The new drama "A New Leaf" has at least five things going for it and those are enough reasons to check it out.
A drama can always do downhill after the initial episodes but here are the five reasons we think "A New Leaf" may turn out to be one of the year's winners.
1. Kim Myung Min's character. Many drama male leads start out as cold and uncaring which is a great set up for them meeting the woman who will warm their heart. Kim Myung Min's character, Kim Seok Joo, is not entirely heartless. He's a man who is very good at what he does. He's a lawyer who wins cases with impossible odds. By the standards of many, he is a success. But he has let his sense of justice become eroded in his pursuit of that success. Given the amnesia part of the plot, its inevitable that he will be reacquainted with his sense of justice. Kim Myung Min does a great job of playing a subtle character that is all shades of gray. Hopefully, when he loses his memory, he won't become too nice.
2. Park Min Young. Dramaland has missed Park Min Young. In her role as legal intern Lee Ji Yoon, she's sweet without being silly; idealistic, without being a cartoon character. And viewers know she has the potential to transform her boss.
3. Two great actors from "Empress Ki" also have roles in this drama. Jin Yi Han, who played Tal Tal, plays Jeon Ji Won. And Kim Seo Hyung, who played the Empress Dowager, plays prosecutor Lee Sun Hee. It's fun to see them in modern clothes. So far there has not been a lot of Jin Yi Han in this drama, but Kim Seo Hyung is very likeable as the idealistic prosecutor, which is a change from her scheming Empress Dowager role.
4. The chemistry. Already in the first two episodes, there is a whole lot of chemistry going on. There's chemistry between Kim Myung Min and Park Min Young, between Jin Yi Han and Park Min Young and even between the legal adversaries Kim Myung Min and Kim Seo Hyung. This can only improve as the plot progresses.
5. Cases that have some parallels with real life. One of the first cases that Kim Seok Joo tries is a he-said-she-said date-rape case involving a chaebol and an actress. While this case only had a few similarities with a real-life scandal that involved actor Park Si Hoo and a rookie actress, it was notable. In the drama, Kim Myung Min's character knows that the chaebol is guilty but defends him anyway, using some pretty reprehensible and downright illegal tactics. As he says, his job is to represent the devil. Will future courtroom drama parallel real-life legal cases? Stay tuned.
