kpopwinemom | Wild Idol Episode 4!

I have no memories of this episode!

They are BACK and they have new clothes. I have heard this is a separate weekend? So they got to go home and now they are back.

They are in TEAMS now! Some of these teams were smart picks and some of them I am questioning a little bit.

Little Gunwook is a leader LOL I think he is the youngest on the whole show. He is precious and I love him.

The Gold Box cracked me up like did all the budget go into the tower...no budget for food, no budget for Gold Box, we will simply give you a cardboard box! OK! Also I feel like the items in the box did not prove to be all that useful imo?

The boats! The one boy swimming behind the boat...no. God, what are these boys thinking? Anyway, this was very much a team event! paddling a boat is not hard, you just really need to work together. Brute strength doesn't make that much of a difference in boating unless you're like an Elite Rowing Team.

Ace said he thought these were dances all male trainees likely had to learn, and I think he is right. Some of these I have seen on every show this year: 2pm's My House, particularly, which I now HAAAAATE. I do believe it is a basic trainee dance. But yeah, 90 minutes to learn a song and dance...wow, that is hard! They did very well for it except one group.

I also watched this a week ago lol, so I'm going off of fading memories...

I'm glad we finally got to the "teamwork" portion of the programming, although it was mildly funny/annoying that they so quickly tried to start drama by having the groups pick someone to leave. Very little drama resulted from it though lmao. The boys are playing nicely.

What else do I recall...I remain curious about the age spread of these contestants. Like, Gunwook is maybe the yongest one there in this remaining 14, but who is the oldest? What's the median age? I am resisting the urge to look this up to avoid spoilers, but day by day, I weaken.

The 90-minute choreo was honestly really impressive to me. I do think that they are likely to have studied all these dances in the past if they've been training for a bit, but even so. Even the contestants who didn't do as well did amazingly for only having 90 minutes to prepare. Idols so often make this stuff look easy, but actually they are pretty damn talented/experienced/both even here at the trainee stage.

This episode - unsurprisingly since we're down to a manageable number of trainees for my brain to keep track of - is where I really started having Feelings, Oh No
- this week they are a herd of gnu, I am learning so much
- I thought they MUST have gone and come back, they are clearly CLEAN in a way they weren't last week, I hope and pray that for 14 trainees there is some kind of shower situation now. Although I note the food is no better :(
- Groups! At last some teamwork points! I am amused because I've now seen these methodologies for creating Reality Show Drama at least somewhere before (this was how they picked teams in Physical 100) but yes as mentioned above they create commendably little tension about it all. I do think that in this very challenging context they probably have an enhanced sense of it being all of THEM versus the production team tbh
- 2pm My House! A song I know entirely through it being covered on reality and variety! The cover section was fun, I liked having the original singers there
- Making them swap people was mean - probably fair for how they need to ensure these kids can trauma bond to whoever they are put with, but still not pleasant. I do feel for Ju An always number one and now bottom, I'm not surprised he volunteered... but who will swap where?

Watching this is making so much sense of the way Gunwook behaved in the first episodes of Boys Planet and why he was confident and had that aura, which initially won him a bit of a villain edit poor lad and then everyone fell for him and he was maknae-fied. I am SO GLAD I know that he makes it to A debut group.

LOL the cardboard box. It was 'golden' in the most aspirational sense of the world. I guess the items in the box had to be something that would do OK in a cardboard box in a river? Which was limiting.

I have been totally ensnared by 'My House', I love it :D

Guessing people's ages is a fascinating enterprise! One thing these shows remind us (and I've been watching some pre-debut Seventeen content recently too) is that puberty is a spectrum that hits at different rates and to different levels! I do think talent-spotter producer people must have to get very good at predicting which particular 14 year old is going to Grow Up Wide.

Yeah all the challenges here are impressive. Like I've kind of got used to the idea that they're in the wild but they're IN THE WILD with no mirrors or proper sound system or anything, that really is harder than most.

The maknae-fication of Gunwook is the funniest thing in the world to me. I think he seems like a sweet kid lol, he just...isn't Baby the way industry likes the youngest (second youngest!) to be, he's self-assured and has his own (not sweet) sense of style and person. But now he is in ZB1, they are definitely sweetening up his image and it is CRACKING ME UP. Him in Matthew's birthday live yesterday was hysterical bc he is like watching Matthew and Jiwoong flirt like Oh My God Not Them Too Why is Everyone In This Group Fucking

IDK I don't think they are great at predicting who will grow up wide so much as putting them in a situation from a young age that develops a certain type of muscles?

For Sure tho it is funny to see - especially with boys, who get hit MUCH later on average, who is 16-17 and still looks 12. High school is so miserably awkward because you have grown women and elementary school boys IN ONE CLASS ROOM.

I do feel like this show is likely to skew older just because of the physical demands! But yeah, I really want to look it up...

You're CAUGHT UP!!!!! Hell yeah!

Yeah, it's time to Know The Boys!

The boys have been bathed and shined up for us LOL

But yeah, still airplane food, so sad.

Oh My God the swapping was sooooo bizarre but I loved seeing who was like IM OUT BYE that was great and also just smart!

NCT Dream (I think) once said that SM straight has a staff member/consultant on call who is very accurate at predicting how people will look after they grow up and that is part of SM's casting process for the younger folks...but given the program they said this on, they might have been joking or exaggerating. It wouldn't surprise me if it's true though since looks matter a lot in the industry.

Edited 2023-05-29 22:17 (UTC)

They totally do lol

What I mean is for muscle specifically though: a lot of that is controlled by diet and specific exercise done. Like how we were talking about Heuningkai the other day being BROADER if they let him (kid would be so ripped I s2g)

Yes exactly, he seems like a lovely young man but he is really not a baby.

And ah yes I've seen some snippets of that live, SORRY GUNWOOK XD

Yeah I was honestly imagining that scenario, that there's a kind of teenage boy whisperer who can assess a 12 year old and go YEP THEM BONES'LL GROW. Talent scouts must have some kind of ability even unconscious with this.

Bathed and Combed! I really really hope with fewer of them there is more of a bathroom offering. They've got to be thinking of their long-term image pre-debut etc.

I found a new K-reality on Netflix 'Siren: Survive the Island' which is a physical competition between 6 groups of 4 women from strength-based fields (firefighters, police, army, stunts, bodyguards and athletes) it is possibly the lesbian-est reality show ever, but my POINT is they have to run over mudflats and it made me think of Wild Idol lol

OMG....Idk about this new reality show...I might look it up...

Wild Idol Episode 4!

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