Boys Planet (Mnet) Episode 8
Apr. 2nd, 2023 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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paradisedinerReaction and discussion post for episode 8 of Boys Planet! Thoughts, reflections, ramblings all welcome. This week after another round of position-wrangling in the teams, I'm pondering how much the idea of 'who gets the killing part?' forms discussion in debuted groups and if the part is actually fixed or depends on the person delivering it...
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Date: 2023-04-02 09:54 am (UTC)For En Garde…I hated the fakeout swapping parts with Gunwook…not a funny prank, just…mean. Like…why do this? (I am assuming that the producers told them to.) This, paralleling Matthew’s actual misery, which I’ll talk about more later, was just…not fun! I don’t like to see these boys cry! I did love Hui presenting the roles formally, making it fun. But when they got their evaluation and the judge just ripped into them? WHAT the heck was that? I thought they did amazingly well, they were one of the best rehearsal performances we’ve seen on the show! Their vocals sounded strong even while dancing…it seemed like he was just mad they came late to rehearsal but OMG let the boys sleep. Like practice is good but it’s not gonna help if you are falling over exhausted. That was MISERABLE and I hated it. They were already fine! I also really liked their performance. I though they were so good! Very strong vocally, and the dancing was great.
NOT a lot to say about the Super Charger team. I just Liked Them. I think they did great. I do think it’s bizarre part of their choreo is making the sign of the cross? What is the reasoning behind that…very weird to me personally! I was happy to see Haruto get the most points, he was so good and I love him…
Say My Name…well they sure spent a lot of time torturing us! That was awful, oh my God. I felt so bad for Matthew. I hate seeing it. I hate it. I knew that they weren’t gonna let us see the performance…it just sucked. I hate everything about it. I guess he got screentime? Maybe people will feel bad for him and vote for him? I don’t know. They all seem to still get along, though, there were all those clips with Matthew cuddling with Jiwoong, who I am warming up to. I liked seeing him in Holland’s music video. It makes me like him more.
I loved seeing them perform for their parents and friends! That was SOOO cute. I didn’t know Kamden is a twin! Kamden and Kade, apparently. The competition for the food was also fun. LOL at Jay catching everything! This was also where we got the cute shots of Jiwoong and Matthew…You guys, I just love Matthew. He’s my son. I just think he is sweet.
A few more things (I am writing this in Word immediately post seeing the episode, so I am verbose today!) I am so happy they are going to release the singles, because I really like them. They are jams and bops. My mom even likes En Garde!
Also, has anyone noticed how diverse the audience is? Normally when we see audiences for Korean performances, it’s mostly an ethnically Korean audience, which, of course. But for the audience for Boys Planet, I’ve noticed a bunch of white and Black fans, which I thought was interesting!
As for killing part...truly I think it does not matter because no matter what they think the coolest part of the song is, I am gonna notice my bias.
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Date: 2023-04-02 10:12 am (UTC)But when they got their evaluation and the judge just ripped into them? WHAT the heck was that? I thought they did amazingly well, they were one of the best rehearsal performances we’ve seen on the show! Their vocals sounded strong even while dancing…it seemed like he was just mad they came late to rehearsal but OMG let the boys sleep.
I thought this was very odd tbh. Like, this is a pretty on-it group, they're not where they are in this competition because they slack off. For them all to be late at once (and everyone else to be bang on time), I am a bit suspicious as to why. I mean maybe they were in a group eating breakfast and they lost track of time all together, but it seems a bit random and there certainly wasn't some thread of them being arrogant or lazy to draw it out as an example of. So yeah I'm raising an eyebrow on that narrative and whether they wanted one of the groups to have a 'they were bad, they got chastised and then they were good' arc and found something to clip it onto... Again it's that sense of what is on camera and what isn't - that we are led to feel like anything noteworthy that happens happens on camera and they're constantly filmed and mic'd up, so we're not 'missing' anything, but if we did get (heaven help us) 24/7 coverage it all might seem different, not to mention the way that being filmed will alter behaviour in both good and bad ways. Hmmm, I do want to read the 'reality TV producer playbook'...
Agree, Say My Name was painful, and as I've said in my note, I think they took one instance of tension over that part assignment and tried to get lots of content from it, when as you say actually in context they do seem to get on - and that can make it harder! It's tough when you have to argue with a work colleague or friend that you like and respect, because you think you need to either for yourself or the task, but it happens. I hated how Hanbin and Jiwoong had to try so gently to tell him it wasn't a hidden camera, because they're all paranoid for hidden cameras now :(
I am glad they're releasing - I think Switch is my favourite
As for killing part...truly I think it does not matter because no matter what they think the coolest part of the song is, I am gonna notice my bias.
Yeah, I feel a bit of that. Although I think as bands get bigger, possibly they try and make more and more parts impactful? Like, with the later BTS stuff I feel like everyone gets their moment (nothing wrong with that) although that might just reflect me really noticing them all because I know them all. I think it could be interesting to go through some high profile songs and see if a bunch of fans agree what the killing part is, and whether that syncs at all to what was intended!
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Date: 2023-04-02 10:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-04-02 09:57 am (UTC)- Anyway you can tell from this rabbit warren I went down that I found this episode slightly harder to engage with for it's own content. I just... feel suspicious of what I'm being shown, like all the En Garde team ALL being late one particular day?
- And the hidden cameras! So that poor old Matthew is half-convinced that when they're trying to ask him to change parts that that's a hidden camera - I mean they're being taught not to trust this way, it's not nice!
- Following on from last week, hard to see what the edit angle is with Matthew. Perhaps in a sense there isn't one, perhaps it was just 'the event' they had to work with for team Say My Name, not least because they seem actually to have milked the same basic event (Matthew being asked to give up Sub Vocal 1 and feeling a bit sad about it) for 3 different narrative segments.
- The business with having to mix and match the groups post-elimination was interesting psychologically. Park Hanbin came off very mature, and Jong Woo! I really felt for the guy. I was interested that we weren't shown most of that deliberation though - OK it was partly so the 'opening the door' could be dramatic, but there had to have been a lot of potentially screen-worthy discussion and tension about it, so not showing it is interesting (and makes me wonder if they did get some steer from the producers)
- Variety content! I do enjoy :D
- The parents bit was quite sweet, most hilarious though the siblings who clearly Were Hoping To Not Be On Camera Actually XD
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Date: 2023-04-02 11:26 am (UTC)I can't think of any examples right now, but sometimes you see a part go viral they clearly did not intent to? And with the cover songs, some of the killing parts weren't assigned in the original group, but that's the part that went viral, so that's the part they want now.
All the boys being late...My thought was that they weren't changing parts, so they didn't need to come early but you're making me wonder! Or maybe they went very late the night before so they slept in the next day
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Date: 2023-04-04 07:40 pm (UTC)Yes I think sometimes something really resonates because of the performer - and then you're right if you're actually doing a cover then it's that part for that reason.
Whatever the reason they were late, I just don't buy that they were being too casual about their preparation - and to be fair, whatever problems any of them (all 98) have had, it's really never been that. They know it's graft.
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Date: 2023-04-06 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-04-03 06:52 pm (UTC)the parts with the parents were so sweet!
the real killing part WAS the charisma we found along the way I feel! they're definitely choreographing parts of the songs to have the opportunity for impact, but I think it's up to the performer to make it into a killing part.
I was really feeling the lack of mentoring in this ep (and in the previous ones too tbh)--like, the mentors don't seem to be (at least in the edit we're shown) mentoring very much? there's been a little one on one help, but in general the comments they give that we're shown are more like test proctors rather than mentors. what's right/wrong (more often wrong) and no real solid advice on how to fix that. I really wish they'd try a little more there; it often seems like the trainees are training each other and picking up the slack
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Date: 2023-04-04 07:43 pm (UTC)Yes absolutely, like they wanted to find things and also that they wanted all the narratives to fit neat good/bad binaries, whereas whilst what happened with Matthew was clearly a bit uncomfortable, as I've said above it really seemed just like the kind of difficult stuff you just do have to work through in a group/creative/professional project. Which would be very interesting in a more nuanced documentary about the process.
You make a very good point about lack of mentoring, it really does seem to have been wound back. I do hope there is more and we're just not seeing it but certainly the initial editing intention was clearly to show us that teaching and now not so much (after all if there was very little teaching they could still show a lot more screen time of it)