Extracurricular

A journey through the dark world of today's society in the eyes of teenagers.

Name: 인간수업 | Extracurricular

Country: South Korea

Year: 2020

Status: Not set

Episodes: 10 (1 Seasons)

Duration: 60 min

Genre: Drama, Crime, Psychological, School

Synopsis:

The story revolves around the life of three highschool students that get involved in several crimes in order to gain money and the dangerous path they face as a consequence. Oh Ji Soo is an exemplary student that never skips class. Bae Gyu Ri is the daughter of the CEO 's of a famous entertainment company. Seo Min Hee is one of the most popular girls at school and also a bully.

Review

The story begins with the introduction of one of the protagonists, Oh Ji Soo. His teacher states that he is worried about him because, in spite of the excellent grades and being constantly number 1 in the school’s ranking, he lacks goals or dreams. Oh Ji Soo is a very shy and quiet boy, but very focused on his objective: gather up enough money to pay for his studies and life expenses until he is able to get a job. Since he was abandoned by his parents, he needs to fend for himself and doesn’t trust anyone.

As the character is portrayed, it is slowly revealed to us how he manages to survive on his own and have money for the daily expenses. He is the “Uncle”, the head of an organization of paid dates, in which the main goal is to manage the dates between the clients and the escorts, as to the escort’s protection from possible criminal or ill intended clients.

Everything went smoothly until Bae Gyu Ri came into his life to destabilize everything he had built up until the moment.Bae Gyu Ri is a cheerful, extroverted and sociable girl, a good student with exemplary behaviour, however she is suffocated by her parents’ desire for her to always be great at everything so that one day she inherits their entertainment company. Her getting closer to Oh Ji Soo will be a turning point in both of their lives that will lead them towards a painful and filled with complications path.

Seo Min Hee is another student involved in this organization, to keep the popular girl position and get money to buy gifts for her boyfriend, she is one of the escorts for the paid dates.

Her boyfriend, Kwak Ki Tae, is the typical popular guy at school, a bully, always getting himself in trouble and does not care about what the grown ups or other people think.

Still on the topic of characters I can’t not talk about two of the adults that have the most important part in the plot: Jo Jin Woo, the head of the students’ class and teacher from the “Club of Social Problems”, constantly worrying about them and trying to help; and Mr. Lee, one of the members of the dating organization who’s main task is the protection of the escorts from problematic clients.

The story unfolds at an hallucinating pace that leaves the spectator completely stunned with the evolution of the situations that the protagonists face. Without a doubt that this drama was very well elaborated, from the script, with the creation of the characters, to the most technical detail, to the excellent soundtrack.

In my opinion, even though the story is a bit unrealistic, in other words, the possibility of a tennager as head of an organization of this type is unlikely, that thought was something that never came to my head as I watched the episodes. On the contrary, I thought it was quite original, because deep down, the korean society portrayed is very similar to the reality of nowadays’ highschools.

The end of the show, or season, since there is still no confirmation on a second season, does not fall short from the rest of the story. Although there isn’t a major plot twist at the end, what prevails is the accumulation of circumstances that led to that outcome. In my opinion, I wouldn’t change anything, and for that reason, I think that another season might not be necessary. Unfortunately, the series was too good and the 10 episodes felt too few and were quickly watched (laughs).

Whisper of the Heart

Extracurricular approaches themes such as bullying in school, social pressure and abandonment by a parent, but the main focus is a dating organization, or in more harsh words, a prostitution organization. For that reason, I decided to emphasize that topic.

To me, prostitution is something that has been debated for many years now and I support it becoming legal since there is a lot of crime around it due to the lack of laws and regulations on it. And there was and always will be people that choose this type of activity, either temporarily or professionally. For that reason I believe that by legalizing it, we would be able to protect the women and men that have this job by giving them fundamental rights, like any other worker in any company, as well as regulations that must be followed in order to institutionalize this activity and oversee it. Watching this drama made me more confident that this would be a good solution for these problems. I cannot stop mentioning that another matter that fascinated me in the story and that still makes me think. Throughout the episodes and the crimes that are commited, the spectators can’t not root for the students, even when knowing that they are committing crimes, which leads me to think that the line between what’s right or wrong is very thin and fragile, in the same way that not everything is black or white. There are many shades that these cases take on that make us question everything that we believe. It was that feeling that accompanied me while watching this story, as well as many doubts regarding what I would do if I were in the characters’ shoes.

It is, without a doubt, one of the best dramas of 2020, approaching current subjects in our society without filter or shame. It takes us on a rollercoaster through life through the eyes of the teenagers.

I chose this drama to be part of the Ecletic Heart 30 Post Challenge under the topic “A Netflix Series”.

Rating- 🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉🟉 (10)