I always hope to love the dramas that I start, but I can say that this is one time where that was even more keenly true that usual.

That’s because so many of you loved this, that we had more than 100 – ONE HUNDRED! – comments on this show in the Deep-dive Zone alone. I do think that that’s a new record that you’ve set, my friends. 😁

And so of course FOMO poked me – hard! – and I decided that I wanted to join this party too.

Unfortunately for me, this party-joining hasn’t gone the way I’d hoped, and here I am, tapping out after watching 8 episodes of Show’s 12. 😅

MY TRAJECTORY WITH THIS ONE

I guess you could call my journey with this show a bit of a slow, slippery slope.

I’d started out strong, actually: I really enjoyed E1-2, and came away from episode 2 quite happily convinced that I would manage to enjoy this one probably at least as much as most of you.

However, with each new pair of episodes that I watched, sadly, I found my ability to enjoy this show dimming, slowly but steadily.

This is definitely a case of my good intentions not adding up to quite enough, my friends. 😅

STUFF I LIKED

The concept [BROAD EPISODE 1-2 SPOILERS]

Based on Show’s opening episodes, I’d thought that I had a pretty good idea of the kind of drama it wanted to be.

It establishes Da Wit as a character, fleshes him out just enough so that we understand in broad strokes the things that are important to him, and then sets the stage so that everything is pulled out from under him.

Then, Show goes about planting him in a new orbit, in a new role, and he has to learn to excel in a new place, while working with new people – all in the interest of hopefully being able to get back to an important goalpost from his old life.

By the time we finish episode 2, we even get a taste for how this new life is likely to look for him, and how things are likely going to work, with him using his smarts and resources in order to help people – but not out of the goodness of his heart.

Rather, it’s all in service of the deal that he makes with his ex-flame-now-boss. But surely, as Da Wit works through the various cases that his team is given, he’ll grow to genuinely care about people?

At least, that’s the assumption that I reached for, as someone familiar with Dramaland rules.

Yes, Show wants to be silly and funny at least sometimes, and yes, it also wants to be a show with heart – and I liked the promise of that.

At the same time, I was intrigued to know that this show was written by an actual former judge Moon Yoo Seok, who is known for bringing realistic, grounded perspectives to legal dramas based on his experience within the legal system.

Already, with our first case, underneath the whimsy of the case being about a dog, I got the sense that Show would focus on the clash between the cold, calculated law and the pursuit of justice for ordinary people, while likely tackling social issues.

I liked the idea of all of this – but unfortunately, I’m not as enamored with the execution of it.

Jung Kyung Ho as Da Wit

If there was one reason that might have kept me watching, it would be Jung Kyung Ho. He’s great in this.

I love how he hams it up for the camera during Show’s more OTT bits, but is just as capable when it comes to injecting layers of poignance and pathos into his delivery.

Plus, he looks oh-so-handsome in this show, with that slicked back hair and those sharp suits! 🤩

The portion that left the deepest impression on me was in our opening episodes, so here’s exactly how I experienced Da Wit, at the beginning of my watch.

[SPOILER ALERT]

E1-2. I honestly very much enjoyed the opening, where we see Da Wit sailing through a perfect-looking life, while seeming like the most perfect, caring, sweet, thoughtful, socially-conscious judge on the face of the earth.

Kudos to Jung Kyung Ho; I love the way he hams it up, particularly in this opening stretch – especially when Show starts dismantling his rosy halo, one piece at a time.

My favorite bit was the reveal that underneath the cover of “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” that book that he carries into court, which had all the journalists pondering the meaning of, is a comic book that he’s reading for fun. 😁

Another beat that sticks in my mind, is the dorky victory dance that he does in his office, which he quickly manages to truncate by stepping on the remote, when his secretary pokes her head into his office to talk to him. 🤭

Amid all the tongue-in-cheek stuff, I couldn’t help but register what a shrewd and thorough person Da Wit is.

Like, yes, everything he’s doing is in service of his goal of being appointed a Chief Justice, but dang, if I’m not impressed at the level of detail he goes to, in terms of getting things in place to achieve his goal. That’s impressive.

And just as Show’s done all it needs to do, to convince us that Da Wit’s obsessively power-hungry for this Chief Justice position, it undercuts it all, by allowing us to see that Da Wit’s thirst for power, is rooted in his own mother’s suffering.

The fact that Mom had worked so hard to provide for him, and had neglected her own health to the point that she’d died an early death – only to leave him with the parting plaintive plea, that he go as far as he can, in life.

Oof. That sure puts an entirely different spin on Da Wit’s endeavors, doesn’t it?

Underneath it all, he’s earnestly trying to fulfill his mother’s dying wish, and doing his best to show her that he’s made it.

That certainly reframes him in a big way, in my eyes. 🥹

[END SPOILER]

When Show’s cozy-quirky feel-good

I really liked the idea of Show being a cozy-quirky little creature, whose main aim was to reform Da Wit as a character, while delivering all the warm fuzzy feels.

Unfortunately, I personally only really felt those feels in our first case, in episode 2.

I loved how episode 2 spotlights so much of Da Wit’s smarts, as he handles the case with shrewdness and creativity, and I also very much enjoyed the feel-good outcome for the clients.

Here’s a quick spotlight on that portion of my watch.

[SPOILER ALERT]

E2. We get the first real instance of (forced) empathy, when Da Wit volunteers to try that test collar, not believing that it could be all that painful – only to be shocked to his core, by just how much pain he’s just endured, from being shocked by a dog collar.

Against his will, this does color his perception of the case, and you can see it in the way he can’t help getting worked up after this, when he hears the prosecution dismiss the collar as being inconsequential.

Of course, the crux of the case is that while the original owner is legally in the right to want to claim the dog back, it feels morally wrong because the original owner had subjected the dog to regular abuse via the electric collar.

(And certainly, the elderly couple’s loss of their granddaughter in the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush – which Show subtly signals by showing her date of death as October 29, 2022 – adds a significant layer of poignance to the story, making me want to root harder for them to get to keep the dog. 🥲)

I did very much enjoy watching Da Wit put his wits to good use, to work towards a win for his client, even though, legally speaking, the plaintiff is standing on pretty firm ground.

From requesting a jury trial, to delegating tasks according to his new team members’ various strengths, to tapping on his existing network of contacts, to utilizing his knowledge of psychology, Da Wit pulls out all the stops to win the case – and I do love that he pulls it off pretty creatively. 🤩

He basically wears down the plaintiff on the witness stand, by presenting the dog as an exhibit (since it’s legally an ‘object’), then passing on the message for her to call her former chief prosecutor father – before asking her to confirm again if the dog is, indeed, hers.

It’s all very sly and clever – and importantly, it works.

Lady changes her mind right there in court, and Byeol gets to go home with the people who truly love and appreciate her – aw.

And what a perfect little epilogue, where we get to see that, once upon a time, as a child, Da Wit had thrown himself into protecting the puppy that had bitten him.

Awwww! This is a great glimpse at the real personality hiding under all of that posture and bluster, and I do love the idea that we’re going to get to know Da Wit better, in our upcoming episodes.

[END SPOILER]

STUFF THAT WAS OK

When Show’s a bit tone-deaf

I’m sure that Show is well-meaning, but sometimes, it does come across as a bit tone-deaf.

This quality didn’t break my watch, but it is not something that I actually liked about Show, which is why it’s here in the neutral zone.

This beat from episode 3 comes to mind, to illustrate what I mean.

[SPOILER ALERT]

E3-4. Something that I found myself feeling rather bemused by, is the way Da Wit gets forced to dress up in drag, when the pro bono team attends an LGBTQ+ event to promote their legal services.

I.. think that Show is trying to emphasize inclusivity, but I have to wonder if Show’s kind of pushing a lopsided narrative, because if we’re really talking about acceptance here, then why does anyone who isn’t actually into drag, have to dress up in drag, in order to support an LGBTQ+ event?

Isn’t that some kind of reverse discrimination there..?

Certainly, I don’t think that Show means any harm by it; it’s just that I found it a bit misguided and therefore  uncomfortable to watch.

[END SPOILER]

The cartoony quality of our pro bono team members

I believe Show was going for “lovable misfits” with our pro bono team, but I have to confess that I didn’t really take to the team’s boisterous, noisy and rather OTT quality.

I confess I low-key wince whenever Seo Hye Won’s character Nan Hui starts stomping around and shouting.

I know it’s meant for comedy, but I’m not feeling it, sorry. 😅

STUFF I DIDN’T LIKE SO MUCH

The writing

To be brutally honest, it’s the writing in this show that’s breaking my watch.

I believe that writer-nim was aiming for social satire, but in effect, what Show serves up, in increasing measure, is legal melodrama and makjang.

Honestly, I think this is a case where intent and execution ended up landing on different sides of a very thin line.

Satire works to cleverly mock the system it’s focused on, but what Show serves up instead, is a combination of melodramatic and makjang devices, designed to get an emotional reaction out of its audience – while willfully ignoring actual opportunities to touch on systemic change.

Let me explain.

[SPOILER ALERT]

In episodes 3-4, we explore a case where a hospital’s gross and willful negligence results in the sufferings of our plaintiff, Gang Hun (Lee Cheon Mu) and his mother So Min (Jeong Yu Jin), what with him being born disabled and her having to provide for him as a single mother.

Putting aside the melodramatic treatment of the case itself, I was happy to buy the fairytale ending where Chairman Choi (Yoo Jae Myung), the chairman of the hospital, steps in to adopt So Min and take in both mother and son as his family.

However. Nothing is said about the Chairman making any changes that would prevent the hospital from further willful negligence.

In a situation where the person in charge of this specific hospital has the power to change things in a meaningful way for not just Gang Hun but for the good of future patients, Show doesn’t take any steps to  acknowledge that the root cause will be addressed.

Yes, I can rationalize that this will likely be done offscreen, but honestly, it would have cost only 2 more seconds of screen time to have the Chairman say something about making that change, and Show opts not to do it.

This leads me to believe that the omission is deliberate and made in service of furthering the narrative that systemic change is hard, and I’m just.. not too happy about that.

You could have him address the root cause, and still maintain that systemic change is hard; those don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

[END SPOILER]

This specific example demonstrates to me, that Show may be interested in systemic problems, but it isn’t really interested in systemic solutions.

Even when the option for a systemic solution is present, Show chooses in favor of the personal solution instead.

Additionally, writer-nim uses the courtroom as a stage for moral reckoning rather than a place of law.

This “speechifying” is a classic makjang staple — where the “truth” is revealed not through evidence, but through whoever can deliver the most heart-wrenching monologue.

To put it bluntly, this isn’t satire; it’s legal fantasy.

And I have to say, the Big Courtroom Speech was hugely overused, in my opinion.

My heartstrings responded just fine the first time we got a Big Heartfelt Speech, because the first time feels like passion, but the second started to feel like a pattern, and by the fourth go-around, it felt to me like writer-nim was just conveniently pulling a “Feel Emotions Now” lever. 👀

I didn’t like that so much.

SAYING GOODBYE

When I got to episodes 7 & 8, I was honestly taken aback by how melodramatic everything gets.

The mother and brother (Oh Min Ae and Yang Joon Myung) of pop star Elijah (Jung Ji So) are written as OTT, one-dimensional villains, who systemically embezzle funds from Elijah’s earnings.

Now if this were a satire, their exploitation of Elijah would be used to highlight the dark side of the idol industry; instead, Show puts the focus on what a bad mother Chairman Cha is, and even leans into her penchant for toy boys, to make it extra unsavory.

Unfortunately, I found this entire arc more draining than inspiring, and after weeks of the magic fading for me, I think I’ve hit a wall with this show’s brand of melodrama.

I’m sorry that I can’t seem to love this show as much as you do, my friends – but I assure you that it’s not for lack of trying.

I’d sincerely wanted to join this party, but I think now is a good time to step away, so that you guys can enjoy this party without me. 🥲

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