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Extracurricular korean drama review
Completed
Extracurricular
0 people found this review helpful
by minji
Dec 13, 2021
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 6.0

Darker School Drama

An interesting drama which includes discussions on illegal businesses, underage escorts, s*x trafficking, the rights of workers & the need for security. This drama really had me hooked.

▹ Jisoo's character
He was presented as a straight A, quiet, shy school boy at the start. Later, it's revealed he runs an illegal security business in the backdrop of his perfect school life. He is different when he is "Uncle" and then when he is Jisoo in school.

▹ Illegal Business
Depending on individual views on escorts, the business Jisoo runs provides security for escorts. The business is illegal and he also allows underage Minhee to use the service. If one is being "equal", "protective" they wouldn't allow underage girls to do this.

▹ Dark but real
It was interesting to see how dark but real the show was. It’s common to see something like this in Asian cities, the motels/compensated dating etc. This drama feels raw and different. Not the typical school drama

▹ Gyuri's impact
People have moaned and said that "it's gyuri's fault". Yes, it is. She took Jisoo's phone but how else did you expect the drama to even start. Something had to go wrong, since they're all high school kids. They don't know any better.

▹ Minhee & PTSD
Her character was always shown to be smart-mouthed and stubborn. Yes, she should have listened to others to not go to the motel that day but she experienced something brutal. She was left traumatised and couldn't work.

▹ Police officer
For some reason, the show wrote the police officer in such an annoying way. Perhaps this was intentional. We are seeing the officer, the way the high school kids are. She did the right things but she was doing them in the wrong ways possible.

▹ Ending
The last 2 episodes were basically game changers like American tv shows and movies. The good turn bad and the bad turn good. I do wonder why they chose to pursue this root instead of sticking with what they had. But, I understand. The shock factor outweighs consistency in this situation.

OVERALL
Really good kdrama, it's not the typical school drama. It's dark and real. It opens up discussions about the dark side of Korea. The underage escorts, the money problems and the need for good parental figures. The last two episodes could have been a bit better in terms of the story and I find that the episodes stand out/ are different in terms of consistency with the rest of the series.

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