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| ▲ This photo, a captured image from drama "Extraordinary Attorney Woo," shows a main character Woo Young-woo. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This photo, a captured image from drama "Extraordinary Attorney Woo," shows CG of whales that Woo Young-woo enjoys talking about. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This photo, a captured image from drama "Extraordinary Attorney Woo," shows a main character Woo Young-woo. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This photo, provided by ENA, shows a poster of drama "Extraordinary Attorney Woo." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, July 10 (Yonhap) -- ENA’s Wednesday and Thursday drama, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” which features a lawyer with autism spectrum disorder as a main character, is making a sensation.
According to the broadcasting industries on the 10th, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” which is broadcast on unfamiliar cable channel, is showing off its popularity by surpassing 5 percent in viewer ratings in only four episodes, which is even difficult even for terrestrial and synthesized programming channels.
As it was also released on Netflix, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” proudly ranked first in the “TOP Korean Series.”
◇ Perspective towards disabilities which is not uncomfortable
“Extraordinary Attorney Woo” features the story of Woo Young-woo (Park Eun-bin), a new lawyer at law firm Hanbada, who both has a genius brain and autism spectrum disorder, solving various cases in her own way.
It is impressive that the drama does not depict Woo Young-woo as a character who suffers from the disability or needs to be protected.
Woo Young-woo always reveals that she has autism spectrum disorder without any shame.
On the first day at a law firm Hanbada, Woo Young-woo reveals that she has the autism spectrum disorder. During the situation where she needs to win the jury’s heart in the citizen participation trial jury, Woo said, “There’s nothing like the disability to show someone is pitiful, and I am the one who has autism spectrum disorder.”
Since the drama does not depict the disability as something to be hidden or ashamed, viewers can also watch Woo in comfortable perspective.
Moreover, Woo Young-woo shows her loveliness through her innocent childlike moments. Whenever the story of her favorite whale comes out, she excitedly recites her knowledge about whales, and when she serves crab Gimbap at a Gimbap restaurant, she embarrasses people by wackily saying that it should be called as crab flavored Gimbap because it does not actually contain crab meat.
The computer graphic (CG) which pops out whenever Woo talks about the whale doubles her cuteness.
Woo Young-woo’s eccentric and honest charm reminds viewers that her autism spectrum disorder is simply just one aspect of her, and it is not all about her.
Gong Hui-jeong, the drama critic, evaluated, “’Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ looks at the world through Woo Young-woo’s eyes, and shows the process of recovering the diversity of our society, overcoming disabilities and differences,” adding, “It is a drama that tried to view autism in a comfortable way.”
◇ Pointing out social prejudice against autism
Meanwhile, the drama never deals with autism lightly.
“Extraordinary Attorney Woo” conveys significant message in each episode, showing social prejudices and attitudes of people who first saw Woo Young-woo, whose accent, gaze, and walking style are different from others.
“Just before 80 years ago, autism was a disease that wasn’t worth living. Even now, hundreds of people press “like” on the article that says it is a national loss if a medical school student dies and an autistic person lives. That’s the weight of this disability that we carry.”
When Woo Young-woo was in charge of a case where the autistic boy was misunderstood to have killed his older brother, who was a medical school student, she makes a remark as such, referring to the fact that the Nazis classified mentally ill people as human being who are not worth living. This is a stark line which shows the social perspective towards autism.
In addition, Lee Jun-ho (Kang Tae-oh), a staff of Hanbada, is misunderstood to be doing volunteer work for the disabled while walking with Woo Young-woo, and the prosecutor who confronted Woo Young-woo in court binds autism spectrum disorder, which varies from person to person, into one category.
The reason why the drama is being loved by viewers is because it points out the reality, and touches the viewers by directly saying, “This is wrong.”
When Lee Jun-ho sends a message apologizing the attitude of his acquaintance who saw Woo Young-woo as a subject of volunteer, he first says that it was his acquaintance makes a “mistake” but he rewrites that he was “wrong.”
Gong Hui-jeong, the drama critic, said, “Until now, in dramas where the main characters are having autism, the characters were portrayed as being excluded and pitiful. However, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” shows that the society should live together with the disabled,” adding, “Anyone can make mistakes, and the drama holds the process of self-reflecting, forgiving, and reconciling.”
◇ Healing drama with ‘mild taste’ storyline
The fact that it is a humanistic legal drama which realizes didactic morality and that it has a ‘mild taste’ storyline based on kind characters without villains are considered as factors of the drama’s popularity.
The drama deals with events that are likely to happen in reality rather than shocking or provocative events. Woo Young-woo excites the viewers by solving the cases through unexpected ways.
Jeong Deok-hyun, the critic of popular culture, said, “Recent legal dramas feature provocative topics or characters, but ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ deals with issues happening in daily life,” adding, “Then it makes the viewers feel that ‘the good finally wins,’ which gives peace and comfort to the viewers who were getting tired of provocative dramas.”
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Kim Jimin.)
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