Teach You A Lesson Review
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- 6 min read
As much as I love seeing bullies and bad people get hit, I expected this drama to be a bit more realistic.
Note that this drama has been adapted from the webtoon "Get Schooled". It never came on my radar, so this is an opinion completely separate from it.
What is your opinion on "Teach You a Lesson"?
"Mr. Plankton", "Her Private Life" and more great dramas were directed by Hong Jong Chan, and I'm happy to say that "Teach You a Lesson" is no different from those.
It was perfectly filmed, and not even a moment was left to get bored.
The fighting scenes are some of the best. There are a lot of those, but it didn't feel repetitive; for example, there was one scene where they fought in the water. Did it make sense? Not really, because it wasn't even raining, but it was absolutely entertaining.
Screenwriter Lee Nam Gyu always surprises me.
It's either I end up loving his dramas or feeling very meh/dropping them. "Teach You a Lesson" is a good example of a drama I really enjoyed, and his writing was great. There are some moments I wish were different, but he created lovable characters and a storyline that is somewhat based on true events.
In serious moments, they weren't afraid to put in some comedy, and it worked. The characters never took themselves too seriously, and in a way it was charming.
Where else can I see a man say he's sweating red while actually bleeding profusely?
One of the things that could've been better is not casting 30-year-olds in high schooler roles. It's a bit more understandable in that mechanic school because they were there to look really tough, but in some other cases it was a bit too much...
It makes sense if they did it to match the webtoon characters; "Lookism" has this stylisation where high schoolers don't look their age anymore. However, from what I saw, it's not really the case.
Directing: 9.5/10
School teachers have a hard time disciplining students, and they often don’t even have the will to do so. The authority of the teachers in the classroom breaks down, and this causes serious social issues.
With the passage of the law, a new government organisation, the Educational Rights Protection Bureau, is formed. Na Hwa Jin's team is sent to different problem schools as supervisors. There, they can educate the students without any restrictions or limitations. (MyDramaList)
Spoiler Free Review:
If you're against violence, this drama is not for you.
"Teach You a Lesson" focuses on students who are troubled, victims, and, of course, teachers. They're trying to better the system, and on one hand, it seems to be working.
They help the victims, and the stories that we see are very heartfelt. As the viewer, it's easy to root for the ERPB team the whole time. On the other hand, some stories were a bit too focused on violence rather than redemption and helping someone.
While all the serious things are happening, the drama doesn't shy away from more comedic portrayals of its characters and interesting relationships, such as father/son-in-law, mentor, and a bit of romance.
However, it still left me wanting a bit more.
For example, a story or two about how the characters became who they were, and some explanations of their healing. The drama focuses more on the cases than individual people, but it would be nice to know the characters better.
Let's move into the spoilers part...
Overall: 8.5/10
The start was very strong: it laid out the purpose of ERPB and what they want to do. We already have characters to root for and look forward to how they're going to deal with different cases.
As someone on MyDramaList described it, it's like a "Taxi Driver" for students.
A lot of cases in "Teach You a Lesson" were based on things that happened in South Korea (though the circumstances changed, we get the main idea). For example, a student stabbing his teacher, ADHD prescriptions used as medicine to focus, a kindergarten teacher being bullied by the parents and more.
It again shed light on the terrible things happening in the school system, starting with kindergarten.
However, as much as it brought discussions and showcased the realities of the system, ERPB didn't always have the right answer to the problem.
Maybe this reflects the director and screenwriter's age, where we think beating kids will work wonders, but some scenes left a bad taste in my mouth, or maybe they just wanted to stay close to the webtoon.
The episode where the student lied about the teacher sexually harassing her, and another teacher came into the play. Wrong accusations were posted about the second teacher too. It was sad to watch how she loses self-esteem and gets scared to say anything to her students.
However, her breakthrough is telling a student to answer the problem, and if she doesn't, she gets hit. It was shown as a hard thing for the teacher too, but it neglects the fact that things can change without hitting someone.
The teacher could have said that nobody moves until the girl solves the problem, even after the bell. Or start punishing with some kind of demerits that will impact the students.
Sometimes you need a bit more creativity rather that use violence against the kids to better them.
This was my biggest gripe in the drama, and if they did the second season, it would be nice to see them focusing on different methods. We saw that they can do that in the episode where the mother, as a punishment, had to study for the test to see the son.
"Teach You a Lesson" was coming to an end. However, there were still so many things unanswered. Especially, the story with Hea Jin's wife's killer felt a bit rushed, but they managed to wrap it up nicely.
The politician story was mainly used as a plot device, but it left me questioning why his arrest was brushed off and why nobody really cared about it.
ERPB had created the community by helping out in different schools, and I loved that they never forgot that. The characters from previous episodes were mentioned and even got some screen time. Those moments were heartwarming to watch.
If a second season comes out, I would love to watch it, as there are still a lot of stories to tell.
Storyline: 8/10
Another great thing about the drama was watching the friendship grow between all the leads.
Minister and Na Hwa Jin previously knew each other because of his daughter, and their father/son-in-law relationship was everything to look forward to. The way they interacted felt so natural and endearing. Especially after such a hard time they endured together.
Im Han Rim was adorable in this drama; the way she talked and acted just made me realise even more how much I liked actress Jin Ki Joo.
Her character growth was impressive; the way she grew into this strong young woman, and this mentor relationship with Na Hwa Jin was heartwarming to watch.
My only issue with her is how she came from a place where she got bullied and beaten up for helping someone. But suddenly, years later, when she has to act like a victim, she doesn't remember this feeling at all. The whole thing sounded so traumatic, but we never see how much it affected her throughout her life; it only served the purpose of Hwa Jin and her meeting.
Bong Geun Dae is the nerd in the group, and you can clearly see it from the very first episode.
We only saw snippets of how he was actually at school, whenever he would help the bullied kid out, but I don't think we ever got to know his backstory well. However, he grew a lot in the drama, and ERPB helped him become more confident and whine less about the extra work (though this isn't that good; we all need work-life balance).
Also, the romance between Han Rim and Geun Dae was very cute and funny to watch, especially with Hwa Jin's teasing in the background.
As for the other characters, they did well in their roles, but there was nothing that stood out for me that much. The teachers had their own backstories, which was nice to see. However, I would have loved to get to know some of the students a bit more and how they became these troubled kids.
Characters: 8/10
"Teach You a Lesson" has interesting choices for the soundtrack, and it's not always that memorable. It only had three original songs.
For example, "First and Last" was great, and I could imagine the scenes that this song was played in. It helped to create the atmosphere. However, I didn't even notice when the song changed to "Fade Into Forever" by Im Joongwon.
The songs that weren't originally created for the drama felt more fitting and memorable. Maybe because the drama had a lot of fighting scenes where it played "Hunt You Down" by Lee Richardson and others, but I immediately knew where it was from.
Wah Wah Wah "Chihuaha" also worked well on some of the scenes of the drama, especially the instrumental part of it.
Music: 6/10
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