The first thing that jumps out at you about the premise of Netflix’s new K-drama, Hierarchy, is that more often than not, you would be able to predict how the next scene is going to play out. Set in the fictional Jooshin High, Hierarchy rehashes a specific brand of drama that unfolds within the walls of a posh highschool. Unfortunately, while it hits all the marks of this genre, it fails to make any splash beyond that. Add to this the fairly unimaginative characterisations, and you get a very predictable show.
Like all the other fictional schools frequented by the rich with skeletons in the closet, Jooshin High’s cohort is also tied to each other with a scandal that they are trying to keep under wraps. Spread across seven episodes, the show starts off with the murder of a scholarship student. A few months later, his vacancy is given to another a student of lower-income, Kang Ha (Lee Chae-min), who is quickly warned of the consequences of crossing his elite classmates.
A still from Netflix’s ‘Hierarchy’
Through Kang Ha’s eyes, we get a picture of the social hierarchy. There’s Jung Jae-i (Roh Jeong-eui), the daughter of the owner of one of the largest conglomerates, and has only recently returned from a mysterious stint in the United States. She had been dating Kim Ri-an (Kim Jae-won), the son of the owner of the industrial group that own Jooshin High. They are surrounded by their less rich yes-men, who form an impenetrable social fort that keeps out the scholarship kids.
As Kang Ha spends more time at the school, it becomes clear that he is not afraid of upending the pecking order, and in the process begins to grow close to Jae-i, while angering Ri-an.
Hierarchy (Korean)
Director: Bae Hyeon-jin
Cast: Roh Jeong-eui, Lee Chae-min, Kim Jae-won, Ji Hye-won, Lee Won-jung, and others
Episodes: 7
Runtime: 55 minutes to 1 hour
Storyline: At an elite Korean highschool, a troubling secret followed by the arrival of a new student threatens to upend the social order
While Hierarchy doesn’t offer much in the way of an innovative plot, it also misses out on the opportunity of making the story fresh through its characters. What you see of the characters in the first 15 minutes of the pilot episode, largely remains consistent throughout the rest of the series. The writing seems to be so preoccupied with the idea of depicting them as uber-rich entities that can get away with anything, that it tends to overlook other nuances.
A still from Netflix’s ‘Hierarchy’
After making these highschoolers deal with a death, and some mediocre parent figures, the show later attempts to evoke sympathy for these characters. It’s a shift in the narrative, that wants you to see them not only as perpetrators, but also as victims of the circumstances that they were born into. Except, this doesn’t prove to be as effective when we have only seen them as one dimensional.
Hierarchy follows in the footsteps of a long-standing television tradition of poring over the highly absurd lives of rich highschoolers. Quickly though, their flashy lifestyles become boring, and the audience seeks a more honest look at the (messy) humans. This K-drama, sadly, severely lacks the thrill of that observation.
Hierarchy is currently streaming on Netflix