In Teach You A Lesson, Netflix’s new smash-hit drama, a quote by Albert Camus, “Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear,” is shown inscribed on the walls of a school. The camera only fleetingly dwells on this conscious, and cheeky placement of a quote. As early on in the series, we see school bullies being thrashed by the dozen.

Adapted from the webtoon, Get Schooled, Teach You A Lesson chronicles the adventures of the fictional Educational Rights Protection Bureau (ERPB), an organisation authorised by the government to tackle the concerns that plague the school education system. Here, the bureau rolls up its sleeves, doing just about anything to whip the system into shape.

Led by Na Hwa-jin (an excellent Kim Mu-yeol), a former special forces officer-turned-school inspector, the ERPB, which also has the endearing and geeky Geun-dae (Pyo Ji-hoon) and the brash Im Han-rim (Jin Ki-joo, who gets a terrific intro scene) does not stop at anything; their methods are unconventional, and often, very violent. They are given a free reign by the education minister Choi Gang-Seok (Lee Sung-min), whose daughter was once engaged to Hwa-jin. Her tragic death binds the men in grief, and leads them on a quest for reform. 

In the initial episodes, Teach You A Lesson trails its focus on school bullies who have made it increasingly hard for students to benefit from a flawed education system already grappling with commercialisation, competition and parental pressure. School bullying has been the subject of focus in many K-Dramas in the last decade, ranging from the revenge drama, The Glory to Weak Hero Class 1 and Study Group. In Teach You A Lesson, however, all of this unfolds like a vigilante revenge drama. The format is that of an engaging procedural with each episode set in a different school and the ERPB dealing with a range of different issues. 

If the more run-of-the-mill episodes focus on students and delinquents who are reprehensible bullies on campus, we also have a kindergarten teacher harassed by overbearing parents, who drug their high school wards to ensure they beat the competition hollow. There’s also an over zealous influencer whose false allegations against her teacher costs him his life. 

Not every issue is afforded the nuance it deserves, and yet, the greatest triumph of To Teach You A Lesson lies in making viewers believe in its proposed, fantasy solutions for a system that is overburdened and broken. Are the methods horrifying? Largely, yes. The show has courted controversy in South Korea as well for its depiction of corporal punishment on campus. 

School bullies are thankfully, not the only sore point the show dwells on, and there are bigger problems that need non-violent solutions as well. You cannot help but feel an unbridled rage at the mother who gleefully drugs her son so that he can get into medical school. Justice arrives when she is made to endure the exact taxing routine she forced her son through. If she is so obsessed with medical school, the show asks, why doesn’t she just work on going there herself? 

Despite how grim the subject matter is, the show’s writing keeps the proceedings consistently engaging, ensuring that the ERPB is endearing and earnest. Even if sometimes violent, the inspectors make up for the lack of fun on these largely horrific school campuses. This is a career-best performance by Mu-yeol, who embodies Hwa-jin’s cockiness, swagger and grief with ease. He is in able company of Lee Sung-min. The senior actor and Mu-yeol share a bromance born out of tragedy, and make for the best relationship in a show that is largely bereft of any big romance. 

At just eight episodes, this Netflix original, much like the engaging 2025 medical dramedy, Trauma Code: Heroes On Call, makes a compelling case for shorter seasons and tighter writing, elevated by a string of superlative performances. Do we have a winning formula on our hands? Or a possible second season that sees the return of the ERPB? Either way, this is the no-frills entertainment that has been missing from K-Dramas for a while now. Get Kim Mu-yeol those awards already. 

Teach You A Lesson is currently streaming on Netflix