‘Divorce Attorney Shin’ Netflix Series Review - Lovely Show, Charming Actors

If there is one thing we can learn from shows like Crash Course in Romance and now Divorce Attorney Shin, it's that a feel-good narrative doesn't mean you end up making a toothless and dramatically deficient series. In the name of making audiences happy, some filmmakers create something so lightweight that it practically evaporates from your head. But shows like Crash Course in Romance and Divorce Attorney Shin stick in your mind and make you look forward to upcoming episodes because they know when to be light and feel-good and when to slightly sting you with seriousness. Don't dismiss it all as frothy. Don't be fooled by the soft lights and bright aesthetics. The worlds in these shows are both lived-in and complicated. You never know when a serial killer will emerge and break a comedy routine or when a character will begin to remember a sad incident.

Another superb aspect of these shows is the perfect casting of the actors. No one feels out of place. Thanks to the performances, the characters effortlessly blend into the setting and give the impression that they have all been living for a long time in a particular place. When you look at Shin Sung-han (Cho Seung-woo), you immediately accept him as a divorce lawyer who has been working in the field for quite some time. It helps that the actors don't simply rely on their looks and superficial charms to imbue a feeling of eye candy. Rather, they use their performances to suck us into the narrative. We are told that Shin is a successful lawyer, but we believe in this information because you watch the character hold himself with confidence during the court sessions. He speaks without stammering and maintains composure, as he has complete faith in his skills.

Similarly, we accept the fact that Shin once was a music professor, who perhaps wanted to play the piano on stage, and still pines for that profession due to the way he is seen playing the piano at one point. You see, Divorce Attorney Shin not only gives us texts but also convincing proof of those texts. The show is like a lawyer in that way. On the basis of the first two episodes, it seems that Shin will come across new divorce cases after every one or two episodes, and simultaneously, it will also be revealed how exactly he went from being a music teacher to a divorce attorney. You notice the words "Marry Carefully, Divorce Quickly" inside Shin's office, and I am curious to know where this notion comes from. I guess you can point toward Shin's imperfect parents, but it will be interesting to observe the specifics.

Divorce Attorney Shin posits that divorce is more complex than the dissolution of a marriage. It's not just about a wife separating from her husband. But about why someone would take such a step and the consequences they bring upon themselves. Lee Seo-jin (Han Hye-jin) gets tired of her obsessive (and abusive) husband, which is why her affair is more than just a scandal. It's her intuition telling her to run away from her spouse, which manifests in the form of liaison. But Seo-jin's actions have consequences, and they come in the form of mental torture inflicted on her son, who is manipulated by his father and forced to watch an inappropriate video.

However, the husband is not regularly a villain. In the second episode, we meet a female worker who considers divorce because of her husband's mother, who's so ruthless she beats up one of the worker's daughters. They say marriage is a union between two families. So it's only natural to split up if one of the families is not behaving properly. Between all this drama, you find lovely scenes like the one where Shin and his friends sing a song or someone calls the attorney Mr. Competent. If you were sad about the fact that Crash Course in Romance has ended, you could cheer up because that hole can be filled by Divorce Attorney Shin.

Final Score- [8.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times