors are overemphasized for drama. Others are happy that the character is shown as a kind, fallible human who is willing to learn, instead of an intellectually superpowered, emotionless juggernaut grinding all the neurotypicals around them into dust with their intellect.
Like any legal drama, Extraordinary Attorney Woo takes a great deal of dramatic license to make court procedures interesting to those outside the legal profession. For the American viewer it is hard to know what aspects of the narrative are an accurate depiction of typical Korean legal proceedings and what is altered to make the story flow. Despite this, the characters and story lines of Extraordinary Attorney Woo are a pleasant addition to one’s entertainment queue.
The series is available on Netflix in both subtitled and dubbed versions for the English-speaking audience. ASTORY, the production company that created the series, hopes to air season 2 in 2024. (LJ)
