juvenile justice review
after such long and tiresome quarter from college, now i am FINALLY able to take a break.
because for me, taking a break is literally just watching tv shows and movies. so i decided to catch up on juvenile justice i started few months ago that i forgot to finish.
tldr; contains right amount of suspense, melodrama, crime, and significance. definitely a huge tw for the mention of r*pe, child tr*ffi*king, and blood. just a lot of crimes that are very explicit. i do think there were some element of notable unrealisticness, but because it’s a fictional show, i didn’t really mind it. overall a great show. 9.5/10
juvenile justice made me cry like 5 times, especially during the last few episodes when everything started to become a bit more realistic, when things weren’t ending the way i thought it would, it made me much sadder knowing that this is what actually happens in court. regardless of what the truth is, the court decide upon evidence...
one way for me to describe juvenile justice is this: a must-see drama for everyone to watch.
with the rise of true-crime content everywhere, there has been a rise of concerns towards the victims and the family of victims as they are often belittled by those who rather victim-blame or support the same perpetrators who essentially took away their life from the victims.
this show shows from the perspective of the victims, perpetrators, the families, the court, the police, and the public to see how everything interacts together to make a case. while it doesn’t shy away from giving the fresh perspective of the perpetrator by trying to find the motive behind their crimes (as the *main* criminals are all teens in this movie), it still holds them responsible for their actions, as the court understands that being young is not an excuse for the crimes they committed. i liked how the narrative of this film is to hold the perpetrators responsible for the victims, while also trying to find a way to prevent the perpetrators from committing crimes ever again and go back to society with knowledge and empathy.
before i watched this drama, i had some concerns after seeing the overall plot. i was worried that people were going to cry for another ban of juvie law, and advocate for making teens trial as adults. that was, and still is one of the most popular narrative these days, and i didn’t want to watch a drama that just repeated what everyone says without digging dipper to the actual problem: the society and structure that FAILS the children- both victims and the perpetrators. because many crimes can be prevented through active search and prevention nation-wide!
so props to this show for bringing this new perspective.
i don’t really have much to comment on the characters, they all had their flaws but all also had their strengths to their character. but most importantly, i loved how every adult in this show was able to take some responsibility and character growth- because for the teens to get better, the adults need to as well.
my favorite characters definitely were shim eun-seok and cha tae-joo. their dynamics were very unique and polar-opposites in some ways, but i love how they were able to become partners in crime as the story developed.
overall, i give this drama 9.5/10- the 0.5 points are knocked off due to the unnecessary violence in the last few episodes. but overall, i don’t really have anything i particularly disliked about this show. the flaws of this show were realistic, and that’s what made me love this show even more!
