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Hierarchy finds strange things are afoot at Jooshin High School, and any attempt to spill the beans is met with the smack of firm government.
This mostly feels like watching the posh kids in Beverly Hills 90210, with the over-privileged ‘plastics’ being at the top of the tree, such as Hera (Ji Hye-Won) beating her boyfriend in a Formula 1-style race, as if either of them have a chance of giving Max Verstappen a run for his money.
But there’s a new kid who’s not so privileged, Kang ha (Lee Chae-Min), who had to get a scholarship to be there. Instantly, I could see all the girls are in love with him, including Jae-i (No Jeong-ee, above) – basically, the Kelly Taylor of the group and who’s fit but she knows it, but I think if she cracked a smile, her face would break!
Meanwhile, all the male students, including school jock Kim Ri-an (Kim Jae-Won), treat him with disdain, because most other kids at school are massive arseholes. In fact, everyone plays a game of one-upmanship, which is how some kids were back then, and which always led to me just ignoring those morons and doing my own thing.
Additionally, while Ha’s done nothing wrong, at one point, one of them wants to “teach him a lesson he’ll never forget” – when he’s done NOTHING WRONG! Give your head a wobble, fella!
In another scene, one lad puts his jacket on Jae-i because it’s bucketing down and he doesn’t want her to catch a cold… even though it’s little more than a light jacket, and will make absolute zip-all difference to the fact she’s getting soaked to the skin.
Elsewhere in the plot, when one character gets on the back of Kang-Ha’s bike, they sit side-saddle. Surely, it would be much safer to be seated the normal way someone is on a bike? I kept thinking she was going to fall off, apart for the dialogue scenes when they were obviously on a low-loader that did all the driving as they were filmed.
So far, I’ve seen the first two episodes, and there is a plot point that’s drip-fed to you, and so I won’t reveal here, but it does feel very slow going and dragged out, because too often, it reverts to coming across like a music video, with lots of slo-mo panning shots as soft-pop plays.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
Hierarchy is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from June 7th.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 55-65 minutes per episode (7 episodes)
Release date: June 7th 2024
Studio: Netflix
Format: 2.39:1
Director: Bae Hyeon-jin
Writers: Hye Lim Chu, Bae Hyeon Jin
Music: Kim Tae-seong
Cast:
Jeong Jae-i: No Jeong-ee
Lee Woo-jin: Lee Won-jung
Kim Ri-an: Kim Jae-Won
Kang ha: Lee Chae-Min
Yoon He-ra: Ji Hye-Won
Choi Yoon-seok: Kim Tae-Jung
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.