Hierarchy (2024)

sigh

i became really excited to watch a new revenge kdrama but it got so boring and i was just forcing myself to continue on,,, like i literally did not care about the boring romance going on there… yeah i guess they were cute and you could have a little romance here and there BUT IT FELT LIKE THE WHOLE THING WAS JUST BASED ON JAE YI, RI AN, AND KANG HA LIKE WHAT IS TJIS A ROMANCE DRAMA OR REVENGE DRAMA?? 😭the only reason i stayed was because of the cast erm.. lowkey wishing that the kdrama can get interesting and better if they end up getting a season 2 AND ALSO am i the only who doesn’t really like hera and woojin as a couple orrr.. girl i didn’t even really like kang ha and jae yi

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Descending Hierarchy

A complete waste of my rest day.
This has been the most incomprehensible and forgettable kdrama i have ever seen. Confusing, convoluted and mediocre at best. Its a total big bag of nothing covered in the most obvious boujie product placements. Just whats with the wattpad inspired rich people and how they probably live clichés is this?

The only positive thing i could possibly say about this is the intriguing teaser that made me watch this dumpster fire. Im sorry the cast probably did their best, but honestly it is so disappointing and i hate myself for giving it multiple chance to change my mind until i had to will myself and finish this.

First of all, its called "Hierarchy". Alright, rich kids in rich centered school they pointed out the school's adage, Noblesse Oblige, basically the rich taking responsibility and acting noble about giving back to the less privileged, hence why they were giving out scholarships to the "peasants". This should be the main center/cause of conflict, and it did for a short while, until it became overshadowed by the (probably the most infuriating, stupid af) love triangle.

The murder mystery plot, which should have been the main focus here, was cast aside because the FL needs the spotlight, because poor her, she's a rich sad girl who's dating the heir of the school/conglomerate's son. There's nothing likable about this FL. She's so self centred and spineless her arc was pointless af. Don't even get me started on the chemistry because like the plot, it is non existent. The whole "she's changed, she's acting differently now" at the end made my eyes roll back i could see my brain melting into a mush. She was so afraid of what? Getting tf outta her abusive dad's house and psychotic half brother? Also its not like Kim Rian was an asshole through and through, he's a jerk yes, but he cared for Jaeyi, loves her even. To the point that he got so mad when she yeeted herself to NY because "reasons". She could've told him and as if he didn't have money to pay for hackers to trace that person who's threatening her. Like cmon girl, dafuq???

Also, the ML, he's here for some reason. Until he forgot because sad pretty girl. His brother's death was glossed over until the last episode and we're given this weird af character arcs from the elites, like wow, what's exactly is the point of this drama? Dont judge the ultra wealthy? They have morality and able to change the years and years of over indulgence and narcissism because hey the main girl changed? They are humans (tho rich af) with feelings and they only do what they do because of pressures we plebians will never ever understand. Let's punish the middle class teacher (she's a predator dont get me wrong, she deserved it) and believe that all the bullies will magically change their ways just as long as their boss bully have his character arc. The key to end all bullying unlocked! World peace achieved at long last! Hurrah!!!

I think i need to watch something to cleanse my brain. If you managed to read all of this, do yourself a favor and just skip this. You are welcome.

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I don't get the hate (or maybe I do)

Well, I obviously can't defend this series cause objectively it is not a quality drama.

Production quality is very good, concept is interesting, acting definitely not oscar worthy but watchable and the plot well let's say it lacks in many aspects.
Why? Some of the characters tend to change personalities once in a while, some plot points make less sense than my math class and of course we also have a new "upgraded" level of "westernization".

Does this make it bad though? No, in my opinion no.

Now, when I watched the trailer -even though I didn't expect that much romance- I knew this was going to be mostly a messy, makjangish teen drama. And did I get it right? Yes.

And that's exactly the mentality I had when I started watching it. Like use 0 braincells, watch some pretty people doing questionable things and have fun. And I did have my fun, which is the main reason for the high rating.

Like at times this could get so ridiculous and it felt that even the scriptwriter wasn't sure what direction to take. Kudos though for having as an important plot point something that I don't think I have ever seen in a high budget Kdrama recently -or at all-.

Conclusion? I get why many hate it, I can myself point out many things that are very wrong with it, but I also don't get why this gets so much hate.

It is definitely not the worst Kdrama out there (with some popular ones being much worse than this at least in terms of entertainment) and it was a short fun watch. So no, it doesn't deserve such a low rating here on MDL in my opinion and yes you should give it a try if you are thinking of watching it, cause why not? Not everyone has the same taste, we all enjoy different things, so maybe this is your cup of tea.

P.S. Music slaps

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Over budget

This drama was extremely painful to watch, solely based on the fact that it had so much potential and it lacked in all areas. no sign of a plot just mashing different ideas from various mediums in order to try and reach a conclusion. acting was terrible, only really enjoyed chae min as he looked like a more natural fit for his role, others seemed way too over prepared for their roles. music was the highlight for me, had me grooving and honestly is one of my favs whenever watching a drama. production was good, just didn’t line up with the quality on show and honestly quite forgettable. after 7 episodes i still ask the question, what was the point of all this? what’s going on? where is it going? and why don’t they have any facial expressions lol

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Hierarchically Challenged: A Series Best Watched While Multitasking

I wasn't planning to watch "Hierarchy," but curiosity got the best of me after seeing all the negative reviews. Initially, I almost abandoned it midway through episode one due to the silly and clingy dialogues. However, I decided to give it another shot while multitasking.

Unfortunately, "Hierarchy" is plagued by several issues:

* Poor acting
* Lack of chemistry between the leads
* Weak scriptwriting: the villains aren't menacing, the mean girls aren't mean, the romance is lukewarm, and the kiss scenes lack passion
* The story lacks a climax, with everything resolving abruptly

Given my low expectations, I wasn't too disappointed, but "Hierarchy" certainly didn't win me over either. If you're looking for a gripping, well-crafted series, this isn't it. However, if you need something to have on in the background while doing other tasks, it might fit the bill. Overall, I wouldn't recommend it unless you're as curious as I was. Be warned, though: you'll need to switch off your brain, as the dialogues and actions of both the kids and adults are often illogical.

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wasted potential on nonsensical romance

i will be fully honest and start with: I have skipped through it a lot. I am not sure I watched one full episode of this kdrama, however it intrigued me. I guess the first episode's 'plot twist' on who Kang Ha was without even meeting him, aka in the first 5 minutes of the episode. After that, it was just easy to figure out where the story was going.

The only reason I actually finished it was because I skipped through the episodes. The acting of the main actress was, more or less, bad. There was no chemistry between her and Chaemin, and the romance between their characters was S T U P I D. It made absolutely no sense.

However, after getting more of Lee Woojin, I actually wanted to continue watching it without shipping, for him and him only. His story was interesting, his acting was also, in my opinion good, and his side of things was kind of hard to guess. He is by FAR my favorite character.

Now, let's get into some things that pissed me off:

- why in the hell did the main character fall for Jae-i??? He thought she was one of the murderers of his brother, yet he fell for her??? The romance between them made no sense.
- he-ra's character bothered me soooo much until the last episode, and I only started liking her because of Woojin.
- the teacher had some fucking audacity for a pedophile, murderer, and gold-digger. thank god she ended up in prison.
- ra-in... i have no idea how to feel about this guy really. his character is so?? confusing. he never once stood for one thing he believed, the main girl had him wrapped around her little finger but making him think he had a say in shit.
- the fucking ending. BE FUCKING SERIOUS. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?? did Kang Ha kill someone at the end? FOR WHAT? HE GOT HIS REVENGE???? WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT??

i love high-school kdramas, this one kinda reminded me of sky castle until the ending appeared. i have no idea why that was even there so i will straight up ignore it.

anyway lee woojin best boy best character best everything i love him <3

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Did they release the first draft?!

In all honesty, it’s the worst drama I’ve ever seen.
Nothing really works, it looks like they released the series based on a first loose draft.
The budget was clearly high, but it was thrown away.

The characters are so superficial, there’s nothing to them. Some of them are poor, some of them are rich, some are evil, everyone is miserable, that’s it.
The actors are clearly struggling, their acting is robotic cause the dialogues are so lame and dull they couldn’t do much to make it better. They did their best though.
All this led to a lack of chemistry among the cast that I might’ve never seen, they’re literally NPCs.

Some cutscenes are so unnecessarily complex in a drama this basic that they’re involuntarily comic (the hacking scene for example), other ones are shot like they’re meant to be epic but nothing happens before or after so there’s no pathos at all.

There also are some plot holes.
The whole female lead character is built around her monstrous father (he is, not saying he’s not) and how she’s so scared for her life yet when she throws up on the heir she’s supposed to marry we don’t see any scenes with his father reacting to that or when she avoids going to America cause the guy was found guilty of drugs possession… You can’t built all of her story around the fact she fears her father the most and how cruel he is and not showing us his reactions to her actions/things that happens to her that would surely send him off.

The plot itself is so easy I understood everything from the beginning, despite the many incoherences. The whole Rian character is built to be ambiguous, is he really cruel or just a dumb rich guy? To build that ambiguity you have to create more depth to the character and as I said, the characters are just NPCs, so it doesn’t work.

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