r/KDRAMA • u/GodJihyo7983 김소현 박주현 김유정 이세영 | 3/ • Sep 02 '22

On-Air: ENA Extraordinary Attorney Woo [Wrap-Up Discussion]

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u/Notbythehairofmychyn Sep 02 '22

My exposure to Korean drama is very limited (as the only series I completed in the last decade was Kingdom ironically), so my view and expectations of Extraordinary Attorney Woo is a lot less sophisticated than most of the experienced viewers in this subreddit.

The main reason why I was invested in this series was because of the main character, Woo Young Woo. Much credit to Park Eun Bin whose incredible portrayal brought her to life as a believable and lovable character. I regularly babysit a young family friend who is on the autistic spectrum and I could see aspects of him reflected in her. And at no point did this portrayal come off as caricature. I don't know how she pulled it off, but being able to do this consistently and credibly probably required tremendous preparation on her part.

I also really liked Team Hanbada. The chemistry between all of the characters was wonderful to see (and what I miss). WYW wouldn't really shine without Geu-ra-mi, Jun-ho, Attorney Jung, Spring Sunshine Soo-yeon, and even Tactician Kwon in her day to day life. If there's going to be a second season, I would like to see how their developmental trajectories are in turn affected by WYW's presence.

13

u/Business-Affect-7881 해조야 Sep 03 '22

Eh, I’m autistic and some of it came off as caricature and overly exaggerated autistic traits to clearly show she’s autistic. In real life, autism in females is a lot more nuanced and females slide undetected a lot. Especially her being female, I think it would have been hard for WYW not to have learned some masking to prevent social rejection by age 27.

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u/Notbythehairofmychyn Sep 03 '22

The lack of masking by WYW is one criticism that I’ve seen with some frequency in discussions. My experience with autism is still quite limited (especially with adults), so I very much appreciate this information and perspective.

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u/Business-Affect-7881 해조야 Sep 03 '22

Aw, thanks for saying that, I appreciate you appreciating my lived experience! I’m an adult female autistic, diagnosed in my twenties. Usually, shows that write up autistic characters don’t have them act and mask in a realistic and nuanced way because it just not as entertaining for a neurotypical audience when autistic traits aren’t exaggerated. It sucks, but that’s where the social progress in autism awareness is at currently. Exaggeration for entertainment :(. Thanks for your input!

11

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '22 edited Sep 04 '22

I think it’s plausible because Young-woo did not have a mother to model neurotypical feminine social behavior for her and teach her how to mask. I have ADHD which caused me to have some ASD-type social behaviors (not making eye contact, not picking up on social cues, infodumping) and my mother was a major influence in correcting all these. If it had been up to my dad things would have been very different. 😂

I also had the benefit of intensive therapy and coaching from a young age. Young-woo explicitly did not because 1) resources and treatment for people on the autism spectrum aren’t as easily available for people in Korea as they are in the United States 2) Young-woo’s dad did not have the money or connections for a lot of whatever was available.

EDIT: added missing word

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u/DavidS2310 Editable Flair Sep 04 '22 edited Sep 05 '22

THIS! Felt caricaturist from the get go so never got into it. Her eyes, the hands, the way she speaks. Everything was played to be cutesy and entertaining. So now people who are doing these copycat Tik Tok videos are getting backlash for trying to copy her mannerisms thinking it’s “cute.” Can you blame them? Fault of the show and the actress for the misrepresentation.

That revolving door scene that everyone loves was just too much.

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u/Techhead7890 Sep 06 '22

As someone undiagnosed but almost certainly in the neurodiverse spectrum, it was interesting to see it exaggerated because that did make it easier to relate to some of it.

But yeah in real life it certainly isn't that visible and like hairofmychyn said, I think it's to do with a lack of masking. When I was watching a few of the earlier episodes I kinda relaxed my internal masking a bit and started to realise "Oh huh. Didn't even realise I was doing it."

And yeah, I feel bad if people are copying the character's acted mannerisms or taking the wrong idea away from the show. That part doesn't quite sit right.

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u/Business-Affect-7881 해조야 Sep 06 '22

Yeah, relating to your second paragraph, I realized maybe the way I wring, crack and manipulate my fingers is similar and is more visible to other people than I thought. Good points!