Hierarchy

Hierarchy: A Letdown

"Hierarchy" contains familiar K-drama elements: relentless bullying, unsolved murder, ultra-rich high school students, a poor student seeking revenge, drug and power abuse, and inattentive parents, similar to "Penthouse," "Sky Castle," and "Revenge of Others." However, it disappoints on multiple fronts. The story starts slow and only gains pace in the last two episodes, where the rushed and lackluster revenge plot finally begins. The ending feels abrupt and unsatisfying, leaving viewers with a sense of missed potential.

The characters are underdeveloped, making it hard to invest in their journeys. Despite a talented cast and high production values, the drama's exploration of heavy themes remains superficial, used more as plot devices than for serious commentary.
Nonetheless, I liked the male leads acting. If I could complete the drama it was because of them.

Overall, "Hierarchy" squanders its promising premise, failing to deliver a compelling or engaging narrative, and ends up being a waste of time for viewers expecting a gripping drama.

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who done it mystery

Slow and dragging with story and characters.
School full of moral decay
Good cematroghpy.Flim crew gets a plus.
Spoiler
who gets bumped off in the credits , Moss? A poor attempt to revive it for season 2
The really wasn't a love triangle. The heroine did seem to still love her first love, though the script did put a couple of holes there. but overall she did seem to stay true to her first love. I'm ok with that.
The brother you wanted to wind up with someone better. But in the ending credits the story twists there too. Not really believable for his character.

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Visually pleasing, but the rest made zero sense

You wouldn't believe how excited I was after looking at the cast and watching the trailer. I really had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, the only things I liked were the vibes and aesthetics. The story made no sense, the characters made no sense, the flow of the show made no sense. The whole drama felt pointless. It looked cool enough for me to finish it and I like the main cast from other dramas, but this frustrated me a lot. If you want to turn off your brain completely to watch rich people nonsense and impressive glamorous high school parties, and don't mind the characters not having much personality, I'd say go ahead. Otherwise, you wouldn't miss much and it that's really disappointing for me.

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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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Pretty People, Pretty Things, Petty Problems

Hierarchy had been on my watchlist for a while, but I quietly deleted it after seeing an avalanche of bad reviews. The drama community wasn’t kind. But then Kim Jae Won happened, specifically, King the Land happened, and suddenly, I found myself casually soft stalking him like a woman on a mission. Turns out, Hierarchy is one of his newer and more talked-about projects, and with only seven episodes, I figured: why not binge it in one sitting and call it a day?

Let me just say this upfront, I walked into this with rock-bottom expectations. I wasn’t looking for deep storytelling or emotional resonance. I just needed something to pass the time before getting back to The Red Sleeve. And in that spirit, here’s my breakdown. Easy, honest, and to the point.

The Good Stuff:

1. Cinematography? Gorgeous.
High-quality visuals, sleek camera work, and a set design that screamed money. Everything looked polished, almost too polished, like everyone lived in a luxury catalog.

2. The Rich Were Rich Rich.
If you’re into watching excessive wealth parade around, think Hermès boxes in every corner, luxury homes, cars that don’t see rain, and private school vibes that are aggressively elite, Hierarchy delivers. Plot? Questionable. But aesthetics? Unmatched.

3. Kim Jae Won and Lee Chae Min = Eye Candy Deluxe.
Whoever cast these two deserves an award and a vacation. Not only are they beautiful, but they also brought more depth than I expected. For their age, the emotional delivery, especially in those tension-filled locker room scenes or when tears started flowing, was surprisingly solid. They carried a lot of the weight of this show, and honestly, they did it well. The rest of the cast was... there. Serviceable.

4. Wardrobe Department Did Not Play.
The outfits, especially for the male leads, were designer from head to toe. Sharp suits, tailored school uniforms, and the kind of casual wear that costs more than my rent. Same goes for the houses, the cars, the props, everything screamed budget.

5. Short and Sweet (Well, Short At Least).
They didn’t drag things out. No 16 episodes of the female lead staring into the void while piano music plays in the background. Things moved quickly, maybe a little too quickly, but at least I didn’t feel like I was being held hostage.

The Not-So-Great:

Don’t expect a plot that’s going to change your life. This isn’t The Glory, Sky Castle, or even Penthouse at its chaotic best. The themes are familiar, class division, secrets, trauma, betrayal, but the writing doesn't dig very deep. It gives rich-people-problems with a sprinkle of a revenge plot and teen angst, but if you're looking for emotional payoff or tight plotting, you might feel underwhelmed.

Final Thoughts:

Hierarchy is like a fashion magazine with a bit of drama sprinkled in. It's not here to teach you life lessons or make you cry in the middle of the night. It's here to look good, stir a little chaos, and leave before things get too complicated. If you're okay with that, and just want to enjoy the visuals, the pretty faces, and some high-budget messiness, it’s worth the watch. Just go in with the right expectations, and you might actually have a good time.

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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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