TRIGGER WARNING: This drama is a dystopia. Dystopia means 'an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice (bad/unfair), typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic'.There are many disturbing events which will piss you off, so stay calm. Also, few things might feel illogical as well but you gotta understand that, this is what happens in a dystopian world.

The Devil Judge absolutely keeps you thrilled through out the entire drama and I am not lying. The thing that contributed to this feeling, is undoubtedly the kind of drak and intense sound and cinematography obviously, apart from the super thrilling storyline plus plot&twists; truly notable. There are flaws which could have been avoided storywise leaving them behind but I guess they wanted to adjust it to 16 episodes. Also, the writer showed lack of steady writing capabilities at many points. Nevertheless, the story and screenplay is intriguing to be enthralled throughout.

STORY & PLOT:
The Devil Judge is set up in an imaginary dystopian world even though the scenario remains in the present-day Seoul and it's neighborhoods. The society is full of chaos, where injustice takes place in a blink and the powerful causes disaster openly without any fear of being brought down by the people. This drama for it's title was expected to be a legal thriller with plenty of courtroom scenes and law stuffs but it turned out to be a socio-political thriller between the powerful who prey over the common people.

Talking about the story, it's primarily about a live court show, initiated for fairer and transparent justice system that turns into a revenge plan where every powerful being with wealth and influence try to bring down each other by any means. Kang Yohan, the presiding judge of the show plans to destroy the authoritarian system of the nation alongside his personal purposes which were secrets only know to him. Kim Ga On, a young associate judge who believes in constitutional values joins hands with him and later gets involved as he finds out about the injustice done to his family in the past. Kim Sun Ah, a poor maid who ascends the stair to success by coercing the rich and influential all her life, controls the nation with her strings, by direct and indirect means. Sun Ah tries to destroy Yo Han as well as climb upto the the utmost peak of the system. Sun Ah and Yo Han, with their shared past story, seek revenge over each other and at the same time harm people by their sides.

The Devil Judge as a story is very good and intriguing plot which gives the vibe of perfect thriller development. The way the story used it's plot devices at right places, is an amazing sight to witness. The connections between past and present, their revelations and the way of their portrayal had me bewitched in just 2 episodes. By the time, the real game started I was bawling my eyes out and had goosebumps all over my body. The plot development is quite nice which is a steady ascending plot with no fall backs. However, there are a handful number of plotholes as well which could have been easily avoided. Also, the progression felt off many times when I thought they'd fall through the story but fortunately they picked the pace back to rise forward constantly.

Given there are plenty of characters, I think few minor characters like like Judge Oh, Justice Min Ho Jung (Supreme Court), Seo Jung Hak (SRF Chairman) could have been written better. It felt like they were in the drama for mere show-off and to fill in the little gaps of the story. The drama is obviously dominated by Ji Sung and Jin Young to a great extent. I mean, yeah, I love them so much both as actors and as men but no, this is a drama and every character other than the leads should be fairly portrayed.

Overally, I am highly pleased with the story and plot development but I am also a lil sad for the lacking fields they left for the audience to be noticed and pointed out.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS:.
I don't really do character analysis for all the dramas but I feel this drama has a major drawback in drawing characters and developing the arcs. So let me.

The most major character Kang Yo Han played by Ji Sung is a high-class, good-looking, popular reputed Judge in the Supreme Court who is known for his strict punishing and merciless verdicts for the guilty. He is a mysterious being with doubtful yet tragic past stories and knows to manipulate and influence others. The daytime's judge turn into a devil executioner, violating the law himself to teach the evils a lesson. Upon his recommendation the South Korean Govt. forms a "Live Court" with the help of a public welfare forum namely "Social Responsibility Foundation". This is set to create histories and records as the first ever court to be aired live and with public itself as the judge who'd vote whether someone's is guilty or not.

With him joins Kim Ga On (Park Jin Young) and another Oh Jin Joo (Kim Jae Kyung) as associate judges. JinJoo is a sidekick character while Ga On is the 2nd most important person in the story who joins hands with Yohan to seek justice by illegal means despite his urge to obtain truth through constitutional values. Gaon played a great role in bringing Yohan and his niece Elijah close by acting as a bridge between them. The way he helped them gaining their confidence back and in blooming emotions in their cold-hard hearts, was a warm thing to watch. His character could have been a lot better, ngl. With no definite character development, his side story was portrayed as a factor that contributed to him joining the cause. To be honest, GaOn's character is a failed attempt. We saw intense bromance between GaOn and Yohan in initial episodes so I expected a greater chemistry by the end of the drama but I am disappointed to say that it fell through. He can be easily manipulated and swayed and towards the end he betrays Yohan and make him a scammer (WTF). He runs to Yohan when he needs help but get all energized when something goes wrong and even runs away whenever things get tough. This happened more than once. The drama could have been okay without his character I think.

Only thing about him that I loved is his chemistry with the female lead. The female lead against Ga On, Yoon Soo Hyun (Park Gyu Young) was a fierce lieutenant in Regional Investigation Unit (RIU) who craves for setting an ideal law and order situation and never stands offence & injustice. GaOn and SooHyun are childhood friends who are the closest to each other till date, accompanying each other in their evens & odds and in fact are more or less in love with each other even though they never talked about relationships. Their love story was heart touching as well as beautiful enough to heal a dying heart. But again, their romance was a waste. Soo Hyun's character with lots of potential wasn't used well. There was not a single thing about her except for that she's a long-term best friend of Ga On and have been rejected by him several times.

The lead antagonist here is Kim Jung Min who plays Jung Sun Ah, an evil woman with high ambitions like absorbing power from others and gaining control over the entire world. She knows the art of coercing, especially the powerful, wealthy and influential mass by her trickery. As a kid who didn't get proper care as a child, she starts working as a maid in rich families and due to her greed as well as sly nature manipulates them to get her things done. With her past inclinations and lingering feelings for Yohan, she seeks revenge from him and operates the country's system to achieve her goals. Her character is beautifully written and she justified it with all she could give.

Judge Oh (the other associate judge) is a gorgeous sweet lady who believes in idealism and thrives to create a just world. She gets manipulated by power and wealth at first upon being ignored by her mates but chooses to take the right side later. She had no essence in the story; she is one of the 2 associate judges after all and she was confident enough to go to good lengths but the writer did a poor job in her regard.

Kang Elijah, Yohan's young niece who is a victim of a fatal incident in her yearly child, lost her ability to walk and ends up in wheelchair. Her relationship with her only family, i.e. Yohan is bitter as they never try having the minimal conversation. She easily believes people who are kind to her. But she actually opens up to Gaon and later becomes close to his uncle, Yohan.

Apart from these main characters, there are plenty of side, supporting, minor as well as guest characters and most of them are casted with familiar faces.

ACTING & DIRECTION:
As we can see, the drama is a multi-starrer having GREAT actors like Ji Sung and Kim Min Jung as leads. Park Jin Young being an idol turned actor is very very good in acting. Ji Sung is definitely someone charismatic who knows the art of bewitching the audience every time he comes forward to do a role. Kim Min Jung, oh my goodness, she is rather an artist who pursues art. She's been acting for almost 3 decades and I want her to become a global star. Park Gyu Young is a nice actress and she totally justified her role in here even though the screentime she got wass less. Supporting actors also did a good job despite less screentime.

Direction is good I would say. They did a good job managing the screenplay. The organization of scenes, intertwining, connecting, linking, revealing twists, etc were done well. Notable job in case of cinematography and CGI works plus the sound editing, oof. Cinematography is the best thing about this drama, which is tremendously a top notch. The sound editing that made the drama pretty intense and kept me going, I am very pleased by that. However, given that many characters were poorly written, the director didn't have much to do. So even with such good direction, the drama anyhow felt lacking.

OST:
OSTs are actually very good which also helped in making the drama more thrilling. However, there are only 4 OSTs accompanied by a number of thrilling background scores and themes and I like them "Tempest" by Huckleberry Finn is a heart-wrenching track whereas "Nightmare" by Sonidia felt tragic and sad. "What You Gonna Do" by Zeenan is both hardcore song depicting vital points of life. "The Nights" by Huckleberry Finn is a dark one which helps you seeing thing in a B&W shade. I liked their instrumentals as well.

THE ENDING:
The finale week and it's 2 episodes (15th and 16th) changed a lots of things. On one side, I was pissed bcs of GaOn's stupid actions without trying to understand the situations and on the other hand I was flabbergasted at how the tables had turned. The 2 greatest twist revelations at the end of ep2 were very intriguing I am sure most of us were awe-struck seeing those. Even when I knew I were to for 24 hours to watch the finale episode I couldn't wait thinking what's gonna happen. I cursed on Ga On and the writer but I admit my anxiety was on peak. But anyways, I was thrilled watching the finale and happy that it ended well though few things bugged me and felt unreasonable. I must say The Devil Judge finale episode is ONE OF THE BEST FINALE. It was so good and when I saw new twists that was gonna change the story to a great extent, I had goosebumps over my body. I am gonna forgive the writer a lil for gaOn's poor character just because how that character changed a lot in the finale. The way things ended is also very good and reasonable, I am honestly happy T T. The very last thing, that one thing i know made all of hs happpy. Ain't gonna spoil anything so watch for yourself. I can't forgive the writer for poor writing at many cases but it sure was a good watch.

CONCLUSION: Honestly, I loved the overall story and plot development. Ji Sung's character as Yohan is well suited and probably he's the one who kept up with the viewers. Kim Min Jung was another reason you should be watching this drama. But apart from these 2, other characters could have been a lot better. I am happy with the drama yet disappointed with the characters. I feel this is an unpopular opinion since many people love this drama to great extent but I am making sure my reviews aren't biased. I couldn't drop the drama bcs I liked the story and I was constantly enthralled by the screenplay however I expected much more than that. And tbh, at first I expected a courtroom drama just like others but found out it's not. Even so I am okay with whatever it is.

This drama could easily be a 9.0 but due to the writer's lack of sense, I will stand still at 8.5. Also, brownie points for the chemistry between Jin Young and Ji Sung that almost felt like a BL story with a daddy-baby relationship (cries under the blanket). Anyways, this drama is worth the one time watch, provided you have to bear with the side characters. That's all.