THE SHORT VERDICT:

From its premise, to its talented cast, to the strong deliveries of said cast, Show has a lot going for it.

Show does have some weaknesses in the storytelling, but overall, I found this to be absorbing and even quite gripping, sometimes.

Your mileage may certainly vary, but I found this to be pretty solid, on balance.

THE LONG VERDICT:

You guys. I always say that thrillers aren’t my usual type of drama, but I have to confess that I was drawn to this one, right from Show’s first promos.

I find the premise fascinating: a righteous judge finds himself trying to evade the law, when his son ends up accidentally killing the son of a very powerful ex-gang boss / now-chaebol king, who wants justice for his dead son.

Add on the fact that we get two amazing powerhouses – Kim Myung Min and Son Hyun Joo – facing off against each other, and I was practically sold before pressing “play.” 😁

HOW I’M APPROACHING THIS REVIEW

First I’ll talk about how to manage your expectations going into this one, and what viewing lens would be most helpful.

After that, I talk about stuff I liked and didn’t like so much. I’m opting not to do a separate section on characters and relationships, for this review. Finally, I spend some time talking about my thoughts on the finale episodes.

If you’re interested in my blow-by-blow reactions, &/or all the various Patreon members’ comments during the course of our watch, you might like to check out my episode notes on Patreon here.

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS / THE VIEWING LENS

Here are some things that I think would be helpful to keep in mind, to maximize your enjoyment of your watch:

1. It gets pretty dark

I’d say that things get pretty dark, not just in terms of how much blood is shed, but also, in terms of how far people are willing to go, in order to achieve their goals.

Adjusting your expectations around this, helps.

2. Our characters are all pretty gray

With few exceptions, most of our characters turn out to be morally gray, particularly when they find themselves in a desperate sort of situation.

So if you’re in a mood for clearly distinct “black or white” ie “bad or good” type characters, then this is unlikely to be the show for you, right now.

3. Some suspension of disbelief is required

Sometimes, Show stretches logic to varying degrees, in order to keep its story going, and knowing to expect that, helps.

I’m thinking.. “violent fable” might be a good lens to employ, while watching this one.

STUFF I LIKED

The interesting premise

Like I mentioned earlier, I just found myself quite captured by the premise, and how these characters find themselves on flipped sides of the moral divide, where the judge is now the one trying to evade the law, and the ex-crime boss is the one who is trying to get justice, for his dead son.

I found myself quickly fascinated by the characters in our story; I wanted to know what made them tick, and how far each of them would go, in order to achieve their goals.

Of course, things get increasingly messy (is there any other trajectory possible, with a story like this?), and I found myself duly engaged and morbidly fascinated, to see just how far a person might go, when backed up against a wall.

It does make for edge-of-your-seat viewing; I found myself holding my breath more than a few times, wondering whether Pan Ho (Son Hyun Joo) would get caught, in his efforts to create a way out for himself.

Show can be quite absorbing

As you might know, Show is based on the American series of the same name, which is in turn a remake of the Israeli television series “Kvodo.”

I just wanted to say that I am not familiar with Show’s source material, which means I had no prior expectations based on the source material, and experiences this story for the first time, via this drama.

It’s been a long minute since I’ve felt this fascinated by a thriller type story, so I’d count that as a pretty big plus.

The deeper into the story we get, the bigger and wilder this rollercoaster shows itself to be, and yet, for the most part, it felt like writer-nim has a good grasp on our story, and knows where we’re going, and how we’re going to get there.

Me, I was just happy to go along for the ride. 😁

The strong performances

I’ll talk more about their individuals characters right after this, but I just wanted to say that it was a real treat to have two powerhouses like Son Hyun Joo and Kim Myung Min face off against each other.

Honestly, their performances are both outstanding, and are, on their own, worth the price of entry. 🥲

As a bonus, I would say that both characters provide pretty fascinating character studies as well.

Son Hyun Joo as Pan Ho

I think that Son Hyun Joo gives a fantastic performance as Pan Ho, full of layered nuance, bringing out the various facets of Pan Ho’s development as a character, with a seemingly effortless delivery.

I have to admit that I had mixed feelings for Pan Ho as a character, because while it’s true that his entire life had been turned upside down in an instant, because of his son, and I understood his instinct to protect his son, I can’t say that I could condone some of his decisions or actions.

It’s just quite morbidly fascinating to see what an otherwise righteous character would stoop to, when faced with a difficult situation where he has reason to fear that the law would likely let him down.

[SPOILER ALERT]

E1-2. I think Son Hyun Joo is perfectly cast as our righteous judge Pan Ho, especially since I recently saw him in a very wise, righteous type role in Captivating The King (review here!).

Just watching him for that brief scene in the courtroom in our opening minutes, I got the sense that Pan Ho is a very senior, very well-respected judge, whose reputation precedes him; people trust him to be thoughtful, fair and impartial in meting out judgments and sentences.

You have Expectations, of such a righteous character, and of course, all of his values and principles become completely challenged and conflicted, when he finds out that his son’s been in a fatal hit-and-run accident.

I actually like that we get to see Pan Ho’s initial reaction, which is to bring his son Ho Young (Kim Do Hoon) to the police station, to turn himself in, so that he can pay for his wrongdoing.

That definitely felt like it was worth something, in my eyes; it’s not like Pan Ho immediately tried to shield Ho Young from the law.

It’s only when he realizes who the victim is – Kim Sang Hyun (Shin Ye Chan), the second son of Kim Gang Heon (Kim Myung Min) – that he quickly changes his mind and backs out of there like someone’s lit his pants on fire.

It soon becomes clear that that’s because Kim Gang Heon is the kind of guy who’s effectively above the law (just look at how he’s got all these privileges while in prison, and how he’s got the prison warden pandering to him), and would not be satisfied with the mere 5-year prison sentence that the law would mete out, for such a crime.

Pan Ho is basically convinced that if he doesn’t shield Ho Young, that Ho Young would basically die at Kim Gang Heon’s hands.

With that context, I can understand why Pan Ho would go so far, to try to cover up the crime; it’s because, in his mind, this is the only way to save his son’s life.

E3-4. At the center of it, Pan Ho’s various reactions, as things happen, are very interesting to me.

When he realizes that Lee Sang Taek’s mother and daughter have died because Lee Sang Taek’s been identified as the key suspect in the accident, you can see how horrified and stunned he is.

I’m sure he never expected that an innocent old lady and her innocent granddaughter would end up being killed, as a result of him trying to cover up Ho Young’s hit-and-run.

He does what he can to ease his conscience, like leading the fight against the fire, even though the old lady and the little girl have already died.

And yet, at the end of the day, he slinks away into the shadows, so that Detective Jang (Park Ji Yeon) won’t see him, and start asking questions.

Essentially, we are watching Pan Ho sink deeper and deeper into the abyss that he’s created for himself, from the moment he decided that he needed to cover up the case.

Every time things get more complicated, he’s faced with an implicit choice: come clean about the truth, or keep feeding the ruse.

Each time, he’s chosen to keep feeding the ruse, but as the game gets more complicated and gains more players, the price of feeding the ruse just keeps getting higher, which means that he just keeps sinking deeper.

It’s tragic, in the sense that his entire life has changed, thanks to this single chain of events, but it’s also morbidly understandable, because we can see how someone as normally righteous as Pan Ho, could get caught up in a bad situation like this, because of his son’s very bad lapse in judgment.

E3-4. I honestly don’t know if I believe that Pan Ho can really get Sang Hyuk off the hook the way he’s promising Gang Heon.

To my ears, this sounds like a promise made in desperation, where Pan Ho is grasping at straws, and actually isn’t confident of pulling it off; he’s just saying anything that he can, in the hopes of not dying.

And then, when Gang Heon tells him to prove his promise, by shooting Tee Rab, I feel that Pan Ho hesitates, as a matter of morals, but the moment Tee Rab starts to mention Ho Young’s name, Pan Ho’s protective instincts kick in, and he shoots Tee Rab, without hesitation.

It’s essentially the same thing that we’ve witnessed from him when this all began; he does have a moral compass and does have the instinct to follow it, but once his son’s safety is called into question, he’s willing to do anything, if it means protecting his son.

Even though this is the same principle at work, clearly, Pan Ho’s crossed into very different territory here.

Before this, his actions had indirectly led to the deaths of innocent people, but he hadn’t ever been the one to pull the trigger, so to speak.

Now, though, he’s literally pulling the trigger, and killing someone, in order to protect his son.

If there had been a point of no return, I’d say that Pan Ho’s definitely crossed it now. 😬

[END SPOILER]

Kim Myung Min as Gang Heon

I never had any doubt that Kim Myung Min would be magnificent (because he always is, isn’t he?), and he really delivers a wonderfully faceted performance as Gang Heon.

I found Gang Heon pretty darn fascinating as a character, because even though he’s the ex- (well, maybe not so ex-) crime boss, he’s the one who’s lost his son, and deserves for the law to stand on his side.

Additionally, even though he’s supposed to be a shady sort of character, I found myself pleasantly surprised by the touches of warm and humanity that we see from him, on a pretty regular basis.

I also found him suitably charismatic and badass, in his casually imperious way, which was very much bonus.

[SPOILER ALERT]

E1-2. I find myself very intrigued by Kim Gang Heon, as a character.

I’m quite fascinated by that tid-bit of information that we get, that he’s kind of got a mafia-esque background, but has cleaned up his act and his image; it kinda-sorta reminds me of our male lead character in My Sweet Mobster (review here!) – but in a very different kind of drama world.

Clearly, even though Gang Heon’s reportedly all cleaned up, there are still many gang-reminiscent elements around him, like the way he’s got a bodyguard in prison, who’s another inmate, and the way he’s got private running privileges.

Also, once he receives news of Sang Hyun’s death, he’s the one who decides that this will mark the end of his prison sentence, and that the prison warden should prepare for his release, instead of a furlough.

It makes me wonder just how much power he has, y’know?

At the same time, I also get the sense that he’s a pretty decent man, at heart.

Like, clearly, he’s done some good things for the prison warden, for the prison warden to be so grateful to him, and when the prison warden tries to express his eternal gratitude, Gang Heon just remarks that the prison warden is a good man.

This little beat is really quick, but it gives me the impression that Gang Heon’s pretty kind and empathetic at heart.

Plus, we also see how happy he is, to get that call from Sang Hyun, who’s thrilled with the gift of that motorcycle that Gang Heon’s sent him.

Also, it really does leave quite a deep impression on me, that when he loses Sang Hyun, he’s more focused on grieving, than on being angry at the person who did this to his son.

In fact, we even hear him tell his wife, that he’s so sad, that he’s forgotten how to be angry.

This builds a pretty unexpected picture of humanity for me, when it comes to Gang Heon as a character.

E3-4. This whole morbid chain of events rests on Pan Ho’s belief, that Gang Heon would absolutely take the law into his own hands, and exact revenge on Ho Young.

The truth his, though, it’s unclear, really, whether Gang Heon would have done that.

As far as we can see so far, even though Gang Heon’s methods are definitely shady, he honestly seems to just want justice for his son, and it seems to me that the main reason he’s taking things into his own hands, is because things had gotten so suspicious, on the law enforcement side of things.

I am tempted to believe that if Ho Young had turned himself in at the beginning, that Gang Heon would have left things in the hands of the law.

It almost feels like Pan Ho is indirectly forcing Gang Heon’s hand, in a manner of speaking, because of the trail of suspicion that he’s left behind?

On that note, it strikes me that Gang Heon’s organization no longer being a crime organization, feels like it’s mostly only skin-deep.

It feels to me like Gang Heon only follows the law when it suits him, and while it’s suited him to do so for a fair amount of time (which is why he was even serving time, at the beginning of our story), the circumstances have now changed, and that’s why we see him doing all kinds of things, from breaking and entering, to actually killing people.

I don’t know why, but this all lands as pretty coolly badass, to my eyes. 😅 I don’t know what that says about me, that I’m actually dazzled by someone who’s literally functioning as a crime lord. 😅

One of the things I find of particular interest, is the fact that Gang Heon punishes his people for flouting the law, and often with a great deal of violence.

Like the way he hits Sang Hyuk, repeatedly, and with a great amount of forcefulness, because he’d believed that Sang Hyuk had been responsible for the fatal explosion of Lee Sang Taek’s house.

And then there’s the way he kills Ji Young’s righthand man, when Righthand Man admits to being behind the explosion, and then admits, under duress, that he had been following Ji Young’s orders.

Right there, there’s this very intriguing mix of being extremely violent with Righthand Man, for flouting the law, and then killing him off, because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut about it having been under Ji Young’s orders.

It’s entirely possible, I think, that Gang Heon would have spared Righthand Man’s life, if he’d clung to his claim, that it had all been his own idea and initiative, and that Ji Young had had nothing to do with it.

E7-8. Gang Heon really does seem to genuinely care about his family.

The way he is so tender and gentle towards Eun (Park Se Hyun), is something that keeps coming up – like how he hugs her and talks to her tearfully in episode 7 – really makes me think that he would go to the ends of the earth, to protect her and keep her safe.

Plus, he does seem genuinely troubled when Pan Ho blurts out that Sang Hyuk had sexually assaulted his wife.

Gang Heon seems to truly not know what to do with Sang Hyuk being such a volatile and violent personality.

I can tell that he doesn’t approve, but given the way we’ve seen Gang Heon respond when he’s found out that Sang Hyuk’s killed people, he’s still likely to cover up the crimes, in order to protect his son.

And so, even if Gang Heon had known about Sang Hyuk’s alleged assault of Pan Ho’s wife, back when it had happened, would he have handled it any differently than his team, who had hurried to get Sang Hyuk acquitted, and then sent abroad?

I’d be hard pressed to believe that he would have turned Sang Hyuk over to the law, y’know?

[END SPOILER]

Special shout-out:

Ahn Byung Sik as Lee Sang Taek

Lee Sang Taek isn’t a major character by any means, but I really wanted to give him a shout-out, based on how things turn out, in episode 3.

[SPOILER ALERT]

E3. I honestly feel bad for Lee Sang Taek; he ended up losing everything, thanks to being hired to steal Pan Ho’s car.

It’s horrible, but not entirely unexpected, that the Boondu gang folks were never going to help him escape to Cambodia; it had all been a ruse and a trap, and they’d always planned to kill him for the money that Pan Ho had given him.

Ack. Talk about a raw deal; there was just no way out for Lee Sang Taek, the minute he got involved in this whole thing.

And, as gruff as he is with his son, he really doesn’t hesitate whatsoever, to put his own life on the line, to save him.

In that moment when the Boondu gang folks pulled their knives out, Lee Sang Taek probably knew that there was no way he was going to survive.

In fact, judging from the fact that Lee Sang Taek had come armed with a knife, he’d probably known, from the minute his son had landed in their custody, that there was a big risk that he would die.

And all he says to his son about it, is that gruff, offhanded line, “Do you know how much you’ve cost me?”

And then when push comes to shove, he’s quick to get his son Cheong Gang to leave, and tells him that there’s enough money in the bag, to last him until he becomes an adult.

Oof. That was unexpectedly touching, not gonna lie.

The way this father willingly sacrifices himself, for his son, while doing his utmost to fulfill his fatherly duty to provide for his son’s growing years, even though his son pretty much secured his death, is really moving.

Honestly, with all the fatherly motivations at play in our story, Lee Sang Taek’s turned out to be a surprising dark horse; even though he might have been a problematic human, he really did his best for his children. 🥲

[END SPOILER]

Ha Soo Ho as Park Chang Hyeok

Park Chang Hyeok is a fairly minor supporting character, but I just had to give him at least a quick shout-out, because I found his brand of fierce loyalty and effortless badassery thoroughly mesmerizing. 🤩

Gang Heon couldn’t have found himself a more steadfast righthand man.

STUFF THAT WAS OK

Heo Nam Jun as Sang Hyuk

This was my introduction to Heo Nam Jun, and I must say, I do find his screen presence quite arresting.

Right away, I found myself feeling quite mesmerized by the way Sang Hyuk comes across like a caged cheetah, pacing within the confines of his  enclosure, just waiting for the first opportunity to leap out and pounce on his prey.

Unfortunately, I do feel that Sang Hyuk is underdeveloped and underutilized, as a character.

It feels like his main job is to be the volatile wild card child that Gang Heon doesn’t know what to do with, and.. not much else.

And so, even though I’d immediately imagined, on introduction, that Sang Hyuk would become an interesting character, he eventually landed as a pretty flat character, to my eyes.

Kim Do Hoon as Ho Young

I would say that Kim Do Hoon actually does a good job of delivering Ho Young as a character; it’s just that Show keeps his inner workings opaque for so long, that he feels weirdly unimportant as a character for a very long stretch, even though everything in our story world’s central chain of events began with him.

As a result, I felt oddly disconnected from Ho Young as a character, for pretty much my whole watch, which is why he’s in this section.

[SPOILER ALERT]

I would say that revisiting Ho Young’s character on hindsight in a pretty fascinating exercise, because everything hits differently once we know the truth; that everything had been premeditated.

From his panic during the accident, to the way he befriends Eun, literally everything comes across with a different shade of meaning, on hindsight.

Like, yes, he’d premeditated the murder, but he had very much panicked in the moment, and had considered saving Sang Hyun, by calling 119.

At the same time, no, he hadn’t just run into Eun by chance; he’d looked for a way to connect with her, and that had been coldly transactional.

No wonder he’d looked oddly unmoved, when he’d accompanied her to visit Sang Hyun’s niche in the ossuary.

All that said, I don’t know if I fully understand Ho Young’s statement to Pan Ho, at the end of episode 8; that the reason he’d killed Sang Hyun, was to let Gang Heon experience a life worse than death – while setting himself free from this life that’s worse than death..?

If I understand it correctly, Ho Young had set about this as a suicide mission..?

That’s dark, but also feels potentially misguided, which I’ll talk more about, in my thoughts on the finale.

[END SPOILER]

STUFF I DIDN’T LIKE SO MUCH

Jung Ae Yeon as Ji Yeong

I just wanted to say that I found Ji Yeong’s resting b*tch face quite annoying; she just has a way of looking smug, that makes me dislike her. 😅

I would also say that Ji Yeong’s character was on the underdeveloped side, thus making her vibe more like a plot catalyst than an actual person.

When Show glosses over details

I’ve already mentioned upfront that Show tends to stretch logic sometimes, but there were certain rather big things that I wished Show would have done better at handling.

Here’s a quick list, for the record.

[SPOILER ALERT]

1. Gang Heon forgetting about the 119 caller having asthma. That’s a pretty big thing to forget, since we see multiple scenes of Gang Heon listening carefully to the recording.

2. Pan Ho having a rock-solid alibi, having been in court at the time of the accident. The fact that most of our characters ignore this, while believing Pan Ho to be the driver involved in the accident, is quite perplexing.

3. Sang Hyuk allegedly forcing drugs on and sexually assaulting Pan Ho’s wife.

I get that Sang Hyuk’s a terrible person who does terrible things, but this just doesn’t seem like his style?

4. Lee Cheong Gang backpedaling so readily on his accusation of Sang Hyuk, because Pan Ho had allegedly framed his father.

I mean, Sang Hyuk did actually pull the trigger on his father, which he’d witnessed, and which is arguably even worse than framing his father..? 😅

5. Pan Ho trying so desperately to stop Jo Mi Yeon’s men from attacking Gang Heon.

I mean, yes, Gang Heon is now considering Pan Ho’s earnest plea to let Ho Young off, and let him pay the price for the crime, but.. wouldn’t Pan Ho’s problems be more or less solved, if Gang Heon really were to be wiped out of the picture..?

[END SPOILER]

THOUGHTS ON THE ENDING [SPOILERS]

E9-10. So it’s been two full days since I’ve finished watching the finale, and overall, I do think that I like Show’s chosen ending.

But first, let me talk about the big reveal at the beginning of episode 9, that Ho Young had indeed planned Sang Hyun’s murder.

I believe some viewers didn’t find this to be an effective reveal at all, and had, in fact, felt rather cheated, because it had felt like Show had purposely kept us in the dark, for most of its run.

I would say that the reveal was effective for me personally, however.

The reason is because I’d found it so implausible that Ho Young would have known that Sang Hyun would be receiving a motorcycle for his birthday, and that he would be taking it out for a spin on that exact road, at that exact time, that it really did feel like my entire drama world shifted under my feet, with the reveal.

Like, yes, Show had been hinting at the possibility for some time, particularly with the way Pan Ho kept asking Ho Young variations of, “You didn’t, did you??”

But in my head, it just didn’t seem like that would be the case, given how implausible it was, in my eyes.

And so, Show’s reveal absolutely put everything into a new perspective, for me.

Like, ah, no wonder Ho Young’s been so coldly impassive and apparently uncaring about the whole thing, even though Pan Ho had been practically losing his mind over cleaning up the mess.

For a long time, I’d been thinking that Ho Young had been naive to believe that Pan Ho had really cleared things up when he’d said that he would, and had been living in a bubble of misguided belief that everything really had blown over.

Now, though, his disconnected impassiveness lands as a lot more calculated; all this time, he’d been watching Pan Ho suffer his punishment, basically, and had been waiting to see if Sang Hyuk would be punished as he saw fit – or if he’d need to step in personally.

I do think that that’s the reason Ho Young had chosen to approach Eun, in the first place.

I believe that that Ho Young had identified it as the way into the family’s orbit, if it became necessary for him to take further action against Sang Hyuk.

The thing is, though, through our entire show, right to the very end, we don’t get confirmation that Sang Hyuk had indeed sexually assaulted Ho Young’s mother.

It might appear to be a no-brainer at first, because if she’d said that he’d sexually assaulted her, it must have been true, right?

On deeper thought, however, I do feel like there’s room for her to have been mistaken.

For example, if she’d been blindfolded, and if her attacker had pretended to be Sang Hyuk, would she have been able to tell if it hadn’t been Sang Hyuk?

Sang Hyuk not being able to remember her or his alleged attack seems completely callous, certainly, but it does make me wonder if he can’t remember because he really hadn’t done it?

After all, just because he’s done lots of terrible things, doesn’t necessarily mean that he’d done this particular terrible thing, correct?

Which means that there’s a chance that this entire tragedy of multiple deaths across characters from various backgrounds, could have been based on a misunderstanding.

I think that that’s the real tragedy, at the heart of it.

I feel like there are several different themes that emerge, as the dust settles on this entire implosion of a showdown.

1, the classic “an eye for an eye and we all go blind.”

The entire chain of events, starting from Ho Young’s strong belief that it had been Sang Hyuk who had caused his mother’s death, is devastating to almost everyone who had come into contact with it, and in the end, few are left standing to contemplate the meaning of it all.

2, the innocent hurt the most.

When all is said and done, the only truly innocent individual in this whole mess, is Eun.

Even our law enforcement folks, like Detective Jang, and Prosecutor Kang, play dirty, in efforts to get what they want.

Only Eun is truly innocent, and in the end, the entire thing traumatizes her so much, that she attempts to take her own life.

We are informed that she survives, but that her ability to function normally will likely be compromised.

That’s a horrible price to pay, particularly when she’s the innocent one in this whole thing.

3, the cycle of corruption doesn’t end.

Even though Pan Ho is ready to confess all his crimes and pay the cost, he’s not allowed to do so, and we see that Yi Hwa, Blue House Dude and Prosecutor Kang have agreed to work together, to mold Pan Ho into a suitable hunting dog that they can use, to bring down Gang Heon.

In the end, Show leaves the ending open, with the possibility for future happenings, such as Pan Ho being used as a pawn to bring down Gang Heon – and Sang Hyuk, left alive and free, so that he’d be available to protect Gang Heon, if it comes down to that.

It’s not clear at this point if Show’s runners actually intend to make a Season 2 to tell that story (which, if I understand it correctly), is actually part of the source material.

However, I’m actually hoping that Gang Heon and Pan Ho have learned enough from their losses and their regrets, to not feed the cycle.

..Which means that I’m actually hoping that this is where we end our story, with Pan Ho and Gang Heon reflecting on their regrets, and gathering themselves together to face a new, and hopefully better, future.

THE FINAL VERDICT:

Solid and thought-provoking.

FINAL GRADE: B+

TRAILER:

PATREON UPDATE!

The next drama I’m covering on Patreon, in place of  Your Honor, is Romance in the House [Korea].

You can check out my episode 1-2 notes on Romance in the House on Patreon here.

Here’s an overview of what I’m covering on Patreon right now (Tier benefits are cumulative)!

Foundation Tier (US$1): Entertainment Drop (Sundays) + the first set notes of all shows covered on Patreon (that’s 2 episodes for kdramas and 4 episodes for cdramas)

Early Access (US$5): +Cinderella at 2 AM [Korea]

Early Access Plus (US$10): +Love Next Door [Korea]

VIP (US$15): +Romance in the House [Korea]