Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Juvenile Justice’ On Netflix, A Korean Drama About A Juvenile Court Judge That Despises Juvenile Offenders

Most of the K-dramas we’ve seen are more of the continuing story variety of show, so it’s a little unusual when we come across one that’s more of a procedural. But not only is Juvenile Justice, the newest K-drama on Netflix, a procedural, but it feels a lot like an American network procedural from the ’90s or early 2000s. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

JUVENILE JUSTICE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Seoul lit up during the holidays. A teenage boy in a hoodie approaches a cop outside a police station. He says he murdered someone and presents the weapon, dripping with blood.

The Gist: Judge Shim Eun-seok (Kim Hye-soo) is suddenly transferred to a division that doesn’t just do juvenile protective cases, but juvenile criminal cases, as well. We know her stance on juvenile offenders during an interview with a TV journalist. It’s not to help the offenders get back on the right track; she actually does the work she does for hatred. “I detest young offenders,” she says.

She’s definitely not a fan of the juvenile protection laws on the books that say that offenders 13 and younger will only get a few years in juvenile detention/school, and no prison time, even for offenses like murder. When she arrives as one of the associate judges under presiding judge Kang Won-joong (Lee Sung-min), she’s greeted by the other associate judge, Cha Tae-joo (Kim Mu-yeol), who is basically her temperamental opposite. He cares deeply for the kids that come into his courtroom and makes sure to follow up with them as they try to straighten their lives out.

Judge Kang is called from his TV news gig and is assigned to the trial of the young boy who claimed he killed an 8-year-old and dismembered the kid’s body. The claim by the boy and his harried guardian is that he is schizophrenic. It’s an important case that he wants to resolve quickly in order to set himself up for a run for political office. But when he assigns the case to Judge Shim, that idea goes out the window.

When she questions the boy during the arraignment, something about his story doesn’t add up. If he’s a diagnosed schizophrenic, as he shows with documentation, then the crime scene as he described it wouldn’t have been so clean. He wouldn’t have been able to take the time to plan things the way he described. And he certainly wouldn’t have the patience to dismember the poor child after killing him. No, he’s covering up for someone else, because he knows as a 13-year-old it would only mean the 2 years in juvenile detention.

She wants to investigate, but Judge Kang objects, thinking that this should either be tried as is or sent back to the police. Judge Cha decides to help her investigate, because he’d rather see them get the case right than to just convict the boy out of expediency.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Judging Amy, if Amy was really, really pissed about juvenile offenders.

Our Take: Written by Kim Min-seok, Juvenile Justice takes on a bit of a sheen of a classic American network drama — with a bit of additional cursing sprinkled in for streaming audiences. Why do we think that? Because Judge Shim takes these cases on herself and investigates them, something you might see on, say, a CBS procedural, but doesn’t happen in real life.

There are supporting characters, like a pair of clerks who have heard the reputation of “Judge Max” precede her. She’s not only tough on offenders, but she burns the midnight oil at the office almost every day. Will she demand that kind of dedication from the clerks and Judge Cha?

Of course, what we want to find out more about is Judge Shim’s utter disdain for juvenile offenders. In an extended scene at an “MJ” dinner (“Meet the Judges”) with some recently-released juvenile offenders, Judge Shim insists that one of the students stole a woman’s wallet. She’s so sure of it that she just calls the girl a liar and starts to call the police, while Judge Cha objects. It takes some Sherlock-level observation skills for Judge Shim to prove that the girl stole a wallet, even if it’s not necessarily the wallet she was accused of stealing.

She’s applying such advanced observational and investigative skills in a way that puts her on the other side of many of these kids, most of whom are trying to get back to a crime-free life. So, who hurt her? Why is she in the juvenile court if she thinks all juvenile offenders are liars who should rot in prison? We’re eager to see that in future episodes. It’ll become especially critical as the judges and their team move from case to case, just as a way to tie all of it together.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: After an extended chase, Judge Shim corners the schizophrenic boy’s accomplice. “I… detest… young… offenders,” we hear her say in a breathless voice over (she was running, after all).

Sleeper Star: Reyn Doi, who plays the schizophrenic teen Baek Seong-u, does a fine job not only acting like he has voices in his head, but there are moments where his inappropriate laughing during his hearing is no natural it’s scary.

Most Pilot-y Line: Judge Cha tells Judge Shim that she shouldn’t be wandering about, without even asking her name. Somehow, he assumes she can’t be the new associate judge because she’s a woman…?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Juvenile Justice is about as close to an American-style procedural as Netflix or Korean TV gets. We hope we get a little more backstory on the main character, but the cases might just be compelling enough to keep our interest.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.