Ting Wai Bian Hu (2022)

Well crafted and underrated legal drama

"Out of Court" is a tightly woven legal drama with superb acting, directing and scriptwriting. Intricately crafted, the story unfolds in two chapters, both of which primarily centre around the legal procedings and investigations of three death penalty cases. The first part is six episodes and takes place over the span of 16 hours, while the second part is told over 14 episodes and takes place before and after the events of part one. Xia Yu's Lu Nan is the main protagonist in "Blind Spot", while Luo Jin's Qiao Shaoting and Jiao Junyan's Xiao Zhen are the main leads in "Drowning Man" ("The Last Straw" in English). Both male leads appear throughout parts one and two.

Out of Court is more than a legal drama, however -- there are mysteries to solves, side cases to crack, and some action thrown in as well. While the story doesn't waste much time getting into the personal lives of the characters (except for perhaps Qiao Shaoting), the ensemble cast still somehow comes across rich and nuanced through their actions, anecdotes of their past, small details sprinkled throughout, and subtle scene elements that might convey anger, arrogance, indifference, compassion, etc. For the longest time, viewers are left guessing as to the motivations of some of the characters (in a good way) -- are they a villain? Ally? Somewhere in between?

As for Luo Jin fans, Qiao Shaoting is a great character, and he plays him with the coolness of Harvey Specter but with a lot more grittiness.

I also found the drama to be an interesting glimpse into China's modern legal system, which dates from the late 1970s following the Cultural Revolution, but really did not gain a footing until perhaps the mid-1980s. (Prior to that, during the Mao period after 1949, law schools and courts were all shut down, with lawyers out of a job.) The story makes references to when certain laws were passed, and at least one side case is inspired by true events. It is impossible for me to gauge how accurately everything is presented; at the same time, viewers should not judge its “accuracy” based on Western civil and criminal laws (as I saw in some of the comments), since even the broad strokes in some legal areas and roles may be quite different.

The drama has a well-deserved Douban rating of 7.7 (at the time of this writing); but by that scale, this really should at least be in the high 8s on MDL. I couldn't decide whether to give it an 8.5 or a 9, since I think it belongs somewhere in the middle, but I opted for 9 to counter the current 7.7 on MDL. (Albeit with just over two dozen ratings only so far, I am not giving too much weight to the score just yet. I will be interested in seeing where it lands once at least a few hundred viewers have weighed in.)

"Out of Court" is not a drama you can watch "in the background" -- I really needed to focus and pay attention to the great dialogue, and if I had more time (which I sadly don't) I would rewatch it again to catch everything I missed the first time.

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Good drama

Good drama. A lot of suspense very good actors. Special Luo Jin amazing actor he always have been a good actor but he is getting better and better. Like always he gets inside his characters so deeply makes the dramas so real.. recommend people to see this drama is amazing. Luo Jin deserves and all the other cast to have good rates . Luo jin keep doing good job you are better then some Hollywood actors. This drama so far so good. I don’t to spoil it I just recommend people to see it they going to like it ( some maybe not ) but in my personal opinion good story , good actors. Just to say people’s life sometimes changes so drastically in a blink of a eye. Be better in life we never know what is coming if is good or bad.. this story teaches that.

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