Duty after School: Part 2 (2023)

I see what they were going for?

What to say about a show like this? This is my first review here, and that probably says something as to how conflicted I was, I just had to share.

Wanna start with a shoutout to the visual effects teams, both the CGI and practical effects were flawless and it's a great-looking show. The actors were also really good for what they were given.

Unlike many other reviewers, I won't say "don't watch if you liked part 1" or "avoid at all costs", but I will say: part 1 and part 2 are almost like two different shows/timelines using the same/similar characters, so if you prefer to think of it like that to protect whatever part 1 means to you, I think part 2 is still worth a watch and maybe just think of them as separate beasts. One thing of note for me was that many characters made stupid, uncharacteristic decisions, some making a 180 personality shift from part 1. I also didn't like the chosen portrayal of mental health issues and their interactions with those from poverty-stricken backgrounds, which I feel might increase the heavy stigmas those vulnerable in our communities are already facing.

After this, I will spoil the ending (although most everyone already did), so be warned.

I won't lie and say the ending didn't frustrate me. It was so pointless, so meaningless. Not entirely unexpected, but not satisfying either. Not neat. Not "thematic".

But then I think of the kids from the science school. They had their own characters, their own stories, their own dreams, something they were marching toward. And yet in the story we saw, they appeared briefly and then were reincountered as a bunch of gruesome corpses on the path our heroes were taking. They died horribly, meaninglessly, off-screen. Their bodies were ransacked for loot and they were not buried or mourned by those that encountered them. Was that a fair ending? If we were watching their story, would it have been satisfying?

In real life, when an earthquake hits and 2000 people are buried in rubble, meaninglessly passing away, do they think that was how their lives were going to end? Did that factor into their plans for the future?

In a way, I think this ending was the most realistic ending possible. It was, as loss of life tends to be, brutal and unfair. We're upset because we were with some people on a journey, and that journey was cut short. There was no build up to a great climax, their lives just ended in the dumbest way, and nothing of value was learned or gained.

So yes, the ending was really annoying, absurd, divisive, nonsensical, and a hundred other words connoting something negative. However, looking back on it, I don't mind it so much. If the writers wanted to communicate the futile nature of war, they hit the nail on the head. If they wanted us to reflect on how unfair, wasteful, cruel, horrific, and unnecessary violence like that is, they hit the nail on the head. If they wanted to comment on how our "enemies" are not who we think they are, or that we shouldn't even be thinking of people as "enemies" in the first place, they hit the nail on the head. If they wanted to drive home the point that aliens were never the problem, humans were .... well, that one I find a bit on the nose.

What annoyed me more about the end of the drama, to be perfectly frank, was the complete lack of answers to my questions. One I asked several times an episode - what happened to Won Bin? One I asked many times as well - why would they do that? It makes no logical sense for someone to leave that there, or to do what they did. One I asked almost every scene - how is that still working? Shouldn't the batteries have run out long ago? Why are they wasting all those precious candles when everyone is in bed or in another room? Why are they playing so fast and loose with bullets all the time? They had 800 bullets in stock? They used that in 2 scenes, shooting all around the spheres and not hitting anything. Somehow they have all this ammo still! What are they carrying around all the time? They always say they don't have food or water, but their bags are full? Is anybody going to check on Ae Sol's wellbeing after what was an extremely traumatic assault that everyone witnessed? They are all comforting Bo Ra for a flesh wound, and So Yeon after she fainted, but nobody cared about poor Ae Sol almost being gang-r'd?? How did those 4 at the end survive their multiple gunshot wounds with no medical supplies around and no help? And what happened to Won Bin?

So yes, no shortage of questions, frustration, pity for what might have been an excellent conclusion or continuation of an interesting story, but still I don't regret watching it. Whether they ran out of budget, time, or they couldn't get all the actors on contract to keep filming, whatever the case may be, it's just a shame the ending felt so rushed. I kinda wish it just ended with the bloodbath and we didn't see the couple of scenes after - that was a stupid attempt to give people a somewhat happy/hopeful ending after the brutality of the loss of life, but I didn't really need that. The lives cut short so meaninglessly and brutally spoke for itself. It wasn't a great show plot- or writing-wise, so I can't rate it higher, but for some mindless entertainment it wasn't a total waste.

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Should’ve left the writing to the professionals, the webtoon writers

It’s about time drama writers stop trying to modify webtoons. There’s a reason the creative community chose the wentoon, they released a story, a style of writing and it was embraced and accepted
Some things do need to be modified for the entertainment value of moving picture but the process, the development and the moral of the story should’ve been kept the same




I read a bit about how the ending was executed in the webtoon and it made more sense

Here their biggest downfall in both seasons was lack of coherent development
Everything conveniently went downhill, they just happen to run in different directions, they just happened to have missed the signs
But I was fine until they went berserk with the changes and many things changed
Again the changes from the 1st half made sense for the impact but the development lost all their handwork

I get the exam guy going nuts, kids are emotionally unstable
He was bullied, looked down on, didn’t have the luxury of a steady home that he carried the burden of the future, he was alone and snapped

The way he snapped wasn’t done well, I thought he killed the cool kid, tbh that should’ve been his breaking point
And maybe he’d have seen the kids seeing the video at their final destination and so he lost his shit , sure when he went back he thought old looking girl was telling them everything and yes the one he 1st killed was his bully…
That’s what it goes back to, the bullies became cool, dependable and charming. Even bora. Soon they all bonded. Especially the way they were forgiven for lying
But for nerd guy, he was just alone alone alone

Now, the pre bully murder tbh was too disgusting and pointless. Sure he was upset old girl looked down on him but he didn’t have to assault her. This way, he wasn’t bullied into breaking point, he is not the victim, but everyone was right about him and he was a creep
10years in and he wouldn’t have become a dr or any type of office worker. He’d have become one of those creepy coworkers who’d end up in jail cuz he kept making moves on the female employees and ends up assaulting her….


In the other hand they made aesol kill him as a way of “she was the real type of outsa” and he was just a creep that was outcasted





Anyway what hurt the most was realizing the teacher, the team leader and some of the earliest kids(?) didn’t die, I’m not sure about the ending tho I did read it went with less casualties
So basically the old sacrifices went down the drain, and many died in the name of “a few weeks later they discovered a better weapon” so the kids didn’t have to become soldiers, they weren’t supposed to be sacrificed by the adults to just gain time.. and the adults + others just lived happily ever after? Well all wars are like that I guess….

But I feel like the enemy should’ve been the adults, the higher ranked soldiers and wobin for leaving the kids unattended, that guy deserved to die, team leader sacrificed for the kids and he just went back to base??
Basically they went Mist on us, it “didn’t have to go that way, if only they waited” I hate that as much as I hate the “it was all a dream”
Anyway I thought geek guy led the aliens to the kids, so the shock was ok but again the steps, the results… I cried more when they were all putting on makeup and laughing, kids should be pure, bullying is the main source of the trauma….

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not a bad ending imo

I have seen many people really hate this ending so i thought I would share my opinion. The acting was really well done. I definitely was a bit more annoyed at some of the characters in part 2 compared to part 1.

In my personal opinion I don't think this ending was unrealistic. I was a little more surprised at the fact that none of the characters went mentally insane sooner. I don't think it was a terrible way to end the series. Although the ending was very sad and unexpected, it perfectly shows how someone can go insane in situations like that.

What Young-Soo did was definitely not okay and horrible of him but weirdly enough I don't find myself hating him. The way I see it is he was so obviously not mentally okay and needed someone to help him. For instance, if we go back to the scene on the beach where he is trying to explain to them what happened, he was so obviously unwell. Not physically but mentally. And I think if at least one of them would stop and just ask him if he's okay and needs help, the ending possibly could have been avoided. Another way I believe this ending could have been avoided is if they would just stop splitting up. It was very clear that something would always go wrong anytime even just one person would separate from the rest. Yet they never seemed to learn from it.
To add on to Young-Soo, I believe the reason he was so obsessed with the CSAT, and extra points was because that was his only way to get into a college for free. And getting into a good college means getting a good job, and getting a good job means getting paid well, and for him, someone who grew up in poverty, having all that meant saving his family from poverty. Hence why the CSAT and extra points were so important to him.
Another thing I would like to add is that they did a really good job at portraying someone going mentally insane. Especially how you could see him arguing himself and trying to convince himself that what he did to il-ha(?) was just self-defense, and that he deserved it for always treating him badly. Same with how he would call So-Yeon(?) a witch, because she also used to treat him badly. One scene I personally enjoyed was the scene of them "talking about him" when he was in the hallway, and his ears ringing. I really love that they added that scene because it shows much further into how he believed everyone was against him for doing what he did at the amusement park.

A few things I didn't like about part 2 were:
1. What happened to the other commander guy? I forget his name but in part 2 nobody even mentioned him, and his picture wasn't drawn on the memorial either.
2. Like I said in the beginning, some of the characters really annoyed me in part 2.
3. I'm not the biggest romance fan so some of the romance in this was very cringy to me and I kind of wished they didn't add much romance. But i do understand why there was romance.

Sorry for the long review <333

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OPINIONS ARE DIFFERENT IF YOU DEBATING TO WATCH IT OR NOT, I WOULD SUGGEST GIVE IT A TRY

WELLhere i begin
I LIKED IT SO MUCH
The tense i felt when i was watsching the first part was so musch, literally i finished in one night. And the second part as well
I really liked when they were doing silly things like childs and not adults, and how it changed between laughter and action. The action had me at the edge of my seat, also i Cried and got goosebumbs. I like when the series gives me so many emotions .
There is something i didn't like ?Yes it is But i think i am pretty satisfied with the rest
The acting was reaaally good

Many of you will disagree with me but its okay. I havent seen anyting that good months now, i have dropped many seriew but this one kept me

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First part was mid, second one was worse, despite trying to make it up at the end

TLDR: II would say Episode 1-3>9&10>The rest. It ended being a shut your reasoning for a while and just enjoy fast action scenes. The best part is just seeing the kids interacting with each other in cute and funny scenes and remember that you were once like them. Overall script is just bad and it diminishes the original message the webtoon wanted to convey.

Now for a bit more of my thoughts:
I did a review on the first part where I pointed out the shows biggest problem, I would say this show genre is something like high teen, the good was the very flashy and entertaining action scenes with cute moments between the kids, but most of the script seems to be written by a high school senior on their wattpad. All of this changes were probably done to market the show better.
There's a lot of even bigger plot holes in this season than in the first 6 episodes, probably because there was a time skip but they didn't explain or summarize what happened during that time (Like what even where the kids doing on that location or where as Won Bin in all of this). The first 2 episodes of this season felt like some type of filler because i don't even remember what happened on them and i watched them a couple of hours ago.
Now i will talk a bit of the last 2 episodes, I think it was a good idea to make drama between the group but to be honest it felt forced, and that's because they wrote the kids to be alone in their operation while being in a military operation without a reason. The scenes in the last episode of the show were foreshadowed a bit, but because this was a 10 episode show for some reason they decided to cram everything in 2 episodes and the changes in dynamics and mental of the kids didn't have time to be explored. While they based on the webtoon ending for this, they made it a little too dramatic ,action packed and stretched out for my taste, the fake out of it being an alien attack wasn't sold enough for the real scene to be a twist. The changes they did while adapting the original story made it so the ending wasn't as impactful, Chi Yeol's monologue at the end had to be shown because the ideas he conveyed weren't explicit enough in the show, while in the original, these kind of thoughts were everywhere without having to be said explicitly.

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UTTER DISAPPOINTMENT

The producers could have stopped with the first part. Disappointing and unsatisfactory ending. I wish that " I could just undo watching the 2nd part ". Last but not the least , the actors and their acting was above par . Liked the cast but ... It all was taken away by the final episode.. It's shit. Stop at episode 9 if you wanna stay happy.

Positives :
One of the things that makes Duty After School stand out is its exploration of the themes of survival and loss. The students in the show are forced to make difficult choices in order to survive, and they all experience a great deal of loss. This gives the show a sense of emotional weight that many other survival dramas lack..

Negatives :
The ending of "Duty After School" is the final nail in the coffin. It's so over-the-top and ridiculous that it's almost funny. The show tries to be both serious and campy, but it fails at both. It's a complete mess.

Overall, "Duty After School" is a disappointing show. It had the potential to be good, but it's ultimately a mess. The plot is convoluted, the characters are underdeveloped, and the ending is a disaster. I would not recommend this show to anyone.( Especially the 2nd part ) Just forget that a 2nd part exists. That would do good.

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I'm devastated by the ending. My heart is broken for these beautiful souls

I'm so heartbroken and I'm just so upset the ending had to be done like this. Why not give them all a happy ending?

The first reason why I started watching this drama was because of the cutest couple Kim Yoo Jung and Wang Tae Man. They're just the cutest, but I cried when I saw one Youtube comment under one of their videos and it said, "They'll never be able to confess to one another". I'm just really hoping we get to see both of them in another drama with full of romance and comedy.

After starting the drama, I began to love all of the characters. They all became one big family and it just breaks my heart that their last conversation together was about what each of them wanted after the war was over. They deserve the whole world, not the devastating ending. Writer & director, why?! They could've lived full lives and be happy and you destroyed that. You broke a lot of hearts after watching that stupid excuse of an ending.

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Last episode ruined the show

Last season I started the drama without any expectations. The trailer and synopsis didn't got me excited for the drama. Even then I started the drama as I love the zombie/alien invasion genre. And man, it was just the best drama of this genre alongside Sweet Home for me. Yes you heard it correct it was better than All of us are dead. This got me thinking that being on a good platform like Netflix hyped up All of us are dead. And it also had a better known cast than Duty After School. Not that Duty after School was released on a bad platform but there was no hype for the drama. So this what one could say don't judge a book by it's cover.

This season I came to watch this drama with high expectations. As the first one had set high standards for this one. And man what the hell was that. They started from zero and by the end of season 1 they were the IT drama And by the end of the second season they are again back to being zero. I haven't read the webtoon but from what I heard things don't end this badly in there. Its like the writers and directors thought that this drama wouldn't not be a big success so they just tried to finish the story in the first half. Guess what the first half became a big success in the international market. But they can't change the ending they have already shot.

The last 30-40 minutes felt like an eternity and just killed the drama for me. How great it would have been if the writers just ended the season at ep 9. And look at the good response the show is gaining and hen changing the ending they have decided for the show. It was a 9 rated drama till ep 9. And if anyone reading this is planning to watch this season. Never watch the final ep of this season. You will just be pissed off and annoyed.

I must say in a real world that would have been the most realistic ending. Now that I think this whole drama has been the most realistic one out there. But reality is often disappointing and this is what happened to this drama. We came to watch a drama but got hit by the hard reality.

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Even as a Korean, the metaphors and underlying message is complete BS

Edit: wow apparently the WEBTOON is very different from the show. Damn you director. This is why you never trust these people to adapt an original work.



I went into part 1 with no expectations and was very pleasantly surprised with how good it was. I had high expectations for the second part but it was unfortunately complete and utter trash.

There is an underlying message the author tries to convey with the story. Not going into too much detail, the author tries to make the CSAT and the Korean education system a big focus, along with student mental health issues, but fails miserably. The author attempts to use the spheres and military as a metaphorical device to symbolize the messed up education system, with the students and even parents agreeing for them to become reserve forces just for extra points, and also with how students and kids are greatly influenced and indoctrinated by adults. I feel the show does a great job exploring the issues with how students and minors are basically powerless against adults and the government, and the use of the military was great in that respect. However, the theme about the education system was done very poorly.

The CSAT is a life-changing/career altering test that Koreans take extremely seriously, and it is not unrealistic that it takes a large part in the students' decision making. However, this plot point should've ended by the first few episodes, or it should have been handled in a more realistic way. Instead, in first part even I as a Korean, and many others seem to forget about the whole CSAT plot by the first few episodes. The author probably knew this and they try extremely hard to make the underlying themes more evident in the second part by taking away all of what made part one good.

First, no more spheres. They are basically not a threat and nearly completely irrelevant to the plot in part two. The tone shift amplifies this as the whole situation does not seem dire anymore. The tone shift just feels so off, and makes the second part seem like some teen drama. Also, the whole spheres having intelligence thing and them adapting to the cold feels like such wasted potential.

Second, the plot holes are horrendous. What happened to the second in command under Commander Lee? And the three students they saved? I doubt Won Bin would have just left the students to survive on their own. Also at the end when they defeat the spheres, I highly doubt the world, much less South Korea would have recovered that fast if at all. The sphere attack realistically would have been a catastrophic event for the world economy, and would have caused more than an economic collapse especially for South Korea. I mean, they lost more than half of the entire military, and who knows how much population was lost. Thinking logically, how could anyone expect to even be able to go to university or even find a job after? The entire world would fall into the greatest recession in history, people would be burning money for heat. Also, they don't even show us if Chiyeol and the others parents and family are alive. Or what happened to the four survivors, or even if Chiyeol and Nara got together, kept in touch, etc.

Third, the whole Yeongsoo plot. Even as a Korean who grew up in poverty and whose parents/grandparents lived in extreme poverty (much worse than whatever Yeongsoo was complaining about), I can not sympathize with this guy one bit. Sure, perhaps we are not supposed to sympathize with him. But obviously, he is used as a plot device to criticize the Korean education system, poverty, and mental health issues. Still, what they did with him just seems so forced and feels so off. Instead of his actions being even a tiny bit understandable, he just seems like a psychopath. In this case, using him fails to criticize the education system or the poverty in Korea, or even the mental health issues, since he just seems like he is the way he is due to his personality and mindset rather than a result of a cumulation of all these issues in Korea. Like damn, I know poverty is hard and I also suffered with extreme mental health, but not for one second would I even think of SAing someone else or have violent tendencies towards another. He honestly just seems weak to me, and that undermines the message of the story. His breakdown is not a message about student mental health, not when its done this poorly.

I get the author likely meant well with trying to convey these messages, and perhaps did not mean for the spheres to be the main focus for the story, but a poorly written story is a poorly written story. If you want to convey a message, or criticize/discuss societal issues, you at least have to have a decent story and plot to back it up. I am not sure if the webtoon is exactly the same as the show, but the second part is a such a waste of great potential from the build up of part one.

(sorry for the mess of a review, it is my first and likely last, i just wanted to vent about my disappointment and share some thoughts as a korean fluent in english who watched the show)

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Felt rushed

After binge watching part I of "Duty After School," I had been eagerly waiting for part II to come out. 22 days later, lo and behold, it did. I watched it and it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

First of all, I expected the story to continue where part I had left off. That is not to say I hate time skips! That is only if they're done well. The end of Part I introduced surviving characters from another high school. Unfortunately, they fell victim to something more dangerous than the spheres: plot holes. Where the heck is Won Bin? Where are the students from the other high school? There's little to no mention of them in Part II. A lot seemed to have happened in the time skip, information that--had been simply left out--and that's not good. As a lover of thrillers, I hate being left in the dark. On another note, I did appreciate that the writers elaborated on Bo Ra and Ae Sol's relationship, and allowed the former to have great character development over three episodes.

To address the big elephant in the room: the ending. God. For those of you who have read the web toon like myself, many will agree with me when I say it felt rushed. Of course, it makes sense... I knew Young-Soo was going to go nuts sooner or later, but come on, why did it all happen so fast? For him, missing the CSAT was more than just missing mere test, but equivalent to missing his future; it was equivalent to poverty. Why was that a reason for him to do *THAT* at the end? His motivation seemed nonsensical. The webtoon version of his character portrays his fall into madness more clearly, over tens of chapters. Additionally, the ending leaves so many unanswered questions about our survivors. The writers introduce Kim Chi Yeol's perspective at the ending, probing the question "was this war worth fighting for?" However, what the hell happens to the other three?! Yes, I get it, you're trying to deliver a message to the watchers. The writers have to understand that--what made this series for a lot of people--were being invested in the characters. We want to know what happened to the others as well; why aren't they together with Chi Yeol? Lastly, this is a personal pet peeve because I'm in the military myself. Everyone just sat there for a good 10 seconds after Jang Soo gets shot before taking up arms--the writers seriously just nerfed the badass characters portrayed at the beginning. And where is Yeong-Soo's fireteam partner (battle-buddy)… it's common to work in pairs in the military, especially when you're armed. I like the idea of a non-stereotypical happy-go-lucky ending. However, the execution could have been much better.

Now, there are things that I would've personally loved to be addressed. Come on, man, why you gotta leave us in the dark in regards to Chi Yeol x Na Ra? They introduced this crush in the first season, but most of it is just monologue in Chi Yeol's head. I believe many of the watchers want to peer into Na Ra's mind. Also, Ae Sol's story is just way too sad. She finally becomes good friends with Bo Ra, only to see the latter get massacred by some delusional nerd who ends up dying. I'm sure many of you all share my frustrations here.

Not to say it's fully bad. This series has got bang on actors/actresses that paint a great image of teenage kids stuck in a long and arduous losing war. The only down side is that they weren't put to proper use (because of the story). Additionally, the music is good. I am personally a sucker for orchestral scores over the random rock and roll songs with lyrics. It really establishes the emotional environment for story-telling.

Overall, I would not even be mad if they remade this whole second season with much better pacing. Like please, fix it. Although in reality, it may have been because of budget cuts that caused them to rush this or a variety of other reasons. Anyways, if you do not want to be heart broken or disappointed... just stop at season 1, my friends. Or go read the web toon.

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It had potential in the first part :(

the second part has many plotholes (?)

Where is Kim Wonbin, he was not once mentionned ?

How did the prisonners survive a month wo food/water and they are still in very good conditions ?

From where did the aliens come from and what do they want and how did they become THAT dumb in the 2nd part ? (the amusement park noise was hella loud 🥴)

Why every character developpement went back to what they were before. They showed in the 2nd part that they were mature and more logical and suddenly eveyone goes back to 0.

WHY KILL EVERYONE I AM TRAUMATISED ?????

I was so sad that the last survivers and even the other mates didn't know the reason they were killed ☹ (except the victim that realised before getting shot) this is personal I hate that bitch of young soo or whatever his name is.

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