If you’re a fan of K-Pop, there is a large chance you have heard of the Produce series. You know, the show that created I.O.I, Wanna One and IZ*ONE. Yes, the show that had that crazy scandal back in November when times were simpler, and people could still have schedules to cancel because of their crazy scandals?
Yeah well, I had never watched it. Even though it seemed to be a turning point for the K-Pop industry, I had never been a fan of elimination reality shows. Especially the ones in Korea. I have trauma from mere clips of Sixteen, an elimination reality show that created Asia’s biggest girl group TWICE. Maybe I’m just too emotional, but some of the words told to those young girls were just awful. I wouldn’t dare watch a full episode of anything similar to that.
Until this past week, when I watched the first season of Produce 101.
Produce is an elimination reality show created by Mnet, a television network most popularly known for broadcasting idol related content.
If you have never seen an episode, Produce focuses on a select number of trainees from different companies as they complete challenges related to becoming an idol. Every week there is a different task, and the trainees are eliminated based purely on audience vote, both live and online.
At first, I was cautious, especially because I knew most of the trainees on this show. A majority of them are in groups that I love and didn’t think I would be able to handle it if they were given self-esteem blowing critiques. However, I soon came to find out that this would not be the case.
Each trainee was evaluated three separate times. Once in an audition, once in a group, and once individually. They then put them into a training rank, so that the celebrity trainers knew how to approach their teaching methods. It was actually really fun to witness because these trainers were set on improving the trainees they were handed, rather than seeing any of them as hopeless.
There was little to no critiques on appearance by the trainers when there usually are on reality shows of this kind which I loved. On top of that, all of the girls participating seemed to have a drive to learn and do better. As well as help each other even though they were competing. One specific scenario of this would be when Sohye, an actress who had never sang or danced before was given extra practice lessons by her team member Sejeong in order to help her improve. It was one of the sweetest moments of the whole program. (I think Sohye is now one of my favorite idols, but that’s a whole different rant.)
The show did a wonderful job of keeping me on my toes, even though I had the comfort of knowing who wins in the end, I still found myself feeling emotions of anger, sadness, happiness, and nervousness. If you want to watch an idol reality show but you are soft hearted, I would definitely suggest Produce 101 season 1. Only season one though because well… who else is serving like Somi?
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