Kdramas like The Judge Returns: Watching 판사 이한영 felt less like watching a drama and more like falling into a morally twisted world where justice is not always simple. Ji Sung’s Lee Han-young is not your run-of-the-mill heroic lead, and his transformation from a compromised judge who protects corporations and the elite to his second chance in life after a tragic death is what had me glued to the screen.
Of course, there is also Park Hee-soon’s Kang Shin-jin, the calm and collected, yet terrifying and manipulative lead antagonist, and his fascinating portrayal of the man who treated the law like a chessboard and people like pieces that could be moved around and discarded at will, making every encounter between him and Han-young feel like some kind of psychological battle royale, and then there is Prosecutor Jin-a’s revenge-driven investigation and Se-hee’s conflicted loyalties, and before I know it, this is no longer just some legal thriller, but a story about power, morality, regret, and whether people can truly change.
So, if you’re looking for K-dramas similar to The Judge Returns, then you’re probably looking for that same high, second-chance, revenge storylines, grey protagonists, and stories that have that rewritten fate feel to them. So, here are some K-dramas that gave me similar feels and emotionally destroyed me in the best possible way. (Writing this while still emotionally attached to complicated men with god complexes.)
Kdramas Like The Judge Returns
Lawless Lawyer
In this series, Lee Joon-gi portrays Bong Sang-pil, a former gangster turned lawyer who returns to his hometown with a burning ambition: to bring down judges, prosecutors, and politicians he thinks got his mom killed. He joins forces with Seo Ye-ji’s Ha Jae-yi, a brand-new lawyer with a strong sense of justice.
Lawless Lawyer is like The Judge Returns in terms of its focus on the legal world. This series is about two legal renegades: one a judge, the other a lawyer, but both determined to bring down corruption in their respective fields. Han-young is a judge, and Sang-pil is a lawyer, but they are both about taking things to the edge and confronting those in power they think are above the law.
Again My Life
Lee Joon-gi’s Kim Hee-woo in Again My Life is that kind of character that makes you want to stand up and applaud every single time he outsmarts the bad guys in the story. He is a passionate prosecutor who gets murdered while investigating a powerful politician and then finds himself in the past with all his memories intact. Instead of living his life normally, he chooses to get himself ready to confront his killer and dismantle the system piece by piece.
The storyline is giving off extremely similar feels to The Judge Returns. Both male protagonists are lawyers who are murdered after going up against powerful elites in their respective worlds and get a second chance at life. Like Han-young, Hee-woo also uses his knowledge of future events to manipulate the situation and execute the perfect revenge plan.
Reborn Rich
In this series, Song Joong-ki portrays Yoon Hyun-woo, a man whose loyalty meets betrayal and death at the hands of the chaebol family he served. He awakens inside Jin Do-joon, the youngest grandson of that same chaebol family. Talk about revenge that redefines the term: he gets to bring down his enemies from within. This is a high-stakes game of power and revenge where he gets to use his inside advantage.
Like The Judge Returns, Reborn Rich is all about rebirth, ambition, and revenge. Han-young reappears in his original form, and Hyun-woo’s soul reawakens in his enemies’ families in a bid for revenge that is more strategy than revenge. This series explores the theme that knowing the future makes him the biggest threat in every room he enters, especially in a world that is already rotten to the core.
The Devil Judge
Ji Sung’s Kang Yo-han in The Devil Judge is the kind of role that reminds you that this actor is meant to portray complex judges in complex situations. He plays his part as Kang Yo-han, making the courtroom a TV show, and Kim Min-jung and Jinyoung as Jung Sun-ah and Kim Ga-on, respectively, test his motives and ethics.
If The Judge Returns is a legal thriller that is heavily intertwined with elements of psychological chess, then The Devil Judge is its dystopian counterpart. The only similarity between the two is that both feature Ji Sung’s charisma and the central question that is asked in both shows: Is this justice, or is this revenge? Han-young and Yo-han are in grey areas, and their motives are always up for interpretation.
Familiar Wife
Ji Sung’s Cha Joo-hyuk finds himself in an alternate world where his life and marriage are nothing like they were before, and Han Ji-min’s Seo Woo-jin is no longer the wife he thought he knew. It is his second chance, and he is forced to look at his regrets and mistakes.
There is a similar theme between The Judge Returns and Familiar Wife, and that is that sometimes second chances are given to fix mistakes and second-guess life decisions. Han-young finds himself in the past to fix his mistakes in his life and in his work, and Joo-hyuk finds himself in an alternate world where he is forced to look at his emotional flaws and mistakes.
Got any other K-dramas that gave you The Judge Returns vibes and left you emotionally wrecked?
