Let's Start the Argument (2022)

Nonchalant, sassy, intelligent - a solid enrichment among law&order dramas

"May it Please the Court" is one of my favorite series amid the flood of Law & Order series 2022. I appreciate its witty and grounded touch. I also appreciate the playful, sassy and natural at ease dynamic between the two leads. You get wit without silliness and on top of that an exciting story. In addition, the question (which is obviously burning at the moment in South Korea) about the solid handling of the rule of law in the face of apparently overpowering forces that control politics, the executive and the judiciary, is intelligently incorporated into the network of relationships and case processing.

The story is based on a book with real cases, written by public defender Jeong Hye-jin ("Let Me Start the Argument"). This makes the Disney production a solid enrichment for current courtroom dramas. In addition, this KDrama doesn´t try to downplay its KDrama roots in favour of international streaming market standards. The KDrama remains true to itself and doesn't rely on more violence or sex than usual It rather builds on proven emotional storytelling with an excellent cast and a loving eye for the nuances.

The intro offers an impressive, brilliantly cool stylization of the KDrama orbit, in which the one percent of society is always involved: the fircely quarreling, shaken by internal intrigues and secrets, outrageously rich family clan, in which everything is about the best law firm, the greatest impact on the prosecutor's office or the fat contract. Here you have to be clean, untouched, respectable (which you rarely are). The profession of choice is a lawyer and/or sooner or later assemblyman and ideally a presidential candidate.

So far, so good... we´ve seen it many times. Now, however, the story is driven by a new powerful perspective: the world of public defenders who handle legal cases from the world of ordinary, often destitute people at the bottom of society. Worlds clash - worlds both with people involved. The interface is incorporated by No Chak-hee, who has lived in either. As the number 1 in the law firm, in which she has just been promoted to the youngest partner, she is being transferred to the mandatory public defense. What she doesn't know: this is mere political calculation of her very esteemed superior. What she also doesn't know: the encounter with her new colleague and the world of public defense will unhinge her worldview and give her work new direction and grounding.

Suspense has the central characters fatefully under control. A series of murders occur. Crimes emerge behind old, long solved and forgotten cases. No Chak-hee realizes that even she can no longer wash her hands in innocence. Guilt. Innocence. Right. Wrong. Culprit. Victim. Justice. Injustice. The perspectives get a bit out of the sounding line.

KDrama at its finest. Good entertainment, while also being socially critical and up to date. Pithy. Nonchalant. Intelligent. Exciting. Romantic vibes included.

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