I just finished watching Hierarchy on Netflix and honestly I’ve never really seen anything like it at all. I’m not one to see series about high school and stuff so this one did get my attention for a while. Also not to burst my bubble but what made me run to Netflix was the countless numbers of edits that kept popping up on my instagram and after a long while I had to go see it.
The high in question was Jooshin High School, the most prestigious school in South Korea. The series follows the lives of elite students who are chosen at birth to attend. These include Jeong Jae Yi, the first daughter of the Jaeyool Group; Kim Ri An, the successor of the Jooshin Group; Yoon He Ra, the youngest daughter of a trading company; and Lee Woo Jin, the second son of a powerful political family. In contrast, the students on scholarship are portrayed as content, wise, cheerful, and grounded (safe way to say they were basically servants to the elite).
The elite students Jeong Jae Yi, Kim Ri An, Yoon He Ra and Lee Woo Jin studied in a separate classroom from the regular students and the scholarship students.
This story takes a turn when Kang Ha transfers to the prestigious Jooshin High School. Following the brutal death and life before death of his brother In-ha. He did hide his identity when he got in so he could investigate the people that wronged his brother.
Behind Kang-ha’s innocent smile was a man who was all out to punish the offenders that got away because of how wealthy and connected their parents were. In Jooshin high school the top Bully was the most influential and as it always is in the hierarchy of the world itself the poorest ones were prey. Over time they just accepted their fate and stopped trying to speak up because the teachers and administrators would turn a blind eye to the reports from the bullied students because of who the report was about.
The series also portrays the imperfect family lives of the rich students, clearly stating the pressures of maintaining reputations, inheriting businesses, and dealing with envy. Which even with all that did not justify some of their actions.
One out of the elites was not fond of bullying and was constantly haunted by the death of her then friend In-Ha blaming herself for his death since he only started having more trouble with the bululúes when they became friends.
From my perspective, Hierarchy is a well thought out kdrama portraying a whole lot.
That “rich” people themselves are not as happy as everyone thinks they are.
That the poor have equal rights on earth and should not be treated differently.
That pressure from family can highly influence a child’s character.
Those actions have consequences and no matter how long it takes you’ll serve punishment.
Being biased doesn’t quite get you anywhere.
Anyways this series was an 8 out of 10 for me. I hope you see it soon.
Ps: the images used here are screenshots taken by my mobile device.