Despite a strong premise and intriguing trailers, this school drama about class inequality falls far short Welcome to Jooshin High School. Here, students arrive in sports cars, have separate special classes for the rich, experience the epic highs and lows of high school football, practice fencing and perhaps bully unfortunate scholarship students for their social status. In addition, they also settle bets on racetracks and hook up with their teachers.
All in a day’s work for these rich spoiled brats. That’s until the arrival of Kang Ha (Lee Chae-min), an outlier and a scholarship student whose brother was brutally murdered after discovering the underlying bullying and corruption at the school. His appearance signals a change in the school’s long-standing oppressive systems, threatening the status quo of the rich students who have never been told “no” in their lives.
Stories about the wealthy, especially those who use their money as a means to carry out despicable acts, are a dime a dozen in the Korean drama space – and Hierarchy is no different. K-dramas about the obscenely wealthy generally tend to veer on the side of absurdism, but this Netflix original pushes that to comical extremes. When the rich students of Jooshin are not tormenting a student for being poor, they’re on luxury school retreats with spas and fencing.
Strong motivations for revenge aside, it’s hard to connect or understand protagonist Kang Ha, with the show never fully exploring his backgro.
