A Lição Parte 2 (2023)

Sweet Sweet Revenge!

One woman's revenge against her high school bullies. Every time she took one of them down, it was entertaining.

I loved it! A good show connects you to the cause of the victim and that's exactly what The Glory did. The show also evokes a lot of emotions. Anger, tears, joy, delight, shock, fear, and more. It has everything you can ask for in a revenge thriller! Just one warning - part 2 contains frontal female nudity. It's brief but was unexpected.

I have to say, that when I first saw the trailer for part 2, I was worried that this will be a torturous journey for the female lead but for the most part, things panned out pretty well. I loved the variety in the revenge for each of them as well. And for some it was unexpected but a well-deserved fate.

Moon Dong Eun emoted so well especially the moments when you see her in her raw/weak moments. I felt the same way in the first season. Again her younger counterpart portrayed her helplessness beautifully. I just wanted to hug her in some of those moments. I felt her anguish. And I was happy she formed alliances who were there to support her now.

Lee De Hyun as Joo Yeo Jung was a delight. I smiled every time he was on screen. Who wouldn't want someone like him as their supporter/executioner. I enjoyed his chemistry with Doon Eun and do wish there was a bit more. But then this isn't a romance drama so I'll take what I can get.

Kang Hyun Nam is another delightful character. Her situation is like that of many women in domestic abuse cases who have no option and stay for the safety of their children. I especially loved it when she finally cussed him out at the end as well as her last interaction with Yeon Jin when she gave her a taste of her own medicine. I laughed out loud.

Park Yeon Jin was definitely the crazy character that made this show worth it. Yet again I have to give it to Shin Ye Eun's scarier performance as the bully. Im Ji Yeon did well too but at times she felt weak. Considering everything, she seemed to get the lightest punishment as she still had zero regrets.

The show was a fantastic binge watch. Perhaps the only thing that could have been better was if Dong Eun physically beat them up. She didn't have to. I just like female characters who can fight well and I love action scenes.

The ending may seem like an open-ending but it's just left some things to the imagination. Though I wouldn't mind another season focused on that.

I would definitely recommend both parts to be seen in sequence as that's how it was originally meant to be. The second part definitely has the meat of the revenge plot.

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Messy and Misguided

What I find most problematic in this drama is its main premise -- that trauma could only be healed through revenge -- by inflicting the same of even greater pain to those who cause you pain. This shows how immature and misguided the writers of this show are. I am not in any way saying bullying or abuse should be tolerated. Not at all. But I was expecting some sort of breakthrough -- maybe an insight into the workings of the human ego and psychopathy, and realizing how carrying the burden of hate actually makes the initial suffering inflicted that much worse. I would have expected the main character to realize somewhere along the way that forgiveness and letting go -- through compassion and being the bigger, noble person -- is the true path to healing and being free from all the anger. Instead, revenge is offered, from start to finish, as the ultimate solution.

And it's not like that revenge is executed as brilliantly as I initially expected. The plot is messy, uninspired, and unfulfilling. There are so many loose threads half-baked explanations, and deus ex machina-type plot devices employed that the narrative is left confusing, unsatisfying, and full of holes. For instance, when Moon Dong-eun was about to jump off that rooftop in that abandoned building, Yeo-jeong's mother suddenly appears out of nowhere to appeal to her to keep on living in order to save her son (through helping him seek revenge, of course).

I also didn't like that they had to unnecessarily turn Do-Young into a murderer in the end. What was all that disgust for Yeon-jin, all that righteous indignation, if he was going to do something equally dastardly? And again, he happened to be right there, and Jae-joon happened to somehow wander up towards the top of a building/factory, when he couldn't see. If I couldn't see, I would not even risk climbing up a set of steps. And Do-Young had been a sort of pillar of morality throughout the drama, and they suddenly had to ruin his character by turning him into a murdered just like his wife.

I also felt bad for the ahjumma that helped the FL carry out her surveillance operations. We do not even see her get reunited or at least reestablish contact with her daughter, when her husband was dead and Yeon-jin was in jail. What was keeping her from following her daughter? Dong-eun wasn't even able to fulfill her part of the bargain of killing her husband. Could she not give the poor woman money to follow her daughter?

None of this makes for a brilliant plot or a truly layered story. I didn't feel that I learned anything useful or that this story enriched me in any way. And did I mention that the love story angle was so forced an unnatural? Zero chemistry between the leads. What an utter waste of time this was.

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What an amazing moment I spent watching this drama...

Unless three dramas I've completed, I've been in a kdrama slump for years... I then tried to give a go to The Glory since it was the first time Song Hyekyo acted in such drama and the trailer was interesting. I am not regretting this AT ALL!! I'm so glad I chose to watch it since the ending was perfect to me. The drama was well-structured and there aren't any major plotholes like we can encounter in most dramas. I'm so glad that I was finally watching a drama with a decent ending. Good job to everybody, from the screenwriter to the actors who did an amazing job making this project an amazing one.

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Good Enough

Korean Drama " The Glory Season 2 " is the continuation of the revenge melodrama, giving the conclusion to the story.

And even though there were a lot of things happening, as the main villains started fighting back, providing some resistance to the revenge plan, the drama got messy and even, at some points, boring. They opted to focus on the romance, which was its weakest point, especially since it messed with the mood of the drama and the leads' chemistry wasn't strong enough to support it. At least, it aided to the character development of the main lead and gave her some breathing space to be more humane and less miserable.

The performances, finally, were, just like in the first season, great by everyone in the cast.

So, overall, five out of ten.

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Riveting to Watch, but Intentionally Amoral (Morally Grey)

I stayed up to watch part 2 of The Glory the moment the clock hit 3:00 am and boy, was it a Journey.

The Glory (pt. 2) is meant to be a completely satisfying revenge story between a victim against her abuser and we somewhat know the story’s end from its beginning. From part 1 we know of our female lead’s tenacity and dedication towards getting her resolute end, we just aren’t quite sure how things will unravel.

The Glory in many ways feels like sort of a revenge expose to its audience as well. I got this feeling that any audience member who had ever bullied a person in the past would think of their own victims while watching it. It felt like it was pointing a finger to the audience saying, “I know what you’ve done, and I’m coming for you.”

Ultimately, The Glory pt. 2 continues from its first part to serve as an extremely slow burn revenge story. It was like Dong Eun was metaphorically thrusting a knife very slowly into her abusers, perhaps paralleling the slow torture she faced as a child by these abusers. Like the game of “Go,” She takes territory from her enemies little by little. They are aware of her plays yet completely helpless against her overall strategy.

What is interesting is that even as we witness this metaphorical knife penetrate deeper and deeper, we aren’t given a very clear sense of what revenge looks like “in real life.” What does it look like to “win” in revenge? The police system was portrayed as incompetent at best and corrupt at average. Every opportunity to rectify the violence inflicted upon victims through “formal” channels was obsolete. The worst thing about this concept of ineffective justice pipelines is that they are inconsistently applied and often feel as though the greatest effort of “the law” doesn’t truly bring justice for those whom need it the most.


My Thoughts on The Glory’s Philosophy:
I personally don’t particularly agree with The Glory’s philosophy of direct retribution carefully planned out in a way that consumes one’s own existence. I also found it difficult to stomach that revenge was Dong Eun’s entire heart. What is most unfortunate of all, though, is the fact that if Dong Eun did not become the executor of revenge, there is little clear path as to how any form of legal justice would be served against said abusers. Again, the Glory left me with the question “what does true revenge look like?”



SPOILERS FROM HERE ON BELOW:

My Thoughts on the State of the Abusers Pre-Revenge:
Something I thought was particularly significant about the set-up of the story is in how Dong Eun views Yeon Jin by way of her brand image rather than her reality. Yeon Jin appears to have things set out pretty well for her, but in reality: Yeon Jin appears to have a college degree yet no knowledge on a field she actually enjoys working in. She’s so incompetent that she has to have her husband pay multiple times her salary to keep her job—she isn’t good at her job because she didn’t study hard, which is entirely her own fault. She supposedly has a pretty decent husband yet cheats on him. She would literally be nothing without the looks and money she inherited from her parents, but on her own she has nothing.

What’s worst is that I think Yeon Jin is aware of her own pathetic-ness, but chooses to hide behind money and a pitifully mean personality. If others don’t bow down to her she can’t distinguish herself as being at the top because she knows that without money and fake-pride, she is nothing. Yeon Jin’s only real pride and joy is her daughter, yet she fails at this, too, by literally falsifying circumstances surrounding her birth father. She seeks atonement through her daughters eyes, not through actually atoning in her actions. Most of all, she fails her daughter almost automatically by way of being an inherently unrepentant person.

Even though the reality is that all Dong Eun’s abusers are pitiful people at best, how could this thought be of “comfort” to her in the midst of exceptionally deep longstanding pain. This kept bringing up the question for me as to “what does true revenge look like?” And “could there have been another way?”



On Repentance and Forgiveness:
I think The Glory did a decent job at acknowledging that revenge didn’t fulfil any life meaning for Dong Eun, yet it also somewhat backtracked on this premise by rededicating her life to a new purpose— which is helping her BAE to get revenge, too. To me, this journey of healing in Dong Eun’s life still feels incomplete and especially incomplete without her love interest, which I find dangerous in their specific dependance on one another rooted in revenge. I don’t think revenge is all there is to their relationship, yet it almost feels like their love is majorly sidelined because revenge is the priority. It's the concept that revenge is meaningful enough, but not love on it own. This feels like a dangerous concept.

Most of all forgiveness, which is usually more about the victims inner healing rather than the abusers, was completely absent from the Glory. This made our protagonists journeys feel even more incomplete because inner healing was deemed as impossible without revenge. This facet of the story felt pretty one dimensional for me, but then again, I am a Christian and therefore believe in the fruits that forgiveness and repentance bears. It appears as though Dong Eun was 'merely' matching up evils against evils, but in reality she took on the role of a wicked person herself in order to gain physical justice she could bear witness to. I thought of this in particular when she "tempts" Hye Jeong with the opportunity to permanently blind Jae Joon. Yes Hye Jeong took the "temptation" but Dong Eun was the tempter to begin with. This was a theme constantly repeated throughout the show.


Vengeance Fulfilled? (story ending spoiler):
One scene that I thought was particularly revealing was when both Yeon Jin and her mother were in prison they cross each other’s paths. It felt like the truth of the revenge story became exacerbated in that scene— Yeon Jin’s mother wasn’t actually sorry for committing murder and neither was Yeon Jin sorry for committing two murders. Yeon Jin’s mother hardly even glanced in her direction, offered her no apologies or desire to restore their relationship. Yeon Jin’s abandonment was made complete in that scene, but so was Yeon Jin’s mother’s formal abandonment of her rights as a mother. Rather than that scene having anything to do with Dong Eun, however, it felt clarifying to see the effect that amoral parenting can have on replicating amorality in children. It also felt like a powerful testimony in making different choices than our environments sometimes negatively influence.

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Just delightful pice

As a person that was bullied in school, this drama was hard to watch for me. But I'm so so happy I tried. The first part was... A rollercoaster at least. It was brutal, hard to watch, and taking all your guts out, as it should. Bullying isn't pretty, isn't anything but disgusting. And this drama shows it in the best possible way.
I was sad in the first part, how little screen time Do Hyun had, but the second part made it up for me. Even if I hate adding romance to this kind of drama, in this one it was perfectly made, not too much, not too little, just right. I was waiting for the kiss, and they gave me just what I wanted in the best way.
And I wouldn't be myself if I didn't say anything about the music. I can't find words for how good it is. It gives the cherry on top to this piece.

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Based on a true story…

I’d like to remind everyone watching that this whole show is based on a real case. So if you think it goes “overboard” in any way, remember that a real woman lived through that curling iron horror.
That said… I think of the show as a whole, so instead of comparing the 2 seasons, I’ll be putting them together.
The FL’s revenge is near-perfect in its execution. Yes, she gets help from other people, but honestly she’s been alone for far too long. Also, it’s not as if everyone in the world is a psychopath without empathy, so of course normal/decent people will want to help her. The story unfolds very well, and I especially like how the other characters cause each others doom. It was set-up quite obviously if you watch the 2 seasons together. They were never real friends, always felt jealousy/anger towards each other. So it makes a lot of sense for them to turn on the next person. For Sa-ra, she was in withdrawal after not getting her drugs. For Yeon Jin’s mother, she was always that selfish and uncaring. They stayed true to all characterizations.
Shoutout to all the actors playing antagonists, they did an excellent job of making us hate them!
For our main leads, I love that the FL has hope and joy in her life finally! The ML’s storyline was kind of pointless, they should’ve just given background and left it at that. No need to show his detailed revenge as well. Honestly, I notice the same negative comments here that are on every kdrama with older actress/younger actor. Don’t pay any attention to those hypocrites I’d say. They love to watch shows where FL is younger and acts 5 with older mature MLs, but if you flip it they suddenly can’t “see the chemistry” anymore. Funny how that always happens in all such shows huh. For me, I liked both main male characters, they were amazing, and whoever the FL chooses is good for her!
Lastly -1 for the overdrawn plot. They keep stretching it to the point where I have to forwarded the unnecessary scenes. That could’ve been avoided, but overall one of the most satisfying revenge dramas out there!

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Top tier revenge drama

I really loved this and watched the entire thing (parts 1 and 2) in a weekend. It’s a truly fantastic revenge drama that delivers on everything you want from the genre - the inciting incidents are brutal enough to put you firmly on the side of vengeance, the villains are interesting and insidiously evil enough to make their eventual comeuppance satisfying, the reveals are well-paced and add new layers of nuance, the plot reaches a solid conclusion that feels right, and they even manage to make a romance work amongst the carnage.

One of my favorite things about the story is how openly the revenge game is played. Dong Eun tells them all along that she will make them pay for what they did to her, warning them over and over again that she’s serious and she has put the time in to get what she needs to ruin their lives, and even gives them additional chances to atone and confess on their own before she puts things in motion. And she never resorts to committing any horrific violence herself. Every single person who stands to lose something was given fair warning and it’s their own hubris and defiant belief that they can get away with anything they please that ultimately brings them down. That’s just extremely satisfying from a storytelling perspective.

There were a few things here and there that were not perfect - some of the coincidences were a bit much and I wasn’t too fond of the subplots with the two male teachers - but those are very minor quibbles. Highly recommended and great for a binge watch.

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Revenge but she kept her hands clean

I really enjoyed the entire show. The writing definitely could've been better. They explain somethings through flashbacks but context is lacking.

Luckily whoever was in casting hit a home run. The acting was a 10. The first half was a slow burn and the second half wasn't much faster. But every single episode the acting was amazing.

I kept thinking to myself where are the police? Why are they only questioning the FL??? Another writing hole.

With how amazing the casting was it could've made the writing look less than. Maybe I'm nitpicking. I still highly recommend if you enjoy a good revenge plot.

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