Beyond the Bar review: Jung Chae-Yeon and Lee Jin-Wook’s camaraderie turns this legal drama into a binge-worthy show!

Through unique cases, witty banter and mixing personal arcs, Beyond the Bar is peak K-drama! 

Beyond the Bar review: Over the years, just like medical K-dramas, courtroom K-dramas have also built a fanbase of their own. Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Law and the City, Law School, Vincenzo, Divorce Attorney Shin, became some of the most popular K-dramas not only in Korea but around the world as well. With Beyond the Bar adding to this list, it’s safe to say that Korean filmmakers love a good plotline around the law and rightfully so! There’s just something about solving cases that seem unsolvable, building mystery around it and arguing it out in court. It’s the perfect formula for peak binge material!

Directed by Kim Jae-Hong and written by Park Mi-Hyun, Beyond the Bar revolves around similar lines. When a rookie prodigy, Kang Hyo-Min (Jung Chae-Yeon), decides to team up with the most experienced lawyer at the Yullim firm, Yoon Seok-Hoon(Lee Jin-Wook), there’s drama, there’s love and above all it’s the collaboration of two geniuses. While the duo does not get off on the right foot, slowly and steadily they warm up to each other one case at a time. What makes Beyond the Bar different from other legal dramas that we have seen so far is the topics that it touches upon through its cases. School bullying, copyright infringement, infertility, violence against pets, child abuse and so much more that Korean society either tries to hide away from or get away with. Through each episode, at the end of every case, it teaches us that love exists in so many different forms. Be it loving yourself again, loving your parents, loving your pet, loving your child or still loving a partner after they’ve gone through a traumatic experience.

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Within the law firm too, the story tries to break stereotypes we have seen in legal dramas before. Thinking a female lawyer is lesser than a male one, or using her as mere entertainment at business meetings is something that the series has a zero tolerance policy for and we love that! Watching a female CEO and other wonder women on the show build life on their own terms not only sets the right message but also empowers a huge female audience that K-dramas tend to have. 

As far as the romance is concerned, even without any show of skin or makeout sessions, the chemistry between Kang Hyo-Min and Yoon Seok-Hoon becomes one of the highlights of the show. Their will-they-won’t-they situation kept us hooked till the end and I have no complaints with how their arc ends, despite wanting them to get married ASAP! Them not having a quintessential K-drama romance only adds to the fact that this show was more about them being lawyers and the solving these cases than anything else. Having said that, second leads, Jin-Woo(Lee Hak-Joo) and Heo Min-Jeong(Jeon Hye-Bin), cover up for all the romance we don’t get to see with the main leads. Their love story feels like an ode to every woman in her forties who feels like it’s too late to find happiness! 

Beyond the Bar has the perfect balance of legal jargons, courtroom drama and office politics brewing under the same roof, making it something we look forward to every month! Portraying one taboo topic at a time and Korea’s new age work culture, the show asks us to put our faith in their leads and their wits simply do not disappoint!

Beyond the Bar is currently streaming on Netflix!

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