The Glory, Season 2, was released on March 10th, 2023. The show follows a woman who plots revenge on her bullies from high school, years later.  Throughout the show, the viewers see the graphic scenes on what her abusers would do: beat her, kick her, and sear her with a curling iron. As a viewer, it made me personally uncomfortable to watch as these type of abuse are extreme. As the characters became adults, we see the woman plotting her revenge. Especially since the damage they did to her mentally and physically were still there as she grew up. As this show grew in popularity, controversies surrounding the show stirred. Controversies such as the producer from the show could potentially be a bully, and the depictions between bullying in films,  to what happens in real life.

According to sources, a viewer who was watching the show recognized the name of one of the producers.  They alleged that the producer was a school bully himself and thought it was ironic a former school bully is making a drama about school bullying. The person also stated that the bullying occurred around 1996, when they were in middle school while the producer was a high schooler. They mentioned how the producer was in a relationship with their classmate, stating that they teased him for it. Because of their thoughts on the relationship, the producer ordered his friends to bring the person and his friends to him. When they arrived, they were assaulted by the producer. When these allegations came out, the producer did apologize. The person that talked about his experience also stated they did not care about how successful he became. The hypocrisy of a producer, who as a bully himself, and made a drama about bullying was fascinating.

There are also talks about how this drama could possibly be based on an actual event. The disturbing events that were seen in the show were based on a real life incident that happened in 2006. This incident took place at a girl’s school in Cheongju, Korea. In that case, three 9th grade girls bullied their classmate: including burning her skin and hospitalization for injuries. The most notable scene from the drama was when the bullies would use a curling want to burn the skin of the victim. That incident was also based from that real life event. It also represented that years later, both the character in the drama, and the victim from 2006, survived from the bullying. She was left with long term trauma and scars. Years later, the victim came across their social media pages and found out that they were currently registered nurses. Which is ironic that they would leave scars on their victims, but they were saving lives years later.

Due to the popularity of this drama, it stirred up controversies and highlighted the seriousness of bullying. In both cases, irony and hypocrisy are evident regarding how the bullies become successful, and are using the show to sympathize people against bullying. Yet, the victims themselves are left with both physical and emotional damage from the incident.