Seo Hyun Jin as Oh Soo-jae is a spirit K-Drama female lead worth emulating in Why Her!
From its opening salvo, Why Her has touched on the challenges of a woman in a male-dominated profession. It also spotlights how career achievements went through a lot of sacrifices and difficult choices.
At the same time, the underdog story portrayed by Hwang In Youp as Gong Chan seals the enigmatic charm of the series. Clear and engaging with its intentions, we can’t help but root for Soo-jae and Gong-chan to taste the sweet success of their initial shared failure.
Marcie Line watched Why Her on Viu
Episode Recaps: 01 & 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 & 06 | Mid-Series | 11 & 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Finale + Review |
Opening Week Rating: 
Why Her Opening Week Highlights
Almost reaching the pinnacle of her goals, Oh Soo-jae braved her dream of becoming a lawyer without a college degree. She has endured being looked down and gambled on her diligent efforts to attain her dream.
Her hard work paid off as the position of Managing Partner at TK Law Firm is beyond her reach. After setting her career direction, she did not expect that her contributions to the law firm do not matter when Choi Tae-kook, the chief of the law firm does not like her being ambitious.
When a case she was assigned went awry leading to suicide, the blame was pointed at her. The people at the law firm take it as a chance to thwart her appointment as a managing partner.
Bothered by hearing her claim of being the life and blood of the law firm, Chief Choi orders her to go for a semestral lecture at Seojung University law school, where she also studied. He also made his son the new Managing Partner.
“The hardest thing in life is getting people to open up to you.”
Facing a predicament, she believes she does not deserve, Soo-jae is even more driven to aspire to be on the top. As commanded, she goes to the teaching stint assigned to her.
Leaving quite an impression, she only reminds her new students not to let their clients end up in prison. Unaware that one of the students is the same man she slapped previously, after hearing the order from Chief Choi, she happily meets her mentor, Director Baek.
With a few cards in her hand, Soo-jae acquiesced to Chief Choi’s orders but refused to give the high-profit case she was handling.
“We must gain power and have a solid foundation. Both you and I. So we don’t get lost.”
Meanwhile, she was assigned to be the adviser of first-year law school students who were deemed at the bottom of the class.
When a sexual assault case was raised by Na Se-ryun erupted, the professor involved vehemently denied the allegation. Se-ryun asks for Soo-jae’s help but the latter declines.
Gong Chan tries to appeal but she asked him to bring decisive evidence if he insists on helping. That same night of the party, he witnessed the same professor making physical advances on Soo-jae, but she chose to let it go.
At the school hearing, Gong Chan and the class bottom dwellers support Se-ryun on her claim. But Soo-jae’s acquired video of how she was a victim, too, sealed the deal for the career end of the lecherous professor.
A flashback from Gong Chan reveals that he was previously convicted of a crime that he did not commit. It was Soo-jae who represented him, but they lost the case. However, the real culprit was apprehended, thus releasing him from the supposedly 10-year sentence.
From there, to keep the promise they made to each other to become stronger, he persevered to enter law school.
Why Her Opening Week Musings
Packed with a promising retribution-seeking story, Why Her asserts that building castles in the air does not fail because of wind attacks, but inconsistent and wavering dedication.
Vaunting powerless-to-dauntless lead pair, what made the series distinctive is the display of the narrative overview and direction which promise to test the mettle of the protagonists.
Incorporating the lawyers’ world as the underpinning background, Why Her threw downright messages on how hustle is much more needed than hard work in building a life and career.
The series is shaping up to illuminate prevailing disheartening situations in society such as corruption, power-tripping, cancel culture, elitism, and more.
Tasked to mentor a group deemed not to be the brightest among the new students, the preview of next week’s episodes appears to carry on with the story of the girl who committed suicide. Probably a counterattack of Chief Choi.
Hopefully, the revelation of Soo-jae’s connection with Gong Chan will not drag and so is the reason for Yoon-sang’s (Bae In Hyuk) estranged behavior from his father.
Off to a great start, the latest Friday-Saturday series of SBS flaunted a solid story and characters so far. Hopefully, the steam would be a fiery spectacle like Oh Soo-jae in the next seven weeks.
Why Her airs every Friday and Saturday on SBS. International fans can watch it on Viu!
Photos: SBS Drama
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