I am a huge crime/law/courtroom drama buff, and May It Please the Court does not disappoint in its opening. I decided to watch this drama because I am a huge Jung Ryeo Won and Lee Kyu Hyung fan. It's good to have Jung Ryeo Won back since Diary of a Prosecutor, another drama I genuinely enjoyed. Similarly, it's good to see Lee Kyu Hyung after his riveting performance in Voice 4. I had dreams of becoming a detective in another life. It's perhaps why I was drawn to them so much. I was pretty intrigued by Noh Chak Hee. Her character may not be any different than many others we've seen of a female lead with a hard childhood life who studies hard to make something of herself and, in the process, loses her humanity. At least, that's what it seems like. But the twist and turns in the first episode alone, coupled with the issues the drama looks to address in whether the legal system is objective and unbiased, caught my attention.
The drama opens with Noh Chak-Hee (Jung Ryeo Won) as a brilliant but ruthless corporate lawyer adopted by the founder of Janghee, one of Seoul's most prominent law firms, affectionately known to her as "grandfather" (Jeon Moo Song). Just as she is about to receive a promotion to partner after successfully defending a dodgy pharmaceutical company for manufacturing harmful birth control pills, the police arrest her for manipulating a woman who had taken the drugs into attempting suicide. She is suspended by Jang Gi Do (Jung Jin Young), grandfather's son, for a year and is forced to take a job working as a member of the Seoul public defender's office. As a public defender, she shares an office with the mysterious Jwa Si-Baek (Lee Kyu Hyung), a top Judicial Research and Training Institute graduate. Instead of becoming a judge, prosecutor, or attorney at a big law firm, he chooses to work in the least profitable and least respected legal profession, the public defender's office. Despite the stigma of working as a public defender, he is enthusiastic about his work, cares about justice for the poor and marginalized people in society, and goes after big law firms such as Janghee.
I wasn't sure what to make of Chak Hee for trying to distance herself from her friend who asked for help for being accused of murdering her husband. So, I was honestly pleasantly surprised to see her help her. I understood why she did what she did for her friend, but to be so naïve as to believe she could go against a big firm like Janghee and they wouldn't find her out seemed to go against her shrewd persona. Maybe that is the point the drama is trying to make -- that there is more to Chak Hee than meets the eye. Whoever said nothing in life is promised. Each day is a valuable opportunity to play an important role in this world. Treat each moment like it's the performance of a lifetime; approach every day like it's your first. Respect it as if you've invested years. Appreciate it like it's your last wasn't exaggerating.
I am now totally hooked on this drama. The audacity of Jang Gi Do and anyone like him to believe they can play with other people's lives as they please because they have the right background turned my stomach. And the sad part is that people like Chak Hee, whose only shortfall, if one can even call it that, is the need to be accepted, perpetuate the cycle by letting themselves get emotionally manipulated. I couldn't wait to see Chak Hee use her brilliance to make all those who think they can walk all over the poor and the underprivileged alongside Jwa Si Baek. Despite not getting along very well when they first met, a serial murder case brings them together to try and solve the issue as it seemed to impact them personally.
As cute as the banter between Chak Hee and Jwa Si Baek was, what interested me more was the unexpected serial murder plot. And what made it even more intriguing was that the serial killer targeted high society figures with an evil past. Their deaths didn't bother me, but it raised my attention to the fact that it just might be the real story. And despite the drama wanting us, the viewers, to believe the murders were somehow an act of vigilante with everything pointing at Jwa Si Baek, I got the sense that there was more behind the killings that somehow affected both Chak Hee and Jwa Si Baek in some way or another. May It Please the Court is a drama worthy of anyone's time. Watch all episodes here.
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