Pride and Prejudice (2014)

Romance-legal drama più legal che romance: interessante e poco prevedibile, ma non senza pecche

All'avvio la serie si presenta come un romance inserito in un contesto legale: procuratori, avvocati, investigatori, testimoni, vittime, crimini, accuse e indizi sono quindi un po' il pane quotidiano.
Con l'avanzare degli episodi le vicende irrisolte del passato finiscono per intrecciarsi in modo sempre più complesso ai casi del presente, ingarbugliando la trama con sottili fili spesso invisibili che vengono via via scoperti e che collegano, in modi anche del tutto inaspettati, i vari personaggi sulla scena.
Sicuramente questo drama ha il pregio di non essere prevedibile, anzi, riesce anche a nascondere qualche bel trabocchetto. Di contro, la storia si infittisce davvero tanto e arrivati in fondo ci si rende un po' conto che non proprio tutti gli incastri hanno funzionato a dovere. Non mancano le coincidenze, in certi momenti davvero un po' abusate.
Per gli amanti delle love story occorre ridimensionare le aspettative, già che al di là delle premesse quanto si ottiene di fatto è giusto una "spolverata" di romance, e sicuramente non rappresenta il perno centrale della storia.

Cast indubbiamente valido, l'attrice protagonista - a me nuova - porta a casa una buona prova. All'attore protagonista - già conosciuto in "Gu family book" - riconosco più la presenza importante e un bel volto (pur con lineamenti piuttosto duri) rispetto a grandi capacità espressive (colpa dei lineamenti scolpiti o meno, di fatto mostra una sola ed unica espressione per tutto il drama, salvo qualche raro e non particolarmente affascinante sorrisetto).
Degli altri personaggi, alcuni più curati e ben riusciti, come Kang Soo e Jeong Chang Gi, altri un po meno, come il buffo ma non così interessante pairing secondario. Sopra tutti, coppia protagonista compresa, spicca però il personaggio di Moon Hee Man, il cui interprete offre al pubblico un ritratto davvero notevole: carismatico e di carattere, è una figura che sa davvero bucare lo schermo. Tremendamente ambiguo, ho davvero fatto fatica a inquadrarlo e, per quanto mi affascinasse, non capivo se alla fine si sarebbe rivelato parte della schiera dei buoni o dei cattivi. Gran bel personaggio, attore indiscutibilmente bravo, obiettivo centrato in pieno: solo lui vale una stellina di giudizio in più.

Rispetto alle note dolenti, una pesa sicuramente più delle altre: il finale. Se nei primi 20 episodi si va a sviscerare ogni pista, traccia, indizio e ricostruzione - a volte anche col rischio di annoiare i non appassionati di indagini & co. - il ventunesimo ed ultimo episodio eredita l'ingrato e arduo compito di chiudere in bellezza la vicenda. Peccato che le questioni rimaste aperte siano tante, troppe. Buona parte dell'episodio se ne va per sferrare il colpo di grazia a sorpresa in tribunale e dopo... Dopo non resta praticamente nulla. Una chiusura davvero frettolosa, che regala giusto una manciata di secondi nemmeno tanto edificanti alla coppia principale, lascia davvero perplessi e insoddisfatti rispetto al capo Moon e non degna di un epilogo nessun altro, Kang Soo e Jeong Chang Gi compresi. Uno scivolone che un po' spiace, arrivati praticamente alla fine di una buonissima produzione.

Infine, una perplessità: il titolo. Preso in prestito alla Austen davvero senza alcun motivo, già che anche a scervellarsi non riuscirei ad affibbiare le due caratteristiche a nessuno degli attori principali. Sicuramente l'attore protagonista non è né prevenuto né orgoglioso, lei inizialmente lo giudica in modo sbagliato, ma francamente ne ha tutti i validi motivi. Boh, mistero.

Resta però complessivamente una serie che mi sentirei di consigliare , più agli amanti del genere legal-thriller che agli appassionati del filone romantico. Sicuramente è una serie interessante e che incuriosisce parecchio, se si è disposti a perdonarle qualche errore qua e là.

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Pretty well done and very, very tragic all at the same time. This show had some of the best casting I've seen in a drama yet, and Dong Chi (Choi Jin Hyuk) and Kang Soo (Lee Tae Hwan) stole it away pretty quickly. The secondary cast was simply amazing in their roles, and they were almost more important than the leads to me. To be honest, I think of the leads, Kang Soo was the best all around actor although Dong Chi certainly did a wonderful job. But considering that Kang Soo is still a little new, he never once failed his role. They kept in character and made you feel that the emotions they displayed were real and honest. I felt like they had great chemistry, bouncing well off of one another and the rest of the cast members. The relationships between Kang Soo-Chang Gi and Dong Chi - Chief Moon were very well developed. The secondary cast also worked wonderfully with each other, and the script successfully used them as both plot developers and stress-relieving comedy at all the right places. Jang Won (Choi Woo Shik) and Gwang Mi (Jeong Hye Song) were dazzling in their roles and played their parts exceptionally. Without them, the story would have been far to dark and depressing, but with them it was the perfect mix of comedy and serious thought-proving storyline.


I didn't actually really care at all for Han Yeol Moo (Baek Jin Hee), and she took away some of the points I would have given the show. I'm not sure if it was bad acting or bad scripts, but her character just didn't really work. I'm used to the female stars being, well stubborn sure, but mostly good-hearted, solid morals, and someone who thinks of others first. But Yeol Moo has little patience for other people, actively and deliberately hurt her mom, and had no respect for the rule of law or her superiors. I mean, I understand that the point is that when bad guys are in control, you may have to work the system. But she actually was willing to sentence another girl to death or to sacrifice up evidence just to get her and her boyfriend out of trouble. Although the show never dealt with it, she was sometimes quoting basically the same thought processes as the bad guys she wanted to stop. It didn't help that her expressions were non-existent or just felt off, I never felt that her feelings (anger or love alike) were actually real.


Korean Dramas usually focus on personal relationships, with the political message in the background. However, Pride and Prejudice definitely pulled its themes forward, with the romance and friendships being largely a secondary plotline. The show questions the theory that "the ends should justify the means" with both good and bad characters trying to argue their point using this premise. Is it okay to do bad things for a good ending? Or what if you only do something wrong because it is the "lesser evil?" The show pulled in themes of Corruption, Pride, Self-Entitlement, Good v. Evil, Bad Leadership, and knowing when to draw the line. I thought one of the most interesting points the show brought up was the question of what to do when you can't defeat the evil. Most shows want to portray the bad guys as defeatable, but that isn't really true. Whenever one bad guy is defeated, another one is probably going to follow shortly. Furthermore, if the bad guy you want is only a middle-man, is it worth your career to stop him when you know the leader will walk away? We want to put everything on the line only when the person we're chasing is the ultimate evil. But what if he isn't? What if there are 50 others worse than him running around waiting to be stopped later? Will you still risk everything to stop the one? I liked this show just because it made me think, and gave us some interesting things to talk about when it was over.

The plotline was somewhat standard KDrama fare, but also threw in a bunch of unique elements. For the first time ever, there wasn't much of a triangle. This wasn't about the romances; the show wanted you to focus more on the philosophical questions of morality and good citizenship instead. The crime itself was actually well set up and had lots of new or unique little twists and elements. It wasn't the simple murder; there were about ten layers to even plot development, with each character having their own side to tell. The bad guys who weren't really bad guys, the good guys who made horrible mistakes, the bad guys who were just bad guys, and the good guys who were so good as to be little earthly good. The show pulled them all in, asking you to look at humans, our ethical systems, and the important question of when can the right go wrong.

There were of course a few plot holes (especially with the ending being so rushed), but overall, I wasn't too disappointed with it. On the one hand, the weak ending was a really, really weak ending. It went too fast, it left a lot of loose ties, it didn't finish things at all. On the other hand, t was well written and well-designed, even if it left me crying and largely unsatisfied at the end. To be honest, I think it needed an unsatisfying ending, because that's the point. The battle is never over, the next generation simply takes over the reigns and pushes on.

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