The Judge From Hell Season 1 Review – An enjoyable ride with a few bumps along the way

Episode Guide

Episode 1 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 2 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 3 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 4 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 5 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 6 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 7 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 8 -| Review Score – 4.5/5
Episode 9 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 10 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 11 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 12 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 13 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 14 -| Review Score – 4/5

The Judge From Hell is an entertaining K-drama but it’s certainly not without its flaws. Taking inspiration from both Taxi Driver and The Devil Judge, The Judge From Hell uses the idea of revenge and vengeance as a tool to drive its narrative forward. Wrapped around that though is a much more sentimental story about forgiveness, grief and finding your place in the world. The show packs a lot into its 14 episode run and by the end, you’ll be itching for the story to continue.

The narrative revolves around two key characters. The central protagonist and titular character is Kang Bitna, an elite judge with a beautiful appearance. However, she’s completely unhinged and doesn’t stand for being disrespected in the courtroom. Oh, and she’s also a resurrected dead woman, with the spirit of Justitia, the goddess of Justice, prancing around inside of her. After being banished from Hell, and forced to undertake a secret mission for her superior Bael, Bitna has her own reasons for distilling swift justice on those who deserve it.

However, her icy exterior is slowly thawed when she meets a damaged and fractured detective called Daon. He’s friendly and gentle but also incredibly sharp as a detective. His past is mired in grief and misery, stemming from an infamous serial killer cold case by the name of J. After Kang Bitna and Han Daon meet each other for the first time, both their lives are changed forever.

The chemistry between these two is partly what makes the show work so well, and Park Shin-hye is delightful as the sinister and brutal Bitna. Likewise, Kim Jae-young works incredibly well alongside her, feeding on or bouncing off his co-star’s energy to deliver a compassionate and believable performance. However, he inevitably comes across a bit vanilla, simply because Shin-hye chews up the scenery in every scene she’s in. Honestly, she looks like she’s having so much fun in this character and you can really feel that in every scene.

As for the main narrative, The Judge From Hell is really a story of two halves. The first 7 or 8 episodes have a very consistent tone and pace, tackling individual cases across 2 episodes (to go with the double-releases every week), with courtroom scenes and specific “revenge” scenarios working in much the same way Taxi Driver did. For those unfamiliar, the set-up in Judge From Hell sees bits of a broken family or an irredeemable criminal showcased, then Daon swoops in to gather evidence with the police, which in turn goes to the courtroom where Judge Bitna delivers a very lenient sentence.

Why? Well, Bitna then decides to kill those individuals on her own time, which lends itself into her secret mission for Bael. Bael wants her to kill a certain number of individuals so he can invite her back into Hell. However, these scenes can sometimes be pretty long too and those squeamish to violence should definitely take note. One of the revenge missions here literally goes on for 15 minutes or so of relentless assault. While it’s never to the degree of Mortal Kombat fatalities, it’s definitely worth bearing in mind if you’re going into this one.

As mentioned, the midway point sees the focus shift and we get much more of a serialized storyline, focusing on familial and interpersonal drama that affects Daon’s past and involves a couple of people from the police force too. I’m not spoiling anything here, but personally, this is where the narrative starts to see some serious holes in logic and narrative flow.

I won’t nitpick too much but we never see the full fate of what happens to the human Bitna. We get one scene of her in Hell being chased by a lion during the first few episodes… but then it’s never brought up again. Similarly, there’s a skewed sense of justice when the idea of God is brought into the fold, and while I’m not going to get religious here, it’s likely to rub believers up the wrong way. Although personally, I think it works quite well in the context of the show, given the idea of justice being dished out.

Outside of that, there’s a suitably ambiguous ending in case this one returns for a second season, but even without that, there is a lovely montage of sorts that ties up everything that happened in the first half of the show with the victims (minus human Bitna) which is a nice inclusion.

The soundtrack is pretty good here too, and the visuals definitely work well in this K-drama. There’s a suitable balance between practical and CG effects used for the demons from Hell, especially with Bael’s tentacles and seeing Justitia’s courtroom; these fantastical elements contrast nicely alongside more of the grounded work on Earth.

There are some parts of this show that definitely needed to be reworked more effectively into the main story though. There’s an entire subplot involving an Apartment Complex that Bitna lives in that feels like it’s trying to capture Vincenzo vibes but fails miserably. There’s also an inclusion of a Demon-hunting group after Satan that’s literally in this to exude exposition and never pops up again. There’s an opportune time for them to show up too, getting involved in the main conflict in the final few episodes, but instead, they kinda just fizzle out.

Speaking of which, the final conflict is wrapped up at breakneck speed too with a rather anticlimactic end to the main bad guys. Honestly, I wish we’d seen much more of a struggle for our characters to overcome to really ramp up the tension and suspense, but alas that doesn’t happen. Instead, this is sacrificed for the romance.

The love between Daon and Bitna is something that’s definitely going to be an acquired taste and in all honesty, I wish they’d gone the route of these two just being love/hate friends as their chemistry suits this role much better. The romance is based on principles diametrically opposed to one another, and some of the sudden shifts in character do feel a bit out of place. Daon goes from “killing killers is wrong” to “kill this man now” in the span of a few minutes after a shocking reveal. Sure, it’s a life-altering situation, but this isn’t the first time he’s encountered this sort of thing either, so it feels a bit jarring.

As for Justitia, her descent into becoming human and falling in love with Daon fares a little better, but honestly I wish they’d omitted this completely. I know that may not be a popular choice among K-fans but we’ve had some good dramas this year and Judge from Hell is definitely up there. However, it’s hard to ignore some of the glaring issues that hold it back from being the best drama of the year.

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