‘Extracurricular’ Review: A Chaotic Thriller With No One to Root For
A gritty concept executed with the emotional depth of a shrug and the pacing of a fever dream.
Korean Drama Name: 인간수업 (Human Class)
Where To Watch: Netflix ← *Click for direct link*
Average Rating: 8.3/10 (Mydramalist)
My Rating: 1.0/10
One Sentence Description: A story built on illegal operations, trauma, and moral decay — yet delivered with the energy of a half‑finished homework assignment.
Trailer:
Disclaimer: This review is 100% my opinion — I’m not here to hate, just to share my thoughts! Also, SPOILERS AHEAD, so proceed with caution if you haven’t watched yet. Watch it, come back and let’s see if you agree. Let’s keep the discussion respectful and fun! 💕
CONTENT WARNING:I hope you’ve already seen this show and know what the deal is. But in case you don’t, I felt like I should add in a little warning. This show has heavy mentions of sex-work (with underage girls) and abuse. And since this is a review, I do also talk about this (in relation to the show only). Please be aware of that before you continue and be mindful of it. Stay safe ❤️
Simple Description
Extracurricular is about a high school pimp who loses everything because a girl couldn’t mind her business.
⚠️Length Note: This post includes a detailed (and long) story breakdown. Want to skip straight to the review? Jump to the Review
The story begins with a guy digging through a stack of batteries, trying to find ones that work for his taser. We then go back in time and meet Oh Ji Soo, the “perfect” student. While he’s in school thinking about goals and dreams, we’re also shown another storyline of a girl being held captive, bound and gagged. As she desperately presses her electronic bracelet, a man cuts a piece of her hair. He turns around and we meet Mr. Lee, who immediately beats him up. Turns out the girl was sending a distress signal to him.
To make things even crazier, these two storylines intertwine when we realise that Ji Soo is overseeing the entire operation. He communicates with Mr. Lee through a burner phone under the name “Uncle.” Because the girl’s hair was cut, Ji Soo tells Mr. Lee to demand 2 million won (around $1,500) as compensation. The client can only cough up 323,000 won (around $300), which irritates Ji Soo since his ultimate goal is 90 million won (around $80,000).
We’re then introduced to the homeroom teacher, Mr. Cho, who urges Ji Soo to join his club. Noticing that Ji Soo is interested in our female lead, Bae Gyu Ri, Mr. Cho convinces her to join too so that Ji Soo will follow. It works. We also meet Seo Min Hee, who lives with the girl from the opening scene. This immediately raises the question: is she involved in sex work too?
Eventually, Gyu Ri and Ji Soo meet at a café to talk more about the club, and we see how timid Ji Soo really is when he almost cries over Gyu Ri’s kindness. While they’re hanging out, Min Hee goes to her first “job.” Unfortunately, everything goes wrong when she’s ambushed by three men. It turns out the client who was beaten by Mr. Lee earlier planned the whole thing as revenge.
Ji Soo finds out and rushes to help after remembering that he told Mr. Lee to get his phone fixed. He leaves his real phone behind, which immediately catches Gyu Ri’s attention. This brings us back to the opening scene, with Ji Soo desperately searching for batteries for his taser.
He sends a message claiming the police are on their way, which scares the men off and allows Min Hee to escape. Once she’s safe, Ji Soo returns to the café only to find Gyu Ri gone. Later, Mr. Lee tracks down the same man trying to upload images of Min Hee and deals with him, while Ji Soo falls asleep at his desk. When Gyu Ri returns, she notices that he has two phones.
Before we see how that plays out, we learn more about Gyu Ri. Her parents want her to become the next CEO of their company. After briefly imagining killing them, she smiles and agrees.
It turns out Gyu Ri has stolen Ji Soo’s burner phone and starts trying to break into it. She pushes him to meet again, and he happily agrees. It’s only when he’s alone that he realises his phone is gone. While Gyu Ri successfully hacks into it, Ji Soo searches everywhere for it. In the process, he accidentally interrupts Min Hee’s boyfriend, Kwak Ki Tae’s, romantic gesture and gets beaten up for it.
Ji Soo’s father later takes him out to dinner to announce that he’s leaving. When Ji Soo realises the burner phone signal is nearby, he abandons the dinner to search for it, but fails again. Meanwhile, Gyu Ri starts accepting job requests like she’s the boss. One of the requests comes from Min Hee, but after her traumatic experience, she has a panic attack and Mr. Lee steps in to help her. Realising things are spiralling, Ji Soo uses his old phone to tell Mr. Lee that he won’t be taking any more jobs.
Gyu Ri finally puts the pieces together about what Ji Soo is really doing and starts antagonising him over the phone. Mr. Lee plans to hunt her down, while she tells Ji Soo she’ll be in touch before bolting (using a voice changer so he doesn’t realise it’s her).
The next day, Gyu Ri keeps messing with Ji Soo while they hang out. When they reach his house, she calls him while he’s in the bathroom, forces him to leave, and starts searching through his things. She finds the money he’s saved over the months—and it’s a lot.
Ji Soo’s father suddenly shows up, forcing Gyu Ri to hide. The suitcase won’t close properly, and Ji Soo’s father finds the money… and steals every last bill. Gyu Ri chases after him, drops Ji Soo’s phone in the process, and the father gets away. Ji Soo finally realises Gyu Ri had his phone the entire time.
Now Ji Soo has nothing: no job, no money, no trust in Gyu Ri, and on top of that, he’s getting bullied. Gyu Ri stands up for him and drags him to a baseball range, where she still refuses to give his phone back. Instead, she proposes that they team up and expand the operation.
Ji Soo searches desperately for his father while Gyu Ri keeps begging to join the business, blackmailing him with the phone at the same time. They eventually find his father, only to discover he’s lost all the stolen money to a cryptocurrency scam that crashes. With truly nothing left, Ji Soo heads home in silence. He can’t pay for his academy, can’t pay the girls, can’t pay Mr. Lee — he’s done.
Meanwhile, Min Hee finds out that Ki Tae is only dating her for her money and body. Hurt and angry, she goes back to Mr. Lee and asks to work again. He warns her she isn’t ready, but she doesn’t care.
Gyu Ri keeps inserting herself into the business and eventually talks to Min Hee about her job. Min Hee lies and says she’s a waitress, but Gyu Ri knows that isn’t true and realises Ji Soo’s operation is falling apart. Ji Soo eventually takes a full-time job, only to realise it doesn’t pay nearly enough. With no other options left, he finally agrees to partner with Gyu Ri, who has money. She gives him enough to pay Mr. Lee his cut, but exhausted and defeated, Ji Soo refuses to restart the business… until he fails his exams. He snaps and punches another student, then finds Gyu Ri and officially lets her into his operation.
Ji Soo tells Mr. Lee they’re back in business and starts rebuilding funds with Gyu Ri. Mr. Lee calls “Uncle” to warn that Min Hee is unstable, but Ji Soo keeps the arrangement as is. Meanwhile, Detective Lee Hae Gyung starts connecting dots after recognising Min Hee’s backpack from motel CCTV footage.
With money coming in again, Ji Soo and Gyu Ri stash their earnings under Mr. Cho’s office sofa. Gyu Ri pushes to expand the operation by involving boys. After one boy fails an audition at her parent’s company, she convinces Ji Soo to contact him. The boy agrees to try the “work,” and Ji Soo and Gyu Ri celebrate—unaware of how dangerous their choices are becoming.
Gyu Ri starts suspecting that Ji Soo and Min Hee have feelings for each other, but Ji Soo quickly denies it. When they return to their club room (Mr. Cho’s office), they find Detective Lee sitting with Min Hee and questioning her. Gyu Ri immediately steps in and tries to get the detective to leave, but instead, she sends both her and Ji Soo out. They listen from outside the door, growing increasingly anxious. When Detective Lee mentions March 28th—the day Ji Soo saved Min Hee at the motel—they panic.
Eventually, Gyu Ri manages to get the detective to leave. She warns Ji Soo that what he’s involved in could be considered minor sex trafficking. Terrified, Ji Soo immediately calls Mr. Lee and tells him to remove Min Hee from the operation.
Later, Min Hee asks Ji Soo to meet her and Mr. Lee so she can demand severance pay. Around the same time, we’re introduced to Ryu Dae Yeol, who is obsessed with finding out who has been messaging his fiancée. He runs into Mr. Lee and the others, which leads to a violent confrontation. Mr. Lee is injected with something and attacked with an axe, while Ji Soo throws himself in harm’s way to protect both Mr. Lee and Min Hee. During the chaos, Dae Yeol realises that Ji Soo is the one who’s been messaging his fiancée.
With Mr. Lee badly injured and Min Hee out of options, she calls Detective Lee for help. Meanwhile, Dae Yeol kidnaps Ji Soo and takes him to a karaoke bar, debating what to do with him. When Dae Yeol’s fiancée arrives, she pressures Ji Soo into confessing that he’s the middleman who provides security for clients. As Dae Yeol considers killing him, Ji Soo secretly calls Gyu Ri, who pretends to be “Uncle.” Gyu Ri agrees to let Ji Soo work with the criminals, and they form an uneasy partnership.
Min Hee later confesses her compensated dating to her boyfriend, Ki Tae, only to learn that he already knew. Angry that she told him herself, he threatens to expose everything the next day. After Ji Soo escapes, he argues with Gyu Ri about working with criminals. Gyu Ri admits that all their original clients have left and that she had no other choice.
The story then flashes back a year, showing how Ji Soo and Mr. Lee first met. Ji Soo was being beaten by bullies when Mr. Lee intervened. Homeless, Mr. Lee later returns to his cardboard shelter, still holding the phone he uses in the present day.
Back in the present, Ki Tae begins investigating Min Hee’s activities and confronts Gyu Ri. She brushes him off, but her concern is obvious. At the hospital, Mr. Lee hints that he knows who Ji Soo really is, while Ki Tae searches online chat rooms for answers.
Later, Dae Yeol meets Ji Soo again and tells him he must work full-time for him and drop out of school. Ji Soo and Gyu Ri, who’s secretly listening nearby, are horrified. Things are spiraling fast. One of Dae Yeol’s associates grows suspicious of Gyu Ri and follows her. He discovers that she is the real boss and has been taking money into her high school.
Soon after, Dae Yeol kidnaps her and forces Ji Soo to come alone. Ji Soo arrives prepared. He tases Dae Yeol’s associate, crashes his car into Dae Yeol’s garage, and creates an opening. Gyu Ri stabs Dae Yeol, holds his fiancée at knifepoint, and escapes with Ji Soo. They race away together, knowing they’re now in deeper trouble than ever.
Min Hee eventually goes to the police station to speak with Detective Lee, while Ki Tae figures out that she might be at a karaoke bar and rushes there with a group of teenage thugs. At the same time, Gyu Ri shows up at Dae Yeol’s office, pretending to hang out with some girls, and secretly plants a phone. Dae Yeol catches her and brutally beats her. Before things can get worse, Ki Tae and his gang storm in, creating chaos. While Dae Yeol deals with them, Gyu Ri manages to escape.
Mr. Lee soon arrives and saves them, finally making it clear that he knows Ji Soo’s true identity. He fights off Dae Yeol’s men, allowing Ji Soo and Gyu Ri to flee. A final battle between Mr. Lee and Dae Yeol ends with both of them dead.
Detective Lee questions Ki Tae, his friends, and Dae Yeol’s fiancée, but gets very little information. When Min Hee learns that Mr. Lee is dead, she breaks down. Ji Soo and Gyu Ri decide to pin everything on Dae Yeol while Min Hee’s involvement becomes public at school. Ji Soo is devastated when he learns about Mr. Lee’s death. Meanwhile, Gyu Ri blackmails her parents using footage connected to one of the clients and demands money. After getting it, she buys a one-way ticket to Sydney. She meets Ji Soo and asks him to leave Korea with her, insisting that there’s nothing left for him there.
Ji Soo hesitates. At the same time, Detective Lee continues investigating, unconvinced that Mr. Lee was the real mastermind. Later, Min Hee discovers that Ji Soo was connected to the club when Ki Tae finds the hat she once gave him. She confronts Ji Soo, and he finally confesses everything. Shocked, she reveals that she recorded their conversation and says she’ll deal with him later. Panicked, Ji Soo tries to grab her phone. In the struggle, he accidentally pushes her down the stairs. She lies bleeding while he takes her phone and runs.
Mr. Cho finds the hidden money and turns it over to the police. Detective Lee begins seriously suspecting Ji Soo and Gyu Ri. Soon after, Ki Tae confronts Ji Soo at his house. When he finds Min Hee’s phone, he snaps, grabs scissors, and repeatedly stabs Ji Soo. Gyu Ri arrives just in time, knocks Ki Tae out, and helps Ji Soo escape. Min Hee is rushed to the hospital.
The show ends with Detective Lee following Ji Soo’s blood trail, which leads to a stairwell where Ji Soo and Gyu Ri are looking up at her. Except they aren’t really. They’re gone. The final shot pans over Seoul… and Ji Soo’s pet crab gets a little water.
The End.
The Review
The Good
At Least It Was Short
Whenever I barely have anything positive to say about a drama, I usually default to praising the length, the acting, or the scenery. In this case… it was the length. Even though the story became boring pretty quickly, the brief runtime was the only reason I actually finished it. It’s not a great compliment—because it was still boring— but I refuse to write a review with an empty “Good” section. It just feels wrong. At the very least, Extracurricular didn’t drag on forever, and sometimes that’s all you can cling to.
The Bad
There Was No One to Root For
My biggest issue with this drama? There was absolutely no one to root for. Not a single main character or supporting character was anything less than irritating. Let’s break them down one by one.
Whatever Ji Soo Was Supposed to Be
Nothing is more disappointing than when a character is introduced one way and ends up being the complete opposite. Like Hierarchy (review here!), Ji Soo started off promising. He seemed like the “perfect student” who secretly ran a successful underground business. I thought he’d be quiet, clever, and always one step ahead.
Instead, he was a timid mess.
Even when he cried because Gyu Ri was nice to him, I assumed he was faking it. But no, that was genuinely who he was. He was careless, overwhelmed, and nowhere near capable of running something this dangerous. He relied entirely on Mr. Lee, so it made perfect sense that Dae Yeol and his fiancée were ready to take over.
And then there’s the fact that he literally created a pipeline for grown men to meet underage girls. At first, I was lowkey rooting for him (if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean). He kept to himself. He just wanted financial freedom. But then you remember he’s involved in minor sex trafficking. That’s where it all fell apart.
His “job” didn’t match who he was as a person. How was someone this timid and clueless supposed to run a business like that? He was way over his head and never truly understood what he was getting into.
Gyu Ri Ruined Everything, Constantly
Then we have the worst character in the entire drama: Gyu Ri. The girl could not mind her business to save her life. She ruined everything she touched.
She had unresolved issues with her parents and decided the best way to cope was by inserting herself into Ji Soo’s life and destroying everything. Every single time she got involved, things got worse. Everything went downhill because of her. When Ji Soo’s father took all his money because of her, I completely checked out on her as a character. From that point on, she was unlikable in every way.
She acted like she knew how to “fix” the business, but she didn’t know anything. She manipulated Ji Soo’s desperation for friendship and used it for her own gain. It felt like she treated everything like a game. Honestly, she came across like a bored rich girl who knew she’d be fine no matter what happened. I’m not saying that’s who she was but that’s how she acted.
She was reckless. She ignored the fact that Ji Soo had put everything on the line. And in the end, he lost everything and went on the run because of a situation she caused. To her, it all felt like a joke. To him, it was his entire life.
Min Hee Was Beyond Annoying
Then we get to Min Hee, the most exhausting character in the show. What was her deal? Why get into that kind of work when she clearly couldn’t handle it? Why was she so desperate to be part of it, and why was she constantly playing the will‑I‑won’t‑I‑tell game with the detectives?
She acted like she was doing compensated dating for Ki Tae, but why was she so loyal to him? To the point of sleeping with old men for his sake? He made it clear multiple times that he only liked her for her money and body, yet she clung to him like he was her soulmate.
Then there was her strange attachment to Mr. Lee. Why was she so close to him? The dynamic screamed unresolved father issues, but the show never explored it. They gave her trauma and then left it floating in the air. She felt like an extra who didn’t know she was an extra. She kept showing up, adding nothing, and every time her scenes appeared, I felt myself checking out.
Ki Tae: Toxic, Abusive… But Weirdly Devoted?
Finally, we have Ki Tae, and I genuinely don’t know what was going on in his head. On one hand, he was toxic, abusive, and had the emotional maturity of a stapler. On the other hand, he was rounding up teen thugs to beat up the men who pimped Min Hee out and stabbing Ji Soo because of her.
What was his angle?
One minute she’s just a bank account to him, and the next he’s attempting murder because Ji Soo had her phone. He felt like another extra character whose only real purpose was to set the stage for Mr. Lee’s death. They sprinkled in a few scenes to justify his existence, but he added nothing meaningful.
Watching him beat people up every time his ego got bruised was an instant eye‑roll and scene skip.
Depth With Nowhere to Go
This leads me to my next point: everyone in this drama was complex — painfully complex — and yet none of that depth was explored. Ji Soo, Min Hee, Gyu Ri, even Mr. Lee… every single one of them had some kind of dark history or emotional wound, and the show treated those details like decorative props instead of actual story elements.
If you’ve read my Dear X review (here!), you know I love breaking down a character’s psychology. But Extracurricular made that impossible. It was obvious their actions were shaped by their pasts but what pasts? We never saw them. Dear X worked because we were given flashbacks that explained why the characters were the way they were. Here, the drama hinted at trauma but settled for “reckless behaviour” instead of giving us the context behind it.
And understanding psychology doesn’t excuse actions, it just paints a clearer picture. It helps us understand why characters spiral the way they do.
For example, if we understood why Min Hee got into sex work, why she clung to Ki Tae, and why she was so attached to Mr. Lee, she could’ve gone from “annoying should‑be extra” to a girl shaped by her upbringing and trauma. Or take Gyu Ri. She clearly hated her parents, fantasised about killing them, and had deep self‑loathing (that breath comment was not about hygiene). A few flashbacks could’ve transformed her from a chaotic rich girl into someone we could actually analyse.
Little glimpses into their childhoods wouldn’t have ruined the story — they would’ve saved it.
The Drama Was Just… Boring
Honestly this drama was boring. After the first episode or two, I just couldn’t get into it and I tried. The only reason I finished it was because it was short and the episodes were under an hour. I saw all the recommendations and genuinely wanted to understand the hype. I never did.
The biggest issue was that the entire show was just Ji Soo and Gyu Ri cleaning up whatever mess Gyu Ri created. Then we had Min Hee, who had way too much screen time for anyone’s sanity, and Ki Tae, whose only real purpose was to set up the big fight in the final episodes.
Everything led nowhere. Every character was unlikeable in their own special way. I rated this drama a 1/10 and have no regrets. It was horrible, and I cannot believe a second season is in the works.
The Open Ending… Why?
Speaking of a second season, what was the point of that open ending? I read a comment saying they wrapped up almost every major plot point except the tiny ones they needed to drag us into Season 2. And I agree. What would Season 2 even be about?
- Mr. Lee is dead.
- Ji Soo and Gyu Ri are on the run from a literal brothel gang.
- Min Hee will either be in a coma or conveniently forget everything.
- Ki Tae will probably end up in juvie.
What about that sounds interesting?
And Australia? They should’ve just taken that flight and ended the show there. Forcing a second season feels unnecessary — especially when the biggest plot (Ji Soo’s pimp business) is already over. It reminds me of Dear X’s (review here!) open ending: hinting at a second season with nothing compelling enough to justify it.
What I Would Do
Not Make This Show
It’s not often that I have no “What I Would Do,” but this time… there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. The only thing I could come up with was simply not making the drama at all. I genuinely don’t even know what this show was supposed to be about. There was no saving grace, no spark of brilliance to build on, nothing worth salvaging. Instead of brainstorming changes like I usually do, I found myself zoning out and wondering why I was even watching it.
This drama had tiny specks of potential scattered here and there, but it desperately needed an actual story. That was the core issue: it had no story. No flow. No direction. Not even vibes. It felt like a first draft — a loose summary of an idea the writers hadn’t fully developed yet. And instead of taking the time to shape it into something meaningful, it felt like they rushed to meet a deadline and handed us whatever they had.
And it shows.
Final Thoughts
I think I already covered most of my final thoughts in “What I Would Do,” so I’ll just build on that a bit. This show was boring and had nothing to like. Not only were the characters extremely unlikeable and frustrating, but they also had so much depth that we never got to see. I genuinely cannot imagine what the writers were thinking when they decided to shoot this drama, and it’s a shame.
Like I said before, this show had tiny sprinkles of potential, but it needed a lot more thought, structure, and actual ideas. The plot was one-dimensional, yet it was filled with characters and concepts that could have been three-dimensional if they’d been handled properly. They needed to know what story they wanted to tell and commit to it, instead of throwing everything together and hoping it would work.
Instead, we’re left with what feels like a first draft, and somehow that first draft is getting a second season— despite almost everything being wrapped up already. I usually love thrillers, so maybe I’m being extra harsh because this one delivered nothing but disappointment, but I digress.
At the end of the day, Extracurricular felt like a show that wanted to say something but never figured out what that “something” was. By the time the credits rolled, all that was left was confusion, exhaustion, and the sense that this story should’ve ended long before it began.
I’m so glad to be done this review. If it felt a bit all over the place, I apologise for that. I think this might be my lowest rated drama to date. I really tried to get into it but it was near-torture trying to finish this drama.
I always put a disclaimer at the top but I’ll do it again here, I don’t mean to offend anybody and I’m not here to hate. This is simply my opinion. If this was one of your favourite dramas, I respect that. If you disagree with me, I always welcome comments on it.
Next week, I’m going to move on to another highly recommended thriller that I didn’t like. Just an FYI, I’m not a certified hater who just hates a bunch of K-dramas. If you follow my MyDramaList account (here), you’ll see that I like a lot of the dramas I watch. The problem is that I just don’t have anything to say about them and I don’t want my blog to be boring. I also don’t want you to feel like I post just to get something out, despite not having much to say. I take care and time into my reviews and it just so happens that I have a lot to say on dramas I don’t like.
Hope that clears any misunderstandings up!
See you next week! 💕
Find Your Next Watch!
Main Cast
Kim Dong Hee as Oh Ji Soo
Park Ju Hyun as Bae Gyu Ri
Jung Da Bin as Seo Min Hee
Nam Yoon Su as Kwak Ki Tae
Choi Min Soo as Mr. Lee
Park Hyuk Kwon as Mr. Cho
Kim Yeo Jin as Detectice Lee
Im Ki Hong as Ryu Dae Yeol
Park Ho San as Ji Soo’s Father
Themes/ Genres
Double lives and moral decay; Consequences of desperation; Systemic failure and neglected youth; Exploitation, violence, and survival; Isolation, guilt, and emotional repression; Power dynamics between adults and minors; The blurred line between victim and perpetrator
Crime thriller; Psychological drama; Youth/teen drama; Noir
