With teens who have questionable morals, Extracurricular creates a thrilling narrative that mirrors present social issues.
Having good grades may not be enough to ascertain a smooth-sailing life after high school. Guidance and support from reliable adults are also necessary. But without those, students are left to navigate life on their own. Extracurricular reflects on the decisions that today’s youth make in attaining one’s goals in life.
- Main Cast: Kim Dong Hee | Park Ju Hyun | Jung Da Bin | Nam Yoon Su
- Supporting Cast: Choi Min Soo | Park Hyuk Kwon | Kim Yeo Jin | Kim Kwang Gyu | Baek Joo Hee | Im Ki Hong | Park Ho San
- Streaming Site: Netflix
- Thrill/Addictive Meter:
- Overall Rating:
- Rewatch Value:
- Kdramas of Similar Vibe: My Mister | Save Me | Sweet Home | SKY Castle
Marcie Line watched Extracurricular on Netflix
Extracurricular Quick Plot Recap
Living apart from his father, model student Oh Jisoo (Kim Dong Hee) secretly runs an illegal business to support himself with the remote help of his muscleman Mr. Lee (Choi Min Soo). There are no adults that he can rely on, which drives him to earn money on his own. Bae Gyuri (Park Ju Hyun) catches on to Jisoo’s illegal business and includes herself in running the business together despite being rich.
Seo Minhee (Jung Da Bin) gets involved with Jisoo’s business and uses her earnings to buy gifts for her boyfriend Kwak Kitae (Nam Yoon Su), the most popular guy in school. The police start to sense the students’ involvement with illegal activities which urges them to patrol in school.
Extracurricular Series Peak Points
Jisoo’s Dual Life
Oh Jisoo is an ordinary student who appears to live a normal life from afar. He has high grades and no penalty points. Even his homeroom teacher sees the need for him to cause some trouble during high school, but he just does not know that Jisoo has already been causing trouble even without his suggestion. Jisoo runs an illegal business that also integrates a unique technology that calls for protection while prostitutes are at work.
He is not the only student living a dual life as Seo Minhee, who seems to be a typical high school girl with a popular boyfriend, also lives life with the same duality. She is involved with prostitution, and she utilizes the services that Jisoo’s business offers.
Disturbing Reality of the Pressures that Youth Faces
Youth is the focus of this series, and it presents various dimensions of problems that the youth face. Jisoo is a student who focuses on his studies, aiming for a simple and normal path in life. However, the lack of support from his parents causes him to support himself living alone. As he is still a minor, he cannot open a bank account, and his means of earning money is limited.
The pressure of having a good education and success is shown with Jisoo’s goal of entering only the top three universities in their country. Gyuri also faces the suffocating pressure of doing well, but it comes from her parents. Beyond that, Minhee as a teenager also faces peer pressure which may explain her choice of dating the most popular guy in school.
Those pressures in their life led them to choosing risky decisions. With the various events in the series, Extracurricular poses the question to the viewers of what kind of society we are shaping at present.
Thrilling Plot Direction
The plot of Extracurricular is extraordinary as it bravely touches topics that are not usually talked about in other series. Jisoo’s desperation and urgency can be felt outside the screen. He started out as an illegal business running silently, but as a lot of people he knows to get involved, everything gets shaken.
Jisoo’s journey as a minor who gets involved with prostitutes, the mafia, and the police, creates a thrilling experience not only for him but also for the viewers.
Extracurricular Series Musings
Extracurricular is a series crafted creatively headlined by a fresh cast with excellent methods of delivery. Almost every character in the series is two-faced, especially Kim Dong Hee’s character Jisoo. His delivery of Oh Jisoo disguises his desperation with innocence and intelligence.
Park Ju Hyun fits her role as Bae Gyuri who is smart and calculative. Jung Da Bin and Nam Yoon Su have also successfully portrayed their characters who are top dogs at high school.
Living with no adult guidance must be attractive to some as it enables one to be free from following a life dictated by one’s parents. However, Jisoo’s life just shows how parental warmth and support are still necessary especially to minors. His father is still alive, yet this father of Jisoo embodies the whole of selfish and irresponsible adults who exploit their children.
On the other hand, we see Gyuri who has both parents but still leads a life that is involved with crime. Similar to Jisoo, Gyuri performs well in school, but both of them engage in activities that put their lives at risk. Their parents show the polar extremes of parenting, which are unhealthy to guiding adolescents away from crime.
The main characters of the series appear to have complex minds even as teenagers. Jisoo and Gyuri are characters who are very strategic and prudent, but as viewers, we are reminded of their twisted morals. Jisoo, who wishes to live an ordinary life, stains his records, and it is saddening to realize how those can be avoided if he had not been surrounded by selfish adults.
To some degree, adults in the series are responsible for the activities that minors engage in. However, that fact does not wash the hands of the students who involved themselves with a crime. Jisoo, Gyuri, Minhee, and Kitae are also responsible for their choices as teenagers.
Given the ending scene of the finale, viewers are left to wonder whether Jisoo and Gyuri successfully escaped. Personally, with that kind of ending, I await for a second season hoping to see more of Jisoo’s extracurricular activity.
Watch Extracurricular on Netflix.
Photos: Netflix
[wpedon id=”3227″ align=”center”]
