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Bad ending but overall really good
This kdrama recieves so much hate, and although I can understand why, I do think that it is actually really good.Firstly, I think a lot of people are upset about Jaei not choosing Kang Ha but honestly by the end of the kdrama I was so sick of him and actually I realized that Rian is sort of sweet. In my opinion, Kang Ha thought that he was the victim, even though everyone was going through something. Yes, Rian is supposed to be horrible and mean, but I think he was right for Jaei, and Kang Ha was just a bit arrogant.
The story didn't exactly make complete sense, but this was one of those kdramas where it didn't really matter too much. I was just watching for the charcters, not really the main plot. I know this is very controversial but Woojin and Jisoo were actually my favourite couple and I cried so much when Woojin ended up with Hera.
The problem with this kdrama is that they left the story open and finished on a cliffhanger, where someone was murdered, which made it seem like there was going to be a second season, although there is no news of that.
I would really recommend this kdrama, and I have already told ALL my friends to watch it, and see what they think. Yes, there may be clear issues with the story and some people are unsatisfied with how it turned out for Kang Ha but I still think it is such a masterpiece.
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Dropped
Everything is very boring. The plot is practically non-existent, we only see how some rich people interact with each other and how the poor are mocked. There is nothing else. Also, these "high school teenagers" behave as if they are full-grown adults, actually I can't see them as 17-18-year-olds, but 25-30-year-olds because they behave very mature as if they have a thousands of responsibilities and secrets and it's not realistic at all. I don't know, maybe if it was a college drama, their behavior would still work, but not here. Some of the actors act well, but others have the same facial expression for three whole episodes, like they're confused vegetables. I had high expectations, but it's not worth your time.Was this review helpful to you?
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We had enough of this plot already.
Hierarchy (2024): A Disappointing Climb Up the Social LadderThe tired trope of "poor student at a rich school seeking revenge" returns in Hierarchy, a forgettable addition to Netflix's K-drama library. While the official poster and synopsis initially sparked my interest, the show quickly fell flat. The casting, despite featuring fresh faces like Lee Chae-Min (looking sharp in "High Class," 2021) and Kim Jae-Won (chillingly stoic in "King: The Land," 2023), ultimately felt off. Even Roh Jeong-Eui, who surprised me with her transformation from "Badland Hunters" (2024), couldn't elevate the series.
Unfortunately, all three leads delivered stiff and uninspired performances. The first two episodes were enough to convince me to abandon series entirely. The execution felt poorly done, lacking the punch of similar dramas like "Bitch X Ritch" (2023). The predictable plot offered no surprises, leaving me with zero anticipation for future episodes.
While Lee Chae-Min's visuals hold promise, his acting needs further refinement to truly resonate with audiences. Kwon Eunbin would have been a more fitting choice for Jung Jae-I, potentially imbuing the character with greater strength and edge. Here's hoping Mr. Lee receives roles that better utilize his talents.
Despite topping Netflix PH's charts, Hierarchy's hype is ultimately unjustified. The show fails to deliver on its initial intrigue.
P.S. I am clearly new to movie and show reviews. I aim to become better. Grace and Peace. Follow for more movie and Korean drama show reviews. My main interests are Korean dramas and contents.
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a mystery thriller turns out to be cheap comedy show.
for me it was a lame comedy show bc you are telling me that kang ha really liked Jae i that deeply? his actions were hilarious to me as he was more focused on saving fl's ass than taking revenge.i didn't like any of the main 3 leads as they were--
Kang Ha: a simp who is also incompetent in taking revenge.
Ri An: a toxic simp who is also a bully and a crybaby chaebol.
Jae I: a victim of blackmail, daddy issue. an unreliable,toxic lover.try to act as a goody two shoes when it's too late.
......
i know in the most of characters redeem themselves(even it was Forced, rushed and absolutely unbelievable)but whatever.
......
i gave it 6.5 i would have given it 7.5 if ONLY ONE the leads had their characters come a full circle. in that case i liked the supporting character more bc they at least had a good character development or they were actually good in their acting.
He Ra: i know she was a two faced b*tch but her acting was better and a character development
Woo Jin:his acting was good but his character was really a wasted potential.
the Student President: like he was doing most of the work and liked the actor too.
hera,woojin and the president are bad i know but thought that they were more convincing as a character than the main 3 leads.
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kang ha just seems like a pointless side character
in my opinion, it was so hard to believe that there’s a way he’s a main lead. maybe if he ended up with jae-i at the end he could’ve been considered a main lead, but he didn’t. other than the romance plot, the whole reason he came to the school was to get revenge for his brother, but he ended up barely doing anything. his presence honestly just seemed SO pointless. the romance between the teacher and woojin also seemed kinda pointless. they were dating and everything, but their breakup honestly seemed so rushed too. like one second they were “in love” but the next second they were broken up because woojin suddenly liked hera?? if they were going to do something of that sort, they should’ve at least added at least a bit of a plot. i swear she was only added to the drama to be an nuisance to viewers. this show didn’t have a plot whatsoever.Was this review helpful to you?
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So much potential, however..
First I want to say how amazing the cast of this show is. They all have great chemistry with each other and rlly bring their characters to life. Especially Lee Chae-min (Kang Ha) caught my attention from the very start and he truly gained a new fan of his person and acting with me. Did the series have major flaws? Yes. The storyline wasn't able to live up to its full potential, due to bad writing. The love triangle was very unnecessary, since it's unrealistic for a grieving brother to fall in love with the potential murder of ur brother.. just because the girl is pretty. Kang Has revenge should have gotten way more attention and detail. However apart from that each episode was very enjoyable to watch and it never bored me in any way. I hope they are able to do a season 2, where they stop focusing on the romance (or at least in a better way) and start the real journey of Kang Ha with the school.Was this review helpful to you?
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WATCH IT! It isn't as bad as what people are saying!!
I saw the many negative reviews but decided to give it a chance and I'm glad I did.IT WAS NOT BAD! It was a simple drama to watch, nothjng special but it was a good type of simple.
I felt the actors did a very very good job. The storyline is the only thing I would have wished more of. The revenge plot was very poorly written. This guy is literally his twin brother. Get your revenge, who cares about the girl?
Then you have also have some sort of twister good villian story going on. Having you confused. I didn't care that they were in love and treat each other good. The fact is they bully the leff fortune. SIMPLE!!!
Again the story was a good 'one' watch.
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youtube ads have better crafted writing
no chemistry between the leads whatsoever.if only they had focused more on acting and plot instead of pretentious glitz and glam maybe then the show would still be redeemable.
the show tried too hard showing the affluent privileged lifestyle which just felt forced and not natural.
they're playing 16-17 year old high school juniors but it feels like you're watching a business show featuring 40+ ahjussi and ajummas.
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No plot!!
I started watching this drama solely for the female lead, as I've enjoyed her performances in previous shows and find her acting quite impressive. However, I was extremely disappointed. The drama began on a promising note, but after episode 4, it consistently went downhill. As someone who enjoys dramas like 'Penthouse,' I had high expectations for this one. Unfortunately, it lacked a solid plot. The only aspect I liked was the background music.Was this review helpful to you?
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When I saw the first episode I was so excited, I said "this is going to be a great drama." But slowly my disappointment grew even more. I didn't really mind that the teenagers shared themselves like more adult people. In The Glory, it was perfectly shown that although they were not of legal age, they partied, drank, had sex and smoked. Things that teenagers usually do. The Elite thing didn't bother me either, it is known that if you are the son of a Chaebol family you can escape from everything bad you are doing and if you are a scholarship recipient they will treat you like shit. What bothered me were several things:1. I don't know anything about the protagonist. I don't know if he has a family or how he managed to get into this high "prestige" school. We didn't even know where he lived or anything about his family. Big mistake
2. The separation of the protagonist with the secondary one. It really looked like they were divorced or something and they're teenagers for God's sake!
3. The revenge was never fulfilled and was totally predictable. If they wanted to portray bullying and the power of bullies, they did not succeed.
4. I really don't have much criticism of the actress's performance. I think that she did seem emotionless because she was raised that way, by her father. Even when she opens up to the protagonist she says that it is like that because she has been raised that way and she doesn't know how to act any other way, because of the terror she had of her father. But here there is a problem, I think I am going to disagree with some people but for me she did have chemistry with him ML, but not with his ex-partner.
5. Even though I managed to empathize with FL, her behavior towards her ex-boyfriend became frustrating for me. It was an extremely toxic relationship. He considered her "his", as if she were her property and did horrible things so that no one would come near her. He kept her isolated, like a toy belonging to her. And when ML wanted to go against her partner, she protected him and threatened the protagonist. She is really stupid, and gives an extremely dangerous message
6. "Revenge" was replaced by a failed love triangle.
7. "Emotional dependence." In the end she thanks her ex-boyfriend because according to her she was able to survive thanks to her. That is not surviving, it is emotionally depending on your partner to the point that the relationship became extremely toxic.
8. In the end the "revenge" came to nothing, with a very stupid resolution. What I liked.
1. In my opinion Lee Chae Min, he did a great job as an actor. He actually portrayed very well when he was pretending to be kind and how his features transformed when his hatred or contempt was reborn.
2. I really did see the chemistry between FL and ML, unfortunately this was spoiled thanks to the fact that FL was so obsessed with defending her ex-partner, which was extremely violent and toxic.
3. I think although I would have liked FL and ML to end up together. I think it was a good decision that she won't keep any of them. That she will confront her father, she will lose the fear that she had of him and she will abandon her life of luxury to go find her biological mother and she will decide to live a life without luxury. She needed to find herself and know what she really wanted for herself. You can't properly love anyone if you don't even know what you want or who you really are.
4. The imaging was really beautiful. You can tell they put a lot of budget into this drama but unfortunately if the plot seems like a jumble of things, that's not going to save the drama. In conclusion, I would say that the acting was decent but the drama was very poorly written. Many compare it to Elite, I haven't really seen it because I don't like series in Spanish, so I couldn't talk about that because I haven't seen Elite. I can only compare it to The Glory. The series really had potential but for me it is too greedy to want to create a similar plot with only 9 chapters. If the script had been well written and had 16 chapters, the story would have been different. Unfortunately it was not like that. Do I recommend it? I couldn't say. The first few episodes were interesting and I enjoyed them but if you are looking for a drama that addresses these themes and has romance, I really don't recommend it. And even more so when the obsession and justification for your partner being obsessive, very toxic and violent is highly romanticized.
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Totally wasted my time.
We were promised to something and got nothing.Would litteraly not recommend this to anyone even to my ennemies.
****
The cast is good but personnally the fl and the ml (jae i and kang ha)´s actors are quite always stoic to me 😭.
Btw I find some bibi x Iu traits in jae i and a little of chaewon traits in jae-i’s ´bff’
Before talking about the plot, I just want to say I am so disappointed about this series because Îve been hyped for SOOOO long and watched it as soon as it was released to be feeling like I wasted my whole time on this because everything was tasteless to me : the plot, the characters, the romance and the rich vs poor trope in this way as well….
Now the plot :
The ending of the first episode thickened the whole plot beacuse I thought ML would just be acting naive till the end.
At first I was feeling so bad for ri-an (after the break up) bcuz he seemed nice but then he started acting so full of himself when kang ha approached him but maybe it’s because he knows the link between him and in ha ? He revealed his true colors !
The premise of the series was so boring and cliche (the rebellious kid who is mistreated by her trashy dad, the best friend who is actually nothing more than her best ennemy, the FL’s clique etc). Also the fact that they are rich, that there is a supremacy is overused in the way it is in the series, I don’t know how to explain it but firstly, rich bullying scholarship students is not ´new’ but I love this theme so much in series with its fancy settings but here, everything is cliche as I said before, the rules of not approaching the high class etc…
Btw I hate how they keep casually saying things like ´girls like when….’ etc… as that other guy said to ri an to advise him abt how to get him back to jae-i (ep1) or how jae-i’s ´bff’ says it also.
And tf you mean rian by ´i don’t know how far I would go to GET YOU BACK ´ like she was some kind of object you possess or depending of your will ??
Although they used to form a cute couple, after they broke up (and maybe a little before), you can clearly see he became obssessed with her.
Jae-i´s fathers litteraly deserves to undergo the same he does to his daughter to see if that’s so good being bullied because he messed her up mentally and now she is unfortunately struggling with a few things…😭
The way my jaw dropped when I saw woo-jin and his teacher making out and apparently have spent the night together…
I already hate the romance that from ep 1 was obviously gonna happen between Jae-I and Kang ha bcuz once again I feel like it’s unecesseary (as in most kdramas ?)
I watched this till the end to see if it would get better though I’ve already lost faith in it.
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Do NOT watch it!
One of the worst K-Dramas I’ve ever watched. It’s so poorly written, and the main characters are all unlikeable. There are no genuine male leads. There are 2 MCs and one of them is kinda like a bad guy; pretty unlikeable. The story revolves around a murder mystery, which I personally thought was the only good part about the show. Everything else was quite disappointing. This show has left a very bad taste in my mouth.Was this review helpful to you?



