Although The Glory is a bracingly dark watch, the underrated Netflix show is also one of the most underrated revenge thrillers of all time. Loosely based on both real-life incidents in South Korean schools and Alexandre Dumas’ literary classic The Count of Monte Cristo, The Glory is a tense, taut revenge thriller from 2022.
The series was met with critical acclaim, but although The Glory enjoyed stellar reviews, the series wasn’t as big a crossover hit as Squid Games or Netflix’s superb zombie horror All of Us Are Dead. This might be because the show was a crime thriller, where those two hits were a dystopian sci-fi and a horror show, respectively.
However, there is another element of The Glory’s story that might have limited its mainstream appeal. The show is incredibly dark and doesn’t flinch away from exploring the nastier parts of its plot, resulting in some truly nightmarish scenes as well as a few twists that are gasp-inducing in their brutality.
What Is The Glory About?
The Glory tells the story of Song Hye-kyo’s Moon Dong-eun, a South Korean homeroom teacher. Viewers soon learn that Moon Dong-eun was the victim of horrific, sustained bullying that scarred her both mentally and physically when she was in school, and she has spent decades planning her intricate revenge on her childhood tormentors.
After the bullying led her to drop out of school, Moon Dong-eun devoted her life to getting her revenge. This led her to become a teacher since that allowed her to get closer to the child of her worst bully, Lim Ji-yeon’s Park Yeon-jin. Now a wealthy weather presenter, this odious character assumes her crimes will never come to light.
There are a lot of K-dramas similar to The Glory, but few of them pack the same punch as the series. The scenes of bullying are painfully harrowing, particularly a sequence involving a curling iron that many viewers will need to watch between their fingers. Moreover, Moon Dong-eun’s entire character arc is a tragic tale.
The Glory Is Not An Easy Watch
Like the titular Count of Monte Cristo before her, Moon Dong-eun commits her considerable talent and attention to planning the downfall of her enemies, and it can be exhausting for viewers to see her plans repeatedly come close to failure. Without giving anything away, The Glory’s story is painfully tense precisely because viewers are rooting for Moon Dong-eun.
On some level, viewers might be aware of the old cliché that claims “those who seek revenge should dig two graves (one for their enemy and one for themselves).” However, while watching the show, the line that comes to mind is that of rapper Pusha-T, specifically on his legendary 2018 Drake diss track, ‘The Story of Adidon.’
There, the legendary rapper claimed, “if we all go to Hell, it’ll be worth it,” and it is hard for viewers not to hold this sentiment in their hearts while watching Moon Dong-eun’s plan unfold. Every time it seems like the show’s heroine might be found out or her plan might go awry, viewers find themselves digging deeper and rooting for her more.
Fortunately, despite how dark The Glory is, the show’s story does have a satisfying conclusion. Like The Count of Monte Cristo, the show takes its sweet time working through Moon Dong-eun’s targets, but the slow, methodical approach pays off when viewers finally see the scope of her vision.
Moon Dong-eun’s vengeance is thrilling, terrifying, and tragic, and the unpredictable plot of The Glory ensures the show is more than merely heartbreaking and vengeful in equal measure. However, all its twists would be wasted if the series weren’t anchored by a stellar central performance. Luckily, Song Hye-kyo’s role as Moon Dong-eun features some career-best work from her.
Song Hye-kyo’s Performance Makes The Glory Even Better
Viewers may know Song Hye-kyo from 2013’s The Grandmaster or 2014’s My Brilliant Life, but The Glory serves as her breakout role for many viewers. Part 1 of the series was released in December 2022, while part 2 arrived in March 2023, wrapping up the story’s loose ends and bringing Moon Dong-eun’s revenge to its conclusion.
In the hands of a lesser actor, the role of Moon Dong-eun could have been one-note, and this may have doomed the entire series. What makes The Glory’s story so dark is the fact that the show’s heroine feels undeserving of a normal life, so it is vital that Song Hye-kyo offers viewers occasional glimpses into the sadness and emptiness underpinning her quest.
She might be motivated by a burning desire for revenge, but Moon Dong-eun is also human, and she has dreams, ambitions, and hopes beyond just getting back at her high school bullies. Her life can’t go on until she achieves this all-important vengeance, but Song Hye-kyo allows the audience to see that she’s eager to be free of this burden.
This makes the show’s story all the more compelling, as the heroine’s rampage of revenge doesn’t feel like a gleeful comeuppance. Instead, Song Hye-kyo’s revelatory performance in The Glory ensures that Moon Dong-eun’s character arc feels like a cathartic exorcism of her childhood torment that allows her to emerge as a new, empowered woman.
9.3/10 The Glory 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Drama Mystery Thriller Release Date 2022 – 2023-00-00 Network Netflix Directors An Gil-ho Writers Kim Eun-sook Cast See All Song Hye-Kyo Moon Dong-eun Lee Do-Hyun Lee Gil-seong
Genres Drama, Mystery, Thriller Creator(s) Ahn Gil-ho, Kim Eun-sook Powered by Expand Collapse
