Hierarchy

Descent acting but the plot felt forced by not so smooth plot developpement

it started with promising outcome, but I feel like the "crime, mystery" part got lost in the "romance" part...a bit too much. It felt like forcing "love" emotions into a script about someone getting killed...or vice versa? it wasn't the best drama but it also wasn't the worst imo. I was expecting a bit more of suspense x mystery but 50%+ of the episodes are about the rich kids bullying the poor kids and the adults being useless. The character developpement was poorly done imo. In all, it was Hera who I ended up liking more because she actually did have a character developpement that made sense. The others got lost into a useless love triangle...this was what f*cked up the plot imo. It was really pointless...and it took A LOT of space whilst In Han's tragic death –which I thought was the point of the story at first– took a good whole 15-20 minutes of screentime lol they kept showing the same scenes for most episodes about him getting hit by a car and his brother, Kang Ha, was getting no where during his so called "investigation". It was just him fighting with the rich and ending up getting beaten...like...idk who so say this 7 episodes made no sense BUT couldve make sense if not for that useless love triangle. so many unresolved issues...

gave it a 4.5/5

Read More

DONT PISS ME OFF

The show was trying to do a lot, but somehow kinda delivered nothing. There was an obvious plot, but somehow you are still a little lost. You're still wondering what the hell was going on and what it was trying to tell you. Aside from that I think my biggest grievance with this show was actually Kim Ri An. His inability to exist outside of Jae-I pissed me off. You can love your girlfriend. Heck even be obsessed with her, but still have a life outside of your partner. Like STAND UP. The fact that he enabled the abuse of someone because they got close to his girlfriend; oh that’s just terrible. And more than anything, I wish Kang Ha happiness that spans across infinity. He’s so precious to me. Aside from all that, the cast were so pretty, cinematography was great, the music was good, but overall I do think this was a watered down version of things we’ve seen before.

Read More

Not Good Enough

'' Hierarchy '' is a school melodrama that is more about the cinematography than the story. In other words, is more about looks than substance.

The story is pretty basic, makjang style, with some rich kids terrorizing the poor students while dealing with their own personal drama. Still, there were some interesting elements at the start of the drama, with some intriguing plotlines.

However, as the series progressed, the story got more and more loose, getting boring to boot.

As for the romance, or love triangle, it was boring and the leads didn't really have any chemistry.

Also, they tried hard to make the rich kids look extra, but they just ended up not looking like teenagers, but rich makjang housewives.

At least the performances were enjoyable.

So, overall, three out of ten.

Read More

had me at first, then lost me

The first few episodes were captivating. The sense of mystery and a dark plot lured me but then the horrible ending and outcome blew everything down that the previous episodes had built. I say I enjoyed the show from episodes 1-3. 4-7, lost me.

Kang Ha, the ML, comes to the school for revenge and then gets attached to a girl for absolutely no reason and ends up messing up the whole epic revenge we were all waiting for. There’s no reason for him to fall in love with Jae-i, friends is all they could’ve been. Their chemistry was weak and dare I even say he loved her? It was pure attachment at its finest.

This show does depict the difference between attachment and love. Ri-an truly did love Jae-i and would undoubtedly do anything for her. She’s truly happy with him and did what she thought would protect him. On the other hand, Kang Ha comes out of nowhere and believes he can top years of trust and love Jae-i had with Ri-an.

I thought this would be an epic revenge delivery story, but the romance ruined it. The romance didn’t even take place, which I won’t complain about because Jae-i’s true love is definitely Ri-an but the show wasted limited episodes on telling this story of “romance” when the view could’ve been on revenge.

The only character who was tolerable was He-ra. She did do inexcusable things, but she still knows right from wrong.
- Slapped Jae-i’s brother for filming such an inappropriate video
- Got upset at Woojin for going to Jae-i’s dad and resulting in her getting sent overseas

Additionally, He-ra was the only character I genuinely felt bad for. Her dad’s company went under and I could feel what she was feeling through the screen.

Moving on, the cliffhanger left us with some questions. I don’t feel the need for a season 2 but if one is made, it could possibly redeem the whole show. Questiosn were left unanswered.
- Is Kang Ha a chaebol?
- This new principal, what is she about?
- Is this principal related to Kang Ha somehow?
- Who was murdered at the end?
- Why was Kang Ha not wearing a tie at the end?

Overall, this was a small mess. It wasn’t horrible, but it was disappointing.

Read More

we have seen multiple bullying focused kdramas over they years, many of them having a uniqueness to them. even this year there was pyramid game, which was very different from usual ones and handled bullying with more care. the only thing unique about this drama was its budget.

the revenge, bullying and romance didn't feel like it held weight. all the plot twists except for the murderer reveal were boring. i thought we all assumed they were brothers. it also didn't make sense for kangha to fall in love with jaei so fast (that too for no reason).

we can see that they intend for a 2nd season and where they are going with it but it would have worked better if they didn't tell that kangha was inha's brother. they should have made this season about the core 4 rich kids and their love and friendship. if this season had focused more on romance and then kangha coming in the middle innocently it would have been great. the previous scholarship student should have been just a passing thought.it would have set up for a more interesting 2nd season if the audience didn't know kangha's personal reasons for revenge. i think there might be love triangle in the next season

the romance felt rushed but it had potential to be great. the acting was not bad like all the social media commentary. im glad that these actors are getting main roles after seeing them be side characters. we need more hera and ujin romance pls

Read More

Waisted Budget

I was very excited to watch this drama and was really looking forward to it, unfortunately I was disappointed. The cinematography and scenery was really good, you could tell they put effort towards the production. Also, they’re outfits and the settings were cool. I was looking forward to watch this drama because I usually like the high school trope that involves revenge. The first episode started okay though after that it fell off. I’m not even sure what the plot was supposed to be after watching it. I was looking forward to see some revenge or at least chemistry with the characters. Nothing against the characters but the script was clearly not it. Hopefully, they make better high school tropes as it seems dramas have been lacking in that genre. Wouldn’t recommend 🙂

Read More

A revenge story without the revenge

I am so disappointed maybe it’s because I was really hyped going into it. They had a pretty decent cast, good cinematography with beautiful shots and a storyline who could have been really interesting.

I was more enjoying and rooting for the “bad guys” that the MC like boy was giving me nothing. The MC didn’t feel like a MC I don’t know how to explain it but when he showed up, I just wanted to sigh.

Let’s talk about the forced romance because it was forced. Why did he fall for her? It doesn’t make sense at all. And why are they trying to make me believe that she ever loved him? She didn’t at all, well she didn’t look like at all.

And where is the revenge please!!! No the last scene of the serie was really underwhelming. I was just happy that it ended but anyway that’s a good series if you like to edit the face cards were insane.

~ Wrote by The Diary of an Angry GuMiHo

Read More

Missed Opportunity

I shouldn't have watched the ending credit scene, it annoyed me. This story was meant to be avant-garde like Nevertheless and both failed. If you want a story to be edgy, it should have a point and a definitive ending. I hate ambiguous endings the most, it's sloppy, if a sequel was intended, set it up as so, this way fans can be excited and anticipate it. Doing so builds respect for the writer. I will follow a good writer's career because I appreciate the talent required to tell a good story.
What I did like: I liked the love story between Jae I and Ri An and the friendship between Jae I and Kang Ha (because that's all it was) He taught her to find value in herself and protect what she loved, and she did. I was glad to see she showed him the ultrasound; it was a poignant moment in their relationship.
One thing I hate about stories like this is powerful never pay for their crimes and neither do their kids. Those that do their bidding are the ones sacrificed. I hope to god, if there is a sequel, they don't make Kand Ha a villain, I would be extremely disappointed because it wouldn't fit his character.
This my two cents, take it for what it's worth from a fan that loves great stories and is disappointed in missed opportunities.

Read More

This Ain't Revenge. It's Regression

first two episodes really had me thinking.. "this is not that bad, why does everyome hate this?". oh boy did i know what was coming for me.

“the baby must have understood i didn’t want it, so it left itself.”
and that was the only line that had any impact.

let’s start off easy—there is no plot. hierarchy attempts to throw in three different plotlines and then expects them to miraculously blend like some k-drama smoothie. spoiler alert: it doesn’t work. these plotlines don’t intertwine, they run parallel, like socially awkward train tracks.

there is no development, no real mystery, no gripping romance, no fulfilling revenge. just vibes (and not the good kind). the only time the plot moved an inch was during the last 45 minutes. until then, i was multitasking my way through like a champ, wondering what genre this drama even belonged to.

revenge? poorly done. handled with the grace of a toddler throwing a tantrum at a birthday party they weren’t invited to
romance? non-existent. only people that did have chemistry didn't end up together so.. what's the point?
mystery? girl, where??
character development? raw. not rare. RAW. stove wasn’t even turned on.
plot twists? mostly yawn, with one almost-shocker that you could kinda see coming if you squinted.


lee chaemin's acting? great. his character? spineless. sir, your whole arc is about avenging your brother and you give it all up because you caught feelings for a girl you met two business days ago? be serious with me, kang ha.

woo jin? pretty, but a certified clown.

yoon hera? the only saving grace. she deserves the world, an oscar, and a better drama. ji hyewon, thankyou for the gem of a character.

jung jae-i? emotional depth of an orange. actually, no—an orange peel. her character arc was meant to be deeply emotional. teen pregnancy, miscarriage, abandonment—this had the potential to carry the entire drama. but her acting? yeah no. she was the protagonist, and she failed her own story.

kim ri-an? boring. not even brooding. just blank. like his entire screen presence. honestly, him and jae-yi deserve each other. two characters with emotional range stuck at zero. and again, not a single compelling moment to tie up their arcs.

the pacing? somehow fast AND boring.
the visuals? appealing to look at. they clearly spent a fortune making this look good. pity they forgot to include a functioning story with it..
the OST? can't remember a single track.
the ending? unsatisfactory and face-less like, seriously. couldn’t even show jae-yi's mom’s face.

“Hierarchy” had potential. but potential doesn’t save you when the script is running on fumes and the characters are running on vibes and delusion. the ideas were thrown together like ingredients in a blender with no lid. messy, flavorless, and exploding everywhere. they had the budget, the cast, the aesthetics—but forgot the soul.

but go off i guess, Netflix.

Rating: 5/10 for cinematography and overall enjoyability, and for hera trying her best in a sinking ship. if you search up the definition of "mid" on wikipedia, this drama pops up btw.

Read More

Another rich kids drama

Where do i begin, i won't dive on all the other obvious points that Where mentioned by others reviewer, the lack of acting skill of fmc and her baby daddy, sorry i forgot all of their name this is how irrelevant they were, the only character i liked and remembered was He-Ra. What i would like to talk about is the plot rather than the characters. We were promised a revenge, we were promised justice but nothing EVER happened, there was no real consequences for the rich kids action, they basically all got away with it, the fact that they focused on the "less rich" idiot and the scholarship kid who was forced to do all the rich kid dirty work, how disappointing, like i did not expect them to achieve The Glory level of genius and satisfactory storytelling, but come on, at least they could have take some note, and i guess they were banking on the serie being successful enough to have a second season so they arrogantly did the last scene like to tell you the story was not over but just beginning.

And this is where i completely loose it and actually get mad, because one thing i absolutely hate is when producers and directors take their audience for idiots, it's like they were convinced if they had great visual, if their actors where super hot, and of course korean, it means we would eat it up, because of course as the korean culture has gotten so popular, it means we as an audience are willing to consume any trash, but that's where they are wrong, korean culture and arts got popular BECAUSE it's amazing, the shows or music artist, movies, books etc... that are now representative of Korea got their flowers because how brilliant they were, even more when you were comparing it to the lazy trash the western media was producing, that's why people jumped on the bandwagon of Korean shows and movies, we were tired of the us mediocre shows. So to have this kdrama being written exactly like the mediocre shows we hate in western media felt like a punch in the face.

They blow out their entire budget by investing in the visual, casting elite actors Bae Hae Sun (the school principal), Choi Won-Young (fmc mean father) and they had the best acting in the entire show (and still they did not explore their characters enough, so maybe they didn't have enough money to pay them to appear in an entire episode) but they did not have money left to hire good writers, so the plot basically felt like something generated by ChatGPT if you ask it to write you a korean fanfiction version of elite and gossip girl and any privilege kids tv show and you have this, a very robotic 7 episode series.
Even when it was revealed that fmc had gotten pregnant and lost the baby i know it's cruel to say but i simply did not care (maybe the actress did not know how to portray the emotions correctly for me to feel her pain) but when it was revealed i was more like "that's it? You are making all this drama because of this? Some one was actually mvrdered as a consequence of the bullying in school (and eveif the teacher was the "killer" if they didn't bully, it would not have happened, so really the teacher was just the bullet and the school the gun giving them no consequences and kids where the one pulling the trigger) fmc was the bystanders who never did anything but wanted to act like this good morally correct character, and mmc who had such good promise with his revenge mindset, fold so quickly for this girl???? Who was just as guilty... wow, anyway next...

Read More