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I finished Extraordinary Attorney Woo last night, and on the whole I very much enjoyed it, and Park Eun-bin is a wonder. But there is one thing about it that drove me absolutely batty and I need to rant about it.
Okay, so our main character Woo-young has been raised by a single dad. We find out later that her Biomom is not dead--she got pregnant when she was in law school and wanted to have an abortion, but her boyfriend begged her to have the baby, said he would raise it, and that he would never bother her again.
So Biomom gives birth to Woo-young and is not part of her daughter's life at all.
And...she's the villain of the show. She's now a powerful lawyer and is being considered for a high position in the government and the show tells us that she is bad and does not deserve it. Why is she bad? Well...I don't know? I mean, she's a high-powered attorney at an extremely expensive law firm that defends a lot of corporations, which imo is why she is bad, but...our heroine is also at an extremely expensive law firm that defends a lot of corporations, so the show doesn't think that's the reason she's bad.
The head lawyer at Woo-young's law firm tells us she's bad and that she will do anything to keep Biomom from getting that ministerial position. But we know NOTHING about Head Lawyer, so why should we take her word for it?
Dad thinks that Biomom is a terrible person, but then, he would. It makes a lot of sense that he's got bitterness even if I think he's not being entirely fair.
Woo-young is very hurt by Biomom's existence, which makes total sense--she feels abandoned by this woman, which I think is a totally reasonable thing for a child to feel about a parent who does not want to be part of their life.
But other than that...we're just supposed to take the show's word for it that Biomom is bad, and I guess we're supposed to believe it because she "abandoned" Woo-young? Even though she did no such thing? She wanted an abortion, she was VERY clear about the fact that she would not be a part of this baby's life. I do, personally, think she should have just had the abortion instead of giving birth when she didn't want to, but she was very, very clear about her intentions.
And I really think the show just expects us to be so horrified that she abandoned this child that we're supposed to go, "Oh, of course she should never have a high role in government! That would be injustice!"
So that was annoying.
And then also: the show has Woo-young's morality clash with what she has to do as a lawyer at a fancy law firm; in general, these morality clashes are handled very well. It's a fairly consistent theme throughout the show. But what morally makes sense to me--Woo-young should take the job she is offered by an activist lawyer who fights for social justice--does not happen. The show basically just shrugs and says, "Sure, our heroine's principles conflict with what she's asked to do by her job a lot, but look at the found family she's got there!" And I love the found family! I love her mentor lawyer! I love her old school friend who has mixed feelings about her! I love her love interest! I even think the resentful co-rookie lawyer has the potential to be a good person! But a found family of coworkers does not make up for the fact that your job conflicts with your values! It just doesn't!
So I found that deeply unsatisfying, especially because the show had provided us with another option that she could have taken. The show has a moment where it's like, "Yeah, they defend corporations, but also sometimes they do pro-bono work so that all evens out!" And I'm like NO. It doesn't.
I think it bothers me so much precisely because the show has a wonderful sense of morality on many occasions and is really dedicated to seeing the humanity in most people (other than Biomom), even ones that normally don't get a good portrayal on Kdramas. But that makes it worse when it handwaves things at the end--if this was just one of those fantasy types of shows where we're all pretending that it's totally fine to be a corporate lawyer because this is just for fun, I would be far less annoyed.
Okay, so our main character Woo-young has been raised by a single dad. We find out later that her Biomom is not dead--she got pregnant when she was in law school and wanted to have an abortion, but her boyfriend begged her to have the baby, said he would raise it, and that he would never bother her again.
So Biomom gives birth to Woo-young and is not part of her daughter's life at all.
And...she's the villain of the show. She's now a powerful lawyer and is being considered for a high position in the government and the show tells us that she is bad and does not deserve it. Why is she bad? Well...I don't know? I mean, she's a high-powered attorney at an extremely expensive law firm that defends a lot of corporations, which imo is why she is bad, but...our heroine is also at an extremely expensive law firm that defends a lot of corporations, so the show doesn't think that's the reason she's bad.
The head lawyer at Woo-young's law firm tells us she's bad and that she will do anything to keep Biomom from getting that ministerial position. But we know NOTHING about Head Lawyer, so why should we take her word for it?
Dad thinks that Biomom is a terrible person, but then, he would. It makes a lot of sense that he's got bitterness even if I think he's not being entirely fair.
Woo-young is very hurt by Biomom's existence, which makes total sense--she feels abandoned by this woman, which I think is a totally reasonable thing for a child to feel about a parent who does not want to be part of their life.
But other than that...we're just supposed to take the show's word for it that Biomom is bad, and I guess we're supposed to believe it because she "abandoned" Woo-young? Even though she did no such thing? She wanted an abortion, she was VERY clear about the fact that she would not be a part of this baby's life. I do, personally, think she should have just had the abortion instead of giving birth when she didn't want to, but she was very, very clear about her intentions.
And I really think the show just expects us to be so horrified that she abandoned this child that we're supposed to go, "Oh, of course she should never have a high role in government! That would be injustice!"
So that was annoying.
And then also: the show has Woo-young's morality clash with what she has to do as a lawyer at a fancy law firm; in general, these morality clashes are handled very well. It's a fairly consistent theme throughout the show. But what morally makes sense to me--Woo-young should take the job she is offered by an activist lawyer who fights for social justice--does not happen. The show basically just shrugs and says, "Sure, our heroine's principles conflict with what she's asked to do by her job a lot, but look at the found family she's got there!" And I love the found family! I love her mentor lawyer! I love her old school friend who has mixed feelings about her! I love her love interest! I even think the resentful co-rookie lawyer has the potential to be a good person! But a found family of coworkers does not make up for the fact that your job conflicts with your values! It just doesn't!
So I found that deeply unsatisfying, especially because the show had provided us with another option that she could have taken. The show has a moment where it's like, "Yeah, they defend corporations, but also sometimes they do pro-bono work so that all evens out!" And I'm like NO. It doesn't.
I think it bothers me so much precisely because the show has a wonderful sense of morality on many occasions and is really dedicated to seeing the humanity in most people (other than Biomom), even ones that normally don't get a good portrayal on Kdramas. But that makes it worse when it handwaves things at the end--if this was just one of those fantasy types of shows where we're all pretending that it's totally fine to be a corporate lawyer because this is just for fun, I would be far less annoyed.
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