Premiere Watch: The Judge Returns
by stroopwafel
Time slot: Friday & Saturday
Broadcaster: MBC
Genre: Fantasy, legal, time-slip
Episode count: 14
Global streamer: HBO Max (Asia only)
Reasons to watch: Ji Sung returns to dramaland as the titular judge in the new MBC series, The Judge Returns. Joining him in the main cast, we have Park Hee-soon as a fellow judge, and Won Jin-ah as a prosecutor.
Adapted from a popular webtoon, the fantasy legal drama starts in 2035, when Ji Sung is a veteran judge who is as corrupt as the day is long. Though he hadn’t started off crooked, once he married into a family that ran a large law firm, he turned his back on Lady Justice to serve the rich and powerful. In 2035, Ji Sung experiences a crisis that has him rethinking his life choices–but that change of heart coincides with his sudden murder. Of course, not even death is final in dramaland, and Ji Sung abruptly finds he’s been revived and sent back in time to 2025.
Thus begins Ji Sung’s second chance at life, but there are still some very powerful people who want to keep Ji Sung in their pockets. Park Hee-soon may be one of those people, and there’s lots of bad blood between the men. Won Jin-ah is a potential ally in Ji Sung’s revenge journey, but having known Ji Sung 1.0, she’s skeptical that she can actually trust him. As Ji Sung works to sate his vengeance, he starts to feel the weight of the adage that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
Ji Sung and Park Hee-soon are the main draws for me, but if attractive ajusshis with a knack for picking complex stories isn’t your thing, The Judge Returns is poised to deliver a story about the power of our choices, as well as examinations of what makes a life worth living.
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