ElBee

I’m going to start with one detail that should be understood but may not be by viewers going in. Ordinarily, pro bono representation simply exists to provide legal services for those who otherwise cannot afford it, plain and simple. There are public defenders for certain kinds of trials, mainly criminal, but if you are sued in a civil trial, most of the time whoever has money to hire legal professionals wins. I mention this because THIS SHOW’s ultra-elite law firm, rather than having younger lawyers across many teams handle a certain number of them every year like most firms, has a highly unusual ragtag set of four-then-five people with wildly different priorities do this as a marketing/public image stunt. Don’t get me wrong; MANY if not most law firms’ free cases are done to tick that social responsibility box in places that don’t require it outright. This one, though, doesn’t even pretend. The cases are not merely helping some people sued from becoming bankrupt. They are odd cases that may gain media traction. You do not often have a courtroom stacked with half a dozen plus lawyers (accounting for both sides) for, oh, a dog custody case even though that case was far more than the “breakup who takes the dog” sort of battle).

Where this shines? Easy, Jung. Kyung. Ho. He is, as Da Wit, the heart and soul of this. As a judge unafraid to deliver justice to both ordinary and extraordinary criminals and regular citizens in turn, in punishing a select few morally bankrupt businessmen severely, he got on many bad sides including within the legal field which he is already an outcast in as he skipped law school and went straight for credentials (almost unheard of which the drama makes clear). Not just a regional “mediocre” law school grad but no law school at all? Color him dispensable to most if not for his brain having some street smarts.

The cases are very much cherry picked for drama viewing, no different from other legal shows, vigilante stories, medical dramas, and so on. Whereas Diary of a Prosecutor is very slice of life and mellow and shows ordinary days for a less common profession with its characters mostly getting along, this has plenty of antagonism from within the team and from the outside, even the owner of the law firm eager to disband them. The lead’s name very intentionally adapts to David in English, and we’re told a few times of him battling Goliaths as an ordinary guy who grew up very poor.

Overall, the cast is quirky and fun to watch most of the time. Some are a bit oversimplified much of the show, particularly our screamer and rather dimwitted opportunist in the team. That I mostly blame on the short length and priorities placed on balancing cases for the team with Da Wit’s bigger case. The main lead’s story is rather complicated, and his relationship with his team members. He only plans to stay with a short time at all and barely has time to teach them techniques and strategies through a few cases before his own case comes to light, the motive behind one of the non-legal professionals setting a trap with quite a bit of help, a trap to get him off the bench and ideally punished as he becomes the defendant against a plaintiff whose father died in prison after receiving a seven year sentence which was at the time the maximum allowed but which to viewers shows another case of law too often serving the rich, victims dying and becoming disabled a frequent occurrence in manufacturing in some nations, especially small businesses in places without robust government oversight which is a costly investment to choose for politicians who want “visible” results.

Perhaps my favorite part of this show is that the characters are all imperfect, their trust fragile… maybe it is a little overly obvious at times, but they show the ease with which relatively strong but newly obtained trust and admiration can come tumbling down with a speck of doubt planted. It shows how the team members—who all have very different goals—see this doubt and ultimately handle feeling various degrees of betrayal. We see their changes in behaviors, their growth (sometimes through stumbling around and tripping over their own pride if not their feet, too), and their insecurities on full display. The issues they have at home or had as kids? They are still with them day to day impacting how they evaluate cases and the people in them. They’ve acquired quite a formidable toolkit from their team leader, and with sharper knives and focus alike, they are tasked with representing someone suing him.

The moral ambiguity of so many characters, his ex-girlfriend turned boss very much among them, the total greed of plenty, and the strategies these people with their own motivations employ is interesting and well-contrasted by the pro bono team lead by someone who is at times half opportunist, half servant of the people but mostly good. It made it unclear who was or was not on his side until the end—to what extent they were, more specifically. If nothing else, this is a quick way to see how wildly different people might handle some of the same content and even maybe see yourself in a few.

Is this drama perfect? Not at all. It sometimes circles around its main lead’s overarching storyline like a vulture without chomping down as effectively as it could. It is very hard to integrate that story into the day to day casework, yes, and they mostly did pretty well with it even if 75% of the credit goes to JKH, something I doubt any viewer who doesn’t have ties to the staff for the show will disagree with. Where they sometimes had a bit of disconnect was covered well enough to not pay it much mind until settling down to write this.

The show was lively, the dialogue SMART for a change (in the native language, subtitles obviously always lacking some of the charm of the original, especially for this streaming service), and as usual, he mastered this role and stopped, during those hours, being the actor and just became Kang Da Wit whether using his immense range of vocal styles with that iconic voice of his I can hear just thinking about this or that character in a scene, body language including some physical comedy he is top notch at delivering, or simply (especially in court) communicating with his ultra flexible face and its thirty two million ways of bending, twitching, and otherwise expressing the full range of thoughts and emotions without a word.

Not everyone will like this, naturally. Some hate workplace-centered dramas, legal not often a preference; others will be annoyed with the eccentric blend of characters. Some won’t be able to get past some of the set up feeling too elaborate to buy into (current overlapping title The Judge Returns is thus far more “subdued” [well, after the initial event that sets it off] and less comedic than this with only a slight bit of physical comedy… it is also darker feeling, though).

If you want pretty high energy characters with quirks abounding and some touching backstories brought to light if not in extreme depth (just enough to understand them), this fits that bill. It shows places where the law is clearly just not enough and is pretty brutally honest in depicting how greed can also make skilled lawyers tools for making the world genuinely worse just as a less greedy set of skilled lawyers can make the world so much better though there are far too few of those around to handle all the world’s injustice, especially for people with few financial resources.

It was a really fun diversion for 5 weeks for me! It paired nicely during my weekends with Taxi Driver, too, both ending this weekend. It feels far too short, though, a good thing in one sense—I couldn’t believe it went by so quickly! THAT sure hasn’t been typical of most dramas lately! 🤔