My Thoughts on "Partner Track"

The 10-episode long-anticipated Netflix series about BigLaw in NYC, diversity in corporate America, romance vs. ambition, fashion, and beyond

My first Substack post was a book review comparing themes in two legal novels written by Asian American attorneys and centering Asian American lawyer protagonists: David Lat¹’s Supreme Ambitions and Helen Wan’s The Partner Track. The latter one is now a Netflix series, with 10 episodes that became available on Friday, August 26th.

The Young & Ambitious Asian Female Lawyer in "Supreme Ambitions" and "The Partner Track"

Needless to say, I made it a priority (outside of work, that is) to binge-watch Partner Track shortly after it was released. I’ve read a few early reviews on the TV series and recommend the following for fans who have watched the show already, which I will include at the end of this piece. This is a spoiler alert that this article contains analysis that you might want to read after you have had a chance to binge the show yourself — in that case, please bookmark my article for later. :) This article focuses on the book vs. TV series, which is an angle that the other articles I’ve read to date haven’t really explored in much depth.

Book vs. TV Series

I found the TV series quite different from the book, despite preserving the core theme of career ambition vs. romance in the Big Law setting and sub-themes such as diversity and inclusion efforts in law firms and Asian American values/stereotypes.

• Some changes in the characters + new additions:

  • The protagonist: Ingrid Yung (ABC) becomes Ingrid Yun (ABK). It’s been revealed that the TV production team was seeking a Chinese American lead actress, but ultimately decided on Arden Cho (who almost took the LSAT to become a lawyer at some point), and subsequently made Ingrid and her family Korean. The show includes a Chuseok celebration — Happy early Chuseok/Mid-Autumn’s/Tsukimi to readers (it’s coming up on Sep. 10th)! Also, another difference I spotted was that Ingrid (and her besties based on the sentimental Commencement photo in one of the latter episodes) went to Harvard in this TV series — in the book, I think she went to Columbia (not that it matters much, though).

  • The bestie: in the TV series, Rachel is Ingrid’s colleague at the firm and a loyal member of the Ingrid-Tyler-Rachel trio; while Rachel is a character in the book, she’s a married one with children who is no longer in Big Law. I think she went in-house. Essentially, the TV production team played around with the timeline and thought it would be fun to have Rachel working side-by-side with Ingrid while being her friend at the firm. Rachel’s romance with the paralegal Justin (whose character is also developed in many more dimensions in the TV show) is also pretty unique to the TV show for obvious reasons. Overall, I like the TV Rachel a bit more as she plays a more active part in Ingrid’s professional and personal lives alike, and Rachel’s litigation work is pretty fun to watch as well. I like how the plot intertwines Rachel’s client WuJay with Ingrid’s rebellion in the final episode. In general, the theme of friendship is more central to the TV show than the book. What’s also interesting about Rachel is that after much soul-searching, she decides that she wants to be a writer/playwright, maybe somewhat of an alter ego for the lawyer-turned-author Helen Wan herself.

  • The other bestie: Tyler is in the book as one of the few very rare “diverse” colleagues at the firm. In the TV series, he’s not only that but also a bestie to Ingrid and Rachel. It’s a fun twist in my view. Tyler also gets to play a more active role with all the diversity-related sub-themes in the TV series, and primary works on fashion cases at work. I also enjoyed how this character moves to Queens towards the end of the show and, like Rachel, struggles with figuring out who he really is, where his passions really lie, and other bigger questions in life that fall outside of the law firm scope that the book more narrowly zooms in on.

  • The philosopher with immense family wealth love interest-turned-fiancé-turned-ex: Nick is sweet and thoughtful, but not very charismatic. I also don’t remember him or a similar character in the book. It’s sad that Ingrid said “yes” to his proposal despite still not getting over her obsession with Murphy. It’s even sadder to see Nick catching his beloved cheating with Murphy when he delivers a heart-warming cake for his hardworking fiancé. As sorry as I feel for Nick, I don’t find him too likable as a character despite his genuine (over-)spoiling of Ingrid (e.g. effectively compelling her to wear a mustard yellow gown she didn’t want to wear by leaving her with no other options shortly before the evening event). Rumor has it that Nick would return to the second season if the show gets renewed by Netflix for a new season. His sole existence seems to be to emphasize Ingrid’s lingering desires for Murphy, but after he leaves the series at the latter half of it, I don’t really find myself missing him as a character.

  • The little sister: Lina is unique to the TV series. She really serves to add to Ingrid’s struggles to balance, on the one hand, her personal commitments to her family, friends, and romantic partners, with, on the other hand, her dedication to her partner track aspirations at the firm. Plot-wise, Lina contributes involuntarily to the big twist and cliffhanger in the end, where it’s finally revealed that Ingrid’s new boyfriend Murphy divulged a big secret to the M&A head partner to kill off Ingrid’s partnership prospects for the year. Had Lina not foolishly stolen the earrings that belonged that Nick’s mum, Ingrid would not have found herself in jail, and Murphy would not have had access to that secret in the first place. Lina also somewhat involuntarily contributed to Nick and Ingrid’s whirlwind romance, as Ingrid moved into Nick’s place because Lina messed up Ingrid’s own apartment, speeding up the two’s romance despite Ingrid’s lingering yearning for Jeff Murphy.

  • The Korean American parents: Ingrid’s parents play a more active role in the TV series than in the book. At least one of the TV scenes centering the Yun parents’ sacrifice for their children to be happy (the immigrants’ American dream) is meant to be touching, but I personally thought the team could’ve done a little more work on making it a bit more touching — I love thoughtful scenes that explore familial love and ties and tend to tear up at touching family scenes, but didn’t find those elements touching enough.

  • The charismatic real love interest: Murphy (“Murph”) is a Brit in this series! He’s American in the book, so I was a bit shocked initially when he’s categorized as the “London transfer,” with all the firm frat boys nicknaming him “London.” All in all, I found the chemistry a bit unconvincing between Murph and Ingrid, as some of the other TV reviews pointed out. Maybe I’m a bit too influenced by what I knew from reading the novel before watching the TV show that Murph is the villain who cannot be trusted and I devoted a lot of attention on finding such hints and anticipating twists earlier. I was a bit shocked that all the way till the last few seconds of the season, Murph was kinda a good love-interest/rival-turned-boyfriend. Sure, Tyler and Rachel warned Ingrid that he’s the classic fuckboy, but still… Overall, I think the show tried to make him more likable for longer and tried to humanize him a bit more by emphasizing his unfortunate upbringing.

  • Victoria St. Clair: an insanely wealthy fellow Brit who believes, and tells Rachel, that men are all disposable toys. I don’t recall this character from the book, but understand the TV series, which is 10 episodes long and hopes to have subsequent seasons, wants to introduce new characters to lengthen the relatively average-sized book’s plot line and general complexity. Also, the fact that the TV version of Murph slept with her to advance his own career interests foreshadows his evil-ness.

  • The fashion designers: I don’t think Tyler’s fashion client Luxe and their indie rival are in Helen Wan’s book either. At least they didn’t make an impression if I forgot about them months after reading the book. I think this ensemble was interesting to watch, as I’m personally pretty interested in IP law in general and find fashion law fascinating. “All fashion is referential” is a memorable line from this TV adaptation for me. By some point early in the series, I anticipated that Tyler might quit this firm and go in-house at one of the smaller fashion houses, and the prediction became true.

  • The Min family's substantial role in the Suncorp deal, especially the focus on the younger brother Z, is unique to the TV series. I find it interesting that the TV production team gave the Min family a big role to play in enlarging the moral conundrums Ingrid was struggling with, and that more notably, the Mins are another Asian American family that fit the “model minority” stereotype. Z seems to be the ultimate CP for Ingrid. Netflix hasn’t officially given the green light for a Season 2, but it seems like it’s quite possible that Ingrid and Z will become a couple in a subsequent season.

  • The mentee: April is a character in the TV show that I also don’t remember from reading the book. Given that she shares my name, I’m guessing she, along with Tyler’s mentee at the retreat, is a unique character to the TV series. I like her presence in the show as the really proactive but somewhat introverted type of first-year Asian American female lawyer. The show manages to layer that mentor-mentee relationship by having us get to know, through quick dialogues and silences, Ingrid’s formidably silent Asian American female mentor who seems to hate her for sharing her racial background, Ingrid as mentee, Ingrid as mentor, and Ingrid’s young, naive mentee.

• Changes in some scenes/themes/plotline

  • The notorious retreat fiasco is central to the book. It’s also a big turning point/twist in the TV version, but the multi-person skit (vs. the solo comedy standup) feels quite different. One of the sources I read includes some justifications that the TV version of Dan Fallon’s stand-up comedy performance is the more 2022 subtle racism version. I think that makes sense — racism is portrayed as more overt in the book, which was written ~10 years ago. It is more believable that racism would be more subtly conveyed in today’s world.

  • The cliffhanger: the show ended really abruptly! I didn’t like that aspect, to be honest. Sure, we need cliffhangers, and from a business perspective, this show needs to hook the audience (and the Netflix team especially) to get the green light for Season 2. Still, I found the ending unusually abrupt in a way that I suspected I somehow skipped a final episode or somehow my Internet cut me off and had to re-check to see it really was the end of the 10th episode (lol).

  • As discussed in my book review from the aforementioned previous Substack post, one of the most impactful scenes from the book for me was when newly-jobless Ingrid wanders around an affluent neighborhood and gets mistaken as an Asian nanny. That’s left out from the series, mostly as they probably want to save that for a subsequent season, but I was kind of anticipating that scene.

  • Galas: the TV version has more galas/downtime/friends’ gossiping cafeteria moments than in the book by a lot. Even though Big Law is stereotyped as a work hard play hard glamorous lifestyle, I think the party aspect might be a bit over-exaggerated. It’s good in showcasing all the fashion/costume team’s masterful styling for Ingrid, though. Apparently, Ingrid wears the most luxurious brands (e.g. Chanel, Gucci, Saint Laurent) on an almost-daily basis and opts for bright/vibrant colors that you don’t typically see in law firms (where most people opt for white, black, or gray), which is daring, but maybe not that believable.

  • Physics: my boyfriend, a STEM nerd, LOVES the physics-themed opening lines of each episode, e.g. Newton’s first law of motion, the law of conservation of energy, entropy, etc. I find it fascinating as well. The TV makes Ingrid a nerd about philosophy and physics and not just law, which I guess I like overall as it shows that she actually enjoys lifelong learning rather than only selectively learning about lucrative elements of the law, e.g. from the M&A podcast (more below) that she listens to every night in bed. The downside is that some people might think the physics opening lines might be a bit forced/show-offy/not related to the legal content otherwise, see, e.g., one of the reviews I’ve linked at the end of this post.

  • M&A podcast: one review article I read picked this up, critiquing that it’s not that realistic for M&A lawyers to fall asleep every night listening to podcasts about the latest developments in M&A law. I find it admirable that Ingrid does that, but also somewhat question if people would really do that. At least, the book version of Ingrid doesn’t seem to have this habit.

  • Cheating: Ingrid did it to Nick, Victoria did it to her husband, Tyler did it to his boyfriend Anthony. These are unique to the TV series. By contrast, the book has less focus on cheating and romance in general (apart from Murphy, the other character in the book Ingrid ends up dating is a junior partner at the firm). Like in many romantic-themed series, cheating is commonplace. I feel that given the more career-focused themes in the series, despite the intertwining of love and partner ambitions, the romance aspects are a bit weaker in the TV series. Even though there’s all the cheating going on, I didn’t find the scenes to be too emotionally-provoking.

  • Rom-com: some of the sources/TV reviews I read so far consider this TV show as a rom-com, which the book is decidedly not. I don’t find the comedy part of rom-com that prevalent for the TV show, but maybe that’s just me. A Huffpost article that’s harshly titled a “motion to dismiss” this TV show considers Partner Track a version of Emily in Paris. I haven’t watched much of Emily in Paris, so can’t say too much on this subject, but I don’t exactly agree with that analysis (although the fashion focus is somewhat comparable) and generally believe that despite some of the flaws I discuss here, Partner Track is generally worth watching — for lawyers and non-lawyers alike.

  • Murphy’s betrayal: in the book, Murphy secretly put in an unforgivable error in Ingrid’s work product. In the TV series, he was the one who alerted the most powerful M&A partner that Ingrid failed to disclose the fact that she was arrested. The TV version is more dramatic and is able to pull off the dramatic version of Murphy’s betrayal because of the added complexity of the characters’ relationships, especially with the addition of Lina and Nick.

  • The firm’s subsequent diversity initiatives: this part from the book is not included in this season. Maybe we will see more of the old-school firm’s DEI discussions in subsequent seasons if the show gets the green light.

  • Side note on the episode titles: I generally think they are pretty clever, e.g. “change of venue” plays with the concept of venue in Civil Procedure.

  • Another note is that many plot aspects are driven by the characters, so the analysis on changes/adds in the fictional characters would apply to this section as well.

All in all, in my view, the TV version of Partner Track is easy-to-follow and engaging enough for you to let Netflix automatically direct you to the next episode. I wouldn’t say it’s very profound, but neither would I say it deserves the pretty low ratings so far on TV rating sites.

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Some TV Reviews I Read

As promised, here are a few links to reviews that I’ve read and liked so far. They take a few different angles, including fashion (unsurprisingly, the article points out the striking similarity between Rachel Chu’s blue gown in Crazy Rich Asians and Ingrid’s in this series)! There are also a couple of articles involving hot takes from the cast and creator/executive producer Georgia Lee (who studied biochemistry at Harvard College, loves listening to nerd-oriented podcasts before bedtime, and has little sisters, much like Ingrid in several regards). Some of these also include spoilers.

• https://www.stylecharade.com/partner-track-outfits/

• https://www.distractify.com/p/is-partner-track-based-on-a-book

• https://www.distractify.com/p/partner-track-filming-locations

• https://ew.com/tv/partner-track-dominic-sherwood-season-one-finale/

• https://www.huffpost.com/entry/netflix-partner-track-arden-cho_n_6307eb2fe4b0787ab408728a

• https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2022/08/11094150/partner-track-ingrid-asian-representation

• https://ew.com/tv/partner-track-showrunner-interview-jeff-betrays-ingrid/

• https://variety.com/2022/tv/reviews/partner-track-netflix-review-1235351219/

• https://deadline.com/2022/08/partner-track-qa-georgia-lee-cliffhanger-season-2-spilers-ingrid-murphy-nick-z-1235100803/

If you also watched Partner Track and/or read the novel, I’d love to know what you think! Please feel free to disagree with any part of my analysis above or suggest other angles you’d like to read from me for future posts.

(Link to the Partner Track poster: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15390524/)

*Note: This article represents my personal thoughts, not that of my employer’s.

*Another Note: If you love legally-themed series on Netflix with female lawyer protagonists, I recommend the recent South Korean TV show The Extraordinary Attorney Woo. I’ve seen parts of that show, not all (it’s longer than Partner Track), but find the portrayal of the law to be generally accurate but still engaging.

1. David Lat revealed that he’s working on a second novel — something to look forward to! If Supreme Ambitions ever gets made into a film/TV show, I’d love to watch and write about it too.