#BeyondTheBar: Law and Love at Its best Bar None

‼️May contain spoilers‼️

Synopsis: A young intelligent rookie lawyer joins a top law firm, navigating the complex legal world under a stern but talented mentor; aka Esquire.

Cast:

• #LeeJinWook as Yoon Seok Hoon– Squid Game, Sweet Home, Doona

• #JungChaeYeon as Kang Hyo Min – Golden Spoon, The King's Affection

• #LeeHakJoo as Lee Jin Woo - The Potato Lab, My Dearest

• #JeonHyeBin as Heo Min Jeong - Revolutionary Sisters

While many were disappointed because they were shipping the leads, hoping that the two would end up together in the finale, I was happy with the ending. 

This is a legal drama after all (please, we have enough rom-coms and love dramas), and for me, any romantic angle between them was just a side dish, pang-kilig factor seeing that there is chemistry between the actors, despite their age gap - both in the story and in real life. 

In an interview, LJW said the original script’s romantic line had been “softened”, and they thought if there was future relationship between the mentor and the younger colleague, it would be subtle and mature and didn’t have to be rushed, and that love is a process of growth, commitment, and mutual support.

Unlike typical dramas, the highlights of #BeyondTheBar were more on understated gestures of care and support, showing how love can be shown through action and shared experiences rather than grand or loud declarations. Case in point, when Jin Woo was proposing marriage to Min Jeong, he ended up not reading what he wrote and rehearsed but spoke of his love from the heart.

In Episode 7, the metaphor "Love is a rainbow" was used to describe how love evolves through a spectrum of emotions, with each color representing different feelings or stages in a relationship: Red for passion, Orange for warmth, Yellow for happiness, Green for peace, Blue for trust, Indigo for depth, and Violet for mystique.  That even if we move from one color (or stage) to another, it doesn't mean our love is lost, or has disappeared.

Even Seok Hoon, having gone through a divorce, has his version: “I think marriage is based on love. Over time, that love just changes shape. Love between a couple starts with passion, goes through reality, and ends in solidarity. Losing passion doesn’t mean losing love.” Solidarity. Loyalty. Belonging. These are all different forms of love.

The drama series was popular, that not even the old scandal  that resurfaced involving the male lead could affect the high ratings. The cases were all interesting and I loved how they were tied up and connected to each episode’s theme. 

For Hyo Min, from their cases, she was able to learn about love – love between a man and a woman; love of parents for their children; love of children for their parents; and the love between spouses. Even the love we show to others. Love takes many forms, and that wounds that come with it can be healed. 

While she was enumerating these, this wrapping up brought me to tears - with all their clients being shown how they are now, how it’s going, how they’re living their lives in the present – after their legal entanglements. 

This ending wrapped things up nicely and in a heartwarming way, leaving us with a conclusion that Beyond the Bar is one of the better K-dramas this year.

Law and Love – are they mutually interdependent? 

Love should not be blind to the Law, and Law is the guide for love…love should not disregard defined standards; in the same way that such standards are designed to establish the norm for appropriate conduct, and demonstrates how love ought to manifest itself in tangible ways.

All 12 episodes of Beyond the Bar is streaming Netflix 

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