Rap is my least favorite of the three disciplines here, but the performance was still exciting and all four of them did well. Once again wishing we could get lyrics translations, especially for these self-written bits.
My main thought is that Jisung looks much nicer with his hair off of his forehead lol. Now that the groups are smaller and I’m looking for it more, I’ve noticed that Yoonho is definitely the strongest just in terms of general performance in this set. He seems more comfortable putting on a show and interacting with cameras. And this performance, I guess, is ultimately why Gunwook didn’t make it into the final lineup. I wonder behind the scenes how much his not winning here is genuinely because they thought Jisung shone more in this performance, and how much was also potentially influenced by management not actually wanting Gunwook to debut quite yet, and thus they found reasons not to crown him the winner.
Dance time! I’m not particularly invested in anyone in this unit, so I didn’t pay much attention dfldsjlj but I expected this to be probably the hardest choice for the judges, and it seems like that was the case. I do think Changsun deserved the win because 1) he is that good and 2) he has been doing so much additional work on this show as an unofficial leader that doesn’t necessarily translate into points.
Time for what I’ve been waiting for: vocal performance! Sherlock! I thought they handled it well, although I did feel that Jaeeok was really the only one who suited the song. Juan is a great singer, but his style and strengths don’t match with this kind of song to me. Actually, this is the first time that Hyunyeop stood out to me because I thought he suited Sherlock second-best, if I had to pick a second-best. Anyway, after much discussion, Jaeeok won this section! It’s kind of nuts that even with three (or more?) individual wins like this, he still ultimately doesn’t make the cut for the final seven. I’ve noticed that compared to earlier episodes, in these back-in-civilization episodes he seems more discouraged, uncertain, and quiet. I wonder what happened in the time in between for that change.
On to the final stage…but first, we get a little bit of variety-show style, expose your fellow members content! I thought this was really fun and it managed to show waaaay more of the contestants’ personalities and relationships in just a few minutes than all the prior episodes did. Jisung and Sunghyuk really shone in this portion as good talkers and entertainers. They’ve been funny and endearing their cutaway interviews too, so I guess it isn’t surprising. I dearly wish we got to see all 14 contestants in the hot seat…would gladly watch all of that shoot uncut, tbh.
Small sidebar: I noticed when Jaeeok was in the hot seat that someone made a comment alluding to Jaeeok complaining about his back…I already knew he had back issues from digging around, so again, I wonder if he left the industry because of a career-ending injury or to prevent further damage. Hoping that he is still training somewhere and will debut eventually though.
Also, very glad that someone called out Hyunyeop for getting first place with the voters during the Answer stage for NO CLEAR REASON. During the interim check at the end of this episode, he was once again in first place. What the hell was going on with this dude’s popularity…like, I genuinely have no hate toward him, he is decently skilled and seems like a nice guy, but it still annoys me a bit that he coasted through this show nearly solely on fan voting while plenty of more talented contestants won’t make the cut in the end. (For real. He only made it into the 16-cut because of fan votes. And he has not earned ANY points in-game individually from what I recall. All his points were acquired through team matches -in which he was never/rarely a standout with judges or fellow contestants- and fan voting. To be fair, I might have forgotten something.) Popularity is definitely an asset in and of itself in this field, but… I don’t know, it peeves me lol.
OH MY GOD I continue to mix up Jaeeok and Hyunyeop...you will see in my confused comment below. I don't know either.
Yunho did not stand out to me at all. I just. Wasn't impressed by him. I thought Jisung was really good and Gunwook was fine. I did begin to wonder about what it would look like to see Gunwook and the other ZB1 boys in a group that suits their skills and personalities...I think Hao and Matthew and Yujin are well suited but it seems immature for a lot of the other boys but I guess we will see where they go!
I thought they were all good in Sherlock, no one particular member stood out to me.
I also barely watched the dancing. I simply do not care.
On to the final stage…but first, we get a little bit of variety-show style, expose your fellow members content! I thought this was really fun and it managed to show waaaay more of the contestants’ personalities and relationships in just a few minutes than all the prior episodes did. THIS. And this, honestly, is what lures me into groups/bands. Way back when I was dipping my toes into Kpop, I was impressed by BTS dance routines but struggling to understand how to care about them as people, and then I discovered the variety content and suddenly I fell deep and hard and needed all the fic :D
'The love of 3 men is more complicated than any wild animal' - great romance novel pull quote, thank you show
It's really interesting that point about contestants who fans seem to adore for no particularly discernible reason, I've seen a few in a couple of survival shows I've watched now. Clearly looks has something to do with it, sometimes people seem to know more about them from social media content or something, sometimes I think it's just Migratory Blorbo Enjoyers, as it were.... I think there are influencers for this sort of thing too.
I know people follow a lot of pre debut/social content now...during boys planet everyone seemed to be following the boys personal instas! It's crazy to have lines blurred so much now. You really can go right to the source and chat with these boys like you would with your friends, and that's the case with a lot of reality content. Big name stars are all on social now, causally chatting up fans. There aren't a lot of boundaries anymore, but that's you know a different story.
OK! So I think by and far the vocal group had the best performance. They stuck to one song and did it through, highlighting each member AND working together. The other groups picking multiple songs just didn't jive as nicely. Particularly the dance combo...what were those boys thinking pairing those two songs.
I think in rap, Jisung really stood out. He has great charisma and performance skills! He mentioned that he and Gunwook are the youngest, and I didn't realize that! He's actually only a few months older than Gunwook with an August birthday, and Gunwook in January, so they were the same age for this filming since Gunwook would have had his birthday but Jisung wouldn't have had his yet. Two babies!
Yunho was unique in his performance in that he sang a bit, but he didn't stand out to me. Third guy growled and had a more interesting stage, but really Jisung took the cake.
I also thought Jisung was more grounded in how he received feedback. He seemed to know that the rap experts were talking to him to make him better, not to tell him he was doing poorly, and he really embraced it and...improved, and they noticed it. That really stood out to me, both how he talked about it and how he took it to heart. He was also so excited to work with the experts, and it really made me think about career highlights and steps on a path (House on a Hill, Eric Nam and The Dreaming, Monsta X) in that what are the moments that really to you are "going places, making progress, big career steps" and I think Jisung was really right to celebrate that. Even if he didn't make it into the final group, he made it here: to this place where two amazing celebrated experts in his field were working with him on his own project. It's something I want to take to heart in my own work: work hard to get there, but don't ignore the steps along the way, and celebrate success in the myriad ways it appears to you.
Dance...I like the Troye Sivan song, but I don't think the choreo to it particularly stood out. They seemed to be doing modern/lyrical/contemporary choreo, and it just...wasn't anything special. ANd then they switched styles completely for the Imagine Dragons song and it didn't mesh well. The combo of the two songs was questionable to me.
Nothing about that sequence was remarkable imo.
Vocals! They were SO good. Their voices really blended and meshed well together and they all sounded amazing. I think they picked a good song, too - Jonghyun has a really powerful and unique vocal, so all of their various vocal colors fit the style of the song really well. I was particularly suprised by how tall boy blended so nicely, his voice is so trot styled I thought he would stand out but they ALL stood out and sounded great.
That being said the judges were on some bullshit here. Juann sang better but little guy was "more essential to the performance and if it was 1:1 Juann would have won but as is little guy wins" what the fuck were they on about. That was ????? I was just OK WHAT
Someone really said "this man shall be in the final group" and the judges said "Yes your highness"
The discussion about the boys I was like...UH IDK where this is going so that was a thing that happened.
I continue to think I just really do not know these boys at ALL. I wonder if there are extra youtube footages?
Someone really said "this man shall be in the final group" and the judges said "Yes your highness" YEP
I continue to think I just really do not know these boys at ALL. I wonder if there are extra youtube footages? I agree. It's interesting to contrast this with Boys Planet, where we were constantly being sold personalities and arcs.
Agree Sherlock was easily the standout. It did something interesting with a great original. Hated the outfits but I can live with that!
Late to the watchparty to say that alongside similar views about the qualities of the 3 performances, I am WEIRDLY DISCOMBOBULATED by them all being indoors. Where is the rain? Can it really be 'Wild Idol' if I'm not struggling to figure out which boy is which when they're soaked to the skin and wearing identically coloured neon raincoats?
Some chat above about not feeling we know the boys, and I do think the lack of identification didn't help this. Like in any group scene, you'd generally struggle to figure out who was stood next to who, who was whispering, who was patting each on the back etc
Also, any more strength trials? I feel like they would have really really stayed true to the concept if it had been like: vocal, dance, rap, everybody bench press 25kg
So glad, watching this, to know that Gunwook gets his chance in the end. He's so big and so baby!
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2023-07-25 04:35 pm (UTC)Rap is my least favorite of the three disciplines here, but the performance was still exciting and all four of them did well. Once again wishing we could get lyrics translations, especially for these self-written bits.
My main thought is that Jisung looks much nicer with his hair off of his forehead lol. Now that the groups are smaller and I’m looking for it more, I’ve noticed that Yoonho is definitely the strongest just in terms of general performance in this set. He seems more comfortable putting on a show and interacting with cameras. And this performance, I guess, is ultimately why Gunwook didn’t make it into the final lineup. I wonder behind the scenes how much his not winning here is genuinely because they thought Jisung shone more in this performance, and how much was also potentially influenced by management not actually wanting Gunwook to debut quite yet, and thus they found reasons not to crown him the winner.
Dance time! I’m not particularly invested in anyone in this unit, so I didn’t pay much attention dfldsjlj but I expected this to be probably the hardest choice for the judges, and it seems like that was the case. I do think Changsun deserved the win because 1) he is that good and 2) he has been doing so much additional work on this show as an unofficial leader that doesn’t necessarily translate into points.
Time for what I’ve been waiting for: vocal performance! Sherlock! I thought they handled it well, although I did feel that Jaeeok was really the only one who suited the song. Juan is a great singer, but his style and strengths don’t match with this kind of song to me. Actually, this is the first time that Hyunyeop stood out to me because I thought he suited Sherlock second-best, if I had to pick a second-best. Anyway, after much discussion, Jaeeok won this section! It’s kind of nuts that even with three (or more?) individual wins like this, he still ultimately doesn’t make the cut for the final seven. I’ve noticed that compared to earlier episodes, in these back-in-civilization episodes he seems more discouraged, uncertain, and quiet. I wonder what happened in the time in between for that change.
On to the final stage…but first, we get a little bit of variety-show style, expose your fellow members content! I thought this was really fun and it managed to show waaaay more of the contestants’ personalities and relationships in just a few minutes than all the prior episodes did. Jisung and Sunghyuk really shone in this portion as good talkers and entertainers. They’ve been funny and endearing their cutaway interviews too, so I guess it isn’t surprising. I dearly wish we got to see all 14 contestants in the hot seat…would gladly watch all of that shoot uncut, tbh.
Small sidebar: I noticed when Jaeeok was in the hot seat that someone made a comment alluding to Jaeeok complaining about his back…I already knew he had back issues from digging around, so again, I wonder if he left the industry because of a career-ending injury or to prevent further damage. Hoping that he is still training somewhere and will debut eventually though.
Also, very glad that someone called out Hyunyeop for getting first place with the voters during the Answer stage for NO CLEAR REASON. During the interim check at the end of this episode, he was once again in first place. What the hell was going on with this dude’s popularity…like, I genuinely have no hate toward him, he is decently skilled and seems like a nice guy, but it still annoys me a bit that he coasted through this show nearly solely on fan voting while plenty of more talented contestants won’t make the cut in the end. (For real. He only made it into the 16-cut because of fan votes. And he has not earned ANY points in-game individually from what I recall. All his points were acquired through team matches -in which he was never/rarely a standout with judges or fellow contestants- and fan voting. To be fair, I might have forgotten something.) Popularity is definitely an asset in and of itself in this field, but… I don’t know, it peeves me lol.
no subject
Date: 2023-07-25 11:13 pm (UTC)Yunho did not stand out to me at all. I just. Wasn't impressed by him. I thought Jisung was really good and Gunwook was fine. I did begin to wonder about what it would look like to see Gunwook and the other ZB1 boys in a group that suits their skills and personalities...I think Hao and Matthew and Yujin are well suited but it seems immature for a lot of the other boys but I guess we will see where they go!
I thought they were all good in Sherlock, no one particular member stood out to me.
I also barely watched the dancing. I simply do not care.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-12 07:55 am (UTC)THIS. And this, honestly, is what lures me into groups/bands. Way back when I was dipping my toes into Kpop, I was impressed by BTS dance routines but struggling to understand how to care about them as people, and then I discovered the variety content and suddenly I fell deep and hard and needed all the fic :D
'The love of 3 men is more complicated than any wild animal' - great romance novel pull quote, thank you show
It's really interesting that point about contestants who fans seem to adore for no particularly discernible reason, I've seen a few in a couple of survival shows I've watched now. Clearly looks has something to do with it, sometimes people seem to know more about them from social media content or something, sometimes I think it's just Migratory Blorbo Enjoyers, as it were.... I think there are influencers for this sort of thing too.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-14 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-07-25 11:07 pm (UTC)I think in rap, Jisung really stood out. He has great charisma and performance skills! He mentioned that he and Gunwook are the youngest, and I didn't realize that! He's actually only a few months older than Gunwook with an August birthday, and Gunwook in January, so they were the same age for this filming since Gunwook would have had his birthday but Jisung wouldn't have had his yet. Two babies!
Yunho was unique in his performance in that he sang a bit, but he didn't stand out to me. Third guy growled and had a more interesting stage, but really Jisung took the cake.
I also thought Jisung was more grounded in how he received feedback. He seemed to know that the rap experts were talking to him to make him better, not to tell him he was doing poorly, and he really embraced it and...improved, and they noticed it. That really stood out to me, both how he talked about it and how he took it to heart. He was also so excited to work with the experts, and it really made me think about career highlights and steps on a path (House on a Hill, Eric Nam and The Dreaming, Monsta X) in that what are the moments that really to you are "going places, making progress, big career steps" and I think Jisung was really right to celebrate that. Even if he didn't make it into the final group, he made it here: to this place where two amazing celebrated experts in his field were working with him on his own project. It's something I want to take to heart in my own work: work hard to get there, but don't ignore the steps along the way, and celebrate success in the myriad ways it appears to you.
Dance...I like the Troye Sivan song, but I don't think the choreo to it particularly stood out. They seemed to be doing modern/lyrical/contemporary choreo, and it just...wasn't anything special. ANd then they switched styles completely for the Imagine Dragons song and it didn't mesh well. The combo of the two songs was questionable to me.
Nothing about that sequence was remarkable imo.
Vocals! They were SO good. Their voices really blended and meshed well together and they all sounded amazing. I think they picked a good song, too - Jonghyun has a really powerful and unique vocal, so all of their various vocal colors fit the style of the song really well. I was particularly suprised by how tall boy blended so nicely, his voice is so trot styled I thought he would stand out but they ALL stood out and sounded great.
That being said the judges were on some bullshit here. Juann sang better but little guy was "more essential to the performance and if it was 1:1 Juann would have won but as is little guy wins" what the fuck were they on about. That was ????? I was just OK WHAT
Someone really said "this man shall be in the final group" and the judges said "Yes your highness"
The discussion about the boys I was like...UH IDK where this is going so that was a thing that happened.
I continue to think I just really do not know these boys at ALL. I wonder if there are extra youtube footages?
no subject
Date: 2023-07-25 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-12 07:57 am (UTC)YEP
I continue to think I just really do not know these boys at ALL. I wonder if there are extra youtube footages?
I agree. It's interesting to contrast this with Boys Planet, where we were constantly being sold personalities and arcs.
Agree Sherlock was easily the standout. It did something interesting with a great original. Hated the outfits but I can live with that!
no subject
Date: 2023-08-14 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-12 08:02 am (UTC)Some chat above about not feeling we know the boys, and I do think the lack of identification didn't help this. Like in any group scene, you'd generally struggle to figure out who was stood next to who, who was whispering, who was patting each on the back etc
Also, any more strength trials? I feel like they would have really really stayed true to the concept if it had been like: vocal, dance, rap, everybody bench press 25kg
So glad, watching this, to know that Gunwook gets his chance in the end. He's so big and so baby!
no subject
Date: 2023-08-14 03:35 pm (UTC)Agree with vocal, dance rap, bench press! Would have been hysterical.