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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Lucinda Everett

The Evil Lawyer review – gripping, twisty and ludicrously hammy

Rhatha Phongam with long dark curly hair and a dirty green coat looks to the side in an office setting
Blood stained … Rhatha Phongam as Jittri in The Evil Lawyer. Photograph: Cai LianJie/Netflix

If the title of this Thai crime-thriller-cum-courtroom-drama feels a little splashy, wait until you meet the scoundrel in question. Her name is Jittri and she is, at least at the show’s outset, a pantomime villain in a power suit, her hair even bigger than her ego. Known for getting murky clients off the hook by any dirty trick necessary, she stiletto-struts in slow motion, flashes a trademark crooked smirk after each victory, and (like all bona fide wrong ’uns) wears sunglasses inside. If she had a moustache, she would absolutely be twirling it.

But don’t be fooled; one boo-hiss baddie does not a pantomime make. Directed by Nottapon Boonprakob, whose 2025 drama Mad Unicorn won a clutch of awards, this eight-episode series may be tonally erratic and at times faintly ridiculous, but it also has confronting questions about power, corruption and systemic injustice plus a gripping, twisty plot.

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