This drama comes at you swinging and knocks you off for good with the last episode.

Writing, directing and acting are all superb (and, surprisingly, I found the OST just as outstanding) but I dare say this is not an easy, leisurely watch.
Although the pacing is sustained and the storytelling extremely fluid and engaging (I personally binge watched it in 2 days), the topic is a heavy one. The writer aims at informing a discussion on juvenile justice reform and successfully conveys its complexity while reminding us of its wide impact on society as a whole, not only on the minors directly involved.

We are guided through the main discourse whilst following mainly 3 groups of characters: judges, young perpetrators and victims. The lines among these 3 groups become voluntarily blurred (at one point Judge Sim tells us that anyone can become a victim. Later on, in the episode on judge Kang and his son, we learn that the same is true for perpetrators) and, as we discover each backstory, it is impossible to remain indifferent to the grief onscreen. Nonetheless, it never feels forced or minutely crafted to obtain an easy emotivity.

This was my first encounter with Kim Hye-soo, surprisingly so given her fame and talent, and she instantly became a favorite. Her character is introduced to the audience almost as an antagonist - shrouded in monolithic severity and inflexibility - compared to the warm and sympathetic Cha Tae-joo, who protects and guides the youngsters as their big brother hero.

However, as the story unfolds, we come to respect and appreciate severity as the necessary quality to mete out justice.
A special gravitas, the most inflexible and unwavering constitution is required in seeking the truth in order to uncover guilt and reach the ultimate powerful tool of catharsis: punishment.
Shim Eun-seok transcends her private identity and tragedy to become the personification of a justice that can heal both the victims and the perpetrators.
As doctors save the body, Judges save the ethics that sustains civil society.
And this mission is even more crucial if it involves young offenders at a point in their life when their ethics, their morality, is still indefinite and unshaped.
Kim Hye-soo manages, with her Junoesque physicality, to incarnate the divine quality of justice and shape it as a quintessential mother figure.
Also, she totally feels like a formidable dominatrix (with her high heels and strict suits and natural commanding tone. Tae-joo feels like her devote sub, instead).

Take home message: It really does take a village to raise a child.

Female Empowerment Score 5/5: women are truly the backbone of society