Young legal eagles struggle to soar

At the beginning of 2021, Chen Tong, an accomplished scriptwriter with a portfolio of 10 screen works spanning nearly two decades, embarked on a new career path as an "intern" at a law firm located in the bustling Xicheng district of Beijing.

Apart from two senior members in the company, no one else knew Chen's true identity. She concocted a story that she was looking to resume her law career after being a full-time housewife for many years. By spending nearly half a year at the firm, Chen was able to develop a close and immersive understanding of the everyday lives of lawyers in China.

The experience provided a wealth of material for The Ordinary Road, a 36-episode TV series, which follows the endeavors of three young legal interns as they pursue their dreams of becoming lawyers.

Comedian Guo Qilin, actress Jin Chen and actor Yan Zidong team up to play the trio of interns on the TV drama, which has been broadcasting on China Central Television's channel CCTV-8 and the streaming site Tencent Video since May 3. The TV series has currently obtained 7.2 points out of 10 on the review aggregator platform Douban.

According to Chen, the series is not a typical legal drama, where high-paid lawyers passionately defend their clients in court while dressed in expensive suits.

Instead, the show focuses more on exploring the hardships and challenges faced by those who are taking their first steps in the legal field and are trying to navigate their way through the complexities of the profession.

In the series, Guo, who is also a well-known cross-talk performer, portrays Pan Yan, a recent college graduate who grew up in a small city and, despite sending out 200 resumes, is having difficulty finding a job.

In stark contrast to the protagonist, Shu Yinan (played by Yan) comes from a middle-class family with an impressive educational background — he studied at Peking University as an undergraduate and received a master's degree at the University of Oxford.

However, through a twist of fate, they both end up working at the same law firm and eventually befriend Zuo Na, a diligent and hardworking intern, played by actress Jin.

Despite having written several legal shows before, such as the 2014 hit Divorce Lawyers, Chen has been reflecting on how this new series marks her first in-depth examination of the lives of interns, who endure immense stress during their 12-month tenure before ultimately trying to pass the exam to become practicing lawyers.

"I heard of a widely circulated meme. It reads: To hire a babysitter might cost around 6,000 yuan ($853) per month. To hire a driver, it's around 4,000 yuan. However, to get someone to help you work on legal cases, run all of your errands and make you tea, you only need to pay 2,000 yuan," she says.

Although Chen initially brushed it off as a joke, she soon realized that there was some truth to it. Legal interns are often paid low salaries, yet they are expected to handle an enormous amount of work, which ranges from comforting bad-tempered clients on lengthy phone calls to performing tedious administrative tasks.

One such case in the series depicts the protagonist Pan assisting in a divorce case between a businessman and his irritable wife. During their first meeting, the woman gets so angry, she rips Pan's purple suit. In the following days, he goes to great lengths to try and meet her again, including disguising himself as a landscape worker at her residential community and even leveraging the experience of his own mother, who herself had been through a divorce, in a bid to empathize with the woman.

Also conducting research in another, bigger law firm, the scriptwriter recalls that she found most interns were willing to endure the stress and overcome hardship, as they all pursue the same goal of "defending justice and maintaining fairness".

"This really touches me. I have discovered that the majority of legal interns are a group of people who have ideals. It is the pursuit of their dreams that helps them survive the most difficult period of their internship," she says.

The drama, which had been in preparation for more than two years, began its 120-day shoot in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, in May last year.

According to the producer, Cai Wenjing, the local settings, ranging from a bustling port to cramped alleys, perfectly capture the down-to-earth liveliness depicted in the script.

"Most of the popular legal dramas in the past centered around established or highly successful lawyers. We wanted to approach the topic from a new perspective, so, during our initial rounds of character and plotline discussions, we decided to focus on the experiences of legal newcomers," Cai recalls.

She reveals that the scriptwriter Chen reviewed a lot of Guo's work and added elements of humor to the dialogue based on his background as a cross-talk performer, making the drama more relatable and entertaining.

"The legal dialogue in the script was reviewed by legal professionals, but some of the terminology was inevitably lengthy and dogmatic," Cai says.

"Guo made adjustments based on his own understanding, ensuring authenticity while also making the drama more accessible and easier to understand."

Also released overseas on the streaming sites like YouTube, the drama has clearly resonated with many online, with the hashtag "I see myself in The Ordinary Road" amassing around 3 million views on the social media platform Sina Weibo.

"What we hope the audience will discover in this drama are the many ordinary young people who have just entered the workplace and persevere through setbacks while remaining true to their original aspirations," Cai says.

"We hope that young people can relate to, and draw strength from, these characters."