2 episodes in and I’m so in love with this drama! Yay dramas that shine spotlights on controversy!
This drama takes us back to high school and shows us what it’s like to be a teenager these days. And boy am I glad I’m done with school. Kids these days are SCARY.
Synopsis
Ki Moo-Hyeok is a lawyer with a high winning rate. He only cares about money and fame. Due to a murder case at a high school which he deals with, his reputation as a lawyer hits rock bottom. In order to regain his good name as a lawyer, he sneaks into the high school and begins to work as a temporary teacher. He soon starts noticing ill behaviour among the kids and discovers that they all have a secret. In so doing, Ki Moo-Hyeok gets involved with Teacher Ha So Hyun, the P.E. teacher who loves her students. Ki Moo-Hyeok and Ha So-Hyun work together to uncover the secret and the real murderer.
Thoughts
What I Like
The drama starts us off by telling us exactly what we need to know. In the first scene, we see the core of our map, a student is stabbed, and bleeding and a boy is arrested for the attempted murder. All roads will lead to this opening scene. And as we move into new character arcs, we learn that our protagonists will tie themselves to each individual story with shocking results (for both them and the audience). This premise is so simple, yet it will tell a great story. Story lines don’t have to be complicated to keep us interested.
Ki Moo Hyeok is such a lively character, it’s going to be fun watching him make a 180 degree turn in his demeanour for this drama. He starts off as a charismatic hot shot lawyer, money hungry and driven by his want for fame. We soon learn that this façade is all because of his miserable past as a child. He’s lively because he needs to be, and when pushed into a corner, a dark side to him emerges. He has so many layers, I can’t wait to see them peeled back.
I love how the drama isn’t shying away from highlighting the flaws in the Korean schooling system. Sometimes many private schools that excel in academics tend to focus on numbers. High school, in a sense, is still a business after all. So, smart students with great grades get away with murder, both figuratively and literally in this case. This is the main issue the drama will address. I suspect the prosecutor in this drama (led by our female protagonist) to change her tune very quickly in seeing that the real enemy isn’t the kids (as the first scene suggests), but the system that allows these kids to think that they can get away with such behaviour and crimes. The sad part is that the kids actually get away with some very gruesome things, to the point where most of them have become desensitised to committing petty and heavy crimes. Even worse, the school decides to turn a blind eye to all this. Our villain is definitely a school student, but beyond that, our instigator is the authority that lets this school student get away with murdering someone, all for the sake of money and reputation.
What I Don’t Like
A delinquent boy becomes the main suspect in this drama, and I refuse to believe that none of the teachers, not a single one, was allowed to go to the trial. It’s a high-profile case. No reporter is asking where the school is in this matter? This is a case involving minors! And for all the emphasis Korea puts on its teachers to be an extension of the parent, none of them show up? I get that the teachers were forbidden by the school to get involved in any way, but that seems like a stupid thing for the school to try to do. This case in no way elicits a low profile from the school. If anything, they should be in damage control mode. Have you met K drama moms? There is no way this particular incident has been kept from the kimbap serving ahjummas of the Korean drama world, and they spread rumour like wildfire. And where’s our nosy reporter who can miraculously uncover any secret? There’s always a reporter with a compass that points due north sticking their nose in things they shouldn’t. The suspension of disbelief is too much. The school should have been the first to be implicated.
Though the poster for the drama takes on an ominous look, the first 10 minutes took on a very upbeat, comedic tone (very funny Dooly the Dinosaur knock off reference in there as well). It gives the impression that the drama will have both a heavy note and a light one at times, but that was all. Just those ten minutes were happy. Everything from that point on takes on the form of a serious crime thriller. I don’t dispute the drama’s choice in making the first few scenes light. I’m arguing the slapstick way in which they did it. I mean, there was a huge man in a baby dinosaur t-shirt at a settlement hearing. Then tears, a coke slam, titty twisters… It was all too much. And after that, nothing but dark frames and suspense music. It’s safe to say they overacted the first few scenes.
If the Korean prosecution (of law) in real life is anything like the one in this drama, then I fear for the people of the country. Talk about being two faced Cha Hyun Jung. You easily dish out a 20-year sentence to a high school student in the name of justice (the original sentence suggested by her superior was 10 years), yet you failed to investigate the case in its entirety? Bullshit, I say! You can’t be portrayed as a righteous prosecutor, then drive your cases by the need to win. I blame the writers for this though. 20 minutes later she sits at a bar with our male lead and she spills parts of the case that didn’t add up. So, she knew about the flaws in her case and still wanted to send the boy to jail for his entire young adulthood. We need to pick a side here Prosecutor Cha. Are we good people or bad people?
Comments
I’m in! I’m all in! I want to see how this drama can shed light on something that I hear is slowly becoming a social norm. And even if they didn’t intend for it to raise many concerns outside their own community, I hope it does. Big ups for dramas that advocate social change and challenge the status quo
Let me know what you think in the comments. Let’s chat K Community
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