Dear friends,
In the crowded genre of legal dramas, shows are all competing in the same direction: to be more realistic, to cover more “underdog” cases, or to be more relevant to current events.
Enter: this week’s Korean-drama. It goes in the completely opposite direction: it’s not realistic, it’s about the Korean upper-class, and it’s so, so much fun.
Hyena
On Netflix almost everywhere. In Korean.
With out-of-this-world production value that makes Suits look like a one-take Telenovela, Hyena is a new K-drama take on the legal format. It’s so well-edited it’s kind of overwhelming.
A young and ambitious lawyer for the top 1% is on a winning streak, having just helped a minister in a public corruption case. This allows him to go for an even wealthier client but this case is threatened by the arrival of an more ambitious lawyer, a woman, to the other side.
Hyena is often times more of a romance than a drama and because it follows cases for the top 1%, it never feels serious. It’s pure entertainment.
Alternatives you might like
For a more serious show, The Good Fight on Amazon Prime is a sharp, Trump-era legal drama with fantastic performances.
Goliath also on Amazon Prime stars Billy Bob Thornton as a small-time lawyer who goes against his big previous firm.
Talk soon,
Bilal