Hierarchy (2024)

The script of the series falls into clichés from time to time

It successfully reflects the emotional depths of the characters. However, some of the side characters are not explored in depth enough, which weakens their roles in the story and causes them to remain superficial.

Questioning the effects of power and money on society the series manages to make the audience think and raise awareness. However the fact that some criticisms remain superficial and are not examined in depth somewhat weakens the social criticism power of the series.

The fact that some of the side characters in the series were not expanded enough caused the character played by No Jeong Ee to stand out even more. In this case while on the one hand it was advantageous from the perspective of having the player's capacity on the other hand it affected the overall distribution of the series.

To be honest, I didn't like Roh Jeong Eui's acting sorry Jeong Ee can use similar acting techniques in some of her roles. This may give viewers the impression that they are stuck in a certain role type or character mold. It may be necessary to break this perception by giving more diverse performances in different types of productions By the way, I really liked Yoon He Ra's acting, I hope her success continues.

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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

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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.

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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...

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Gorgeous to look at but that's it **SPOILERS**

Hierarchy sets out to be a riveting tale of murder, mystery, luxury, and of course, romance. Unfortunately, it falls flat in every single one of those categories. To put it simply, Hierarchy wishes to mirror the early seasons of the Spanish drama Elite. So much so that I found myself drawing parallels between the two at nearly every corner from set design to characters. Now I'm in no way saying that Elite is heaps and bounds better but I will say Elite took its time with characters and at least for the first few seasons had a plot line to follow (can't say anything past season 4 I stopped watching as it become boring and redundant).

The biggest issue that I found with this show was there was quite literally very little plot just gorgeous actors and gorgeous scenes but nothing of substance. The dialogues felt generic and insignificant and everything kind of felt pieced together. We didn't see characters develop.

The story primarily revolves around 5 characters: Kim Ri-an (the main rich boy), Jung Jae-i (main rich girl Ri-an's ex/gf), Kang Ha (the protagonist?, "revenge" seeking boy), Yoon He-ra (Regina George, Jae-i bff?), Lee Woo-jin (confused very gorgeous, relatively insignificant boy, nice to look at). The main story pretty much only involves the first 3 with the last 2 kind of being there.

Character breakdown:
Essentially Kang Ha makes his way into this hyper-elitist high school as a scholarship kid in order to find justice for his dead twin brother while facing the discrimination of his peers. So to make a long story short he doesn't really do this. Instead, he falls in love with Jung Jae-i and cries. Sure he reported people to the cops and held people "accountable" but honestly this plot line, which is supposed to be the main plot imo, takes a back seat and we get a classic romance where Kang Ha plays the second lead to Ri-an. This would be fine if I cared about the characters. The problem with this whole show is I have no sympathy or affection for any of these characters. The whole cast could have faced a zombie apocalypse and passed away and my reaction would have been welp. Especially Kang Ha. He is the one I am supposed to be rooting for but I don't care enough for him. In fact he frustrated me the most. He repeatedly claims that these people killed his brother but does so little to portray that. There's a scene where Jae-i claims to have killed Kang Ha's brother and by the next scene, Kang Ha is still expressing his love for her. It just doesn't make sense for his character. You play the voice of reason, justice, yet people you like get a pass? Also, there is one scene where he essentially says "Jae-i, you're not like the other people here, you're nicer so I can't hurt you." I'm glad you feel this way but bro why? Because she shows you basic human decency that you could get anywhere else outside of this school? How do you know she actually treated your brother nice huh? Seems to me Kang Ha's ideology mirrors the school's, the same ideology he's been desperately trying to destroy this whole time: people you like or have an affiliation with will get a pass.

Jae-i is so boring she has so much happen to her but not a single reaction she is like a doll with one reaction. All she says is that she wants to protect Ri-an but why? Sure you find comfort in each other but I'm failing to understand why she couldn't have told Ri-an about her pregnancy. Like ya'll are billionaires figure it out. Not to mention earlier in the show it seemed that both families were happy about the potential merging of Ri-an and Jae-i's families. What motivation does Jae-I have to sacrifice herself? What is she protecting him from because his mother seems relatively submissive as long as Ri-an portrays a clean image? Also, I don't like how Jae-i is supposed to be the hand that saves the plebians. All she did was talk to Kang Ha's brother and after seeing him pass decided to help Kang Ha out of guilt. She is not different. She had years to treat the scholarship kids like people. She just feels guilty and is trying to ease that guilt. No better than Ri-an or the rest of the elitists imo.

He-ra was my favorite character. She actually had depth and reasoning to her character. Her motivations were clear and the actions she took made sense. For example, she went after Ri-an romantically not because she hated her friend but because she had to secure her father's business and supplement her inferiority complex. She is also the only one we see develop as a character as she goes from only valuing herself through wealth to eventually understanding the weight of her friendships. Also, the actress for He-ra had the best performance imo.

Woo-Jin was simply there to introduce the killer teacher (the one who actually killed Kang Ha's brother) and serve looks. His whole schtick is that he loves He-ra and can't tell her because He-ra is preoccupied with securing the bag and confessing to Ri-an. Honestly, I was more invested in He-ra and Woo-jin and sympathized with them much more than the other three characters because they felt human and had the potential to grow. The others stayed stagnant.

Overall the plot is predictable, the characters are generic, and the show moves extremely slowly even for only having 7 episodes as opposed to the typical 16. It's something that should be played in the background while you are doing something else. A decent watch to pass the time.

Questions:
Why was Kang Ha's brother recording stuff in the first place?


Things I liked:
-Set design/cinematography: very nice to look and and the shots were unique and fun to look at
-Cast: all are extremely gorgeous, doesn't have much to do with anything but they were gorgeous that's it. I also think they did a pretty decent job for what they were given acting-wise. Especially the Ji Hye-won (He-ra)
-Music: the title song was a bop, will be adding it to my playlist
-Fashion: the outfits were so cute omggg, love the elegant yet classy vibe
-Kim woo-Jin

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nothing special!

This show was entertaining to watch but nothing special just another rich high school mystery drama. In this drama there is a prestigious school named jooshin high school where only rich kids attend but scholarshipp students are also admitted as a way of showing that they're giving back to the society. But in reality these scholarship students are discriminated, bullied and humiliated. And the show starts with showing death of such scholarship student kang in han. Whose only crime was getting close with jeong jae i "the high school royalty'.
Enters kang ha who has a secret but he appears bubbly and his closeness with jeong jae-i annoys her ex kim ri an whose sidekicks tries to warn kang ha. but foe him its do or die .
This is nothing new as we again see rich kids being bratty and always showing off their wealth. all the luxury brands are paid actors in this drama as you will always see them with characters.
Things I disliked -
1)There are confusing instances in this drama like we might think that jae i was pregnant with kang in han. Only for us to figure out she was pregnant with ri an's kid!
-Another confusing thing was kang in han spying on her. Why did he had recording camera pen ?this was never explained.
2) kang ha's romantic interest in jeong jae i despite being aware of her involvement in his brother's death.
3) Adults in the school bowing down to students and having no authority and one of the teachers literally having an affair with student . that teacher had audacity of questioning kang ha despite killing his brother
4)Rushed conclusion - the drama concluded hastily with nothing ground breaking. all the scholarship students should have shown the rich kids that they are nothing special and their privileges dont make them any more important .
the cast is good. I only loved lee chae min's acting. just one time watch drama for passing time!

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not bad but not good.

Here's the thing. The story had a good premise. Kang ha is enrolled in an elite private school with a scholarship. Space for said scholarship opened up because his fraternal twin brother died the year before in a hit-and-run car accident. Kang ha enrolled so he could get revenge and justice. Jae I, the female lead and the constant center of attention, has just broken up with her boyfriend of several years after returning from the states. Her boyfriend, Ri an, is obsessed with her (painfully obsessed) and so he's in denial. Kang ha takes advantage of Jae I's connection with Ri an because he knows that Ri an was involved in his brother's death. Alright, there's the premise.

The whole thing was ruined, though, because for some reason they just HAD to give Kang ha and Jae I a goofy little "love" story, if you could even call it that. Kang ha never had a chance, that much was obvious because Jae I OBVIOUSLY still loved her ex-boyfriend and had only broken up with him out of fear of her crazy father. Kang ha is supposed to be driven by revenge, he's supposed to hate all of these people for just standing by and doing nothing while his brother was abused and tortured. But...oh! Oh my god! Pretty cold rich broken girl is just SOOOOOO heart-wrenchingly loveable! So Kang ha starts to like her, and now his plot for revenge doesn't seem so much like a plot for revenge anymore. This story could have been GREAT. Amazing, even. Imagine if Kang ha were a morally grey character and he'd manipulated everyone to get exactly what he wanted? He could have destroyed lives and made a spectacle of all of them, but he didn't. Why? Because he had a crushy wushy on Jae I!

Then there's Jae I herself, the most ridiculous character I've ever seen. I understand that she's supposed to have anxiety and whatnot because of her father. But that's not what I'm focused on. She spends this entire series USING Kang ha's crush to get away from her obsessed ex, and then we find out that the WHOLE time while we THINK she's catching feelings for him, she was actually just thinking about her ex. Okay, fine. That happens in the real world. But then, why, when Kang ha runs after her and cries in her arms, does she lead him on??? I hate her character so much lmfao she was dumb and didn't make use of ANY of her resources. Just acted like a damsel in distress the entire time. I can count the amount of times she raised her voice on two hands, maybe one.

We were SUPPOSED to have a murder mystery, trying to find out which of them had run Kang ha's brother over, but instead, we're given a teacher who doesn't act like a teacher that...oh my?!?!?! ran him over because he...caught her kissing a student!?!?!??!?! shut up what the hell that ruined whatever this drama had left to redeem itself lmfao because are you fr??? And the way they BUTCHERED this even more by adding in all this ridiculous side plot with the pregnancy and the stalker brother??? This should have been focused on the MURDER. That's what would have made this good. The ending? Even more absurd than I thought it would be. They tried making it bittersweet and ooooo dark ooooo, but really....?????? Ugh why do they ruin good stories with bad writing

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Listen to the reviews and skip

Like many I was intrigued when I first saw this on Netflix’s what’s next video showing all of this years releases and considering it had all my favourite elements (supposedly), rich kid problems, school setting, bullying etc, I was seated. That was until I actually tuned into this disaster. It starts out promising with great cinematography and a good premise but half of the storylines set up get side tracked for a very useless and boring romance plot which you are not expecting whatsoever. Depressed expressionless fml with ‘troubles’ that means she has to push everyone away despite being offered help by her super rich bf which he probably could’ve resolved and saved us about 5-6 episodes. Despite being involved in the killing of the ML’s brother we spend almost the entire show being forced to feel bad for her (which I still don’t f her) because she has ‘anxiety’ … give me a break. So much anxiety it takes the ML trying to seek revenge for her to finally say something about her bf orchestrating some team of bullies to ‘show scholarship students their place’ which she has been watching happen this whole time. Now the ML has to be the most spineless person in this series which is ironic since he spent the entire series handing out empty threats to the adults for this very reason. Completely ruined the class presidents plans of teaching the SML and FL a lesson for their actions cause he stupidly lets his feelings get in the way (even though this girl was literally a contributing factor for his brothers death). Only when the fml turns him down does he make an effort to carry out SOME revenge. (Which hardly works as none of the actual perpetrators are punished but continue going to school like nothing happened). Whole show is pretty much centred around this pathetic love triangle and sad girl FML instead of getting to the bottom of what happened to ML’s brother.

Also a random predator plotline which really holds no actual significance apart from in the last ep much like the explanation on the death of the twin brother. This show is just an aesthetically pleasing waste of time, if you are considering this thinking you’re getting sky castle or penthouse s1 kind of goodness, think again.

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ONLY WATCH THIS IF YOU LOVE THE VISUALS

I originally highly anticipated watching this drama due to the visuals (Roh Jeong-eui, Lee Chae-min) plus even knowing that it would be a high school drama with revenge played in, something like Elite. I maintained this impression of this drama throughout the first episode, not knowing that frankly it was the best episode, and everything would be going downhill from then. (first three episodes were ok)

Messy plot
The main reason that I despise this drama is because of its messy plot and characters, which left me angry and VERY CONFUSED. The writer was too greedy and wanted to add too many elements to this drama, and in the end, didn’t even manage to execute one perfectly. The main plot of the story revolved around Kang Ha (main lead) avenging the death of his brother who died from a car crash, then for the whole drama, it was hinting that his death was caused by Ri-an indirectly as his friends bullied him. However, the end revealed that his death was caused by the teacher who crashed into him. There, I started to wonder, then why did they blame Ri-an and Jae I for the whole drama, painting them as the antagonists of the show who caused his death????? And to be honest, they weren’t even the one bullying him, they were just onlookers, and I understand that onlookers are at fault too, but are they really the ones to blame???? I really couldn’t understand this part (or could someone explain to me), and I felt that the writer just wanted to tie these two issues together (mystery/ death + bullying), but it was done terribly. Another one of the many things I couldn't understand is why are there so many people blackmailing Jae I and Ri-an with the making-out clip, like why does everyone have the clip including Jae I’s brother who took the clip, principal’s son, and Ri-an’s mother. I don’t even understand what’s wrong with them being together, I mean they are both from wealthy families, and I know they mentioned that their parent’s company are in conflict or whatever, but it’s not like they are transcending the status quo to be together. The story also covers controversial issues such as Jae I’s unintended pregnancy, teacher student in a romantic relationship, but truthfully, it just didn’t work out that well.

Messy characters and relationships
Going into the drama, I was fully prepared to ship Kang Ha and Jae I as their visuals were LIT and they had great chemistry in episode 1. However, after finishing the drama, I couldn’t even tell what their relationship was. Jae I has a fluctuating attitude towards Kang Ha, sometimes acting friendly, then other times acting cold to Kang Ha. For instance, she was acting cold to Kang Ha in the first episode, then suddenly in the second episode, they acted like friends and she even invited him to her room, and let him sleep on her shoulder. I was like what????, she was still acting like she didn’t care about his existence at all, then suddenly they developed this intimate relationship?? Then in episode 3, Jae I becomes cold again, but then in later episodes Jae I confesses to Kang Ha about the death of the scholarship kid (which is like her deepest secret??) and even tells Kang Ha at some point that he is her most trusted person. I really couldn’t comprehend their relationship, and I think it was due to poor writing that failed to depict the development of their connection. Despite all these, I couldn’t resist crying in the scene where Jae I and Ri-an ride the bicycle and eat the strawberry toast. To me, those were moments that belonged to and were dedicated to Kang Ha and Jae I, it was when they started to develop a romantic interest towards each other. But then, Jae I decided to do all these with Ri-an?! This really just shows that Jae I doesn’t even care or had any romantic interest in Kang Ha. That was the scene that hurt me the most.

There were many more poorly written relationships, but here I will talk about Jae I and He Ra. To be honest, I still don’t understand why Jae I was being so mean to He Ra in the first few episodes, it even seemed to me that she was being mean on purpose. She just ordered her friend around like she was her subject (eg. telling her to search the anonymous instagram user). Then Jae I continues to be mean by giving off vibes that she doesn't care whether He Ra likes Ri-ah or not, and even hints that He Ra wouldn’t have a chance. Then, she decides not to help He Ra by not letting their fathers meet. I really didn’t understand why Jae I had to do all these. Then, at last, they become friends again because Jae I asks her father to help He Ra. Like what????? So essentially, their friendship is resolved because of money!!. She didn’t even try to show any personal and nice gestures for her friend, and instead just asks her father whom she despises to help????

Execution → show not tell, the writer did TERRIBLE
The lines were written terribly in this drama. It reached the intention of telling us what characters feel or what happened, but it didn’t SHOW. For example Jae I says “Ri-an is my everything”. Since they suddenly got back together, Jae I just keeps saying or expressing something like that. But frankly, I really couldn’t see that she was still madly in love with him in all the previous episodes. Kang Ha also expresses his love for Jae I later through the lines of the principal's son, but similarly I couldn’t see how and when he fell in love with Jae I. The other even worst part of this drama is that mysteries are not revealed gradually, instead the characters just suddenly know the answers. For example, Jae I just suddenly knows that U Jin and the teacher have a relationship. The murderer of the drama is also just suddenly uncovered, Kang Ha didn’t even take part in investigating the death, and U Jin just decides to hand in the video evidence because of his guilt. The writer did such a terrible job in the mystery part of uncovering the crime. The last few episodes were the worst, as every time the characters met up, they were either saying sorry or asking someone to say sorry, or saying how wrong they were. (especially Jae I, Kang Ha, and Ri-an). They could have just depicted better scenes of them that showcased the character’s relationship.

Huge plot holes that the writer didn’t even bother to fill in
For instance, they didn’t explain why Kang Ha’s brother had the pen with the camera in his pocket. I know that it acted as a great tool for recording the evidence of the teacher crashing into him, but they didn't even explain why Kang Ha’s brother had that pen all along. Secondly, why didn’t they destroy this important evidence, like why would the teacher even leave the pen in the car, she would have immediately destroyed it if she really didn’t want people to find out that she killed someone and also had an inappropriate relationship with her student. This also leads me to ask: so what was Jae I and Kang Ha’s brother actually discussing in the scene where they were talking and Jae I found out his camera pen. Were they talking about the pregnancy? And why was Kang Ha’s brother recording her? (as it seems)

As a side note, I also want to ask what did Jae I’s mother do that made Jae I’ father despise her that much. Her dad keep saying you're becoming the type of woman your mother was, but what did her mother actually do?

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