[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Devil Judge" Episode 14

Soo-hyeon is dead. I wasn't actually sure she was dead, given that this is the fifth time a character has received a grievous, possibly mortal injury and not suffer any meaningful long-term consequences. The first was Ga-on, in that explosion I don't think was ever explained. Then Soo-hyeon, who got clocked in the head while investigating a lead. Then Yo-han got shot, but not killed. And most recently Jeong-ho. And I'm not sure it was clearly explained why he was attacked either.

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Soo-hyeon's death, that it to say the death of a cop, is treated as a monstrous red line crossed by Bamboo Spear. Never mind the fact that Bamboo Spear has, this entire time, been videotaping themselves viciously beating people. Never mind that hardly a few scenes earlier in the previous episode we had seen Choong-sik viciously beating an old man to death. This is the moment where Yo-han has finally gone too far.

Yes, you read that correctly. Yo-han is still somehow played up as the villain, despite the Social Responsibility Foundation's plans having increasingly nothing to do with him. They were beating up an entire neighborhood, with the full support of the police, under a viral outbreak excuse that had almost nothing to do with the crimes they were videotaped doing. The entire situation is just too blatantly absurd, and even insulting to the intelligence of the viewer.

How is there no evidence that Choong-sik had official support? Choong-sik was disgraced, viciously beaten by his own goons, and hardly a couple of episodes later he's back in a position of power. How did Bamboo Spear get access to an area under medical quarantine? Who's funding them? Why aren't they ever arrested for crimes they literally advertise in online videos? These aren't minor questions! They can only be explained by some sort of connection between Bamboo Spear and a higher political power!

So instead of an actual investigation, everything comes down to Choong-sik being executed for his crimes via social media. Despite how this incident is treated by other characters, this is actually one of Yo-han's more mundane punishments. Choong-sik is indisputedly a murderer. South Korea has the death penalty, and murder is a capital crime. The problems facing this dystopian vision of South Korea go far deeper than a mere lack of evidence, and I'm insulted that the script is engaging in arbitrary moral dilemmas rather than actually engaging with its own premise.

Review by William Schwartz

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"The Devil Judge" is directed by Choi Jeong-gyoo, written by Moon Yoo-suk, and features Ji Sung, Kim Min-jung, Park Jinyoung, Park Gyu-young, Ahn Nae-sang, Kim Jae-kyung. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/07/03~2021/08/22, Sat, Sun 21:00 on tvN.