Beyond the Bar is over and I'm feeling empty again. Have you ever felt so attached to the characters and story that you can't focus on other new on-going series? You just can't help but think of what might happen if the drama has more episodes? It's this one for me. The last kdrama that made me feel this way was Park Hyung Sik's "Buried Hearts", which I am yet to make a review about here on the blog, that one was absolutely amazing. It's been months since that drama ended but I still think about it up to this time. When a drama really captures my attention from start to finish, I build that kind of connection towards the characters and the story of that series, so when the conclusion arrives and everything ending after 10, 12 or 16 episodes, I am completely left empty. And it's really hard to find nowadays a great Kdrama that captures my attention fully. Really. That's why letting go of a well written Kdrama is not that easy.
Anyway, let's stop with the drama and get on with this review. Okay, so, Beyond the Bar is a legal drama that aired from August 2 to September 7 of 2025. It showcases the story of rookie lawyer Kang Hyo Min (Jung Chae Yeon) as she represents Yullim Law Firm through the cases that she works on through the help of her mentor and head of litigation department, Yoon Seok Hoon (Lee Jin Uk). As they work on new cases together, their relationship becomes closer and their backstory gets unveiled one by one. I honestly love that way of story telling when it comes to legal dramas. The cases and the story between characters flowed really in synched unlike some of the legal dramas that make these two flow differently. Both are effective, of course, but this kind of story telling from Beyond the Bar was a personal preference of mine.
One of the things that I loved about this drama is that the situation in every cases were all illustrated graphically which made the whole thing easy to understand, especially those who are not really into laws. I love the effort made through those graphics, tbh. And I think this was the first one that actually used such detail to convey their cases really well to the viewers. Job well done on that!
Now, cases aside, the other thing that I love about this drama is the story and connections developed between characters. To those who have seen this drama, you all know what's up between Hyo Min and Seok Hoon. They were obviously built up for romance, that is undeniable. A few still try to argue especially in the comments section of my posts on Facebook but their argument doesn't void the obvious. If you're watching this drama with closed eyes or half asleep then I can see why you do not see the chemistry and love between these two.
I honestly loved every moments together of Hyo Min and Seok Hoon. Who would've thought they'd become this close in the end when you first saw them argue as mentor and mentee at the start of this drama? Seok Hoon was even disgusted with Hyo Min with how she's always late, untidy and impulsive. But as they go through cases, handkerchiefs and talked through coffee, tea, beer after work together, they overcame their differences and started opening their hearts to each other. It's just sad that the 12 episodes were not enough to really showcase us the full development of their romance. These two are turtles when it comes to love, they're completely unaware of what's happening between them but the ex-wife could even tell after seeing Hyo Min the first time. Their romance is slow burn, which I love btw, so I just hope that there will be season 2 for this. The ending was left hanging with Seok Hoon unable to finish his response to Hyo Min when she asked about love. If that's not a clue that we're going to have season 2 for continuation then I do not know what it is. Seriously, there were a lot of hints too in the series, if you pay attention to their dialogue, about the future of Hyo Min and Seok Hoon. It's definitely romantic one. ha!
But hey, even though the romance did not happen just yet between Hyo Min and Seok Hoon, we have Jin Woo and Min Jeong to the rescue. I honestly didn't see those two coming as a couple at the beginning. But the flow of story just made me root for them. Especially when Jin Woo starts to pursue Min Jeong outright. Min Jeong was from a divorce just like Seok Hoon so it's not easy to open her heart as well to just anyone. Also, the 11 year age gap between her and Jin Woo made her doubtful at first but thankfully, in the end, she accepted Jin Woo as her new partner. Boy, he even proposed! That's just beautiful!
Anyway, that's it for Beyond the Bar. Will I recommend this drama? DEFINITELY! It's a must watch!
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