I wasn’t going to recap Boys Planet (and technically, I’m still not doing it), but I’m watching the series and thought others might appreciate a spot to discuss it. So, each week I plan on dumping a few of my random thoughts about the show. Again, this will not be a full, detailed recap. But, if you have something you want to mention make sure to include it in the comments!
EDIT: I’m a day early this week! Don’t get used to it, though. These will be on Sundays from now on 🙂
Thoughts on BOYS PLANET Episode One
Thoughts on BOYS PLANET Episode Two
The Unbearable Length
I’d like to put forth a law hereby proclaiming that no single episode of a K-pop survival series should run longer than two hours. Seriously, there’s no reason to sit through nearly three hours of this. The only way I can manage is to watch it in pieces.
So, what should they edit out?
- Many of the signal song auditions, which begin to sound the same (ie: bad) after awhile.
- All of the choosing. Choosing members, choosing songs, choosing competitors, choosing positions, choosing centers, choosing leaders, choosing abs. There’s way too much choosing, and choosing isn’t particularly interesting to watch. (Even choosing via arm wrestling has its limits.)
Just for reference, the first performance of this episode didn’t start until… an hour and forty-five minutes in. Yes, you could watch an entire feature-length film before getting to the music. Hell, I could charter a flight to Boys Planet in the time it takes these episodes to get going.
The Idol Caste System… er… I Mean, the “Signal Stage”
The stage looks like a big wedding cake this year. Hanbin gets the coveted center spot and, honestly, he deserves it.
“K” vs. “G” Group Battle
Apart from one or two tracks, the song selections this round were very good. I was happy to see the producers lean into older hits by BTS, EXO and Seventeen. And, there were a fair amount of vocal-focused options.
Since the producers insist on hyping this K vs. G schtick, I’ll pick my favorite performance of each song below.
Seventeen – Very Nice
Both teams were shaky, but K definitely did better due to the strength of a vocalist or two (Seung Eon in particular). It was still a pretty unbalanced stage, though.
My pick: K Team
The winners: K Team
BLACKPINK – Kill This Love
I know this is a huge iconic mega hit, but I just can’t with this song. Still, it’s a decent showcase for charisma and feels tailor-made for a competition show like this. Team G was my clear favorite. They just seemed comfortable and confident and that made the performance easy to watch.
My pick: G Team
The winners: G Team
EXO – Love Me Right
We only saw the G Team’s performance this week so we’ll have to see what the K Team brings. But other than Jay, the vocals on this were rough…
The thumbnail of this video is me waiting every morning for Woollim to make a comeback announcement:
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Snorted at the caste system joke 😭
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“choosing abs”
I died ORZ
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Why are they choosing abs?
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Haha it’s for the performance of Wanna One’s Burn It Up where someone has to lift their shirt. An entire segment of the episode was focused on it!
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Thank you for recapping this because a hour and forty-five minute wait before the first performance??? I cannot lol
I do have a couple of questions for those of you (including Nick) who are watching the show.
1) Do you all think that Hui has a realistic chance to make the final lineup? I know his participation was discussed a lot before the show has started, but I wonder if some of the initial buzz/controversy has worn off enough for people to get a sense if he actually has a chance to make it.
2) Do you all think that the final lineup is going to be influenced by the whole K vs G “battle”? Online, I see so many people having favorites in both the K and G groups, and there seems to be less tension online about the potential nationality breakdown of the final group as compared to Girls Planet.
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1. Hui has such a large chance to make it in. I don’t think it’s 100% in Hanbin’s or Zhanghao’s case but definitely around 80%. In my opinion though I’m hoping he doesn’t debut cause he’s wayyyyyy too good for the show.
2. I don’t think the K vs G ‘gimmick’, though I don’t like it, will influence the lineup that much. I didn’t wtch girl’s planet but I know the voting was very intense since Mnet didn’t deliver the promise of 3 koreans, 3 japanese and 3 chinese. When the voters realised they hurried to vote for foreign trainees, especially xiaoqing. If you ask me the whole k vs g is just a ploy for mnet to edit how they do and push certain trainees to the top.
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My concern is that hui wouldn’t be able to promote with pentagon if he gets into the winning group. Pentagon has already been away for a long time
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Hmm, I must probably be the only person in the whole world then who would pick K-team for KTL 🥲😭
I loved both performances – no doubt that KTL stages were the best that day – and G-team definitely was amazing. And I see everyone calling them the “Avengers” team and all that… and idk if this makes sense but I think just like the Avengers while they were all good, clearly the Iron Mans and Captain Americas and Dr Stranges end up being more dominant performers than the rest.
On the other hand for the K-team I felt they were all dominant performers yet they all harmonized really well and made me actually sit up and take note of all of them. I only knew Hwanhee from before but the other guys were quite fantastic as well and I’m gonna be watching them.
Both performances were really good yet for me alone K-team’s felt better as a team 😅
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I would pick K Group too. G group was very correct. I like K more because they were more badass. This performance this performance confirmed my belief that Gunwook deserves to debut. It’s a pity that I have the impression that the program makes him a villain (that other trainees are afraid of him, etc.). And after this episode I saw a lot of people commenting that he is indeed talented but arrogant. After all, thanks to this boy, something was created out of nothing – a group was created that could compete with the other as equals.
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Same picks for the stages.
My condolences to Hwanhee for getting himself wrapped around Gun wook’s finger. Idk if I like Gun wook or not but he knows how to get screentime that’s for sure.
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I only watched episode 2 and 3 yesterday so apologies if the whole hwanhee was episode 2, my memory’s blurry from the binging.
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Gunwook just did a very smart thing. As I mentioned earlier in the comment, thanks to him, a strong group was created that could compete with the other as equals. If they had split up to other groups there would have been even more poor performances.
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Yeah true, he knows how to make strong performances. I can respect him for that.
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I’m biased towards G group but regardless of that I preferred their performances. While K group’s Aju Nice was more sound technically, I felt G group embodied the spirit better, plus they had to work through language barriers. KTL G group killed K group in every way, especially styling…K group was way too aggressively masculine. In LMR Haruto really stood out for me in terms of dance and rap. Overall a cohesive, joyful performance, despite some iffy vocals (Anthonny).
Nick, would you consider linking the performance versions without the reaction shots next time? They seem so distracting…
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I agree about Kill This Love K group being way too aggro. They were all kill, no love.
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I stumbled onto this blog by chance. But the post was amusing and I just caught up on Boy’s Planet last night so also timely.
Completely agree on the too much choosing! And, surprised they didn’t air the complete signal song performance given the 2 hours and 43 minutes of other content that was included. It seems like they spent so much time building up to the signal song and then it just fizzled out and they moved on to team battles.
Any chance there will be similar posts for Peak Time?
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First and probably only time watching this style of reality show, mostly because I feel sorry for Hui. 7 year curse + enlistment can destroy any boy group and Pentagon never really made it big enough to feel secure.
First thought, how on earth does anyone form an opinion when there are so many contestants? It’s obvious whoever mnet wants to have attention will get more screen time. Do these people aleady have fan bases or something?
Peak Time is a better show. I can enjoy because I have zero emotional attachement to any of the groups. Even when I look them up after performances I still have no idea who they are lol.
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> how on earth does anyone form an opinion when there are so many contestants?
Well, there’s a lot of pre-show content that Mnet releases on Youtube to build hype, and unlike the actual show every contestant gets more or less the same amount of screentime in it. For Boys Planet they released the signal song focus cams, personal PR videos (which are always fun to watch) and three variety-style segments (one solo challenge and two games they played in duos) before the show started to air.
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Thank you once again for taking one for the team. 3 flippin hours? Which can be boiled down to 5 performance total. 180 minutes for 15 minutes of content.
Aju Nice! Really is a fine choice for because it is a rather challenging song for nugus. _The_ breakout song for Seventeen. Vocally, the showcase for the DK + SK + a smattering of everyone else. The Sammy Hagar School of the High Scream (TM). (Link at bottom for a sampling) The dance has so many interesting and fun moves. Plus in the end it has to be a bright song that feels effortless and effervescent.
I think the G was almost just as good as the K group, but were more nervous, and that nervousness throws everything else off, especially the vocals. They didn’t ease into the performance.
Kill This Love: My only thought is that I had the cc clicked on, and for the first time I heard or read most of the lyrics, and wait, _that_ is what they are saying, ok fine.
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I agree with your (and the show’s) winning groups. Aju Nice G group was good (loved that Cong is getting better and better), but K group had more energy. Plus they added elements—Mingyu’s “Jinjja?” and “Nado!” adlibs, Seoweon pointing to the sky as he and Woongi walked to the back, that extra group “woah!” at one point—that were in the spirit of the song.
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