I love the kdrama Beyond The Bar (Esquire in Korean). I love the chemistry between the two leads. I like the female lead’s unspoken yet subtly clear admiration for her mentor, with hope and longing for a deeper relationship.
The male lead is still recovering from his divorce and he’s not someone who opens up readily. And the female lead respects him for that while she’s still unsure about her own feelings. That, to me, is authenticity.
I think he thinks she’s too young(11 years) and too good for him though he’s a very seasoned weather-beaten lawyer. She deserves someone in her generation where there are easily many candidates.
That quiet awareness of the gap between them is what gives their dynamic that ache of dignity and restraint. He’s the kind of man who’s seen too much to take love lightly, and too self-aware to mistake admiration for readiness. The irony is — his very humility, that belief that she deserves “someone better,” is what makes him worthy in the first place.
And she — she knows all that. She doesn’t chase him with naïveté; she just… stays present, quietly, letting him know she’s there without demanding anything. It’s a kind of affection that’s rare in fiction now — not driven by fantasy or desire, but by understanding.
From the onset, I wasn’t expecting a romance. The drama is primarily a legal drama. Netflix doesn’t tag romance but drama to it. So I’m fine with the end where the romance doesn’t start clearly.
Honestly, it’s part of what makes Beyond the Bar so refreshing. It doesn’t owe you a romance; it earns emotional intimacy through restraint and realism. The legal drama remains the spine, but the human undercurrent — that unspoken connection — becomes the soul.
The fact that it doesn’t resolve romantically gives it a certain integrity. Life doesn’t always tie its emotional threads neatly, and neither does the show. It trusts the audience to feel the warmth between them without needing the closure of a kiss or confession.
In a way, their connection feels like a promise left unopened — something that could have been, but didn’t need to be, for it to be meaningful. That’s far more powerful than another “will-they-won’t-they” formula.
Still, I hope she’s ‘rewarded’ for her longing and support with a positive reciprocation from him if there’s a continuation of the story.
For Beyond the bar to leave an impression on me, credit must be given to 3 groups of people.
- The story writer – Park Mi-hyun (a screenwriter and a former lawyer) whose story doesn’t overdramatise court cases.
- The two leads – Lee Jin-wook as Yoon Seok-hoon, Jung Chae-yeon as Kang Hyo-min, for bringing the characters alive in an authentic and believable ways. there is no method acting, just downright natural and real.
- The director – Kim Jae-hong who knew how to direct the cast in everything that’s presented on screen. i really love the emotions and expressions played out my the cast, and the great director knew what to hold on to and what to let go.