BTS: “Permission to Dance” and its Response

Screenshot from the “Permission to Dance” MV featuring Jeon Jungkook, Jung Hoseok (J-Hope), Kim Seokjin (Jin), Min Yoongi (Suga), Kim Taehyung (V), Kim Namjoon (RM), and Park Jimin. Copyright goes to BTS and the Hybe Corporation.

Hey! Hallie here!

One of the major things I was excited to talk about once I returned from vacation was “Permission to Dance”. BTS has been releasing tons of content recently. So much that they’ve become my main source of entertainment for the past few weeks. And that’s even without ‘Run BTS’ episodes! There’s a lot to love about “Permission to Dance” and its music video. But along with diving into these things, I want to talk a bit about the controversy that surrounded this song after it came out. That leaves a lot to cover, so let’s get into this!

The Song:

I’m going to be honest here, “Permission to Dance” isn’t really my thing. I tend to prefer songs that are either more adrenaline pumping or more calming and whimsical. Putting my personal preferences aside though, this song isn’t bad at all! The lyrics have a nice positive message without being necessarily deep, and that’s completely fine! Not every song needs a deep meaning! Ed Sheeran captured a lot of the happiness BTS has been trying to spread recently and I commend him for that. However, if you aren’t an Ed Sheeran fan you might not like this song. He had a big hand in creating it and, if you’re familiar with his work, it’s really evident. But his writing is by no means poor here. It’s a really catchy song that feels very empowering for those who have been going through hard times due to the state of the world right now. Moving past the writing aspect, BTS sings this song really well. There are some crazy notes that Jimin hits that some thought were fake until he performed the song live. Jungkook, as usual, mesmerizes you whenever his part comes up. I also feel that Taehyung and Jin’s richer tones really stand out in this song. And I can’t get over the rap line in this song. Hoseok has given us by far the most singing between the three of them and it’s such a pleasure to hear him brought forward here for a singing part. Namjoon kicks off this song with his voice and I have no idea why he says he can’t sing. His deeper register is so satisfying to hear. As for Yoongi, his part of the song is equally adorable and impressive. I’m not sure if these three are necessarily comfortable with taking up more singing roles in the future, but I know I’ll remain ecstatic every time I get to hear them sing.

The MV:

This music video was so adorable! First off, I want to talk about the choreography. It’s really simple, but it’s so fun to watch that you want to join right in. It feels like it was made for a large amount of people to be able to follow along, and that really goes with the whole message of the song. My favorite part of it is the incorporation of sign language. It’s such a thoughtful addition to the choreo. Moving on, let’s talk about the outfits in this video! I can’t say I expected the Western theming, but it looks really good! The first set of outfits really go for that fringe look. The outfit that stands out most to me here is actually Taehyung’s. While I appreciate the whites and blacks that we see from a lot of the other outfits, the flowy red ensemble on Tae along with the black fringe on his pants gave him some interesting movement and boldness. Halfway through the video they change to the denim outfits. These are also really flattering. I have two standouts here. The first goes to J-Hope simply for pulling off that whole detached jeans look. The shorts with differing leg lengths plus the jean bottom look on the top of his boots could look ridiculous. And yet, Hobi pulls it off. The other stand out, more because I actually love this outfit, belongs to Jin. The incredibly low neck on Jin bias wrecked every ARMY who watched the video. Add in the distressed jeans and the really fun black necklace and I couldn’t look away. Another major thing I enjoyed in this MV was the diversity of everyone in it. There were people of various ages, genders, and races throughout the entire video. The MV was going for a feel of togetherness as we look toward the hopeful end of quarantine and the sheer amount of people we got to see gleefully dancing in this video drove that point home. It’s just a really fun video that puts you in a good mood.

The Controversy:

A lot of people were really supportive of BTS after this release. Who could be upset at all of the positivity they’re spreading? And now that the song is at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, there’s even more proof that ARMY has their back with this release. But there was still a lot of pushback. At first there was some understandable concern from ARMYs. There’s always reason to be concerned about the stupid comments BTS are going to receive from mostly the American media when they release an English song. A lot of the media seems under the impression that every time BTS releases a song in English they’re suddenly going to shift to catering directly to English audiences. All of that is incredibly frustrating for both BTS and ARMYs to deal with. But after this we saw people demanding BTS return to Korean songs and some of their darker concepts. I often prefer their Korean songs because their Korean songs have a more personal touch as a result of being mostly written by the members. But BTS is allowed to branch out. They’re allowed to experiment with English and Japanese and reach out to more audiences. They’re allowed to explore different themes and messages. They can make their own decisions and they choose not to limit themselves. Why should anyone be angry at that? Especially because all of the things they release, no matter what language they’re in, are quality. I said above that “Permission to Dance” isn’t necessarily my taste. But I appreciate the work they put into it and the diversity of their skills. If their newest release isn’t your favorite, go back to the songs that you do like. Don’t demand they only make music that suits you specifically. How does demanding BTS cater to your interests make you any better than the American media?

Those are my thoughts on “Permission to Dance”! I might not return to it as much as their other songs, but I love to see how many people are enjoying this song. It’s giving a lot of people genuine happiness and hope for the future. Plus, another round of really good performances to obsess over. It might not have hit me as hard as “Butter”, but it makes me smile. I love it for that.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

International Dramas: Imitation Episodes 10 and 11

Promotional image of Jeong Yunho from ‘Imitation’. Copyright goes to KBS and Kakao Entertainment.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Obviously, I’ve been gone for a little while and wow did I miss a lot! Once again, thank you for enjoying the posts that we pre-wrote for a week and I’m sorry about the additional week of silence. But we’re back now and hopefully that won’t happen again for a while. Anyways, one of the things I’ve been the most behind on when it comes to writing is literally anything associated with ATEEZ. So, you can bet that my next couple of posts will probably be related to them. I do love them so much and I hope you do too, so hopefully these will be posts for everyone to enjoy. Of course, the most immediate order of business is that there have been two episodes of ‘Imitation’ that aired while I was gone and the finale is supposedly this week. So, I want to tackle this first. However, I do think by far the most important news was what made me cry on and off for the entirety of yesterday. MINGI IS BACK!!!!! I’m so happy, I can’t even describe these emotions. But my next post will probably be more about that and, of course, their new amazing Japanese single that absolutely brightened my summer. I am listening to ‘Dreamers’ as I type this. It’s such a beautiful song! But enough about my next post, let’s get into the most recent episodes of ‘Imitation’! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

So because I used my usual opening paragraph to talk about ATEEZ, I’m going to do an additional one so that you guys still get my initial views on it before I go into the more in depth review. I will mostly be talking about general things for both of the episodes, but I will say that most of this review will be about episode eleven. Because, for the life of me, I still cannot fathom what the point of episode ten was. Episode ten seemed to be largely a showcase of some of the projects that a few of the characters have been working on. We finally got to see Riah and LeeHyun sing together. That was something at least. But the entire episode format was really odd and there was something very filler-ish about it. I thought that there would be a huge fight between some of the characters at this event considering many people who aren’t getting along right now were invited. But we really didn’t see too much of that, or too much of anything really. Oh and Ryok and Maha got back together. Their break up lasted all of two seconds, so I wasn’t particularly surprised. Episode eleven had some interesting moments, but for me it served as a reminder of what this show could have been and just wasn’t. Now that all that is out of the way-

The Good:

Eunjo and Annie- Coming out of the most recent episode, I noticed that there seemed to be more response to that than any other episode before it. I actually saw the most recent episode a little late, so I saw the response first and was a little confused. Until I watched the episode. A good chunk of this episode is spent on flashbacks developing the former and tragic relationship between Eunjo and Annie. This is the relationship that caused the untimely demise of Annie and Eunjo’s withdrawal from Shax. This episode simply didn’t have enough of them. And the universal consensus after this episode seemed to be that people would have much rather seen a show featuring these two characters as the leads instead of Maha and Ryok. And why wouldn’t you? In the little we saw of them, you could clearly see how deep their feelings for each other were. (Him singing to her was so cute!!) Something that seems to be barely focused on with the main romance despite how much time we get with Ryok and Maha. Not only that, but the show took steps to completely villainize companies and CEO’s who force idols, especially women, to make their way up in companies in disgusting, deplorable, and unforgivable ways. Though I still have major issues with the way this show presents realistic issues and then completely falls back to safety, I have to give them props for addressing this issue.

The Reaction- There is a moment in episode eleven where Maha plays Hyunji and Riah the last voice mail Annie had ever sent Eunjo, basically detailing everything she was put through by the last person who managed them. By the end of this, all the girls are absolutely sobbing. There is no touch ups or pretty crying here. This scene felt incredibly raw and real and you couldn’t help but cry with them.

The Acting- As always, I have to commend the actors for their work. Especially for the intense emotion this last episode demanded.

The Bad:

Realism- Here’s my negative thoughts on the Eunjo and Annie storyline. Firstly, this was the first episode that talked specifically about Annie and what she was going through. We needed that character development a long time ago. On top of that, instead of just devoting this episode to what Annie went through, they decided that they had to have several characters step up and do things in the name of Annie at the end of this episode. And they didn’t do this in the way that they decided to stand up to the men who did what they did to her. They decided to basically keep their group going in her honor and made a huge deal about a place they would perform at for her. As if that was a good tie up to everything that was revealed about her. The only person who seems to be doing anything about the CEOs is Ryok, who is doing it more for Eunjo than Annie. Even though it was Annie who died because she felt she was forced into a corner by these men. It felt like the show completely downplayed Annie’s struggles so that it wouldn’t feel too sad and then also decided that the women in this show couldn’t do anything to help get retribution for the memory of their friend. I guess we’ll all have to leave that up to the men. Because that makes this situation so much better. Every time this show has the opportunity to talk about something real and do something bold, it takes it for a little bit but then takes five steps back in what seems like fear. They need to commit to what they are trying to expose about the K-Pop industry.

Sparkling- Oh, look. They’re here again. It pains me to put them here every single time. Recently, we saw some of the backlash from Sparkling’s company deciding that they may not want Hyunoh as part of the group anymore. Hyunoh stared around an empty room while carrying his packed belongings, reminiscing on all the good times he apparently had with the other members of Sparkling. That was immediately odd. From what the show has been telling us, I definitely thought none of them had ever been on good terms with Hyunoh. I thought that he had been bitter ever since he didn’t make it into Shax, but a couple of random shots in this show prove me wrong I guess. And then despite everything that happened, all of the members of Sparkling, including Yujin, smilingly told him that they would make sure he stays in the team. There was no moment where they even had a talk about what Hyunoh had been doing to Yujin. Nothing. Just a weird scene that was so out of character that it felt like it was from an entirely different show. And that’s it. Nothing else from them. What?

Shax- Still doing nothing. I love these characters but we don’t get nearly enough of them.

La Rima- I put her here because I have honestly no idea where to put her. Her sudden change has made for a really pleasant character to watch. She has some of the most personality on the show. But she still doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere or do anything much. I want to see more purpose from this character, but considering there’s only supposed to be one more episode I don’t think we’re going to get much of that. And there’s also the fact that she’s almost entirely different from the way she was at the beginning of the show.

The Sub-Plot Romances- I desperately want to see more of LeeHyun and Riah but we never get anything from either of them. They are cute on screen together but there’s been no relationship development. And Yujin and Hyunji are even worse. Yujin started off as one of my favorite characters in this show, but now even his subplot romance isn’t getting screen time. Where did all the side characters and sub-plots go? It feels like all of them were just left hanging for no reason. Because it’s not like Ryok and Maha do anything.

The Main Romance- There is still no sense of urgency or deep connection in the main thing that is supposed to be driving this show. It barely feels like they have chemistry anymore. All of the plot lines that focus on their relationship mostly focus on some dramatic thing that happens to the relationship instead of actual development of the relationship itself or even the singular characters. Drama doesn’t necessarily mean development. And that’s a concept this show hasn’t seemed to grasp. There’s nothing wrong with drama but there should be development and bonding written in there too.

So, I’m not a hundred percent sure that the show is ending next week. Most Wikipedia related pages about this show says that it only has twelve episodes. But that could just be a guess? I haven’t heard any official announcements. And it’s possible that they want to gear up for a season two. Though, considering how many actual idols they hired for this season that are in featuring roles, I’m not a hundred percent sure how making a season two would work with their already busy schedules. If I were to make a guess, I would say that a season two isn’t necessarily something that anyone’s counting on. If the next episode is actually the last one, I have no hope for them tying up any plot points. I don’t see how they can at this point. But even if there were more episodes coming, the writing doesn’t give me the confidence to say that they would be able to wrap up any of the plot points anyways. I’ve said this a lot, but at least I got to see ATEEZ acting and Yunho’s adorable smile!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Marvel: ‘Loki’ Series Review

Screenshot of Tom Hiddleston as Loki from ‘Loki’ on Disney+. Copyright goes to Marvel Studios and the Walt Disney Company.

Hey! Hallie here!

And we’re back! Annie and I recently took a two week break in order to go on vacation with our family! The first week was filled with pre-written content and we both absolutely appreciated the love you guys gave those posts while we were away. For the second week, though, we decided to genuinely give ourselves a break and go silent on the blog for a while. But the wait is over! We missed quite a bit while we were gone but I absolutely made sure I kept up with ‘Loki’. I have a lot of thoughts on this series, but before I go into those I want to suggest looking back at my review of episode four if you want some of my full criticisms of this series. I went on a very large rant that explains a lot of my thoughts there and it’s a bit too long to really get into here. That said, let’s get into the last two episodes and my final thoughts on this series as a whole. SPOILERS ahead!

Episode 5:

I’m not going to spend too much time on episode five. Nothing much really happened in this episode, unfortunately. I was really looking forward to it after I saw the after credits scene from episode four. It was one of the only things that kept my interest in that episode. But this episode was filled with quite a few bad decisions. The first was pushing ALL of the Loki variants, aside from Sylvie of course, into this episode. The series had promised an interesting look into the Loki variants. Even the tag line, “What makes a Loki a Loki?”, implied we would see a deep dive into the Loki variants and how they challenged Loki’s identity. But all we got was this episode. Where Boastful Loki, the only non-white Loki being centered, turned on the rest of the Lokis within only a few minutes and sat out the rest of the episode. Where President Loki showed up only so Alligator Loki could bite his hand off. Where Kid Loki revealed he killed Thor and moved on as if he hadn’t said anything. Where all of the other Lokis acted as though a female Loki was a crazy thing despite the sheer amount of Loki variants. It was disappointing and full of problematic moments. Classic Loki shone in this episode, though. His loneliness and the tragedy behind being taken away by the TVA just because he missed Thor actually gave him some depth. He was the only Loki the plot really focused on and he never disappointed. He also proved that Loki is much more powerful than he believes by creating an illusion of the entirety of Asgard as a distraction. I was sad to see the episode end with his death, but with a new season on the way I’m hoping his death was another trick. It would be a shame to lose such an interesting Loki variant.

Episode 6:

What I Liked:

Kang the Conqueror: (Or He Who Remains if you want to be super specific). I’m going to be honest here. I didn’t like this finale much. But this character completely blew me away. Jonathan Majors acted this role so well that it was impossible to look away. He’s obviously a scum bag who sees no problem with playing with the lives of actual individuals. But he’s such a FUN scumbag. He’s just the amount of crazy you’d expect from someone who attempted to control the entire multiverse. He spends most of the episode explaining how the first multiverse war occurred between his variants and how the return of the multiverse will release his variants. Which is a problem because they’re all just as crazy as he is and, according to him, quite a bit more blood thirsty. However, while he warns Loki and Sylvie that killing him will restore the multiverse, he doesn’t seem afraid of his death at all. In fact, he seems exhausted and ready to let go of his responsibilities regardless of what the two choose. He plays the role of an old god well. Tired and insane after years and years of living. His reactions to Loki and Sylvie’s fights during the episode saved many scenes for me. He managed to be hilarious and intimidating at the same time. I can’t wait to see him step into the actual Kang the Conqueror role in future films.

Sylvie: I’m not completely satisfied with how this episode used Sylvie, mainly because her romance with Loki took a lot away from it, but I did like the consistency of her character. The fact that she killed He Who Remains makes a lot of sense. I love that she didn’t change just because of Loki. There wasn’t enough personal growth in her own storyline to indicate that she would change her mind at all, and if she had changed her mind simply because of a forced romance with Loki, it would have made the romance even more condemnable. While a lack of personal growth could be criticized, I’d argue that it would have to be a storyline in season two. This season was tasked with introducing her and her goals and that’s already a large task. The fact that she was remorseful for the decision she made leaves promise for some character growth in season two. I suppose we’ll just have to see what happens in the future.

What I Disliked:

Loki: Loki never completed his journey of self love in this series. And while there is a season two, I can’t help but criticize the fact that his self love journey was completely diverted by his relationship with Sylvie. The last few episodes saw Loki talking about Sylvie and not much else. He constantly talked about how impressive she was and how devoted to her he was. Most of what he did was for her. And that didn’t leave him any room for self reflection. It also completely wiped away some of the Loki traits I love. Such as his mischievous nature and sarcastic sense of humor. Or his incredible mind and ability to come up with insane plans most don’t expect. All of it was gone. Sylvie came up with all the plans and Loki followed her like a puppy. While I love how capable and assertive Sylvie was, that shouldn’t have taken away from Loki’s character at all. All he did with his screen time was seek Sylvie’s attention. If the goal was to get Loki to a point where he could love himself instead of seeking attention to fill that void, the show completely failed. And I can’t forgive it for that. My second large issue here is the way the show made a very obvious move to remove Loki from a lose/lose situation in order to keep him morally unaffected. I hate when any media presents a large moralistic decision to its main character and then uses a cop out to avoid making them actually engage with this decision. I didn’t appreciate the blatancy of this move or the way the show continued to avoid any sort of major character exploration for Loki.

Loki and Sylvie Relationship: I mentioned my review of the fourth episode above for this specific reason. I have so many problems with it. It’s uncomfortable, poorly developed, accomplishes nothing the writer claimed it would accomplish, promotes heteronormativity, and forces a completely unnecessary relationship between its main characters. Hollywood really needs to stop forcing relationships and let men and women just be friends. The idea that men and women can and should be friends is constantly refuted by big companies like this and it’s always incredible regressive. In any case, my more in depth criticism is in my last review and I recommend looking at it there. It was exhausting to write and I don’t really have it in me to dive into it again. The point is, I hate this relationship and I recoiled at the kiss.

Monologuing: The majority of this episode was just He Who Remains explaining what happened between him and his variants. Then sometimes Sylvie or Loki would call him a liar. That’s it. That was most of the episode. I loved the introduction of Kang the Conqueror to the MCU. But this episode was almost entirely a huge monologue for He Who Remains. That’s not great.

My final thoughts on this series? It was my least favorite of all of the Marvel shows. It started out strong but then it slowly stripped away everything I loved about the first few episodes. Loki and Mobius never explored their friendship beyond episode two. Loki’s fun antics and self exploration was pushed aside for Sylvie. The mystery of the Time Keepers was scattered so thinly through the plot that it never felt as strong as it should have. Mobius, who I loved, showed up less and less. Hunter B-15 didn’t end up with the screen time she deserved. The use of the Loki variants was severely lacking compared to what the beginning of the show promised. Loki’s sexuality and gender identity were only explored in throw away lines. It was severe disappointment after disappointment. A lot of it was problematic. Season two may or may not remedy some of these, but that doesn’t absolve season one of its mistakes. My final ranking of the Marvel Disney+ shows? ‘WandaVision’, ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’, and finally ‘Loki’. I’m so sad to put ‘Loki’ last, but its mistakes feel much harsher than those of any of the other shows.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

K-Pop: Monsta X Ray

Set photo of (from left) Chae Hyungwon, Yoo Kihyun, and Sohn Hyunwoo (Shownu). Copyright goes to Monsta X and Starship Entertainment.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Recently, to pass the time, I’ve been going through Monsta X’s variety show, ‘Monsta X Ray’. There are three seasons of it over the course of a couple years, though none of the seasons have many episodes. While some of the episodes are pretty generic variety show fare (and some of the episodes from a couple years back feature some disrespectful editing and props that the boys had nothing to do with), there were a couple episodes that blew me away with the level of creativity involved. When these episodes were good they were some of the best I had ever seen from a variety show. So, this will contain MINOR SPOILERS for ‘Monsta X Ray’ and will also include my absolute favorite episodes from each season. Because, trust me, these episodes are absolutely worth watching.

Season 1, Episode 2-3:

The second episode of ‘Monsta X Ray’ was pure chaos right off the bat. The boys were told that they would be visiting a historic house and recreating some Korean dishes. The twist was that they would be playing an old Korean family and would draw roles at random. Shownu, appropriately, received the role of the mother-in-law. Minhyuk pulled the role of a daughter-in-law while Kihyun pulled the role of the mother’s biological daughter, but they decided to switch roles last minute which ended up in Minhyuk mercilessly teasing Kihyun for such a mistake. Hyungwon played a daughter-in-law while I.M ended up receiving the role of the foreign Russian daughter-in-law. And then Wonho played a servant while Joohoney, much to his chagrin, wound up with the role of the dog. The boys mercilessly teased each other throughout the entire episode, which made every action they had to participate in extremely funny. In the third episode they all made kimchi after Shownu called his mother in the previous episode to get her recipe. Upon tasting it, Shownu remarked in surprise that it tasted so similar to his mother’s and had to be reminded that they got the recipe from his mother. Oh, Shownu.

Season 1, Episode 5:

I have referenced this episode before because it’s so adorable. In this episode the boys have to volunteer to help out at a daycare and are separated into two groups. Shownu, Minhyuk, Kihyun, and Hyungwon helped with the one year olds while Wonho, Joohoney, and I.M helped with the three year olds. In the room for the three year olds, the three there discovered that they would have to be very energetic. I.M struggled with winning over the kids even though he tried so hard, I felt so bad. Joohoney was an immediate favorite with the kids because of his energy and Wonho was also liked, though the kids found it much more fun to pick on him rather than play with him. The real stand out of this episode was definitely the parts with the one year olds, just because they were so cute. Not that the other kids weren’t, but these were the baby-babies. The energy in this room was much lower. Kihyun ran around like the caring mother he is, trying to take care of most of the kids in there at once. Shownu was viewed as intimidating by the one year olds, and one child even burst into tears at the sight of him, but by the end Shownu became more like a protective presence for the kids. Minhyuk was also well liked because of his energy and was most likely to make the kids laugh. And Hyungwon unexpectedly became attached to a small child who spent much of his time crying. It wasn’t long before everyone discovered that the child would stop crying if Hyungwon was carrying or hugging him but only if it was Hyungwon, and Hyungwon took this very cute responsibility very seriously.

If you want to see more of the guys babysitting, they did partner with TwoTuckGom, the company that made their plushies, to babysit a child pretending to be his plushies come to life human form. This episode was just as adorable as the ‘Monsta X Ray’ one and featured them wearing the respective onesies of their characters, taking the cute lucky kid to an amusement park/zoo, and generally acting like Dads. I don’t know what it is with kids and Hyungwon, but despite the fact that Hyungwon took charge when it came to making the little kid behave, he still considered Hyungwon to be his favorite. He preferred it if Hyungwon was carrying him and ran over to wake up Hyungwon when he fell asleep so that he could read him a story. I.M tried his hardest to be one of the favorites of the kid as well, but it didn’t look like he was succeeding as the the kid didn’t remember his name. Until the very end when he chose I.M as his second favorite which made Changkyun react in such a cute way that you would have to see it to believe it. Another adorable show that I highly recommend, even if it isn’t exactly ‘Monsta X Ray’. And the boys did eventually reunite with kids from the daycare specifically in an episode of something else.

Season 2, Episode 7:

This is a variety show episode that will go down in history. Have you seen many K-pop groups do full on parodies of K-dramas? Definitely not often. And ‘Monsta X’ takes it to an entirely new level with their production value. This parody starred Kihyun as the lead female character in what starts out as a ‘Boys Over Flowers’ parody. Shownu plays the leader of the F4 who is also the main love interest, Joohoney plays the member of the F4 who likes Kihyun too (the character’s name is even JiHoo), I.M plays a member of the F4 and the rich mother of Shownu’s character separately, Minhyuk plays the best friend of Kihyun who has a crush on Joohoney, Wonho plays a member of F4 and a disguise expert/housekeeper for the rich family, and Hyungwon plays the fiancee of Shownu named Dodo and a doctor. While this starts out as a regular ‘Boys Over Flowers’ skit, it quickly changes to become something way crazier. Kihyun’s character falls asleep after realizing she had to work for Shownu’s family and then is woken up by Shownu which results in a falling in love sequence. After they are broken up by his mother (and Dodo), who slaps her in the face with kimchi, she decides to take revenge on the family several years later. She infiltrates the family again with an expert disguise (a drawn on mole) and is recognized bu Shownu who decides to run away with her. Joohoney, in his agony over Kihyun, randomly throws a boomerang that accidentally hits Shownu, preventing him from having children. Kihyun goes blind with the shock of the news, only to wake up where the story all started and to be insulted by Shownu. (What a twist!) The rest of the episode is hilarious behind the scenes footage.

Season 3, Episode 6:

This is yet another hilarious K-drama parody that they did. This one featured I.M in the lead female role, Shownu played the brotherly type character who had a crush on I.M, Wonho played the artsy bad boy who also had a crush on I.M, Minhyuk played the new girl in town who also got caught in between the two boys, Kihyun played Shownu’s best friend who had a crush on Joohoney, Joohoney played I.M’s female best friend who had a crush on Kihyun, and Hyungwon played a doctor (again) and a weird martial arts kid at the High School. In this one it is clear that I.M and Shownu have feelings for each other until I.M meets Wonho. Minhyuk has an immediate crush on Shownu which fades a bit when she sees Wonho. Wonho overhears Kihyun and Joohoney talking about how much I.M likes Shownu and then gets concussed after his despair. He ends up in the hospital with a sudden cancer diagnosis that everyone gets super dramatic over until it suddenly proves to be false, and I.M ends up with Shownu. All the while in the background Kihyun and Joohoney have a super odd sub-plot romance that’s difficult to describe. This one is just as funny as the other one and is full of just as many odd plot twists. And, as always, the rest of the episode is hilarious behind the scenes footage.

Season 3, Episode 7-8:

This is another two parter and the last I will be mentioning of my absolute favorite episodes from this show. In this two parter, the boys play a series of games to figure out who amongst them is their true love. Of course, as there is seven of them, one member was sadly left out. Through these series of games the members choose who to cater to and then become a part of teams. Most people in these episodes wanted their true love to be Changkyun (I.M), showing the group’s undying love for the maknae. They go on dates as well that include fortune telling, roller skating, and other fun activities amongst the games. At the end each member turns around and predicts which member might choose them. And if two members choose each other, they are paired up as true loves by the end of the game. Shownu and Kihyun chose each other, which was adorable as Kihyun was absolutely expecting to be the odd one out. Hyungwon and Joohoney ended up as a couple after doing so many things together. And, lastly, Wonho who was most desperate for the maknae’s love was eventually chosen by their beloved maknae. Minhyuk was left out, but at the end of the day they all love each other equally so he’s never left out of anything! We all love you Minhyuk!

‘Monsta X Ray’ had some duds, but there is absolutely no mistaking the amazing episodes of this show as well. I will never be able to get Hyungwon’s Dodo voice out of my head or the image of Changkyun hitting Kihyun with the kimchi only to apologize profusely afterwards. The show was so wholesome and adorable and definitely worked to make the boys less intimidating despite their image. The babysitting episode really showed how soft all of these boys are. Including the ones who might look a little more intimidating than the others (literally the only ones who aren’t immediately intimidating are Kihyun and Minhyuk and maybe, maybe Joohoney). These boys are all so soft, and it’s hard not to fall in love with them after seeing these episodes.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie


BTS: The Little Things to Love About Each Member of BTS

Screenshot of Jung Hoseok (J-Hope), Kim Seokjin (Jin), Kim Taehyung (V), Park Jimin, Kim Namjoon (RM), Jeon Jungkook, and Min Yoongi (Suga) from the ‘Butter’ music video. Copyright goes to Hybe Entertainment and BTS.

Hey! Hallie here!

I love talking about the members of BTS and I haven’t really done a post where I can just gush about them in a while. There’s a lot to love even before you really get to understand who they are. They’re all extremely talented performers. They’re polite and respectful in interviews. They care a lot about the community around them and they’re very vocal about their love for their fans. I feel that the size of their hearts and the general intelligence every member demonstrates is pretty obvious far before you jump down the BTS rabbit hole. But once you do come to know them a bit better, there are several small things about each of them that make them even more lovable. Today I’m going to spend some time talking about my favorite things I’ve noticed about each member. Because some days, it’s nice to just sit down and appreciate how wholesome BTS can be.

Kim Namjoon (RM):

There’s a lot I appreciate about Namjoon. The thought he puts into every lyric of every BTS song he writes is part of what makes BTS who they are. And the way he checks in with all of the members, whether it’s during a performance or an interview, is a testament to how good of a leader he is. But there’s a joy I find in the childlike glee he gets from nature. The way his face lights up when he looks for crabs in the sand is something that makes me instantly happy. He doesn’t eat seafood, which makes his love of crabs even funnier when he attempts to defend them to the members who do like seafood. But his love of nature doesn’t stop at crabs. You can find plenty of wholesome videos of Namjoon interacting with nature. There’s footage of him kissing a sting ray on the head when BTS once went swimming with them for a summer package. He also has plants and succulents that he is very dutiful in taking care of. When the members filmed ‘In The Soup’ during quarantine, he brought his red plum blossom tree along so he could continue taking care of it during the trip. He talks about nature a lot because he finds it calming. But his enthusiastic care for it is what really catches my eye.

Kim Seokjin (Jin):

Jin is sometimes referred to as the youngest member of the group despite being the oldest. All of it because he’s a large goofball both on stage and off. His caring nature can’t be argued, however. He created the series ‘Eat Jin’ to help those who struggled with eating so that they might find themselves able to do so with him. He also loves using his jokes to brighten the mood whenever possible. And this is probably my favorite thing about Jin. I love how Jin always tells more jokes or makes a larger joke out of himself when he sees that it’s making the people around him happy. Like when he tells a bad joke in the middle of shooting an episode of ‘Run BTS’ just to get a laugh. He’s always so conscious of whether or not the other members are having a good time and you can see he actively tries to contribute to their happiness. The biggest example of this is when Jin played up his World Wide Handsome hilarity when the members were somewhat miserable during ‘The Graham Norton Show’. Jimin wasn’t able to perform that night and Jungkook couldn’t dance because he was still recovering from an injury. And somehow Jin managed to make them all laugh by blowing kisses to the camera. That takes a very caring kind of person.

Min Yoongi (Suga):

Yoongi is a force to be reckoned with. He may seem quiet at first, but when he speaks his deep thoughtfulness can’t be argued. His thoughts on mental health and human rights are poured into everything he does. You can’t help but respect him. But I, like many Yoongi fans, love the softness behind all of it. I specifically love how lenient he can be around the Maknae line. There’s a pretty infamous picture of Yoongi sitting with both Jungkook and Tae piled on top of him, looking kind of pleased all things considered. He’s also begrudgingly let Tae carry him on his back during an episode of ‘Run BTS’ in order to complete a limbo task the episode called for. And when they failed and Tae asked if he could do so again, Yoongi agreed despite his initial hesitation. In a more recent episode of ‘Run BTS’, each member was given a task they had to keep secret from the other members. Yoongi was told to meditate without breaking his meditation. When it became clear that he wouldn’t react to anything, the Maknae line took to carrying him around. The smile he was attempting to hold back while this was happening was the best part of the episode. Yoongi likes to jokingly threaten the Maknae line, but in the end, he’s the first to offer help or support.

Jung Hoseok (J-Hope):

There’s too much I love about Hobi. He’s by bias, and beyond that, he’s the light of the entire group. He keeps the energy up in interviews and on set when the other members are exhausted. He actively attempts to bring his excitement and bright attitude to every appearance BTS makes, even when it calls him to speak in a language he isn’t completely confident in yet. However, I also really love how Hobi knows when to be more conscientious, especially as a dance captain. He’s responsible for teaching the members some of their choreography. There’s plenty of footage of him teaching a mini-lesson on location for music video shoots so the other members can feel more confident when they perform the choreo. But he doesn’t ever seem mean. In many of the lessons he keeps the energy light to encourage the members. There’s one specific rehearsal where he’s teaching the ‘Boy With Luv’ choreography that is so giggly and fun, it’s impossible not to want to join in. This and his tendency to check on a member if they’re distressed or discourage goofing off if it gets out of hand, is the reason Namjoon has credited him with being a secondary leader.

Park Jimin:

Jimin is known most for his big heart. Whenever we see behind the scenes footage of a member of BTS struggling with their emotions, Jimin is always right beside them. His sweet voice very much reflects his personality. But Jimin can be equally chaotic, especially when he’s comfortable and in a good mood. And as part of an incredibly chaotic Maknae line, what else did you expect? He once spent an entire episode of ‘Run BTS’ lifting his feet to show off the faces he had drawn on his socks, both to make the other members laugh and also to emphasize his own reactions. He also infamously left a V-Live to go to the bathroom, leaving thousands of fans to wait until he returned to cutely smile at the camera and apologize. His tendency to fall out of chairs is well known now, but who else could have fallen out of a chair during a camping trip and immediately commented on the sky to try to cover his mistake? Similarly, I can’t think of anyone else who would try to race a horse against a bicycle just for the promise of funny pictures. A lot of this can be connected back to his general cuteness. But there’s a chaos behind his adorable actions. Who doesn’t love some adorable chaos?

Kim Taehyung (V):

Tae is one of the members baby ARMYs find intimidating. He isn’t known for talking a ton during interviews, and when an interview is bad you can tell purely because of his facial expressions. On top of that, Tae performs ‘Singularity’. If that sentence isn’t intimidating to you, you haven’t looked up a performance of ‘Singularity’. Past his intimidating side, though, is the baby of BTS. Namjoon once said that when he first met Tae, he knew he was going to be trouble. And Namjoon was right. He’ll pull an adorable face to manipulate the staff into giving him a prize he didn’t win, and the staff, and everyone else, instantly falls for it. Because he’s adorable. Tae will giggle at every compliment. He’ll go from an intense expression to a silly face so fast, he’ll make himself laugh. He’s one of the only people who can pull Namjoon out of leader mode simply by making puppy dog eyes at him. He doesn’t seem like one of the mood makers when you first look at him, but his pure silliness gets the entire group to start dancing in the middle of a concert rehearsal. Tae is unmistakable cute, and though he can use his abilities for evil, such as obvious trickery for his benefit, he also knows that it helps the other members let go and enjoy themselves.

Jeon Jungkook:

Jungkook is the golden Maknae. He’s an excellent singer, a great artist, and just a nice guy. He’s so emotionally intelligent that the other members of BTS have noted that, at times, he acts like the oldest member. But Jungkook, as the youngest, can be a pure menace. As is absolutely expected of him. He once walked up to a spread of ice cream set up for the members of BTS, put as many toppings as he could reach on top of his own ice cream, and mixed it all into an unappetizing pile of mush just to gross out the other members. He also made Namjoon choke while brushing his teeth by telling him that he looked like an egg. Jungkook is known for other, more common instances of mischievousness. Whenever the members are tasked with giving a speech, he always avoids the microphone. He’ll even run from one side of the group to the other simply to avoid being handed the mic. Namjoon has tried to subtly chase him down, but he never succeeds. He also constantly pokes fun at Jin’s age and picks lighthearted fights with him, as the youngest is bound to do with the oldest of the group. One of Jimin’s lives suffered from one of these events, resulting in Jin saying a line I quote often, “Hey, Stob it”. Thanks is owed to Jungkook for giving us all this craziness.

There’s so much more I could have written about here, but I didn’t want to go on for too long. I specifically decided to keep to the traits I love that I didn’t initially expect when I was a baby ARMY. There’s something about the surprise I felt at seeing these different sides to them that sucked me into this fandom further. Because of that, I’m pleased to share them with anyone I can. I hope this post inspired both new ARMYs and veteran ARMYs alike to look up compilations and get sucked in the same way I constantly do. I could never claim to know the members of BTS personally, but what I do know about them brings me joy. I can’t thank them enough for that.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

International Dramas: ‘Boys Over Flowers’ Moments That Aren’t Meant to be Funny

Screenshot of Kim Joon as WooBin in ‘Boys Over Flowers’. Copyright goes to KBS.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I did make a fairly recent post once again about ‘Boys Over Flowers’ because of my friend group absolutely loving this show. We call ourselves the F4 now because there are four of us. But, while we mostly like this show un-ironically, this isn’t really a recent show by any means. And that means there are some older cringey things that probably weren’t meant to be funny the first time it aired. And most of these I didn’t even catch the first time I watched it. Or maybe myself and my friend group are just weird (which is probably also true). But now that I’ve actually had the opportunity to talk more with them about this show, we have all found that there are moments in this show that we laugh hysterically at, that probably weren’t meant to be funny. This aided with my recent rewatch has helped me compose a list. This might be more for my entertainment than yours, but I hope you also enjoy this too!

Chef’s Hands:

In the very first episode of ‘Boys Over Flowers’ the show tries incredibly hard to convey the characters of the F4 to the audience. Which actually ends up being a really good introduction over-all and I would say that it pays off. However, one of the things the first episode hopes to get across is the hardcore flirting nature of most of the members of the F4. Specifically I’m talking about YiJung and WooBin here. YiJung is shown to be flirting with a chef who appears to be Swedish in one of these scenes; the caveat here is that they are both speaking in English. I am definitely not one to point out an English mistake in any sort of drama from another country because I’m not sure that it matters too much. But this scene is so ridiculously funny that I have to say something. YiJung tells the chef that he can tell that she’s a chef and when she asks why he explains that it’s because her hands look delicious. Yep. Her hands look delicious. I must have not been paying too much attention the first time I saw this, because I was so caught off guard while watching it with my friends that I almost died from simultaneous laughter and cringing.

Beach Dinner:

A couple episodes into BOF, all of the characters end up going on a vacation to JunPyo’s private island. This already gets off to a bad start with JanDi wearing the awful hamburger dress (it looks like a hamburger with lettuce and tomato). But this is made to be even more awkward when JunPyo plans an ocean-side dinner for two on a private part of the beach. Keep in mind, this is during a point in the show where JanDi has made it pretty clear that she has feelings for JiHoo and she doesn’t want anything to do with JunPyo. About halfway through the meal, JunPyo gets up and starts taking off his shirt while staring down JanDi. I know a lot of people found this scene to be sexy, but the first time I saw this scene I was suddenly struck with the thought that JunPyo doesn’t know how to swim (awkward). It also didn’t help that the look on his face was so funny while he was doing this. Am I a horrible person? Possibly. Sorry!

Childhood Flashbacks:

Again, this might make me a horrible person. But I laugh every single time one of the F4 flashbacks happens, and it’s pretty much entirely because of their hair. JunPyo (who is sometimes referred to as “Becky with the Good Hair” in my house), has had the same perm since he was a little kid. It looks ridiculous. Don’t tell me that’s not funny.

WooBin’s Sudden Mafia Connections:

Ok, I think it’s overall badass that WooBin is part of the mafia. Really, it was one of the only developed character points that he was given to run with, and I think that WooBin deserves the world. He certainly deserves more recognition. But you have to admit that the sudden reveal of it is kind of funny. The major moment that I consider to be the reveal is when JanDi gets lost in Macao and almost gets mugged only to be saved by JiHoo, JunPyo, and WooBin. And while they are all kicking ass, WooBin definitely kicks the most ass. At the end of this the muggers ask WooBin if he is Prince Song to which WooBin replies with a very sassy and punctuated “Yeah”. WooBin’s sass in this scene right after he was revealed to be a mafia member made the reveal even better. Also, can we talk about the implications of WooBin being a part of the mafia? Does he just beat people up? I have so many questions.

JiHoo’s Constant Appearances:

JiHoo always seems to be at the right place at the right time, but sometimes this can be hilariously so. From the balcony at the school, to the gym building, to the small doctor’s office, somehow he’s always there. For example, there’s a scene towards the end of the show where JanDi is helping out her parents by participating in a cleaning job in a massive building. And while we’ve seen JiHoo at this building before, it’s still kind of funny when JiHoo suddenly appears behind JanDi and then raises his eyebrows and points to the music hall when she asks why he’s there. It’s because you’re everywhere JiHoo. It’s a valid question.

JanDi Drowning:

Ok, this one definitely sounds bad. But it’s honestly because of how weird it looks every time it happens. The first time JanDi starts drowning it’s during one of the beach episodes when she suddenly gets a leg cramp. Despite the fact that she’s a competitive swimmer. Let me repeat, she’s a competitive swimmer! It’s also in very shallow water. And she nearly drowns in the other pools that she accidentally falls into as well. All have such shallow water that all she would have to do is stand up. Not only does this look weirdly unrealistic, it also ended up injuring the actress. The last pool that she fell into was so shallow that she hit her head on the bottom. That is much less funny. Just stand up, JanDi! Or maybe the creators should have found a safer more realistic way to shoot these scenes.

“Almost Paradise!”:

What’s not funny is this song getting stuck in your head. Because it will run on repeat for days and days and you won’t be able to think about anything else. What is funny is torturing your friends by screaming “Almost paraadiiissseee!” any time your friend enters the room. This is now a running joke for me and my friends. The song is amazing, but it’s also fun to use it to annoy the people closest to you. Ask J-Hope. He totally agrees with me. And if you don’t believe me look up ‘BTS and Boys Over Flowers’ on YouTube and press the video from six years ago that’s on BTS’s official YouTube account. You won’t regret it.

I swear, I absolutely love ‘Boys Over Flowers’! I like the wholesomeness and lightheartedness of it as well as some of the serious stuff too. I still cry when watching some of the scenes with YiJung and JiHoo in particular. And some of the scenes are very romantic! But I can’t deny that this show is fun to poke fun at sometimes. For me, it just makes it that much more fun to rewatch it and talk about it with my friends.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Book Adaptations: The Best of Michael Sheen and David Tennant for ‘Good Omens’ Fans

Screenshot of Michael Sheen and David Tennant in ‘Staged’. Copyright goes to BBC One.

Hey! Hallie here!

I’m still hung up on the ‘Good Omens’ news we received last week. I’m so in love with the series that, despite the fact that it will likely be a little over a year before we actually get to see it, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. So, of course, I decided to deal with this issue by binging as much Michael Sheen and David Tennant content as possible. From behind the scenes footage to their lockdown series ‘Staged’, I can’t help but fall in love with their friendship. Here are some of my favorite bits of David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s friendship to help those still swimming in all of this excitement get a little bit of satisfaction.

‘Good Omens’:

Of course we have to start out with the series that kicked off this friendship. The first season of ‘Good Omens’ marked the first time Michael Sheen and David Tennant were able to work with one another. They had been interested in working with each other after viewing each other’s work. But because they were often considered for the same roles, they didn’t end up working together in much of anything. ‘Good Omens’ allowed them the opportunity to fully interact and wound up cementing a friendship between them. Their chemistry is very clear on screen thanks to their love of working with each other. Michael Sheen has said in multiple interviews that he played Aziraphale as being very much in love with Crowley, which was easy to do opposite the very lovable David Tennant. They also spent every interview during the time they were promoting the show complimenting each other. Michael Sheen would comment on how good looking David Tennant was only for Tennant to fire back with how incredibly kind he felt Sheen was. Michael Sheen famously said that the hardest part of playing Aziraphale was getting so caught up in Tennant’s performance that he nearly forgot to continue the scene. David Tennant, for his part, called Michael so inspiring that it put pressure on him to ensure he didn’t let him down. Even better is how much they make each other laugh in these interviews. I feel the best example of this is the IGN interview where the pair were tasked to read and respond to comments. Michael’s screams of “Gollum!” and “What has happened to your hair????” and David guessing Sheen had lived for some time as Nicholas Cage rather than next to him, left them practically falling out of their chairs laughing. There’s truly nothing more pure than ‘Good Omens’ era Sheen and Tennant.

‘The Graham Norton Show’:

While there are tons of interviews to look at that’ll give you some David Tennant and Michael Sheen joy, ‘The Graham Norton Show’ never fails to bring out the best of them with some more casual conversation. I feel the most popular moment from their first appearance together on the show is David Tennant’s perfect pronunciation of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. I really hope I spelled that correctly. But besides that it was fun to see David Tennant attempt to explain his bewilderment with the inappropriate uses of emojis. His certainty that no one else was aware of this was hilariously disrupted by Michael Sheen’s exasperation that he hadn’t been aware of any of it. Their second appearance on the show happened almost two years later as a result of the pandemic and covered their work on the show ‘Staged’. They both spoke about how they had seen each other almost daily through the pandemic because of video chatting, but both hadn’t spent much time at all with each other in person since they had been on the show the first time. Michael specifically poked fun at the amount of children David had to amuse in order to get any filming done. Another cute moment occurred when Tennant recounted a moment in a stage production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ when he, as Romeo, had accidentally been hit by a sword during the fight just before his death scene. He hadn’t thought much of it, but during his last scene he noticed he was bleeding quite a bit and nearly passed out before he could finish it. Michael asked if there was a moment where he thought he was going to die at the same moment Romeo did, only for David to tease that he always did because he was always in character. Michael was unimpressed.

‘Staged’:

‘Staged’ is a fun series David Tennant and Michael Sheen tackled during quarantine. The first season follows a fictional version of the both of them as they attempt to rehearse a play over Zoom. The second season follows the success of the first season and the potential US adaption which seems to be looking to recast the roles of Michael and David. This series takes most of its comedy from the idea that Tennant and Sheen are friends but have a large amount of ego on top of that. This usually ends in what is basically various insult competitions. Michael Sheen and David Tennant confessed that it was much easier to play these parts now that they’re close because they found it easier to make fun of one another that way. The series also involved their families. With these two families coming together to work on such an intimate project, Georgia Tennant and Anna Lundberg also became close friends. They spoke about how fun it was to film with the four of them on screen. A few scenes even required them to drink some alcohol which meant rewatching these scenes later on revealed a few of them to be a bit tipsy. Overall a fun workday. The way that Michael Sheen and David Tennant decided to continue working together even over quarantine is heartwarming and their families were pulled along for the ride in the most delightful way.

I love David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s friendship. Even before I knew they had come out of ‘Good Omens’ as friends, I knew I wanted to see more of them together. It only made me happier to look at their interviews and see how genuinely they liked each other. And if anything describes their relationship, it is definitely their statements on ‘Good Omens’ season two. David Tennant expressed joy that he would be working with Michael again, though he noted that the fact that the world is being threatened again is significantly worse news. Michael Sheen said that if he and David Tennant didn’t “fall out too badly this time” they might be able to save the world. Truly the best kind of friendship.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

K-Pop: Common Misconceptions About Monsta X

Promotional image of (from left) Sohn Hyunwoo (Shownu), Im Changkyun (I.M), Lee Minhyuk (Minhyuk), Lee Jooheon (Joohoney), Yoo Kihyun (Kihyun), and Chae Hyungwon (Hyungwon). Copyright goes to Starship Entertainment, Monsta X, and Monsta X’s social media.

Hi! It’s Annie!

As my first post about Monsta X made obvious, I have been being pulled further into being a Monbebe and I am not sad about this at all. Monsta X has some pretty good music. I have to thank the compilations of these boys just being genuine and kind for winning me over a little more. When most people familiar with Monsta X on a surface level hear their name, genuine and kind is probably not the first words that pop into their head. These boys have the reputation of being the bad boys of K-Pop. They are known mostly for being intimidating and sexy, and their stages and wardrobe keep to this image. But upon further inspection, I’ve found these boys to be very sweet. If any group needs a common misconceptions post, it’s probably them.

Shownu is Scary:

The two members most well known for taking off their shirts are Wonho and Shownu. This image also garners a certain reputation. Especially because both men are so muscular. In an episode of ‘Monsta X Ray’ when the boys were helping at a daycare, one of the kids took one look at Shownu and burst into tears. But Shownu is the group teddy bear. He’s probably the most awkward in social situations and he’s known for his gentle nature. Remember the kid I was talking about before who burst into tears at the sight of Shownu? By the end of the daycare day he gave Shownu a kiss after Shownu spent the entire day trying to prove himself. Have you heard of anything so adorable? Another misconception often attributed to Shownu is that he isn’t a good leader, but this is generally only based on the fact that I.M leads English interviews. If you think the best English speaker should always be leader, you should really revisit that opinion. It’s entitled at best.

Minhyuk is the Maknae:

It would surprise many people to know that, the way the group is now, Minhyuk is actually the second oldest of the group. He is only younger than Shownu. Minhyuk generally has the brightest fashion sense of everyone else in the group and definitely has the most lighthearted personality. Minhyuk is the type to immediately get along with children or brighten up the moods of everyone else in the group. It’s difficult to find non-photoshoot pictures of Minhyuk where he’s not smiling. While Minhyuk seems like the youngest at first glance, he is older than most of the other members in the group and if you watch him after a while it becomes more apparent. Minhyuk may be a bit of a prankster, but that doesn’t make him irresponsible. Even if he is the messiest one.

Kihyun is Extroverted:

Kihyun is the mom of the group in the same way that Shownu is the dad. Kihyun is the one that appears to be most friendly when first watching them and because of his openness, many people confuse him for being an extrovert. Kihyun is also known for being very confident in his looks and his abilities which also makes people assume he’s more people-oriented. But Kihyun is a self described home-body and much prefers being at home and spending time cooking and cleaning to many other outside activities. Yes, he is very caring and he will single handedly football tackle the patriarchy. (Kihyun has condemned privileged male behavior on multiple occasions.) But being friendly doesn’t necessarily also mean extroverted.

Hyungwon Doesn’t Care:

Hyungwon is known for his model looks and his tallness, which added together makes for a pretty intimidating looking person at first glance. Hyungwon is also known for his meme faces and sass, he’s one of the members who has the least qualms with cussing, and he very much values his alone time and sleep. I’ve seen people look at Hyungwon and assume that he’s the least connected and he doesn’t care as much about the members. None of this is correct in any way. If you watch Hyungwon around the members, he’s one of the most smiley and giggly of them all. He has extremely close relationships with every single one of the members and also gives excellent advice. He may be difficult to wake up, but he’s also one of the designated drivers of the group and an excellent songwriter. He’s actually a DJ too! Hyungwon is just as hardworking and caring as the others.

Joohoney Just Makes You Anxious:

Yes, that was a really bad reference to ‘Love Killa’. And, you know what, by all means he does make me anxious. One of my initial introductions to the group was the ‘Love Killa’ MV and I was immediately intimidated by him. He had an intense presence in that MV. So imagine my surprise when I looked everything up even more and he was one of the sweetest members of the group. Like honey, hence his name. Joohoney is just as adorable as he is intimidating. If you didn’t know better, you might also think he’s the maknae. He’s also the member most likely to use pet names for the other members in the group. Joohoney is definitely not one to be afraid of. He’s as sweet as his name suggests and just as funny and smiley. Most of your anxiety will come from trying not to fall in love with him.

I.M is Serious All the Time:

I.M is also one of the members that comes off as super intimidating. And to be honest, I.M has been forced to be serious in several ways. ‘Monsta X’ as a group was formed on a show called ‘No Mercy’, which was exactly as the title suggests. The members were pitted against each other, and many of them didn’t like each other at first. But everyone was against I.M more than anyone else because he joined halfway through the show after several eliminations already happened. He was forced to train and grow up fast and he also leads most English interviews on top of all that. While he is blunt and also has writing credits on most of their songs, he’s also just as soft as the other members. He’s the maknae and though he may not look like it, he is treated by the others as such. He definitely has a cute and silly side that comes out with the other members.

PSA:

I am always on the fence as to whether or not to add Wonho to these things. In my eyes and in the eyes of many of the fans, he will always be a part of Monsta X. And his removal from the group still feels very unfair. But I also want to respect the fact that Wonho is a solo artist now and I want to treat Monsta X as a group the way they are now as well. Many people treat Monsta X as though it is forever broken without Wonho and I’m not sure any of the boys in the group or Wonho would want anyone to view the group as that. So, unless I’m talking about something that Wonho is specifically in or I feel like I should be talking about him in a specific situation, I am not going to include him in some of my general group posts. Yes, he should still be in the group by all means. But I respect his choice to leave and he’s actually doing pretty well for himself right now. I hope his career keeps getting better! Let me know if this decision bothers anyone or if I should be handling this in a different way.

The boys are so adorable and have such a close relationship with each other. They also are known for their kindness once you start looking within the K-Pop community. Monsta X has stood for rookie groups when no one else was supporting them, refused to let their fans or staff brave the rain, vocally supported the LGBTQIA community, spoke against the way men treat women, painted their nails or worn bracelets for important causes, and over-all shown that they care for the community. Don’t be scared off by the bad boy imagery. These boys are some of the softest and most genuine in the industry.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

K-Pop: Idols Are Allowed to Have Boundaries

Promotional image of Kim Taehyung, Kim Seokjin, Jeon Jungkook, Park Jimin, Min Yoongi, Jung Hoseok, and Kim Namjoon for the 2021 FESTA. Copyright goes to BTS and Hybe Entertainment.

Hey! Hallie here!

There are several things to celebrate in the K-Pop world right now. Speaking for ARMY, we recently got some incredibly attractive concept photos for “Butter”, several weeks in a row on the Billboard Top 100, and we still have the promise of more content coming out this month. But now more than ever it’s important to recognize that BTS, and all K-pop idols, are humans with boundaries. It feels like every time I go on social media I see more and more K-pop fans feeling as though they’re entitled to an uncomfortable closeness with idols who they don’t even know. And with infuriatingly frequent incidents like that of the group of fans showing up to Justin Bieber’s house last week, I can’t help but feel that large fan groups need to keep their relationships with the people they follow in check. So let’s go over some of the incidents I’ve seen being talked about in the community and why some fan reactions have been problematic. As usual, my focus will be on BTS because that is my main fandom.

J-Hope’s Bodyguard:

Past footage of the members of BTS is bound to come back up on TikTok. Most recently, footage of J-Hope walking with his bodyguard in an airport caused a lot of debate. In the video, a woman can be seen quickly approaching J-Hope. In a very swift move, his bodyguard shoves her out of the way and, in the process, causes her to fall into a trashcan. A lot of people criticized the bodyguard for the perceived violence of this action. Some even suggested that J-Hope should be held accountable. This reaction to the footage is an issue. The bodyguard’s purpose is to keep everyone away from J-Hope. Not only is his public status reason for him to be attacked, but it is incredibly common for fans to approach and harass idols while they’re busy or seeking privacy. The bodyguard was simply doing his job. I doubt he intended to push the woman into a trash can, but it wasn’t appropriate to approach J-Hope at that time. There’s been a serious debate on whether or not the woman was even intending to interact with J-Hope, and I do admit that the video leaves that unclear. The woman comes out of nowhere and it isn’t clear which direction she’s heading. But even if her intention wasn’t to bother J-Hope, it’s somewhat frightening to me how many people are angry at the bodyguard for pushing someone who, accident or not, was approaching J-Hope at a rapid pace. And while it might have been nice if he had checked whether or not she was ok afterwards, he is probably taught to keep moving for the safety of the idol he’s protecting. All in all, it makes sense to feel bad for the woman who ended up on the floor. But the reality of the situation is that so many fans approach J-Hope with no recognition of his privacy or boundaries, that it’s necessary for the bodyguard to react this way. Instead of criticizing the bodyguard, maybe we should criticize the type of fan he was obviously expecting when he pushed that woman.

Important Business:

Here’s another J-Hope example! (Can you tell I’m a J-Hope bias?) In any case, most ARMYs are aware of “Important Business”. This is the phrase J-Hope says to anyone who approaches himself or the other members when the group is out, enjoying themselves. Often he has to use it most when the group is traveling out of country. Most fans find his use of this phrase funny. And in a way, it is! He has an adorable accent and often times he himself laughs after he uses it. He knows that he isn’t actually in the middle of important business and his trick using some of the English he knows is amusing. But I would argue that his use of the phrase isn’t “savage” even though a lot of fans describe it this way. It’s actually extremely polite. The people who approach BTS while they’re attempting to enjoy themselves are absolutely in the wrong. Unless an idol indicates to you that it’s alright to approach them, there is no excuse for interrupting an idol out of nowhere when they are clearly on their time off. They hardly ever get time to themselves. They spend most of their time creating new content for their fans or doing performances for their fans. And while BTS is very vocal about their love for the fans, it doesn’t mean the fans are entitled to ALL of their time. They should be allowed to live their lives in the privacy every human has a right to. Interrupting their privacy without consent denies them this opportunity. And while it would make complete sense for Hobi to be more firm when dealing with fans who don’t respect this, he makes up a polite excuse. So yes, I will laugh at Hobi every time he says “Important Business”. But I don’t think it in any way makes him seem impolite.

The Shipping:

Shipping has become a huge topic of debate recently. And I hate to say it, especially because shipping is really popular in fandoms like this. But shipping too often gets to the point where it breaches idol boundaries. There are a few levels of problematic with this one, though. First there is the obviously problematic fans. These are the fans who try to force a member to talk about their “potential relationship” with another member on a V-Live or in a fan interaction. These fans are also the type of fans to harass a company for not putting the two members they ship together in interviews or music videos. These are the easiest to critique. This behavior is obviously possessive and very clearly makes idols uncomfortable. It also is most often the type of behavior that can ruin friendships within K-pop groups. However, this isn’t the only problematic behavior. Searching for hand touches or “intimate contact” that might “prove” your ship is real can also be extremely toxic behavior. Even if you aren’t directly confronting the members with your theories. This is because the behavior shows a disconnect from reality. Even though you don’t know the members and have no insight into their real lives or relationships, you are making assumptions about them and their actions to prove that the fantasy you made up is accurate. Once again, you don’t personally know any of the members. You don’t have a right to make assumptions about them. And the more you make up fantasies about them that you actually believe, the further you get from acknowledging that idols are human beings whose lives aren’t purely for your entertainment.

These are just some of the topics I’ve seen floating around recently. There are too many examples of fans ignoring idols’ boundaries for me to be able to fit them all in one post. To be clear, this post wasn’t made to put anyone down. I simply want it to give some insights into recent issues that you maybe haven’t considered. It’s always good to check in with your behavior when you’re in a fandom that surrounds real individuals. When you’re obsessing over something like Marvel with fictional characters, it does no harm to anyone to theorize about their personal lives or ship characters together. But K-pop groups aren’t characters. They’re real people. And we should be cautious of that in every situation.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

International Dramas: Imitation Episode 9

Promotional image of Jeong Yunho in ‘Imitation’. Copyright goes to KBS and ATEEZ.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I’m still not completely sure what keeps making me want to watch this show, other than I’m in it now and it’s difficult to stop. After all, there are only a few episodes left now before it’s over. And I’m not against watching this show; I am kind of enjoying it. I always do find something to enjoy when it comes to watching this show. But, like always, this episode seemed to have more issues with writing than things to enjoy. This isn’t even a case of it’s better if you turn your brain off. There’s nothing really for you to turn you brain off for. I still can’t see much of a plot here, and every episode there’s a new direction with a character that confuses me. So, I’m going to got through my regular review, obviously complete with MAJOR SPOILERS. And hopefully some of the storylines that I’m liking will at least be ok by the time the show ends.

The Good:
Riah- Finally! She’s back! I was worried she was just going to be a bad character for a while, and I can’t tell you how happy I am that she’s different in this episode. She’s much less angry and protective in this episode and much more understanding than she has been. The downside of her being that much better here is that it made some of her actions previously seem out of character. When it comes to her grudge against Shax, that’s entirely still in tact. She mentions in this episode that she still has a grudge and her relationship with LeeHyun is mainly softening because of their love of music and the song they are both working on. But what doesn’t make sense here is her specific vendetta against Ryok and Maha dating. Because she’s immediately sad and consoling when Maha admits that they broke up. Once again Riah was a supportive and badass friend this episode rather than being too over the top with anger, and it was nice to see her this way again.

Yujin- Another character that I am very happy to write about in the good list again. After everything that happened last episode and this show’s track record with character development, I was half afraid that Yujin wasn’t going to learn his lesson after Hyunji yelled at him. Fortunately, this was not the case. Hyunji yelling at him seemed to remind him of telling Maha that he was free from her after he confessed his feelings toward her a couple episodes back. He took the opportunity to talk to Hyunji and honestly apologize for how he acted and then ask her on a date. Or was it a date? I’m honestly not sure. It was the most awkward product placement I’ve ever seen in my life, that’s for sure. But I do think that it’s important to note that Yujin was back to his kind self that we saw at the very beginning of this drama. I can only hope that this is a trend that continues. Especially because the end of this episode made a huge deal about Ryok being on the same show as Yujin and everyone in Tea Party but Hyunji. So I’m not expecting any of this to last very long.

The Acting- I will never not mention this. Because I really want people to know that everyone acting in this show is talented. Even the people who haven’t acted before have some real talent. The faults in this show go in their entirety to the plot and writers.

Sub-Plot Romance Two- The sub-plot romance between Riah and LeeHyun is probably moving too slowly. But at least it’s moving. And it’s cute. The less we see of Riah’s grudge and the more time they are allowed to spend together, the more this becomes one of the major things I look forward to every episode. The way it took them forever to open the door because they were getting so into the music was cute, and admittedly a little cheesy, but still cute. The only roadblock here is how much screen time they’ve been getting. But they have at least been making some use of that screen time to make this couple look plausible.

The Bad:

Hyunji- Remember when I commended her character in my last review and said that I was afraid they would do nothing with her character development? That’s exactly what happened. Which is exactly what happens with this show in general, but I’ll get back to that later. Hyunji has one semi-strong moment at the beginning of this episode where she yells at Maha for breaking up with Ryok after everything the two had put everyone else through. It was a valid point and I’m glad someone said it. But it is immediately revealed that she only does this because she’s still hurt over what happened with Yujin. She did not say this because it was a concern of hers. This outburst was entirely male driven. And then once Yujin apologizes to her, she’s back to the way she was before. No agency and not much development to go off of. She doesn’t even say anything or tell Yujin how much he hurt her when she’s being apologized to. She just stands there, accepts it, and then becomes super happy because she believes she has a chance with him again. It was almost like last episode never happened.

The Plot and Development- I think I’m finally able to at least pinpoint some of what’s going wrong with this plot. And it has to do with the dropped development I was talking about earlier. The show has a tendency to start good development which gives the audience hope, and then drop it immediately for the sake of another plot point. And then they drop the development for that plot point and start another one. And this happens so much over and over again that all the characters are half-baked and all the plot points only feel half formed. No clear plot, no nothing. Just a lot of things that could have been that the writers didn’t move forward on because I’m not sure they knew how to.

Sub-Plot Romance One- From what you’ve already read about what I had to say about these characters individually, you can probably tell that they don’t work at all. Yujin is sweet, but he needs someone who will call him out on his bullshit. And Hyunji seems to dodge any possible character development that she’s given to the point that I can’t tell what her personality even is beyond her crush on Yujin. At this point in time, these characters are definitely wrong for each other. The scene where Yujin apologized to her was cute, but it only served the character of Yujin. Hyunji barely spoke or even reacted, so it wasn’t a scene that served their relationship as a whole. And the chemistry between them just isn’t there either. I know that this show is sponsored by a specific chicken place, because we see the characters order it at least twice an episode. So when Yujin and Hyunji went to this place on their date, I was already expecting to cringe. But it was made even worse by the fact that the scene was less than a minute long and they didn’t even speak to each other for most of it. It was, by far, the most awkward date I’ve ever seen in a K-Drama. I do not buy these two as a couple even for a second.

The Romance- Maha and Ryok both mainly operate under the banner of the main romance, which is sometimes frustrating and sometimes works for this plot because it is mainly a romance show. With this in mind, their break up was awkward and, as soon as they broke up, they spent most of the episode doing absolutely nothing. Especially Maha. Ryok was involved in a weird plot point that I’ll get to in a second. But most of the episode they both sulked and Maha told everyone that she was the one who broke up with Ryok so that people wouldn’t get mad at him. I’m assuming. They never really confirmed or denied that though.

HyunOh- I definitely thought they were abandoning his character, but apparently that’s not the case. Instead they decided that Ryok would overhear HyunOh treating his girlfriend awfully and then get offended and punch him so that they could shoehorn in a jealousy storyline with Maha. Now it seems like they are going to deal with the fact that HyunOh might be fired from Sparkling when Shax’s company overtakes theirs. This was nowhere where they were hinting about going with this character and this plot doesn’t seem to serve the story over-all either. In fact, when this plot started I thought they were going to explore some form of connection and rivalry between Yujin and HyunOh. And it’s very odd that they’ve gotten rid of Yujin completely in favor of throwing Ryok into the mix instead.

Sparkling and Shax- The members of these groups did nothing this episode excepting a few. Including Hyuk, unfortunately. These are the characters that I wish we could see more of, but we never get anything for them. I think this show overdid it when it comes to characters. The writers can’t balance this many.

La Lima- I’m so confused. So now she wants Maha and Ryok together? Then what was the point of that line that suggested she would fight anyone who tried to date Ryok? I seriously have no clue what’s going on here.

This show is mostly made up of confused writing. I, once again, have no idea what’s happening. But that’s usual for this. I don’t hate watching it, but I wish it was better. I’m at least glad that Yunho got something good to act out again! Yujin got some pretty emotional moments that caught my attention right away! As long as there’s more of that, watching this won’t have been a waste of time.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie