Legal V (2018)

Fun Premise, Forgettable Show

I, like many who'll watch this, came only for the main actress Yonekura Ryoko, who will always be our beloved Dr. Daimon Michiko. And, while I was satisfied by a similar competence and eccentric personality which endeared me to her character in Doctor X, the story itself falls into many traps which Jdramas often succumb to (and where we must admit Doctor X is also often found culpable). These traps being the repetition, the predictability, and the ever-present catchphrase structure.

A flaw in writing which I've seen a shocking number of times in Jdramas is the repetition of plot structure between episodes. It's one thing to write episodically, where each episode could be viewed on its own without the rest of the story. That's nothing new, great shows have been doing that forever. The trouble comes when every episodic is basically a copy-paste of the last one. This is something that happened outrageously often in Doctor X, and got worse and worse as time continued. This show had an opposite trend, getting slightly better as the show moved forward, but even by the end every episode was unbearably predictable. And it was made even worse by the catchphrases.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love a good catchphrase. It's something fun for the main character to say which fills the viewer with emotion and excitement, and often a feeling of hope. Used correctly (and infrequently), it can elevate exciting moments even higher. But when you use the same three catchphrases in the same place in every episode, and the same things always follow every catchphrase, it doesn't take long for us to find the pattern. Now, when the catchphrase is spoken, instead of being excited, we feel like we already know what's going to happen for the next five minutes and start to loose interest. Losing interest is bad, that's the opposite of a show's goal. The unshakeable structure of the show and lack of evolution as the series progresses is to its detriment, as everything new and interesting is discovered in the first few episodes, and then it quickly becomes old and stagnant.

Even though we have a cast of characters with interesting premises, there is a lack of execution when it comes to unique character traits. Every character is distinguished by their past, not by their personality, leaving many conversations feeling somewhat lifeless, with people just filling the roles of things that need to be said to move the plot forward. If the characters had more defined personalities, especially ones connected with their well-defined pasts, there may be more vibrance in the dialogue and delivery, as well as more potential for character arcs. That's another thing: there are no character arcs. Unfortunately, that wasn't much of a surprise.

The drama wraps with a main story, one which finally is of some emotional importance to the main character. This makes it stand apart, which is good, but it also could have been set up much better. The premise of the story means the protagonist was aware of it the entire time, and yet it wasn't mentioned or even hinted at in any of the earlier episodes. This means, even if the main character cares about this topic, I, as the viewer, really don't. Regardless, the main issue is still the repetition, a point I'm hoping to repeat enough to show you how annoying it can get. It's like watching a kdrama romcom and hoping to the heavens for a male lead who isn't a perfect cyborg love robot, and inevitably being disappointed. With that rather depressing image in mind, I do not recommend this show.

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