Before we get going with the dreaded Signal Song competition, we’ve got a few more introductory performances to get through.
Week Two of Boys II Planet is again giving us two separate episodes — one for K and one for C. Please, please tell me this will not be the norm going forward. I can’t do two episodes a week, especially when this one alone is two hours and forty four minutes long. Why are K-pop songs getting shorter while survival series episodes are getting longer?!? I could play TXT’s new single sixty-eight times in the space of this episode and that is not meant as a compliment to either!
PREVIOUS RECAPS: Episode One // Episode Two
Introductory Performance Highlights and Lowlights
Kim Jun Seo (WEi)
This had some really funny editing prior to the performance thanks to judge Kany’s intense fandom around him and his BL drama. Apart from that, I thought the performance was pretty average but he definitely has the look and aura you’d expect from an already-debuted idol.
Jung Hyun Jun
Didn’t really get much from his performance but I loved his dance with Kany, which is what I’m embedding here.
WHIB
They were decent, though my expectations for a debuted group are much higher than this performance and I don’t associate WHIB with this kind of music. I guess showing off their range is the point, though.
DKB
I have similar feelings about this. Obviously, the expectations are already higher for an experienced group, and this was a solid performance. Maybe it’s just the song I’m not feeling. Nothing seemed very unique or interesting to me. Again, the judges seem to be focused on dance more than anything else.
Yumeki
He’s a prolific (and excellent) K-pop choreographer so all the trainees were stoked to see him. But just because you’re a fantastic dancer doesn’t mean you’re necessarily an idol. This was very odd. The show has been building him up since last week’s episodes only to have a strong dance and awful vocals? This season is strange.
And… they didn’t show DRIPPIN at all. MNET hates Woollim Entertainment, clearly.
This Year’s Uniforms
The uniforms this year make the contestants look like janitorial staff. It feels weird to me that they’ve also got the North Face logo plastered prominently on the chest. I know it’s a worldwide brand, but it feels so American to me.
The Class System
I know it’s all to create drama and tension, but I’ve always found this franchise’s class system so awkward and unnecessary. Like… enforcing and reveling in a caste system is such a strange form of entertainment. I just want to see good performances.
I very much approve of the random dog that comes around to deliver messages, though. This is also an extremely strange addition, but at least it’s cute.
They Practiced The Signal Song
Endlessly.
Most of the singing was particularly bad. At one point, Hyolyn called one contestant’s hesitant performance a “shy concept,” which I thought was a funny – and very charitable – way to put it!
Yumeki took the lead on choreography, as expected. At one point, ZEROBASEONE’s Hanbin came for a visit. Gosh, they’re really involving him a lot in this season. He brought them some tanghulu, which I coincidentally had for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It’s so good!
That was my main takeaway from this segment. I really want some tanghulu again.
Signal Song Test
Ah, the part of the series where they edit together the absolute worst performances you’ve ever seen to build drama before the inevitably polished group stage of this year’s signal song. Embarrassingly, each contestant’s new ranking is immediately displayed on a monitor for all to see after they perform.
The thing is, at this point with so many contestants, it’s asking a lot of the audience to care if anyone moves up or down a rank — especially when this segment goes on for an hour in the middle of a nearly three-hour episode. To be honest, I had to fast forward. I just can’t listen to the same clip of that same signal song over and over again. I don’t know how the judges do it. It’s like an endless loop of hell.
When all is settled, Kim Geon Woo scored the “killing part” after a vote. Fine. Cool. I guess.
For the main stage, we’ve got moving stages, dancing in water, fireworks. Everything but a great song!
And after the fireworks come a bunch of eliminations (including DRIPPIN’s Lee Hyeop for some reason). Again, it’s hard to invest much in anyone at this point in the series. Let’s move on to the smaller group performances.
To end the episode, Ong Seungwu (remember him??) came out to reveal the Planet C participants. Cue a ton of dramatic gasping. There better be a “battle to the death” dance-off coming up next.