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The Judge Returns korean drama review
Ongoing 2/14
The Judge Returns
3 people found this review helpful
by InspectorMegre
5 days ago
2 of 14 episodes seen
Ongoing
Overall 10
Story 10.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 10.0

Well done!!! ML should get an award for this role. FL is great too

====WRITTEN AFTER EP 2: ====
ML is an amazing actor and has lots of time on the screen. He should get an award for this role. FL is written very well and the actress is amazing too. I am looking forward to seeing more of her. So far she was very secondary although her influence was critical.

The script is tight and there are so many nuances, it is worth rewatching this. Let us hope it continues for 14 episodes!
====

This drama (TJR) might look similar to Again My Life (AML) or Lawless Lawyer (LL) or Devil Judge (DJ) dramas , but it is very different.

AML, LL, and DJ are about always-good guys chasing bad guys.
TJR is about a guy who was both good and bad... He is an ordinary "good" guy who willingly became a bad guy, caused death and destruction, his conscience nagged him, he willingly turned good and went against his former accomplices.
The common thing in all 3 dramas is that a woman helps the ML.

>>>> Again My Life and Lawless Lawyer are revenge dramas about low status, righteous lawyer/prosecutor without power connections, going against high ranking officials who run crime to keep climbing up to the top government positions.
In AML, ML is naive, and he is given a chance to try it again. In LL, he is not naive LOL he was raised by thugs and uses all kinds of dirty tricks to revenge his mother.
TJR resembles AML bc a naive fighting-for-good person has a chance to come back to life with all memories intact and do it right the second time around; and resembles LL bc this "good person" uses dirty tricks to win. But:
TJR ML intentionally became a high ranking government official - a judge - who helped major evil do significant damages, so he is a deep, self-made crook. AML and LL heroes are always good guys. They use dirty tricks but never too dirty, they never were crooks, never did major bad stuff, never harmed anyone; they are just slightly mean
You can say that all three male leads somewhat resemble each other after TJR ep 2 :) But TJR hero is a LOT meaner and more criminal LOL if the end of ep 2 is not a fantasy. AML and LL heroes would never do that. They resolve everything legally.

>>>>Devil Judge is a thriller about fighting and exposing a well-camouflaged evil judge who is loved by the public but runs a crime ring and has grandiose evil goals about seizing control (like the villains in Lawless Lawyer and Again My Life, who are sooo well camouflaged sociopaths/psychopaths, it is chilling to meet them on the screen. Judge Cha and assemblyman are sooo creepy, esp. Judge Cha is a villain whom you will remember... !!!!! totally horrifying yet always 100% polite).
In comparison, TJR ML is an amateur... he tries to look good but his corruption is very obvious and known by everyone for a long time...... .... You can say that TJR ML resembles Devil Judge and LL and AML villains in ep 1 bc he pretends to be good but is doing bad :) but TJR ML has conscience and is a lot smaller scale crook that those three.

>>>>The Judge Returns drama is about cleaning up bad karma, about the redemption arc of a basically good ordinary person who succumbed to greed and INTENTIONALLY AND WILLINGLY became the slave of the corrupt power circles. His only intent was to gain a cushy life, but it came with a price he was not willing to pay.... As he climbed high and went far .... too far... .... did sooooooooooo much bad... he WILLINGLY experienced remorse and WILLINGLY started anew in good way .... but he was naive... and was given a chance to came back to fix his misdeeds and do the good stuff.
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