Extracurricular (2020)

Enjoy the Downward Spiral

I don't like the categories for rating on here. My 4 categories are Acting/Cast, Writing, Direction/SFX/Music, Entertainment Value.

After reading the synopsis, I was hesitant to watch this drama because I didn't want to see minors in sexual situations and engaged in very serious criminal activity. I was worried it may glamorize these kinds of lifestyles. Once I finally decided to give it a try, I almost dropped the drama after the 1st episode. It just didn't grab my attention and I felt the male lead's character and his motivations were boring and typical. Eventually, I gave it another shot and watched episode 2 and from then on, I was hooked.

Acting/Cast: I think this is my 1st time seeing most of these actors... at least in major roles (except for 남윤수 Nam Yoon Su). They all did a great job. Watching the male lead's personality unfold, stood out to me the most. I also liked watching the interactions between the female lead and her mother. 9.5/10

Writing: This category can be broken into 2 parts - character writing/dialogue and story writing. I feel that the character development was the strongest aspect of this drama. The psychological genre is my favorite when it comes to Korean dramas because of their ability to write compelling characters that grow or change in realistic ways during the course of their experiences. This drama is great example of that, especially in regards to the male lead's character. Unfortunately, with how great the character writing is, I felt the actual story writing was lacking in comparison. There were storylines that I was really interested in learning more about (mainly more about the female lead's mom and that industry and about Mr. Lee's background), but they were left unexplored. The ending was also done in a way that seems as though they were setting it up for a 2nd season, which would make sense as to why some major details of the story felt unfinished. Regardless, I'm typically not a fan of endings like that. It feels incomplete and I'm left wanting more. If they're not doing a 2nd season, then 10 episodes weren't enough to really flesh out this story. On a positive note, the things that I was worried about before even beginning the drama, turned out not to be an issue. However, I could see some potential for criminal activity/prostitution being glamorized (for instance, prostitution didn't seem like a big deal until it was an underage girl doing it.) But every time the characters started to seem "cool" or too much like protagonists, something horrible would happen that would put everyone back where they belong. That reminds me, It was difficult watching a drama with no real protagonist. I felt bad rooting for anyone. I would just feel resigned and I would say "well...that's what you get for engaging in criminal activity." I'm not going to feel bad rooting for Mr. Lee though. 7/10

Direction/SFX/Music: The production was great; it felt very high quality. There were some clever dream sequence scenes that I really enjoyed. They didn't feel like your typical dream sequence. I usually can't stand them. The music really added to these strange scenes, as well. I don't care about music so much, but I do take notice when it heightens the experience for me (or worsens it). I think the OST played a huge part in giving this drama a very captivating vibe. 8/10

Entertainment Value: After I got past that 1st episode, it was a crazy ride. It was like watching a train wreck (but in a good way?) So much anxiety...very unpredictable. A fun but scary, stress-inducing ride. I don't want to say anything more about it because I don't want to give anything away. 8/10

It was difficult to give a final rating for this drama - it's either an 8/10 or an 8.5/10. I chose 8 more for personal preferences, which I don't want to expand on because it may be a bit of a spoiler.

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It was fine

I think it's really good, however certain characters really got on my nerves which made it a little harder to get through. The acting was amazing, the plot was really interesting and the cinematography was good, which I definitely appreciate but I just couldn't get beyond the way the plot relied on one specific thing which ultimately was somewhat flimsy. It is still a good show but I personally prefer shows that rely a little less on one specific thing but rather a lot more things so that even if one falls flat the plot still stands, aside from that one personal preference thing, it was ultimately good overall!

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Unlike every other drama coming out of Korea with same repeat stories this drama was totally different, both leads of the drama were worst ever criminal possible. Leads were pimps who sold men and women of all ages including minors for sexual favors. They didn't stop even when things got complicated like attempted murder, police getting involved later on murder. Worst part both the leads were minors.
This drama is depiction of how extreme circumstances bring out worst in humans even worse when persons are genius and are very difficult to be suspected. They manipulate every circumstance in their favor but you can't even blame them because they had no other choice.
Best part of Drama
Acting by male lead- I have watched all 3-4 of his drama and this guy took me buy surpsrise he acted so well that he desreve daesang for the drama. If he can conti nue this acting he will end up as one of the best actors ever produced by South Korea.

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Unique Premise Fumbled by Mediocre Writing

I expected a lot more out of this show considering its high reviews, and after finishing I have to wonder if I even watched the same show others did.

While I did mark my review as having spoilers, again, please do not read if you strongly plan on watching the show and care about spoiling of any degree.

The premise of the story is good (or could have been), the acting is as good as most other decent kdramas, and the direction is good. However, most of the characters are terribly unlikable and inconsistent in role, and the biggest, gleaming issue is that the story is full of nonsensical plot holes which ruin its delivery. That said, I did not hate it, it just felt painfully average when it could have fared far better and I would not have bothered had I known.

Jisoo is smart enough to start a secret business and run it for nearly 2 years, but simultaneously is an insufferable coward and idiot at nearly every encounter that would test his intelligence (are we to believe there were no issues ever leading up to this point that would require high IQ to resolve?). His phone is openly marked with his business logo, he leaves sound-based notifications on that are tied to said business/logo, he's nonchalant with how he treats his second phone (not even caring enough to keep it on his person, the entire reason why he got himself into this situation), and he didn't even bother to give his phone a decent password (or have a second password on his security app) even though it's somehow his only connection to the business [despite it being implied that he made the security app, and would therefore have full backdoor rights].

For those unfamiliar, with a decent password it could take the FBI or similar agencies weeks to months to unlock the phone if you/the manufacturer refused to do it for them; for an average person/solo person without extensive IT background it would take far longer, if possible at all. Certainly nobody is going to casually guess their way in unless the password is on a post-it note pasted on the fridge like in your grandmother's house. Furthermore, had he encrypted the app/messages, as any person that's capable of operating as he did prior to the start of the show would know how to do, then it could take years of efforts to get in, and that's assuming he didn't also select for disappearing logs or other security backups preventing forced entry. Hell, he couldn't even manage to find the power off button on a telephone he took that had self-compromising information regarding his illegality activities, not to mention willingly letting a bully into his home that would capitalize on this. It's as if even if he messed up early on he had ZERO learning-curve capability. Based on how he's written by the end of the show, it's difficult to believe that he manages to tie his own laces or wipe his own arse in the correct direction, let alone do anything he built up in the prelude.

Not going to bother addressing the other characters since the lead was frustrating enough, but the pure negligence of how technology is treated, such as everyone's phone being immediately, magically accessible and apps usable by people without use privileges is a significant oversight (as well as the aforementioned in the above). I would accept the argument that some people are dumb enough to not use passwords, or to use something like '1234', but when the average IQ in S Korea is 105+ and the entire premise is based on the main character being intelligent/top of his class while still working (so theoretically 130+) it comes off as lazy, amateurish writing that took a chance at too few people noticing/caring about the flaws--based on average reviews being very different from my own, looks like it paid off.

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WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK

I was stuck in quarantine and started watching this out of boredom. Would've appreciated it if the producers added a trigger warning at the beginning of the drama T_T I had 2 mental breakdowns in the span of watching this lmao.

Overall plot is super f'd up and no one's a good guy in this drama. Every character frustrates you in their own charming way. Obviously am not satisfied with the ending and looking forward to season 2 if there even is one *sigh* Honestly if you're mentally unstable and is planning to watch this then good luck haha. yes it's good , no doubt it is, but it is rather triggering.

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Not Your Average Drama

The minute I began watching this drama I knew this would not be like any of the others I'd watched so far. Similar in tone to Parasite and many other Korean movies, this drama portrays a very realistic and gritty take on life and what it takes to survive.

The strongest point of this drama is its plot. Void of stereotypical cliches, it leaves you on the edge of your seat guessing what will happen next. Although high schoolers running a prostitution business seems extremely out-there and unrealistic, the genius-level writing of this drama has made me realize that this may very well be reality for people living not only in Korea, but other developed countries too. I'm glad that this drama is a Netflix Original, because it would not have been as dark nor as great had it been picked up by Korean networks that have to abide to the KCC's laws. I have never felt the way I've felt over the course of this drama, from developing a strong attachment to Oh Jisoo in the first few episodes to being disgusted with myself & his actions in the last one. The characters are all extremely well written and I enjoyed watching them struggle to conform to the rapidly changing circumstances. The actions & motivations of the four leads are such that you can never truly root for any of them despite either having begun as a favorable character, or become one through their character development. While there are some questions that remain unanswered, the open ending of this drama has me believing that the story is not complete and we will get a 2nd season in which those questions will be answered. In all, the plot will have your brain running a mile a minute, thinking of theories and motivations for days after completing it.

I have never been good at telling good & bad acting apart, but judging by the way the lead four, especially Gyuri & Jisoo made me feel, I think their acting is nothing short of amazing, especially Kim Dong-hees's. He portrayed such strong emotion, especially anxiety, that I felt my stomach bunch up into knots while watching him.

The only reason I have given a less than stellar rating to the soundtrack is because, while it was good, it wasn't all that memorable. I watched this drama a few months ago and yet when listening to the soundtrack I fail to place what scenes the songs were used for. On top of that, I felt like the theme song was kind of cliche. To me it felt like the stereotypical theme song for a dark, crime drama rather than being one that really mirrored this story. To be honest though, this drama was so good that even a less than perfect soundtrack did not detract from it. Like I said before, the plot is so entrancing that you will barely register the soundtrack. Perhaps that's what happened with me.

Rewatch value-wise, I gave it a lower score not because I would not enjoy rewatching, but because this is the type of drama you can only truly experience once. It is riddled with plot-twists that leave you gasping for air, akin to Parasite, and I just do not feel like you can re-experience the same feelings while rewatching it because you know what will happen next which is absolutely essential for this drama. With that being said, if there was ever a device invented that let you wipe shows from your memory, I would be first in line so that I could watch this for the first time again. I am planning to rewatch it with my friend soon, so who knows, I might feel different about it then.

TL;DR: Absolutely amazing drama, will have your emotions running high. Must Watch.

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From the trailer I assumed it would be a typical drama about genius main protagonist who develops an amazing app and together with his friends he is trying to make money from it. It was so much more different from my expectations. The first episode left in shocked and I have binged watched the whole series in about 2 days. This drama follows four high school students and their struggles. Our main protagonist who seems to be a goody-shoe from the beginning turns out to have a complex personality. Despite receiving a large amount of hate due to his acting in Itaewon class when his character turned to be a "villain" Kim Donghee has shown us, that he is a very capable of playing a villain.
Throughout the drama I have loved and hated every character. From the beginning I truly rooted for Oh Jisoo despite the fact that he was actually a "pimp". Through his background I could see where he was coming from and why he chose to be involved in such unethical business. However as I continued watching, I found it more difficult to understand his choices and couldn't of his actions.
Bae Gyuri's struggles come from her parents who hold high expectations therefore they pressure her into being an ideal daughter. Her stress and unwillingness to live is invisible to her parents. She joined hands with Oh Jisoo thinking that she could escape for her life. In my opinion those two are very toxic for each other, but at the same time they both rely on each other to make it through another day.
The remaining two characters who were a couple - Seo Minhee and Kwak Kitae I found the most annoying and least relatable. With Seo Minhee I found her at certain point a pitiful character. Despite being surrounded by her friends and having a boyfriend, she is very lonely. No one actually cares about her. This is why she was so attached to Mr. Lee, because in her mind he was the only one who actually cared about her. However I found it very ridiculous that she sold herself to buy her boyfriend expensive gifts. Her boyfriend was even bigger trash for playing dumb even though he knew about it. I felt very frustrated to see her and her boyfriend being angry at Oh Jisoo after finding out that he was the "pimp". The business was all consensual and it wasn't like he forced her to do anything, so why getting angry. The boyfriend knew about it but he chose to stay silent and enjoy the expensive gifts from his girlfriend. Obviously in the end Jisoo's behavior when Minhee found out was unnecessary and at that point I didn't root for anyone anymore.

The drama is very dark and not suitable for those who are looking for lighthearted school drama with romance. It shows the dark side of the students and their shady businesses. This drama makes it very hard for you to root for a certain character because each character has flaws. A lot of people are expecting a season 2 for Extracurricular, but honestly I don't want it. I am content with such open ending and I don't think it is necessary to have another season. However if there is a second season I will definitely watch it.

ps: I'm deducting one point from the ost because it doesn't have an official release. I love the opening song and I wish the production team would release it.

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Worth watching

Ok so first of all I have to begin by saying that 'Extracurricular' is actually one of the 2 kdramas I've finished watching. Yeah that's true I've only watched 2 kdramas this one and 'Are You Human?'. I'm that kind of person that starts watching or doing something and the next 5-10 minutes gets bored and moves on to the next interesting thing to do. I think I began watching at least 40 kdramas (and cdramas too) to put it mildly. I mean, it's not like all of them are boring or something, some of them are the most popular ones, some of them are the genres I'm looking for like mystery or crime or supernatural or sci-fi and again it's not like all of them have bad plot or bad actors or some cliche storyline. It's just me that gets easily bored. Like you have no idea how easily bored I can get at doing almost anything. OK maybe some of them I've watched only like 1-2 episodes or just a half of the first episode but a big part of them I've watched a substantial amount of episodes like 5-6 maybe even 8-9 (lmao) and a few of them I can say proudly that I've almost finished them almost (lmao) like I've got only 1-2 episodes left to watch, but the big majority yes I didn't even start them properly like only 1 episode or something.
There are so many reasons for all this kdramas dropping of mine like I didn't really like the female lead or the male lead or both of them or sometimes one of the support roles yes I know they don't appear that much that's why they are called support roles but if I don't like someone it means I don't like that person (lmao) or maybe the storyline was too boring or too cliche or maybe it was meant to be a supernatural drama but the supernatural part was only 1-2% of the whole thing or I didn't like the acting of someone or they were talking too much yes it could happen lmao so to sum up I rarely rarely extremely rarely find a good drama that could satisfy my short attention span and believe me my short attention span is like really short. If nothing interesting happens or at least if it would give me a sign that something unexpected is going to happen in the next 30 minutes or at least in the next episode that's a big no no for me. I'm just going to stop and move on to the next kdrama.
So in other words if that kdrama doesn't have at least one moment that could catch my attention per episode and to make me want to go on with the series watch the next episode and see what happens then that's just a no no. I don't know about you guys but if that drama ain't good enough for me to watch if I already know how it's going to end because again cliche storylines are everywhere even if the actors are some big names then it just ain't worth my time. And believe me I wasted a looot of time trying to figure out if that drama is going to be a good one or just a flop. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say that if someone says that kdrama is bad don't waste your time on watching it it doesn't necessarily mean that if that person didn't like it you are not going to like either. You don't have to take someone's opinion so seriously like you can read other viewers' opinions but you don't have to listen to them. Like believe me I've read people's opinions that were saying that some kdrama was sooo good but after I've watched a few episodes it was just a flop or some other kdrama is really bad and ain't worth watching it but after I've watched a few episodes I realized that it was pretty good and I might actually finish it (yes I've got some good kdramas in mind that I would really like to finish them besides the 2 I've mentioned above lmao).
So what I want to say is you don't have to care so much about other people's opinions if you want to watch a kdrama and you read some bad reviews about it or you see that it got a low score don't get discouraged just try watching it and maybe you like it and the same for the popular dramas. Even if it's really popular it got a lot of reviews and everyone's saying that it's really good and they really enjoyed it it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to like it too of course you can try watching it but believe me I've tried some of the 'popular' kdramas and in my opinion they ain't worth their popularity but again that's only my opinion.
OK so enough with my blabbering and back to the review I just wanted to let you know guys that I'm very very picky when it comes to kdramas so if you see me writing a review about a drama that I've actually finished well that's not something very common I could actually say that's pretty unusual lmao
So to finish this review all I want to say that this kdrama is worth your time and you should give it a try.
OK I just realized that maybe I've used to many 'so' LMAO
So just watch 'Extracurricular' cause it's good. Believe me, I've dropped a looot of kdramas.
OK maybe you wander why I'm telling you guys that this kdrama is so good that I didn't drop it but I gave the re-watch value a 1... Well that's because I don't re-watch like never ever. I mean I barely watch 2-3 episodes of a kdrama how could I re-watch it? Lmao
So just watch this one. It's gooood

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made an account just to write a review on this drama. initially started it because i heard pretty good things about it, but the show is just frustrating and poorly written. the characters are portrayed a certain way, then act in a way that contradicts themselves. no one is likable, and everything is extremely annoying and unnatural. i don’t even know how to describe something as bad as this, i literally wanted to transport myself into the drama just so i could beat everyone up (especially that rich girl that decides that messing with serious matters is a game, like literally why. for what reason was that necessary). anyways, just don’t bother with this show and watch something else.

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So I put the spoiler tag. To make it short: The series is well done. From the very beginning it's obvious that this is really good. Good actors, good script, good dialogues, good production. Still it took me 2 episodes to get hooked, but then I was REALLY hooked. It got better and better - until the last two episodes which I didn't like at all. So my issues with the series: The character were not likable and the plot became strange at the end. Gyu-Ri was so sassy and cool, wasn't she? The girl messed up everything. If you think about it, the moment she got her hands on the Ji-soo's phone sh*t happened. All the blood that was shed was because of a new client she scouted. She didn't do it on purpose and it really looked like she was in love with Ji-soo and she later proved how far she was willing to go to save him, but still. The girl messed up EVERYTHING. I was constantly thinking *Just let the man do his business*. But the man became a wimp later on. The only character I was rooting for was Mr. Lee. And then he died. And then he didn't. And I'm not a fan of that kind of plot where a characters comes back just to die again. I liked Min Hee mostly because she was friends with Mr. Lee. But otherwise she was not very likable either. The main character had a very questionable personality to begin with. I mean, if you do that kind of business you sure are shady! But he proved that he was willing to risk his life to save Min Hee (he tried to hold back the bad guys so she and Mr. Lee could escape), just to let her die an episode later. It just made no sense. I don't know if you can call that "character development" or bad writing. The end felt strange to me. Like it was the end of a season and not the end of a series. I enjoy an open end if it's well done, but here it makes no sense. We don't know if Min Hee will live, die or survive with brain damage, we don't know if Ji-soo survived or not, we don't even know if Mr. Lee survived. The police officer never said clearly that he was dead. Everything was resolved more or less, but we don't know what happened to the characters. That was left completely open. So yeah, objectively speaking this series was very well done, very suspenseful (I had to hold my breath several times and binge-watched it in 2 days), but subjectively speaking I don't like the end, I don't like the characters, and I was in general very disappointed. So I'm conflicted about the rating. It's too good to rate it lower than 9, but I wished for a different end. I wished for the main character to die, honestly. I didn't hate him, but I thought his death would have been a better closure. I saw rumors about a season 2, so the end would make more sense considering there will be a continuation. Still I wonder how this season will look like. Ji-soo and Gyu-Ri have to flee, leave the country maybe, will we see new characters and a completely new story? Nothing is confirmed at this point, so well, whatever.

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Didn't expect much - Got near perfection

I didn't expect much from Extracurricular, but my oh my did it deliver way way way more than I ever imagined. I think what made me take to this drama was how relatable the ML was to myself. Of course I'm not a criminal, but from the personality/character it was like I was looking into a mirror. A unique and well thought out story was a great thing to see too, with all characters being truly developed throughout.

I also love how it implied the romance without really having much romance. I would also love a second season, but to be fair, I always say this. Maybe I need to be less greedy.

Haha. All in all though, a must watch!

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