To begin with, the idea of the story was indeed a very serious one. It contains a lot of psychological aspects as well as criticism towards the modern korean society (and sure some other parts of the world). While I was watching this series I've only thought about how they'll deliver such a soul-stirring topic to the viewer. I didn't want to be disappointed first -which I was until episode 6/7. But all of those past episodes served only as a preparation to what'll come after the families will realize what they've done so far to their children. This is why I kept believing in this Kdrama and I didn't regret it after all while at some moments I just wanted to stop watching.But something just kept me going on with it.
After rethinking I guess it were the somewhat comedy-like scenes which I found very disruptive. I don't think they've blend them well into this Kdrama. Or atleast I didn't find them funny at all because I expected a deep analysis of the given subject throughout the whole Kdrama.
But with all due respect I have to admit, that I was attracted by how the writer contrast the families - including their beliefs, likes, dislikes, interests and overall way of living - with each other. Of course, some things might've been way too exaggerated but all in all it was still credible.
This Kdrama was made to let us reconsider what is really important and matters in live. The example with the pyramid was perfect tho to emphasis how people of power think about everyone who are beneath them or live in poverty. The families were ADDICTED to think that way and as a result couldn't think of a way to get out of it. Everything that has happened to them and nearly destroyed the familie's life and cohesion, was because of their greed. They've completely ignored their children's wishes, sorrow, stress. It was all about reputation, authority, power, performance.
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We All Lie
This drama reminded me of this Western TV series Wisteria Lane Desperate Housewives and a suburban TV series entitled to that of the neighborhood they live infused as one. It is somehow giving off that vibe. But on a serious note, the plot is a cutthroat reality of the educational system in the country of South Korea. A lot of power play in this drama.As I carefully examine the lives of the women in these series and their role as queen of their respective houses, I cannot help but place myself in their shoes. I have never believed that a woman could only function as someone who picks the children from school, prepare meals, and see to the comfort situation at home. Not to sound so feminist, I do believe that a woman could also have a career, run a house, and have time for herself. Yes, it could be quite a challenging feat, and a lot of times, only one role emerges supreme. It is to the point that she has to give up one or the other. Although for me, I have always challenged the status quo. Our parents put us to a reputable school and struggled the same to make something of our lives.
Don't get me wrong; I think there is nothing wrong with staying at home and be a full-time mom and wife. It is the noblest and the hardest of jobs/role to be with no salary at that. I am just saying women should also have a choice not to succumb to the norm of society and tradition.
The mystery that engulfed this drama is one great reason why you need to stick this one out through the finish line. All actors gave it their all and gave a superb job in giving its audience the astounding acting experience there is. Intrigue, tears, mystery, innocent love, and passion all rolled into one incredible drama.
I like character Oh Na Ra's character Jin-Jin as she brings out the lightness to the ever seriousness of the other characters. What I find disturbing is the sleeping arrangement of some couples. Do they sleep in separate beds? Is that how a wealthy married couple lives? I was seriously stunned by a sudden culture shock upon seeing that for the first time! Hilariously extreme scenes, to the point where you do not know whether to be angry or laugh, are one of the highlights of the drama.
Thoughts to ponder.
There are always things that we cannot control.
When are you going to be enough? Shall we define everyone by the profession you are in, how much money you have in the bank? If you are living in the most prestigious and posh neighborhood? When are we ever going to be enough? Can we just be a father, husband, mother, wife, son, daughter, and friend?
As a parent myself, there is nothing we cannot do for our children. What kind of happiness and success do parents want for their children? And is this aligned with their's as well?
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There’s not a lot I can talk about that hasn’t been said already, but I just like expressing my opinion so I will.
What I will say is that I wasn’t sure if I liked this show at the outset. The characters are all a little frustrating and the reveals take time. I don’t think I was able to appreciate the humor. If it hadn’t been for the great reviews and my compulsion to finish everything I start, I don’t know if I would have watched all of it. But it’s way easier for me to forgive shows that start out alright and have a really strong second half than the other way around. It took awhile for me to fall in love with SKY Castle, but boy did I when shit hit the fan.
I found out later that this writer, Yoo Hyun-mi, had written Gaksital (my newest old favorite show). SKY Castle is so so different, but what hasn’t changed in the 7 years between these shows, is her love of setup. Ultimately for me, Gaksital was the one I liked watching more, but SKY Castle is definitely the better show.
One wonderful thing about SKY Castle is that it’s a confident show. This show knew what it was and what it wanted to be at the outset. Nothing felt shoved in to fill airtime. Everything seemed like there was higher purpose and a plan, and it was nice to sit back and watch it unfold. It’s sometimes hard to watch a show when it feels like every word holds weight. Every scene felt like it was leading somewhere else, but it doesn’t feel like one cohesive story until the second half.
There are some scenes that in retrospect don’t seem important anymore, like the ones that took place with the dads in the hospital. It felt like a completely different show, and those scenes were often the boring ones. Eventually things connect, but I don’t think we needed to spend quite so much time there.
Ultimately I’m really glad I kept watching. The characters sometimes seemed so alien that I couldn’t relate at all to their motivations, but as we got to know them more, I started to love all of them, even if I didn’t love the storylines initially. I loved the cast for their literal quirks. And I felt their pain in the hard moments. Situations that I will probably never be in seemed so real, and I realized that everything that goes on in SKY Castle, though exaggerated, happens in the real world, which makes the emotional moments even more charged.
SKY Castle isn’t an emotional show (or at least it wasn’t for me), but there were surprising tear-inducing moments. It’s not in-your-face super sad or anything, but the cast and directing is so great that you can’t help but feel what the characters are feeling in the moment.
I didn’t realize until later on what an impression this cast made on me. Characters I hated or found boring originally had me cracking up later on (mostly Professor Cha). I was so happy to see such a strong female cast backing this drama. Even the child actors made an impression, and I’ll probably be following their careers (Kim Dong-hee was actually great in Extracurricular, I highly recommend).
Final thoughts: There’s no doubting that SKY Castle is good television, even though it wasn’t always my thing. I’m a new fan of everyone involved in this production, and I’m excited to see what’s next for them.
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This review may contain spoilers
story of my life
I absolutely loved the moral of the story and character development… throughout watching this drama, I found myself relating yo the characters experiences and especially the Cha household. Growing up with a perfectionist dad who a B was considered a failure for, spending my time doing anything but studying is a waste of time, policing me around, monitoring me, and controlling the way I study… all the emotional (and physical) abuse that I had to go through… just made the cha family speak to me. unfortunately I never had a mother that stood up…At the same time, I felt agitated by the behavior of certain characters such as ye-seo and her mum… The lake of empathy, the greed… even after their character development it just felt fake to me… but a part of me also recognizes that they were products of their environment. Growing up with parents that embed the idea that grades and positions are everything and your worth depends on them… that care so much about what people think and their honor… I felt like it’s not fair to hate ye-seo for it… I’m sure I was greedy and rude at a point in time driven by the perfectionist ideals and social hierarchy lense I was taught to view the world through.
Just like to many of those families, they tied their worth to getting into SNU, I tie mine to graduating with a 4.0 GPA… I was always ready to ruin my life/humiliate myself/go through mental tortue just to maintain such GPA, because if my GPA is not 4.0, what is the point in anything? am I even worthy of anything? do i deserve anything?
The story telling was just amazing, the satire, drama, plot twists… it’s all just so engaging.
I will definitely be rewatching after graduating University…
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WOW just WOW!
Like I'd usually avoid dramas that are dark but this was next level brilliant. The writers really sat and thought about how to write the story. Each character was uniquely brilliant, I love them and hated them at times but I'm so impressed by all the actors and actresses from this drama, I felt every bit of emotions that they protrait on screen and the camera angles were just amazing I felt like I was actually there. The Coach and Ye Seo mom was the most complex character for me, even tho I am not completely happy about the ending as a psychology major I so happy I decide to watch this.Parenting 101 ~ or should I say how not to force your societal beliefs and traditions on your kids. The education system (not just in Korea but worldwide) is an absolute mess and its sad that parents are like this in reality they are so focused on their kids being the best at their studies that they forget that their humans too and they'd want to live their lives as the feel. For a character like Han Seo Jin she should have known better than to focused on getting Ye Seo into University and being on top knowing her background and where had been prior to entering the SKY Castle. She was poor but yet looked down on the poor because she was in higher class. I'm disappointed that they had her have that happy ending with her family after how she's had treated Hye Na and Woo Joo mom. To be honest she's just as guilty as the coach, it's true she was manipulate but had it not been for her greed to get to the top Hye Na death could have been avoided even if she didn't get to live happily ever after with her dad, it wasn't right for her to die. Ye Seo mom not only did she commit multiple crimes for her greed to make Ye Seo a top student but she destroyed evidence and send an innocent kid to prison and pretended to be a victim while she had been keeping the most secrets. I think Ye Seo character had the greatest development she was never evil from the beginner but some parts of her development was questionable, I kept thinking that had it been another student and no Woo Joo, she wouldn't have come clean about what happened to Hye Na or would she kept going with the crimes of her mom and coach to get accepted into University. All the families had their own individual issues and I love Professor Cha family his wife is classy queen that deserves all the love and respect and at the start felt like the only mother that toke her children's feeling into consideration, the twins were just cute at first but after seeing how they spoke up when the stituation wasn't fair and kept their own I fell deeper in love with them.
One thing about SKY Castle is that it's a drama I'd recommend, but it's not for the light heart drama watchers, the writers didn't miss adding every kind of psychological abuse to this show, it had everything from Suicide, Mental illness, Murder, Financial abuse, Physical abuse, Verbal and Emotional abuse. Manipulation toke it's own category, Coach Kim is a master manipulator and she is great at it too, using one's passion to drive them crazy to a tragic end. "Kids that are loved can endure through it. We can't change the messes up educational system, but for our child to endure through the educational system, we have to love him abundantly. That's our responsibility" Their was a quoted from the series that I really appreciate very much that, their was parts of this drama that I could relate to heavily and after thinking about it, it's sad that in the real world their are alot of parents that are like these characters and I hope that more drama and series can be made such as this one to rise awareness that mental illness in real tragedy based on how parents raised their children. Parents need to understand that not all their beliefs are what their children want to do and should also be open to idea of listening to their children and not telling them what to do 24/7.
P.S. thank you for reading this, these were my thoughts after watching this series and wanted to share it with others.
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Tackles Prominent Issues
I heard a lot of good reviews so I was curious whether it deserves it or not. After seeing others who highly recommended it, I finally had a will and started it. I honestly hate slow peak series because I get easily bored. I hate waiting too slow until the story build because I'm more open to a quick peaks BUT THIS MADE ME WAIT UNTIL I FEEL THAT IT IS WORTHY.When episodes are getting nearer, it improved and I was hooked up onto it. I got overhyped and kept thinking what would happen next.
There are a lot of series that tackles about different society issues but failing to act and promote it. But I have to say that SKY Castle never failed to show it lightly by the means of attacking us extremely.
SKY Castle tackles about the prominent issues this society have. BAD PARENTING, ACADEMIC PRESSURE, OBSESSION OVER THE TITLES, COMPETITION and GREED. All of those listed above were strongly showed off. There were some scenes where it was actually disturbing and triggering but that's their way to show how toxic our society is.
The veterans and rookies blended well, they never failed to make it funny interesting.
Mixed emotions, it may seems like black comedy. It is a good roller coaster ride, I enjoyed it. I didn't cried that much but I felt sad and dissapointed to every characters' attitude.
The last episode where Coach Kim was shown clearly means that THE CYCLE OF BAD SYSTEM REPEATS ITSELF. It's impossible to change what kind of system and standards do we have right now, BUT WE AS INDIVIDUALS ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO IS RESPONSIBLE TO AVOID ENGAGING WITH THAT KIND OF ISSUES.
Tragedies must be stop, this series dared everyone to be openminded in our society.
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This review may contain spoilers
So it took me a little time to actually finish this (I actually binged it on a day I took off work as I was sick XD) but in a way I'm glad I binged it. If not I would have gone bold from the frustration of waiting for the next episode. This is one of those dramas that actually stay up for their hype. I actually watched the first few 4 eps and waited so in a way I did know it was gonna be awesome but damn the writers have done an excellent job in creating one hell of a unique story. Everyone was flawed, everyone had their secrets. Some not realistic but it gives a peak in to the rich and powerful people in Korea and how they actually use that power to get what they want. It also shows family dynamic. Not the cheesy "oh we're such a happy family" but real family problems.One thing I can't seem to agree is that I just can't like Kim Hye Na. She was without doubt my least favorite character yes she was standing up for the unfairness of everything but she just as the parents did, used everyone around her. While all the kids had some innocence in them KHN did not. Yes she was forced to mature earlier than everyone due to her mother's death but still I could not fathom how she went about with her revenge. In any way I do not think she deserved to die but still I didn't like her character. In my books my favorite was Ki Joon's and Suh Joon's mother. She didn't have supportive husband still she managed to get up and go against all odds. Even Woo Joo's mother at least had support from her son and husband but she made it on her own. Yes she needed a slight push by WJ's mom but still I applaud her for her strength. Specially loved the scene where she got er kids to carry their father out and throw him out of the house. Kudos for the twins too XD
Anyway I'm not so sure of the re-watch value due to the fact that the mystery element is clearly gone after watching it once but nevertheless I would really recommend this to anyone. One of the drama after Goblin for me that actually kept up to the praise it received ( I was not a fan of Reply 1988. Thought it was waaaaay overrated) With that I will finish my short review :)
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What price would you be willing to pay in order to get into an Ivy Uni?
I was hesitant to watch this drama at first but due to all the positive reviews I told myself I'd give it 2 episodes...I was hooked on the first episode. This had so many life lessons and many times I could relate with the children and with the parents. I remember growing up being taught that my grades defined my value, I was considered a gifted child since young and always came 1st place until I entered my last year of middle school which is when I first started slipping from a straight A student to a B student. I was taught that if I didn't make it to a top university, that meant that I was nothing by one of my parent, while the other didn't care if I was a straight A or B student so long as I got a good college degree and didn't fail classes. In this way I was able to relate to Kang Ye Seo and her drive to needing to be number 1 no matter what, and also with Woo Joo who parents trusted him and gave him so much love.There was betrayal, greed, love and defining what success as well as happiness is. It left me reflecting on my life and having conversation with one of my parents about what it was like growing up with certain expectation but asking them also what would be the price that they'd be willing to pay in order to get their child into an Ivy League University.
Story: Without spoiling anything, the drama is about 5 women and what they are willing to sacrifice in order to have acknowledgement and have their child get accepted into a highly regarded Med school (at the level of Harvard, Yale, NYU, Princeton, ect), we also get to see the children life with those expectation where they need to study 24/7 and being defined by their grades. At the very beginning it leads to one of the children breaking all ties with their parent and thus one of the parent deciding to unalive themselves and the other reflecting on how they got to that point. Shortly after a new family moves in that throws a wrench on how things are done and shows that letting the child decide how and if they'll study can also lead to success, we also have a character who had to do everything Themselves, taking care of Their sick parent while getting top grades only to be left alone deciding that the world of the rich owe Them more for their suffering. We have a study coach who has a 100% acceptance rate which we later find out how that comes to be. In the end, we end up thinking about the sacrifices each character made and if it was worth it.
Acting: The acting was topnotch for me, one moment I was laughing at JinJin and her family antics, the next moment I was pissed off with Ye Seo and her mother, the next I was crying in frustration with the twins and their mother, or cheering for Woo Jin and his parents who were his number one cheerleader. What I love the most is the character development and how each actors/actresses brought that to the table.
Music: No...this is where I feel like they failed, sometimes the background music felt too loud and for me personally their theme song "Is this even true(A.N:I think that's the name)" was too distracting and not in a good way, I even found myself responding a few time "Yes, this is really true now stop asking!!!!!!-_-" But I am very picky with my music so it might just be me.
Cinematography: There are times where the shots were absolutely beautiful and so were the outfits as well as house design but other times where I wanted to know who the cameraperson was to sit down with them because it was too shaky, or felt too amateur which took away from some important scenes and had me skipping scenes sometimes, in frustration.
Overall score: Overall I'll give it a 9.5 out of 10, this is one of those that I'd happily rewatch every few years and would recommend, in fact, I recommend that those who are parents, or are going through a hard time, to watch this. There are so many life lessons, the ending also made me wonder if we might be getting a second season.
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Sharp, Addictive, and Brilliantly Performed Masterpiece!
Please Watch this Masterpiece!SKY Castle is one of the most compelling Korean dramas ever produced—an intense, razor-sharp satire that examines ambition, privilege, and the extreme pressures of academic success. With its unpredictable plot, phenomenal cast, and emotionally charged storytelling, it delivers a drama experience that is gripping from the first episode to the very last.
This is such a unique and fresh show, about how far wealthy parents are willing to go to support their children to get into top universities. The storytelling in SKY Castle is exceptional. At first glance, it appears to be a show about wealthy families pushing their children toward elite universities, but it quickly becomes much more: a psychological drama, a dark social critique, and a suspense-driven emotional rollercoaster.
The brilliance of the plot lies in how it slowly reveals its layers. Just when you think you understand the characters or predict the direction, the drama shifts, exposing new motivations, secrets, and tensions. The writing never wastes a moment—every line, every decision, and every twist serves a purpose. It keeps you on edge without ever resorting to cheap shock value.
The characters were all well done. I love Professor Min Hyuk! An excellent comedic actor.
The audience can empathise with these characters, especially teenagers who go to school.
Including young adults who go to university. This show is special.
Yum Jung-ah is absolutely magnetic as the fiercely ambitious mother whose calm exterior hides immense desperation.
Lee Tae-ran, Yoon Se-ah, and Oh Na-ra each bring depth, vulnerability, and complexity to their roles, portraying mothers with wildly different approaches and emotional struggles.
Kim Seo-hyung, as the infamous coordinator, delivers one of the most chilling and unforgettable performances in Korean drama history—controlled, mysterious, and utterly captivating.
Kim Byung-chul delivers one of the most unforgettable performances in Korean drama history.
His portrayal of Professor Cha is chilling, brilliant, and strangely magnetic.
He embodies authority with such precision that his presence alone changes the tone of a scene.
The acting all across the board was top notch and the actors definitely deserved the awards recieved.
This show can be pretty dark, but the comedy was well timed and excellent.
Kim Byung Chul made this show to a legendry status. It’s one of those roles where you forget you’re watching an actor—you’re simply witnessing a fully lived-in character. He makes a complex character feel terrifyingly real, grounding the drama with emotional weight and psychological depth.
The show captures: how far people will go for status, how competition can twist relationships, The writing is clever, unflinching, and thought-provoking. It exposes societal issues with sophistication, never preaching but always revealing.
The story was exciting and filled with twists. The show’s pacing is impeccable—moving quickly enough to stay addictive, yet slow enough to let every emotional moment land. The visuals, tone, and soundtrack all work together to build an elite world that looks polished on the surface but hides countless cracks underneath.
The music was good, We all lie is a fitting song for this drama.
The directing heightens everything—the tension, the stakes, the emotional beats. The visuals are polished and elegant, perfectly matching the world of elite families who look flawless from afar but are quietly falling apart underneath.
What makes SKY Castle a masterpiece is how deeply it affects you. It’s thrilling, heartbreaking, darkly funny, and shockingly real. Even with no spoilers, it’s easy to say: this drama will leave a lasting impact, long after the final episode.
So Go and enjoy this special show, If you’re looking for a show with gripping characters, powerful acting, and a plot that keeps you thinking long after it ends, watch SKY Castle. We need more unique shows like this!
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