from the lack of miss hammurabi content on tumblr, i’m sensing that not many people are watching it. so here’s a short list of reasons why you need to watch miss hammurabi:
(1) it offers a realistic view of life and the legal system.
this drama is based on a book of the same name, which is written by an actual chief judge, named moon yoo seok. and, he’s also the screenwriter for the drama, which gives you a somewhat realistic view of what it’s like in a south korean courtroom.
given that the drama revolves around the civil department, you won’t be seeing any cases that deal with murder, robbery, assaults and any of those things. rather the cases deal with negligence, “unjust” dismissals, family law, inheritance, and so forth. these are the type of cases that almost everyone will deal with at some point of their life - no matter their occupation, class, age or gender.
the drama tackles the real issues that our society is dealing with. in the 6 episodes that has been aired so far, they have talked about human rights, sexual harassment, corruption, sexism, anxiety, discrimination, power inequality and the struggles overworked employees go through (both in their personal lives and on a psychological level), just to name a few.
they handled sensitive topics like sexual harassment in the workplace and the treatment of women in the workplace with a grace and dignity, which is somewhat hard to find in other k-dramas and media in general.
the drama shows that, much like life, nothing is black and white when it comes to the law.
(2) relatable characters and a great cast
with the variety of characters in this drama, i can guarantee that you’ll find at least one that you can relate to. in the main characters, you have:
the strong-willed, good-hearted park cha oh reum (played by go ara),
the logical-thinking, rule abiding to a fault im ba reun (played by kim myunsoo, aka infinite’s L),
the hot-tempered but well meaning presiding judge, han se sang (played by sung dong il),
the ever-positive, sociable jung bo-wang (played by ryu deok hwan),
and the all-knowing, ever-observant lee do yeon (played by lee elijah)
even in the supporting characters, there are characters that you’d want to protect and relate to. all of the characters are flesh-out, and complex. none of the characters are perfect; they all have their flaws and short-comings.
(3) character growth and relationships
even though only 6 episodes have aired so far, there is already a lot of growth in our main characters. both the main leads have learnt to see things through the other’s perspective. our naive oh reum starts to see that forcing her views on to others and being emotional doesn’t help to solve the problem at hand. and, our logical ba reun starts to see that everything isn’t black or white, right or wrong, but rather that there is a grey area.
what i really love about department 44 (and their honorary member, jung bo wang) is that together they’re a team and pretty much a family. one character’s short-comings is another character’s strength. they fight, and get on each other’s nerves, but they also defend and help each other when they need it most. they aren’t afraid to stand up to each other; they literally will call each other out when someone’s doing something wrong, regardless of age or seniority.
tldr; watch miss hammurabi. it airs on monday and tuesday on jtbc.
