SBS’s latest office drama is here, featuring a veteran attorney meeting her match after coming across a righteous and empathetic newbie.
Together, they will handle divorce cases, argue about their different approaches, grow with each other, and finally become Good Partners.
Bunny S. watches Good Partneron Viu
Opening Week Rating:
Good Partner Opening Week Story
“Did Cha work her magic again?”
We open the drama with our heroine, Star Divorce Attorney Cha Eun-kyung (Jang Nara), surrounded by reporters on her way out of court, having stunned everyone after getting her client hefty alimony and a division of assets. Which is nothing new to Eun-Kyung, given how competent she is at her job. But while her work skills are top-notch, having 17 years of experience under her belt, the same can’t be said about her people skills.
So far, almost all the newbies who worked under Eun-kyung ended up quitting after getting pushed too hard by her. This makes us wonder how long the latest newbie, our second heroine Rookie Attorney Han Yu-ri (Nam Ji Hyun), will last, especially given how the divorce field wasn’t Yu-ri’s first preference but the corporate department. (Funnily enough, Yu-ri wrote in her cover letter that she doesn’t mind working at any other department but divorce.)
Most importantly, Yu-ri and Eun-kyung go back a long way. Back when Yu-ri was still a college student, a client-oriented Eun-kyung scolded Yu-ri for being a rule-stickler during a guest lecture. And for sure, it doesn’t help matters that Yu-ri described divorce attorneys as people who spend their time listening to clients whine and complain.
It is evident during their first meeting as colleagues that both women remember each other. Yu-ri asks about the reason she wasn’t assigned to the corporate department. But instead of an explanation, Eun-kyung gives Yu-ri an ultimatum: win 10 cases in a row and get transferred to the corporate department.
“You will first meet with the client today at 11 am.”
Given how Eun-kyung has Yu-ri meet her first client on a ten-minute notice, I think it might be safe to say Yu-ri has her work cut out for her. That ultimatum is only a creative way Eun-kyung came up with to keep Yu-ri on the team even for a short while and see what happens.
Yu-ri’s first client is a cheating husband claiming to be a loyal man who wants to keep his family intact. Yet his wife wants a divorce, accusing him of having an affair since she suffers from delusional jealousy. An unsuspicious Yu-ri takes the Cheating Husband’s word for it without looking into it any further, only to get shocked by evidence of the affair sprung on her at court.
An experienced Eun-kyung, though, saw right through Cheating Husband the moment he entered the office. Thus, she advises Yu-ri to get Cheating Husband to admit to the affair and settle with his wife out of court. But it seems like Cheating Husband has no plans to do that as he just crafts another lie to nullify the evidence.
Since winning is all she cares about, Eun-kyung doesn’t mind going with Cheating Husband’s plan. Yet righteous Yu-ri isn’t on board with it, deeming lying to protect her client unfair to the wife. Anyway, at court, Yu-ri just goes along with the plan and supports her argument with another set of lies and a recording of Wife’s family accusing Yu-ri of being another mistress of Cheating Husband’s.
The lawsuit gets dismissed. Which means a win for the firm. But such a win is meaningless to Yu-ri, especially since another woman picks up when Yu-ri calls Cheating Husband to relay the court’s decision. Not that Yu-ri didn’t already know deep down he was a cheater.
“We are colleagues on the same side. How dare you glare at me in front of the mediators?”
The theme of cheating spouses extends to our second case of the week as well. Two old friends had their respective spouses cheat on them with each other. With evidence of the affair secured and the cheating duo admitting to it, getting a divorce is pretty much a piece of cake. But the catch is the cheating pair is shameless enough to demand the custody of the children so that they can raise them together.
For Eun-kyung, as long as she can get Friend 1 (the wife) a hefty sum of money for alimony and Friend 2 (the husband) a good deal on the division of assets, all is good and well. But Yu-ri is more focused on how the children will get scarred in the process, having to treat a family friend as a parent and get separated from a real parent.
Regardless of the ruling (The cheating duo got the children’s custody in return for the cheating husband paying his wife a hefty alimony and the cheating wife giving up on alimony and child support.), I like how this case highlighted Eun-kyung and Yu-ri’s personality differences even much more than the first one.
Eun-kyung thinks logically about what is best for her client. She isn’t a judge who makes decisions, but a representative offering a service in return for a fee. Actually, Eun-kyung’s stance wasn’t just about money but because she knew how hard it would be on the wife to raise her children on her own.
Figuring how Cheating Husband didn’t really want to raise the children but only wanted to put on a show at court, Eun-kyung correctly guessed that once he got busy, Cheating Husband would dump the children on their mother and let them move in with her. This means the wife would get her children back along with a new house to live in, away from that cheating husband.
On the other hand, Yu-ri is rather emotional in her approach, strongly advocating for what she believed was best for the children. We clearly saw how hard she tried to convince Friend 1 (the wife) to refuse the settlement and fight for her children’s custody.
Between a realistic and cool-headed Eun-kyung and a righteous and emotional Yu-ri, I don’t think the drama wants us to take sides but to highlight our leading women’s differences. And if we think about it, being tangled up together can help Eun-kyung and Yu-ri grow as individuals and attorneys, too. Eun-kyung can learn to empathize more and Yu-ri can learn that there is more to the big picture than she meets her eye.
“Did you have to come all the way to my house at this hour?”
Through flashbacks, we learn that Yu-ri’s father left his family for another woman. Hence, she got very emotional while handling the second case. Yu-ri was so hurt by her father’s affair that she didn’t want to attend his funeral and was practically dragged there by her mother and just left without paying her respects.
As luck would have it, Yu-ri gets stuck into an unenviable situation, having caught Eun-kyung’s husband red-handed while making out with another woman. After being torn about it for a while, Yu-ri settles to inform Eun-kyung about the affair. But the thing is, Eun-kyung is already aware of the affair as well as the identity of her husband’s mistress. And that is where we end the opening week with Yu-ri shocked and Eun-kyung as cool as a cucumber.
Good Partner Opening Week Musings
I am always happy to see Jang Nara on the screen and having Nam Ji-hyun as well feels like having a cake and eating it too. Stories centered on female characters are not that abundant, so I am all excited to tag along on our heroines’ journey to handle cases and grow on each other.
I love how the drama humanizes both women. Eun-kyung might be strict and professional but she is a good mentor to Yu-ri. Be it dropping tips to help Yu-ri, answering her questions without looking annoyed, having Yu-ri join in on the second case, or buying her a bag. Granted, the last two points might be because Eun-kyung is worried Yu-ri might end up quitting like the other newbies. Still, it is a step on the road.
Likewise, Yu-ri might be quite naïve, but she is also smart seeing how she handled the first case well and secured a win by herself. (I feel bad for the wife from the first case, but I appreciate the drama’s realistic approach regarding the court’s verdicts.)
It is clear that this is a character-driven drama with the cases serving to give us more insight into our heroines and put them in a closer vicinity. So, I won’t complain about not being emotionally invested in either of the two cases we got this week. But I really hope we can get another reason for divorce other than cheating and affairs.
I mean, it is annoying enough that we have a resident cheating husband and yet again another successful heroine leading a perfect life on the outside, only for that to come crumbling down because her husband is having an affair. I even couldn’t watch My Happy End because of that though I am a big fan of Jang Nara. Things might be different here because Eun-kyung is already aware of the affair but chooses not to do anything. But what kind of life is this?
Another person privy to the affair is Jung Woo-jin (Kim Joon-han), Eun-kyung’s colleague and seemingly best friend. Though he seems to have a long-time one-sided crush on Eun-kyung, Woo-jin opts to respect Eun-kyung’s privacy, acting clueless about the affair and letting Eun-kyung handle the situation herself.
Finally, rounding out the main quartet, we have Jun Eun-ho (Pyo Ji-hoon), another rookie attorney who graduated from the same school as Yu-ri but joined the firm 3 months earlier than her. So far, all we have about Eun-ho is his friendly personality and how he likes to clock off on the dot, along with some little hints that his blooming friendship with Yu-ri might turn into something else along the way.
I won’t say the story has gotten me hooked. But this female pairing is enough for me to give the drama a four-episode grace period before commenting on whether the show lived up to our expectations or, unfortunately, is another drama with a strong cast but a not-so-engaging plot. Hopefully, it is the former because it will be such a waste of talent to cast such talented actresses and go nowhere with it.
Photos and Videos: SBS Drama
