LESSONS FROM EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO
Or Why The Fool Is A Powerful Character Archetype In A Writer’s Toolbox
“My name is Woo Young-woo. Whether it’s read straight or flipped, it’s still Woo Young-woo. Kayak, deed, rotator, noon, racecar. Woo Young-woo.”
Thus, did the lead character of the popular Korean legal drama series EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO introduced herself and waltzed into our hearts.
The legal drama is part of a television genre known as the Procedural, a staple of American television. In a procedural, every episode is self-contained and tells a complete story. There is always a murder to solve, an injustice to reform, and a medical mystery to unravel. Regardless of the complexity, closure and satisfaction will be delivered in 60 minutes every week. You can come in at any time in the series and still catch up. No prior knowledge of the backstory is required to appreciate the episode you are watching. The stakes are “life and death” and therefore high. No surprise that medical, legal, and police cases make great fodder for procedural television. CSI, HOUSE, LAW and ORDER ran for several seasons and were popular with the global audience. They were all American shows.
Not anymore.
The Koreans have planted their flag in that genre.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo is a 16-episode series anchored by a lead character so compelling that we watch every week, simply so that we can be delighted by how Attorney Woo navigated her way around obstacles in Love, Life, and the Law.
Attorney Woo is played by the talented actress, Park Eun Bin, who incidentally also acted in a gender-bending role in another popular K-drama series, The King’s Affection. Extraordinary Attorney Woo charts the struggle of South Korea’s first autistic lawyer as she finds her way around legal challenges, office politics, and the complex world of dating with all its “do’s” and “don’ts”. It not only introduces the audience to what it is like to live with an autistic, but it also puts you into the shoes of a near-genius autistic personality.
Attorney Woo has several attractive traits that make her ideal for a procedural. Like House or Sherlock Holmes, she’s brilliant and possesses a photographic memory of legal facts, clauses, sub-clauses, and even sub-clauses nestled within sub-clauses. Her ability to find legal solutions at the last minute is thrilling, something you look forward in every episode, much like how Sherlock Holmes comes up with a brilliant deduction to solve a case at the end of the show.
But there’s more to Woo than just her keen intellect.
It’s why I am so drawn to this character. Because she belongs to a category of characters that are popular and essential in fiction.
I daresay in life as well.
The Fool As A Character Trope
Writers are like carpenters.
And like carpenters, we have our personal toolboxes. When we create stories and characters, we often draw on this box to apply a trick or trope or two to enhance a scene. One of these tropes is the character of the FOOL.
The FOOL is found in many popular shows. You find it in comedies like Friends. The fool in Friends is Joey. In the old black and white classics Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and Buster Keaton were lovable fools. In my series Fighting Spiders, I had Charlie, the chubby boy obsessed with snacks. In Cheers, it was the Coach and then, later on, Woody Boyd the bartender. And in the classic and my all-time favorite comedy — MASH — you have the clerk RADAR who possesses a superhuman ability to hear the arrival of helicopters before anyone else.
These are all different characters but they share some common traits.
What do “Fools” have in common?
Fools are beacons of innocence.
We were once children. We remember fondly the warm golden years of childhood because it was a time when we proudly wore a badge of innocence. Friends were made in the time taken to shake a hand. You bore no malice. You had no hidden agenda. No one had to be screened for dubious intent. You did not have to be constantly on your guard as that can be exhausting. Which explains why people burn out when they constantly plot and scheme in skirmishes and manoeuvres in highly stressed office politics. Because when we got older, we lost those badges of innocence. We became warier. Trust had to be earned and even when earned, it was easily lost.
Fools however never lost their badges. As a result, when we are in the presence of fools, we never have to be on our guard. Real, genuine fools, help us conserve our mental energy.
Fools speak truth to power.
In the old days of the Royal English Court, fools were known as jesters. The job of the jester was simple. To gladden with jokes the mood of the king as he grapples with the heavy burden of managing the affairs of the state. The jester was one such person who could freely speak without worrying about the consequences. Jesters were not afraid of offending by telling what they thought. Humor was the sword with which a jester would wield to poke and peel away the hypocrisy, affectations, and insincere flattery of the court nobility, without fear of reprisal. The jester’s words cut through the fog of politics. The chicanery of devious lords is banished before the winds of a jester’s laugh.
It was a wise king who would listen to the counsel of a jester and a fool.
Fools can be insightful psychologists.
We warm to fools because their opinions are transparent and without guile. We don’t have to worry if they have any hidden agenda because fools have none. The Fool bows to no one. The Fool sees through pretense. The Fool regards kings and beggars with the same brutal gaze of honesty. Out of the mouth of babies, comes truth and wisdom.
As such, the Fool is able to deliver penetrating insights into our behavior and character, which was precisely what Attorney Woo did to her colleagues in the office.
Most times, fools are children. But in fiction, you’d find them in adults as well.
My Favorite Character Trope
In my toolbox of character tropes, the Fool is my favorite. In an ensemble of characters for a series that I create, you would find the Fool amongst my characters. In Fighting Spiders, it was Charlie. In Growing Up, it was either David or David’s best friend, Ah Guan, who spoke with a stutter.
Not only do I find the Fool Trope effective for eliciting sympathy from the audience, but I also love the trope for the license it gives a writer. The license to thumb his nose at pomposity, speak truth to power, and express the verities of the human heart, without risking derision or cynicism from us.
Final Takeaway
In Extraordinary Attorney Woo, we find a heroine who does not let her disability get in the way of her life. She shows bravery and courage every day to get through obstacles that most of us would consider trivial. She’s honest and principled and her heart is pure. She has traits that we admire, and hope to find in ourselves. If you are in the process of creating characters for your stories, you should consider adding a Fool to your ensemble. Not only will the character engage and delight the audience, he or she may even teach a lesson or two, without being preachy.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo is a Fool.
Shouldn’t we be fools once in a while?