(TV SERIES) The Judge Returns - A Well Done Legal Drama With Interesting Plot, A Little Bit of Fantasy Element and Entertaining Battle of Strategies

This series was made available on HBO Max in Indonesia since few weeks ago. I was not too sure if it would be interesting, but my wife who loved the acting of its lead cast was immediately intrigued. After watching several episodes, she highly recommended me to give it a try which I did from last weekend & managed to finish it last night. So how was the series then? Let us get into it now, shall we?

Brief Story Line

Lee Han-young (Ji Sung - Confession, Connection TV series etc) was a corrupt judge in Seoul who agreed to sway decision in favor of the ones willing to bribe him. However after an incident, he had a change of heart and turned his life around to clean corrupt Korean justice system powered by senior judge Kang Sin-jin (Park Hee-soon - My Name TV series, The Policeman's Lineage etc). Realizing he could not do everything alone, Han-young reconnected with his high school best friend Seok Jeong-ho (Tae Won-seok - Good Boy TV series, My Puppy etc) who was now a successful loan shark. He also enlisted the help of prosecutors Park Cheol-woo (Hwang Hee - Love Song for Illussion TV series etc) and Kim Jin-ah (Won Jin-ah - Secret: Untold Melody, Hellbound TV series etc), plus the support from reporter Song Na-yeon (Baek Jin-hee - The Real Has Come TV series etc).

Meanwhile the large Haenal law firm was looking for a judge to be their puppet & increase their success and their president Yu Seon-cheol (Ahn Nae-sang - 12.12: The Day, The Haunted Palace TV series etc) tried to get Han-young in by marrying him to his youngest & spoiled daughter Yu Se-hee (Oh Se-young - Lovely Runner TV series etc). With the stakes getting higher, Han-young tried to get the backing from Chief Judge Baek Yi-seok (Kim Tae-woo - Project Silence, Twinkling Watermelon TV series etc) who he believed would support his fight against the corrupt Sin-jin. 

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this series.

End of Brief Story Line

To be honest, when I watched the first episode, I was quite confused where it was heading since the story telling seemed really rushed, like they could not wait to get to the finish line. After finishing that episode, I was still not convinced if it was to my liking especially since the character Han-young felt a bit too naive, overly dramatic and did not look promising to take the lead. But since my wife believed that I would like it, I continued watching the second episode. And it was really pleasing that the story took a wonderful turn in the mid of that episode which made me enjoyed it better. As the series progressed, I found myself to be hooked by it and could not stop. At one point, I did not realize I have watched till almost midnight and had to force myself to stop.

Subsequently the series became more interesting with several intriguing cases, although the courtroom drama was not as many as I would have hoped for. However, the lack of it was covered by the intricate strategies crafted by Han-young to fight the evil Sin-jin while trying to hide his real intention. Towards the final third of the series, the story was less becoming legal drama (no more courtroom scenes) and emphasize more on the battle of wits with additional political motive to add complexities to the plot. Despite the higher intensity in the last two episodes, I did feel that the strategy was rather half-cooked and certain things looked heavily reliant on luck. Not to mention there were small things that the writers did not seem to bother like the weird inability and lack of effort of police to capture fugitives, the inconsistency timeline in the hospital scene involving Se-hee and few others. But I still thought the ending was satisfying as it was quite realistic.

The series was a huge success in South Korea and never dropped from 2nd position nation wide ever since its fifth episode till its finale, which proved that audience gotten more interested as it progressed. It was adapted from Naver series of the same title by Lee Hae-nal which was also loved by its readers. The episodes were directed by Lee Jae-jin whose prior works were drama series like Motel California, The Spies Who Loved Me and several others. I also thought the lead cast did great job like Ji Sung and especially Park Hee-soon. There were a large support cast in here who were convincing in their roles such as Kim Beop-rae (Land of Happiness, Squid Game season 2 etc) as the obnoxious S Group CEO Jang Tae-sik, Park Geon-il (Forbidden Fairytale, Come! Jang Bo-Ri TV series etc) as Sin-jin's henchman Sun-won, Jung Jae-sung (Hunt, Study Group TV series etc) and Hwang Young-hee (The Witness, Shin's Project TV series etc) as Han-young's loving parents, Jung Hee-tae (Best Friend, Wedding Impossible TV series etc) as Sin-jin's right hand man Kim Jin-han, Son Byung-ho (Miss Fortune, Doc Knows Everything TV series etc) as former president Park Kwang-to and many others. Though I was not too familiar with them, but my wife recognized most as they quite frequently appeared in other series.

The whole series had 14 episodes which was rather unusual (I think), cause to my knowledge mostly South Korean series made for network TV (not web/streaming) has 16 sometimes 12 or 20 episodes. With a little over 1 hour on each episode meant it was not a short binge (that's why it took me 3 days to finish). For a legal drama series, this one was interesting as it managed to combine not only the courtroom drama, but also the ongoing fight between good and evil behind the scene through strategy and deceptions. There was a bit of fantasy element here but it only served as platform to the real plot. The series did not only have heavy side but also some light moments like the camaraderie between Han-young and his team and just a touch of romance. There were also few dramatic scenes but not to the point of melodramatic. 

Overall to me this was an enjoyable legal drama. Though the early part was rather confusing and probably disinteresting, but from second episode onward it became way more entertaining. The acting was pretty great, the story was unique and interesting and the battle of strategy & wit was intriguing. It also has a satisfying ending and pretty conclusive which meant there was no need to have it renewed to know how everything would be resolved. Although the last two episodes seemed to throw away some logic but the journey towards the end was pretty fun. So if you are in the mood for something like this and if you are big fan of Ji Sung like my wife is, then I believe you are going to enjoy this one. I myself had a nice time watching it and was thankful for my wife's insistence on me giving the series a try.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars