Michelle Topham 
The very popular JTBC legal drama Beyond the Bar, Episode 4 aired last night to its best ratings yet.
Ratings that have done nothing but increase since the K-drama’s first episode dropped on August 2nd.
Beyond the Bar, Episode 4’s nationwide ratings then were 8.31 percent, which is a big jump from the 6.72 percent audience share the Korean drama earned for Episode 3.
The Lee Jin Wook-led drama also performed even better in Seoul, earning 8.98 percent of the viewership versus the 7.20 percent it garnered on Saturday.
Considering most JTBC dramas this year have not been particularly successful, isn’t it nice then to see one grabbing so much interest it is even being talked about as rivaling KBS2’s new weekend, Our Golden Days, drama for attention.
International ratings for Beyond the Bar
The legal drama is performing just as well, if not better, internationally as it is currently sitting on the Netflix Top 10 Non-English TV Series chart at #10 for its first week on the chart.
It is also in the Top 10 on the streaming platform in 6 countries, and with 1.8 million views last week alone.
Meanwhile, My Drama List (MDL) users are rating it an 8.3 out of 10 — a very solid rating on that platform, where anything above an 8.1 generally means a drama is being well-received.
Comments on MDL are positive as well, and range from short and sweet:
I came to this drama thinking it was gonna be law and we have law and cases but holy shit the romance slowly brewing !!!! I am here for it and I hate it that I cannot binge watch it.
to one viewer positively commenting on the screenwriter’s intent with the drama:
I read an article where the screenwriter said she wanted to explore love within the realm of law and show how people turn to the law when emotions run high.
She tried to capture various forms of love within legal cases, and now I understand why the drama feels more human than a simple legal drama.
Beyond the Bar stars Lee Jin Wook, Jung Chae Yeon, Lee Hak Joo and Jeon Hye Bin, with its next episode airing/streaming on Saturday, August 16th.
Update: Episode 5 of Beyond the Bar earns the K-drama’s highest Saturday viewership so far
About the Author
