The message of the Extracurricular becomes clearly evident for viewers over the course of the show ; South-Korean society can become a “ dog-eat-dog” world if individuals are impoverished, or if they do not match-up to the expectations of being “ successful ”( succeeding in school, being rich , going to university and getting a good job), and none so are these pressures more apparent than for our main protagonist, Ji Soo.

Kim Dong Hee ( Itaewon Class , SKY Castle) ventures once again into another South-Korean social critique as the high schooler Ji Soo; a model-student who soon falls from grace when he becomes involved in illicit after - school activities in order to attend and pay for his fees to go to University .

Directed by Kim Min Jin ( Time Between Dog and Wolf, Lawless Lawyer) and written by screenwriter Jin Han Sae ( Irish Uppercut) , Extracurricular undeniably addresses many realistic issues typically glossed over by mainstream South-Korean high school dramas; delinquency, prostitution, violence, the poverty gap, crime and academic stereotypes, are refreshingly neither “played down” nor ignored over the course of the series.

Nevertheless, despite its realistic topicalities and issues, Extracurricular was severely flawed by its characters, plot inconsistencies and overarching storyline as well.

Whilst it is hard to really fault any of our main cast within their performances, the character progression around many of our main protagonists was fairly lacklustre to say the least. By default, Ji Soo should have been an intriguing protagonist; hardworking, impoverished, a tragic past and who becomes a victim of the forced social pressures in order to “ succeed” by partaking in numerous shady crimes. However, in reality, there were few prominent or truly captivating traits or elements present within Ji Soo as a character. Although he arguably had some form of strength within wanting to survive in a cruel world, his impassivity at key moments often made him hard to feel any strong sentiments towards as an individual.

Arguably our female main lead Gyu Ri ( Park Joo Hyun) had some elements such as coming from a well-to-do family , holding a nasty grudge against them and her mysterious reasons for getting close to Ji Soo which made her a more intriguing character than our male lead. On the other hand similar to Ji Soo, Gyu Ri lacked a lot of character depth during key moments, making it hard to hard understand both her initial enmity towards her parents as well as exactly how she became so interested in Ji Soo in the first place. Similarly, the second leads of the series, school bullies Min Hee ( Jung Da Bin) and Ki Tae ( Nam Yoon Su) were undeniably intriguing characters, however, their lack of emotional depth and backstory often made them feel more like “ stock” leads simply used as plot devices, rather than actually intriguing individuals.

To summarise, it’s fair to say that the series Extracurricular, isn’t your run-of-the-mill high school drama; it isn’t afraid from offering a deeper insight into tricky issues, themes and topics, as well as having an intriguing plot, however, a fairly inconsistent ending , several badly-written characters with poor depth and backstories and lacking realism at times, often made this series feel a little lacklustre in comparison to other psychological high school dramas out there. Worth a watch if you’re looking for something to pass the time, but certainly not worth actually investing time towards.