I stumbled upon this series while scrolling through Netflix, looked into the first episode and it hit me like a truck. Juvenile Justice really came out of left field for me, and in retrospect I'm really thankful for the experience.
The story revolves around Shim Eun Seok (Kim Hye-su), a juvenile court judge who appears stone cold and lays down the law with an iron fist on young offenders, while also battling her own demons of the past deep inside. The juvenile justice system is highly divisive, conflicting and heavily overloaded, laying not only the sentencing and punishment of juvenile offenders on the court but even the aftercare and oversight on the judges themselves. While the law treats them as children who are scarcely accountable for their own actions, often it doesn't defend victims or take their circumstances into account, what lead them down this path. Domestic violence, neglect, mistreatment, bullying, often very hard to properly prosecute. On the other hand, many young criminals straight up expect to get off with nothing but probation and a slap on the wrist while committing very real crimes, theft, robbery, blackmail, prostitution, grievous violence and even murder, fully aware of their actions. Judge Shim sails the muddy waters of this tattered legal embroglio to try and truly punish young criminals and bring absolution to the victims of the system.
Honestly, I was truly surprised by this series! I half expected a confusing and boring TV schlock, filled with incessant jargon and theatrical melodrama. But what I got was a very intense, high quality, easily digestible (for a legal series), very binge-worthy story and some of the best acting I've seen in a while! Kim Hye-su completely dominates the role of Judge Shim. Coming off as a stone cold, no-nonsense inquisitor who absolutely throws the book at young criminals trying to slip through the cracks, while she slowly learns that the juvenile court is not only there to punish but also to teach, reform and protect those fallen by the wayside and wronged by the system.
The production quality is excellent! The camera work, direction and even the few special effects are way higher quality than one would expect from a TV series of this kind. This far excuses some of the plotholes and the sometimes wooden acting by some of the support cast. I usually don't like kids in series and movies, but I have to say, the young cast brings their A-game and believable acting throughout the series, which was really refreshing. The story goes at breakneck speeds, filled with lots of detail, action, intrigue, investigations and hard choices which makes the series feel a lot longer than 10 episodes. There's never a dull moment watching Judge Shim and co going above and beyond their line of duty to get to the truth and render a truly just verdict in the end.
All in all, I highly recommend Juvenile Justice to anyone looking for an intense court drama with a flair for complexity and some action on the side!
