I was not surprised to find out the drama was written by a real judge (but how do they have the time?). The work culture felt very realistic although it's not like I know a judge's workplace, especially in Korea.

I was on an L appreciation binge when I decided to try tackle this drama again for the 3rd time. I'm glad I finally got to the end. It has an exciting start with the juxtaposition of L & Go Ara's characters but there's a few episodes in the middle where it's not exciting enough with either the characters or the cases/drama but then it picks up again and finishes strongly. Apart from the first episode, the last few were the best episodes. Also I got to the end of the slow-burn romance and to me it seems people have been throwing that term around lately for slice-of-life dramas but this one really was a slow-burn romance, I kind of forgot about it until it appeared again it was that slow. The drama gives slice-of-life vibes but it's completely unrelatable, how many people are judges?

This drama aimed to tackle many issues in society today and luckily was able to tackle issues in the workplace, civil law and criminal law in one go. They don't explain this until the end of the drama but the name Hammurabi derives from the Code (Law) of Hammurabi which was one of the first law codes to place greater emphasis on the physical punishment of the perpetrator and have a presumption of innocence, according to Wiki. The Miss in the name refers to Go Ara's character which I found interesting since Im Ba-reun (L) is really the main character. But she was a very exciting character, one that doesn't stop to think or consider, sometimes taking things too far in one direction and forgetting about the balance of the other direction. Which Im Ba-reun had to then drag her back from and try find that middle ground. This drama is the perfect example of compromise, change, and trying to see the both sides to every story.

It was interesting though how in their highlighting of how terrible the sexualisation of women is in the workplace they disregarded it happening to men (just one man really). However while I found the female character who intentionally flirted and gave mixed signals then got offended an odd character (if she was real I'd be annoyed no matter how hot she is, really, what does she think would happen?) she did help strengthen them highlighting the issue of sexual harassment of women (at the detriment to the man?). Also I found the rich vs poor mentality in this a bit too much, it certainly highlighted it as an issue but the mentality was so strong, or really it was Go Ara's character that had such a strong mentality.

I really loved the 3 main characters, the juxtaposition between them were what made this drama. It was as serious as Sung Dong-il and Go Ara could get but they were still hilarious, especially together. L as Im Ba-reun's indifferent distaste for other people narration was so appealing. His uncaring indifference of just dealing with society. Although I think if he was real he'd be depressed.Honestly though what really got me through the drama was L in a suit, he got me through all those middling boring moments. L's improved so much in his acting skills.

I looooove the OSTs, most are in my playlist. Most importantly I love how at the end of every episode, matter how sad I was feeling, it would play "It's alright, It's alright...it'll all be fine, someday." and that comforted me so much.

There's so many good quotes from this drama but I'm going to end with:
"When wearing this judge's gown you should erase your face but not your mind. I couldn't see it, if I'd tried to see with my heart I could've seen it. " - L
Followed by:
"After 30 years here I still don't know what's right or wrong. Please become a judge who listens. Before you make a judgement listen carefully to others." - Chief Judge Han's mentor