[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The Devil Judge" Episode 8

Last episode, Ga-on learned to his revulsion that the man he thought was in prison for crimes relating to the unfortunate fate of his parents isn't actually in prison at all, and has been replaced with an impostor. Despite seeming to vindicate Yo-han's position of the Social Responsibility Foundation representing a unique evil, Ga-on remains skeptical. After all, Yo-han himself could have organized this stunt. Hilariously enough, Yo-han himself admits that such actions are totally within his ethos.

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Once again there are no trials, just the discussion of them as the situation reorganizes around Seon-ah seizing outright power of the Social Responsibility Foundation, having disposed of her figurehead. The villains are in a bit of a sticky situation, not trusting each other or Seon-ah. They mostly just ignore Yo-han. The big exception to this is another erotically charged scene where Seon-ah meets up with Yo-han to thrill herself with the danger of being in his presence.

Jin-joo (played by Kim Jae-kyung) finally gets to do something of importance, by complaining that simply being Yo-han's right-hand woman in the trial scenes isn't enough anymore. It's hard to argue with that. While Ga-on at least gets to be the main character, his role in the trials themselves have been explicitly described as useless from the very beginning. I'm still not sure why Yo-han is trying so hard to recruit Ga-on into the greater cause, given how unimportant he seems in the greater social construct of Yo-han's schemes.

The grand coalition of Yo-han's allies that we meet likewise feels irrelevant. That they were recruited, as opposed to just sincerely acting in such a way that achieves Yo-han's goals, doesn't really change the story. That's a definite recurring annoyance of "The Devil Judge" is how the story has an awful lot of emphasis on plot holes that aren't really plot holes at all. I hadn't thought about them because they weren't really important.

The result ends up being that this episode just feels like its restating a lot of information that we already know, and getting further afield of the interesting material. All the talk about martial law, for example, feels like it should be a lot more central. As is President Heo taking a hard turn toward evil by cynically attempting to blame all of South Korea's problems on foreigners. I'm also not terribly thrilled with the creative decision to make low class thugs the most immediate villains at the cliffhanger.

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~Now airing, Sat, Sun 21:00 on tvN.