9.5/10 is my rating. This s a 2022 South Korean Legal Romance Drama with 16, 64-82 minute episodes.

First I will provide a synopsis then I will review it.

Synopsis:
Woo Young-woo (Park Eun-bin) is a lawyer with high functioning autism. Her single father raised her and provided a lot of life tricks that help her navigate social situations that are complex for those with autism. Although she graduates with the top scores in law school, because of page 2 of her resume, which outlines her autism, no-one wants to hire her. That is until the CEO of one of the major law firms focuses on page 1 that shows she is not only the firest Autistic person to graduate with such high honors, but that she is phenomenal in her field in general. Growing up Young-wo had only one friend Dong Geu-ra-mi (Joo Hyun-young) who has a rough exterior but a kind heart that led her to protect the Young-woo from the bullies. Hanaba, the firm that hired Yong-woo quickly discovers that, although they gave her a chance as a result of a connection the CEO had with her father, page 1 was, indeed the important page. Not only does Attorney Woo’s different ability (not disability but different ability) proide exceptional legal intelligence and photographic memory but her sweet nature draws people to her . While her manner of speech and presentation is direct and without any guile, even when the situation calls for it, initially make her peers think she will not last, her ability to hold so much legal information in her memory and scan it, makes her an invaluable asset to any team. Her supervising lawyer, Jung Myung-seok (Kang Ki-young), who was skeptical of her ability to do the job at first, becomes one of her strongest advocates. One of her close work associates, Lee Jun-ho (Kang Tae-oh), falls for the incredible woman who is Attorney Woo. The story follows Attorney Woo as she uses her outstanding and unique skill set to tackle a variety of interesting cases. Hanaba grows as a result of having such an outstanding attorney and attorney Woo progresses with the frienships she builds and the prejiduces she overcomes.

Review

Spoilers* This was such an amazingly good drama I feel sorry for those that don’t watch it. Attorney Woo is a differently abled attorney who has to deal with not only ethical issues around being an attorney in a law firm that is profit driven, but prejudices personally directed at hefor her different manner of speech and approach to social norms. Several of my family members are autistic and on various levels of the autistic spectrum and she truly said it best when she emphasized it is a spectrum so that simply having autism does not automatically mean you are the same, or can understand, others with autism. I liked how each episode dealt with a unique case and that, each case had some unique legal angle that Attorney Woo was uniquely skilled to ascertain because of her above average legal intelligence and photographic memory. I was a law technician and, at the time (this was 35 years ago) a physical law library was maintained in the law office and we would receive updates in the form of replace pages 10-19 with these new pages – the law books were in 3 ring like binders because the laws and relevant case citations updated all the time. As I am inserting this or that I would read parts of this case or that and there were a couple of times when I was able to point the attorneys to a case that was pertinent to whatever they were working on. A good attorney is open to any help with sifting through the mounds of case law to find that needle in the haystack that might shed light or add credence to a legal line that they are pursuing whether it be from a prosecutorial standpoint or defense. So, even from a lowly legal technician, if I spotted something in my many siftings through the law books – they appreciated the refence. And, whenever there was a big case there was a whole team of legal professionals researching case law, making recommendations on lines of defense or prosecution (I worked for a county legal team so they did both) and discussing all aspects of each case. I thought they presented that very well in this series – those that were open to additional ideas and looked at Attorney Woo not as a threat but as an amazing resource, did well on their cases. I also loved how it portrayed, because of her autism, some treated her like she was not fully capable and not fully an adult. Those that were in her inner circle realized she was extremely capable and that she had all the life skills of an adult with just a few modifications. Yes, she would panic if it was too chaotic or noisy but I know people with post traumatic stress disorder and general anxiety that don’t react much different. I have found that those with autism can be brutally honest and this series showed that, sometimes brutal, honesty. They just do not tend to be as socially devious as the majority of the population. While it can be awkward at times, it is also very refreshing. I wondered how they would treat her relationship with Jung-ho as some might see it as an awkward relationship but I thought they handled it perfectly. His sister was the voice of “but you have to take care of her” and I thought it showed Attorney Woo’s emotional maturity that she took that to heart and also considered she might make him feel lonely. One of the things that Attorney Woo finds undendingly fascinating are sea animals particulary whales and dolphins but she, at times mentions, narwals and other sea creatures as well. Whales are like her spirit animal because whenever she envisions one swimming through the air it is accompanied by some amazing revelation about a case. I love the visual as her hair blows back and her eyes get wide.

The few things that kept this from being perfect for me was just some loose ends I did not feel were tied up. I worry a lot about Netflix “Americanizing” Korean dramas as what I find very refreshing about Kdramas is what sets them apart from American television series. I like that one season is generally what series run and that a 2nd or 3rd season is an exception not the rule. In this case I felt it was left more open ended to leave room for additional seasons. They were back together, and that was nice, but it didn’t feel like their relationship had progressed significantly nor had he made the important step of meeting her dad. I really wanted to experience what her dad thought of him. She met her little brother and it felt like there could be a relationship there but he just disappeared from her life after the court case. It seemed like her little brother wanted a relationship with his older half-sister and I really liked his character so it would have been value added to have him involved with Attorney Woo. ? It was never clear what the CEO of Hanabah had against Attorney Woo’s mother. It was clear there was a back story there that was never explored.