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When it comes to thriller television and movies, practically no streaming service has a more varied selection from across the globe like Netflix. But in a domain that was once ruled by productions from North America like House of Cards, for many of its subscriber base, an emerging dominant presence from international thrillers quickly took hold, particularly with 2021’s Squid Game out of South Korean. But the beauty of K-dramas that have preceded it and followed it is, the medium has a rich history with multiple subgenres of thriller, with a deep appreciation for revenge and, in this case, action.

Teach You a Lesson is a loose adaptation of the controversial YLAB webtoon Get Schooled, starring Kim Mu-yeol as Na Hwa-jin, former Korean Black Beret who becomes the poster-child inspector the the Educational Rights Protection Bureau (ERPB). In response of a broken education system for South Korea, this series essentially makes government-sanctioned vigilantes to combat rampant bullying, institutional corruption, systemic abuse, gang hierarchies, and drug distribution plaguing the system. It’s a heavy-handed message, but one that still serves to illuminate a troubling reality faced by Korean educators, and is a rewarding 10-episode thriller all the same.

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Produced by Ylab Plex and GTist, Teach You a Lesson spares no time in demonstrating the mission statement of the ERPB in its fictionalized version of modern Korea. Episode #1 serves up a powerful gut-punch in a familiar scenario: merciless bullying and inescapable humiliation drives one high school boy to jump from the roof of his school to his death. His friend, who witnessed it, could only look on in horror while the blood pooled on the walkway around his shoes. It clearly introduces a desperate situation in need of fixing, especially as the bullies are, characteristically, unrepentant and utterly unfettered by the teachers. They rule the school.

But along comes the ERPB with Hwa-jin, their initial lone enforcer, given legal protection to use corporal punishment, or really any punishment they see fit, to get through. He makes quick work of the school bully, while bonding with the victimized student body.

Much of each following episode follows a similar structure, with varying levels of violence deployed, whether it’s beating down young would-be gangsters, serving as a watchful prison guard over four juvenile delinquents, or shattering a drug trafficking ring while risking great personal injury.

As the ERPB grows in numbers, it adds eclectic personalities, from the dorky KAIST graduate Bong Geun-dae, to fellow former Special Forces officer and unhinged inspector, Im Han-rim, suggesting a future adaptation of fellow Blue String Universe series, Hanlim Gym.

Throughout the series, each move by the ERPB builds its reputation among educators, while stoking controversy among parents and political constituents of the Minister of Education who founded it. Established following an act of student violence resulting in the death of the Minister’s daughter (and fiancee to Hwa-jin), the ERPB may come across as heavy-handed enforcers given too much of a carte blanche to punish students, but the real-world issues still hit home for viewers. Students become addicted to drugs and gambling apps, with more than one instance of abuse from different sources creating future bullies, like in the case of social media star Han Ye-ri.

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The ERPB’s methods in Teach You a Lesson aren’t exclusive to students. Episode #4 of proves this by introducing a dark twist on a famed educator climbing the ladder to political power. Episodes #5 and #8 explore overzealous parents, either harassing teachers to their breaking points, or doping their children with ADHD medication to achieve high test scores. The Netflix series may go to some dark extremes to get its point across, but the way the ERPB puts it, they’re not an entity out to punish students, teachers, or parents in particular; they exist to protect victims, and stop abuse in its tracks.

In a study by South Korea’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, deaths among those aged 9-24 rose to 1,749 in 2024, with suicide being three times the second-highest leading cause, at 10.9 deaths per 100,000, as reported by The Korea Times. The same article also cites a survey of 54,170 middle and high school students by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, confirming 25.7% were experiencing feelings of depression in the past year. Teach You a Lesson merely points the finger at a systemic deficiency no doubt playing a part in these figures, although, obviously, the methods prescribed to fight it are extreme.

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Naturally, Teach You a Lesson’s messaging, almost feeling like a South Korean spin on A Modest Proposal but to allow corporal and psychological punishment, is controversial both worldwide and domestically in Korea. The Straits Times reports teachers both appreciating how the show highlights real problems in modern Korean classrooms, even if one foot is firmly placed in revenge fantasy. It takes these extremes because the series feels this is a point worth making for a global audience. For what it’s worth, it seems to have worked, as Teach You a Lesson was the #1 worldwide hit on Netflix for non-English TV shows, with Korean series occupying half the Top 10.

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Beyond Squid Game, 2021 saw an emerging dominant presence in thriller television from South Korea with this show among its best works on the service.

This is an astonishing achievement, especially given how the first half of the series puts its most intense challenges to social norms on full display. These are the episodes in which an ERPB inspector, after a student attempts to set his school on fire, drops an ignited lighter to provoke a near-death experience where a student is almost immolated. Young gang members are driven around in a car and frequently taunted with the possibility of a fatal car crash, with the ERPB at the wheel. But no episode comes as close in challenging the audience’s willingness to get behind the protagonist as episode #6.

Episode #6 starts out as a bolder spin on the usual formula established by the series at this point: juvenile delinquents are running rampant around town and school with impunity. But after their crimes are exposed, and they are sent to a detention center, the show agonizingly follows their humiliation, often encountering harrowing threats of prison murder, the ERPB even provoking inmates into resenting them more. By the end of the episode, these students are a wretched crew, brought to their parents desperate, in tears, begging for their release. With the episode also setting up the endgame plot line, it thankfully feels worth it to endure these rougher moments.

Surprisingly, through all the controversy over the series’ premise, the cast is surprisingly lovable. There are glimpses of students on the path to reform, and Hwa-jin’s journey, alongside Minister Choi Gang-seok, is one tempered with patience to avoid outright chasing revenge. Han-rim is positively brimming with chaotic energy, and Geun-dae is absolutely the “protect at all costs” character, especially for anybody who saw the tears across his face as he amassed absurd amounts of gambling debt, all in the name of the ERPB. There’s even a surprise romance which, while unnecessary, was played up for laughs, selling the series even further for those who followed through.

This is all to say that, while Teach You a Lesson is heavy-handed in the delivery of its central message, it also has plenty of the breezier aspects of K-dramas that audiences know and love. It’s very difficult to envision a serious drama scenario where somebody stakes out a potential group of kidnappers, only to get hungry and order tteokbokki nearby while their colleague is spirited away, a darkly comedic situation that actually happens in this drama. Teach You a Lesson may pinpoint a dark message with its story, but in doing so, it uses the exuberant light of K-dramas to reward those who see it through to the end.