Netflix’s New Fantasy Drama Is About to Break the Internet with Its Wild Twist

One of Netflix’s best traits as a massive streaming service is its potential to leave viewers in a combination of dumbstruck and hooked with new content. Such is the case with one of its most fun urban fantasy K-dramas in quite some time, Phantom Lawyer, following the time-honored tradition of ghosts haunting modern-day South Korea.

Phantom Lawyer stars Yoo Yeon-seok as Shin I-rang, an ambitious young attorney with dreams of greatness in his country’s legal scene. But faced with consistent rejections for endless job interviews due to crimes attributed to his father leaving a scarlet letter on I-rang’s name, he strikes out and forms his own firm.

However, the building he rents for his office has spectral secrets of its own. Beneath the wallpaper is a sea of talismans, to which amnesiac ghosts with unfinished business are drawn. With not just the ability to see these ghosts, but even to be possessed by them freely, I-rang finds himself helping the dead settle their restless souls.

Netflix’s New Fantasy Drama Is as Addictive as It Is Funny

I-rang’s story in Phantom Lawyer certainly conceals just enough serious past trauma to check off the K-drama tropes list, but its predictability is offset by Yoo’s wonderful performance. The series quickly shifts him from a down-on-his-luck lawyer with a doting family, into a comically heroic figure, unearthing the crimes against the dead victims visiting his office.

In this sense, the series presents itself as a sort of pro bono Hotel del Luna, with each ghost’s story having mini-arcs of their own. Of the four episodes aired since Phantom Lawyer’s March 13 debut, two each are dedicated to mysteries I-rang must solve, including a former gangster and victim of malpractice, and a tragically-slain 19-year-old idol trainee.

This brings I-rang across numerous key figures, chiefly an attorney who rejected his candidacy at her firm, Han Na-hyun; his supportive mother, Park Gyeong Hwa; his brother-in-law Yun Bong-su; and an understanding priest sympathetic to his situation. While most are initially supportive, Na-hyun stars as I-rang’s nemesis, only to become more sympathetic to his cause, and a possible love interest.

It’s hard to ignore that Jeon Seok-ho, who portrays Bong-su in Phantom Lawyer, also famously appeared in Strong Girl Bong-soon. While the name may well be a coincidence, the additional likely easter egg to Bong-soon showed in his appearance in Squid Game season 2, where he’s seen outside of Dobongsan Station, part of the location used for the 2017 hit.

I-rang’s misadventures in trying to be an upstanding lawyer while consistently being roped into resolving the issues of the dead injects a supernatural silliness at just the right moments. It gets him into warehouse brawls with gang members, and nearly gets him killed multiple times, but perhaps most addictive, and indicative of Yoo’s chameleon-like performance, is his possessors’ humiliation rituals.

Phantom Lawyer Has Viral Potential Thanks to Star’s Commitment to the Role

Yoo Yeon-seok has been profoundly fun as I-rang, portraying the poor young lawyer’s struggles both to outrun his father’s tarnished legacy, but his best work comes in portraying his possessions. This has included the tough-guy moments of Lee Gang-pung as he dual-wields off-brand Pocari Sweat against opponents, and leaving it all on the floor with a picture-perfect “Love Dive” dance.

Yoo’s performance oozes camp as he commits to essentially as many roles as there are ghosts in the series. It has certifiably drawn viewers in, curious to see who is drawn to I-rang next. He even attempts, in vain, to write up contracts prohibiting possession, but to no avail; the ghosts need his advocacy so they can move onto the next life.

But Phantom Lawyer is impressively creative with this trope, I-rang even having the ghosts pose on blank sheets of paper so he can trace a composite sketch for easier investigation. It’s clever, even if I-rang’s sketches are implausibly perfect. Series issues like awkward sound editing aside, Phantom Lawyer is a profoundly entertaining K-drama with Yoo’s performance among his best.

But each story arc presents a compelling, nuanced mystery, layering unsympathetic traits of each victim until the greater picture is revealed. Sometimes this can have comedic results, and at other times, like in the case of Loanne, or Kim Su-a, her less ideal domineering traits are due to strong need to succeed to uphold her struggling family.

This means that, after each ghost’s story is resolved, the entertaining part is seeing what distinctive personality will possess I-rang next as he grasps at their stories and conveys them to others. Marked by sudden rosy cheeks and remarkably varied body language, I-rang’s always a splash of water away from being pulled out of the trance.

Netflix seemingly always has a K-drama for every flavor, from glorious fantasy spectacles like Alchemy of Souls to brutal and expansive action series like Bloodhounds, in addition to phenomenal romances year-round. But Phantom Lawyer may just stand a ghost of a chance against 2026’s mighty lineup.