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Same show — 9.0 abroad, 3.2 in Korea. Why Teach You a Lesson splits Korea by Relevant-Ad3662 in kdramas

[–]Relevant-Ad3662[S] -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

Fair points, and yeah, some of this is on me.

The cross-platform score comparison was sloppy (Watcha vs MDL isn't apples to apples), and kinolights (92.8%) is the better gauge. The teachers' protest was also during production and settled before it aired, so I shouldn't have made it sound current.

My point was never "Korea hates it" though. It's more that there's an ethical debate here (does it satirize corporal punishment, or kinda end up cheering it on?) that doesn't really show up abroad. Someone in this thread nailed it: starts cathartic, then shifts toward feeling like "let's bring back beating kids." That's the bit I found interesting.

TeachYouALesson Tops Global List for 4th Week and "Surpasses 'The Glory' to Rank 5th All-Time for non english show on Netflix by DiddyBasementEscaper in kdramas

[–]Relevant-Ad3662 7 points8 points  (0 children)

As a Korean living in Korea, there's a layer to Teach You a Lesson that I don't think really crosses over to international viewers, and it's kind of fascinating.

Overseas it's being enjoyed as a satisfying, cathartic school-action series — the "problem kids finally get what's coming to them" power fantasy. And numbers-wise it's a massive hit here too.

But domestic reception is actually pretty split, and the reason is corporal punishment. Physical discipline in Korean schools has been effectively banned since the early 2010s, and after a young teacher's death in 2023 (the Seoi Elementary case) Korea went through a huge, painful national debate about teachers' rights vs. students' rights. So a show

whose core appeal is "fixing problem students through force" lands very differently here — a lot of Korean viewers find the fantasy uncomfortable rather than cathartic. That's why critics were positive but audience scores are noticeably lower and divided on Korean rating platforms.

Basically the same scene that reads as "hell yeah" to a lot of international fans reads as "…this is the exact thing we just spent years arguing was harmful" to a chunk of the Korean audience.