Good or Bad rep of the autism comunity ?

First let me say that this show has some of my favourite Korean actors, so I was quite excited to check it out. I'm always a bit nervous when it comes to autistic representation, because being autistic myself, most of the time they can be quite bad and traumatic. But for Woo YoungWoo it’s both good and bad… so here’s my brutal opinion:

Just like so many other films and series with autistic representation, a lot of it is stereotypical, problematic and strait up ableist. It’s quite easy to tell that that Park Eun Bin isn’t on the autism spectrum. being autistic myself, it was easily recognizable as a neuro-typical actor doing inverted-masking* to look autistic. Which is really wrong, and can be extremely harmful. But let’s say that her performance was perfect representation of autism. Would that make it okay not to hire an autistic actor ?

And it’s yet again another autistic-savant. Savants represents probably around 50 to 75 people who are on the autism spectrum on the planet. Yes, people, not precent. Woo YoungWoo being a yet another savant makes it seem like there are way more of us special autistics.

The world is already extremely discriminating agents the autistic community, both in front and behind the camera. Some of this discrimination is done openly, but a lot of it is also built the groundworks of society, work hours, expectations, lack of accommodations, etc. I’m speaking from experience and I’m high-masking. The excuse for casting a more famous non-autistic actor over an autistic actor to playing an autistic character is usually to try to get more viewership, but could you imagine a studio casting this way with ANY other minority group ?

It needs to be a universal rule for studios that if a show has an autistic character, you cast an autistic actor. There may be some rare situations where casting a non-disabled actor in a disabled role might be necessary, but that isn’t the case for Woo YoungWoo. All this does is communicate that big studios believe autistic people are not capable enough to be actors, even when we are portraying our own autism. For me, it’s absurd to think a show have the intention of elevating autistic voices and then refuse to let an autistic character be played by an autistic actor.

Now, sometimes it is challenging because a writer or director who isn’t autistic may be the one pitching the show, but it is then the studio’s responsibility to make sure that the autistic people are hired into the other key positions. Could you imagine if I (a white teen from Norway) pitched a show where the story cantered around Korean culture and then no one on the production team, nor the actors who played the Korean characters were actually Korean ?

Woo YoungWoo is a very docile, autistic. She’s highly attractive, acquiescent and she’s infantilized and treated like a pet by almost everyone. And that’s because her autism is docile. The way her autism manifests isn’t disruptive, she doesn’t have to miss work because of overload, she doesn’t have to excuse herself from meetings, she doesn’t have major emotional responses even to incredibly emotional cases or when people are screaming at her. Her autistic traits barely need any accommodation at all. All of her autistic traits are maybe weird, but still cute and adorable. So, everyone wants to make her their pet.

Another big problem is the Korean title of the show “이상한 변호사 우영우” literally means “weird Attorney Woo YoungWoo” that doesn’t sit well with me. And I have criticism of the English subtitles. I don’t know how it’s said in Korean, but they chose to translate everything in person-first language and the majority of English speaking, autistic communities prefer identity-first language. I preferer to say “I am autistic” or “they are an autistic person” rather than “I have autism” or “they are a person with autism”. Saying I have autism makes it sound like an illness, rather than what it actually is.

I’ve gone over the things I dislike, so I might as well talk about some things I did find likable, like looking at it through the culture of Korea the show is quite ground-breaking.
The first awesome thing about Extraordinary Attorney Woo is that they’re portraying autism in a woman. Autism has largely been depicted as a male condition. Women are far more likely to go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. The fact that they chose a woman for the lead who’s autistic is pretty revolutionary.

They also didn’t make her two-dimensional character. She struggles with questions of morality as she has to represent clients of questionable character and she loses cases and makes mistakes. Even with her savant, her photographic memory, doesn’t make her infallible and this creates such a complex character. When it comes the other characters around her there’s a bit of a mix bag, but in every episode there’s at least one great moment of some kind of autistic solidarity or understanding or ableism being called out.

They are showing the spectrum of autism through different characters, although western culture is in a different place compared to Korea when it comes to this, so my criticism is that there showing a spectrum of stereotypical autism traits, but it is still pretty amazing that a Korean show is choosing to show multiple autistic characters so that they are depicting some spectrum.

But the most amazing thing is YoungWoo and JunHo’s relationship. From the beginning JunHo is supportive without judgement. That alone is rare. He exabits, curiosity and looks for ways he can provide accommodation for starting in their very first meetings. From there he never expresses any kind of pity or thinking of her less than, and his feelings for her are obviously from a place of just general affection. He sees her and treats her as his equal and he doesn’t treat her that way because of her abilities. But another amazing thing is that he pursues her romantically.

But just because these things are grate, doesn’t mean I necessarily liked the series. I believe in acknowledging the good in something, especially when we’re stuck with it. The show exists, it’s really popular, I can’t change that. So, I want to talk about the things that are good about it. But we also need to acknowledge the very real and very harmful things that it’s going.

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kind of disappointing

Now, I’m writing this as someone who read the manhwa the series is based on, I truly love the story and was really exited to hear it was getting a drama. But I’m so disappointed in what we got. I absolutely recommend reading the manhwa if you can, the first season is around 100 chapters then after that the second season starts.

Anyways, over to my review !
I love the actors who were casted but I don’t think the roles fit them. I generally thought Hari and Taemu were so annoying during the entire show in the way they were written. i get that its suposed to be a comedy, but i didnt really find any of the jokes funny. i love both Ahn Hyoseop and Kim Sejeong, but these rols werent really the best for them. infact, while reading the manhwa i never imagened Ahn Hyoseop as Taemu, i was more seeing someone like Jung Haein, Woo DoHwan, or even Kim Minkyu who portraied Cha Sunghoon i feel like woulve been a better choice for Taemu.

There were small cute deatails that were lost, like Hari's family chicken resturant was called "HaHa Chicken" in the Manhwa. and was named after Hari and her brother, Hamin. In the drama it was changed to "Goobne" (which is a real resturant chain, so im guessing it was advertisment... (?))
There were also bigger plot points that was changed form the manhwa to the drama which didn’t make sense (to me)

So, spoilers ahead for both the drama and manhwa !!
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Hari’s whole thing during the manhwa was that she doesn't want to marry Taemu. She said Taemu wasn't allowed to to even mention marrige if she didn't bring it up first, and told Taemu to not ask her to marry him, which he respected.
So the ending of season 1 of the manhwa, Hari was the one who proposed to Taemu, which was a huge part of the entire plot.
In the drama, Taemu proposed and Hari at the end of the first season and she just said, yes ? Without question, the entire plot of the manhwa was just thrown out the window. Why make that change ?


I did relly look forward for the addaption and i had huge hopes for the drama but I was honestly so disappointed.

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felt like it’s mocking me

The casting of Sangtae was poor.
Sangtae is supposed to be an Autistic character, but the actor who portray him is not. And as an autistic person, I didn’t like that…
as for autistic representation, its fine. ive seen way worse, but that doesnt change the fact that the actor is doing reverse masking.
The actor is ‘acting’ autistic, or reverse mansking, he can stop being autistic wheneber he wants, while I can’t. I live with struggling social cues, communicating my feelings, masking, getting tired easily of social interactions and trying my hardest to fit in, but the he doesnt have to deal with that doesn’t.
He ‘acts’ autistic and gets priced for a good performance, but I am autistic and gets bullied for it.

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