Summary
“Wild Card vs Tactician” is a smart episode that challenges the notion of a victory when one finds themselves on the wrong side of the law.
This recap of Extraordinary Attorney Woo season 1, episode 5, “Wild Card vs Tactician”, contains spoilers.
There’s no denying that Extraordinary Attorney Woo has quickly become the most popular k-drama on Netflix, which isn’t much of a surprise given its tender portrayal of autism and charming lead. But is its popularity deserved beyond that? Is it as good as its burgeoning representation suggests?
I’ve been thinking about this question and was thinking about it during “Wild Card vs Tactician” because it’s easy to be suckered by the charm enough to overlook serious matters of quality and consistency. Maybe that’s a boring critic’s impulse, to double-check you’re being cynical enough, but it’s one I have, nonetheless. And I’m happy to report that there really isn’t very much to dislike about this show.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo season 1, episode 5 recap
This claim is more impressive given the case of the episode involves rival firms fighting for ownership and distribution rights to a revolutionary ATM machine designed to limit embezzlement and other financial crimes. But it’s the personal drama that matters. Young-woo is given the case alongside Min-woo, another one-year contract hire who sees Young-woo as a steppingstone to his own advancement within the firm.
This is much more interesting than the details. Stuff like Jun-ho overhearing Min-woo slagging Young-woo off and roughing him up on the basketball court is great, charming characterization. And Young-woo having someone who understands her and who she can open up to means that we get to learn more about how her brain functions through their conversations. The important matter here is the difficulties she has detecting deception, building towards a fairly obvious but nonetheless necessary revelation that the firm Young-woo is representing are the ones at fault.
I liked this. With a legal drama, especially an episodic one like this, there’s always a chance of the format feeling repetitive, of the wins beginning to feel inevitable. But this episode challenges the notion of what a “win” even is in a legal context, especially when one knows that the win has ultimately been handed to the side who least deserve it.
It’s this kind of storytelling where Extraordinary Attorney Woo really excels, and with Young-woo’s personal life obviously beginning to factor more and more into the overarching story, I strongly suspect we’re in the midst of a real hit here.
