This review may contain spoilers
BEST LINE UP YOU COULD ASK FOR A SURVIVAL SHOW
Either who group debut is talented, I'm happy with rhythm debuting, but sad for KENTA, I Love him so much, all the contestants here are talented, the system was just confusing, since its a team debut, the line up will be predictable to you, but so far I Enjoy the show so much!, the Line Up has potential, They have the craziest Talent! I'm so glad they made it 9 Members, AHOF {All-Time Hall of Fame} was super long name for a debut group T^T, but I do like the sound of the name, Will I rewatch this? for me YES! UL has made me attach to all the contestants here, rewatching this will be a good memory, I love all the contestants, now with AHOF debut there will be haters, I'm sure of it like any other group too, But I'm sure they will do great, and will counter many challenges up ahead, like UNIS did, but they overcome it as a group, as for my favorites in Team Groove which is (Kenta, Kyungho, Joohyoung, Heejun) You've done well, But it hurts seeing you cry when you come so far, I'm sure many journeys ahead of you will be filled with struggles, but I will still support you in the future, Now this is my ending review for this show. It has filled me with (Happiness, Sorrow, Headaches, and Lastly end it with Joy & Hearthbreaks for the contestants, Seriously they were all talented!Was this review helpful to you?
Truly the best SVS i've watched in a while
I usually do not leave reviews but was a really good survival show i've watched in a while. the lack of xenophobia was evident. the fact that there were a fewer number of trainees yet all so talented made me grow extremely attached to all of them. I loved all the possible duos and all the teams as well. The behind the scenes and the challenges of universeleague.preview made up for the lack of interactions during the show! like I got to see all groups interact so that was a bonus! (Chih En-Woongki last reel was so cutee). Every single pairing had great chemistry and I loved that so much.The holiday special ep was literally the best and i've made so many memories from that so i'm sure the trainees did too! I feel like like it has been the best svs show in a while with such good mentorship and such good care! It genuinely seems like they had fun with each other which is probably how a svs should feel like even with all that pressure.
The league concept kinda intrigued me at first yet i was very scared that it could lead to the downfall of potential talented trainees (which was the case yes) but I also realized that this is leagues actually work even though you're popular/talented but not on the winning team or you're not popular/talented but on the losing team. So I came to terms with it. I really did enjoy watching and waiting every week for a new episode made me happy (i usually drop svs easily)
Also, I had 4 one picks (1R 2G 1B) right from the start and all 4 of them debuted so that was the icing on top. However, special mentions to Kairi, Jinho, Kenta, Doyun, Yuito, Heejun, Hanseo, Kyungho 🤍 I really hope this is not the end for them and they really get to fulfil their dreams some day
All 52 trainees have a spot in my heart and I'll support them from here on however much I can
Hoping for 아홉's popularity and good concepts and album designs, a good fandom name, pretty lightsticks and a permanent/long contract 🤞🏼
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Addicting, Entertaining, and Heartbreaking
This is maybe the 3rd talent competition show I've watched since....Fantasia was on American Idol in 2004. Typically, I don't enjoy them. Over the summer I watched JYP's YT shows because I love me some JYP. When I stumbled upon UL, I thought I'd try it out. Glad I did.Firstly, they assembled a great batch of talented "kids'. If not mistaken, I'm old enough to be all of their mom so they're kids to me. (Gah! I sound like my mom!) They all could sing & dance, sure some better than others, but they never gave up, showed anger or much frustration. It was a global 'ok this happened now let's move on.' That's why it was so sad to watch those that were sent packing, especially at the end when they released everything they'd been holding in.
Story score
Since this isn't a scripted show, the story to me is the overall flow of the show. How it was put together and presented. UL was highly entertaining. The "kids" were broken down into 14 teams of 3 mentored by idols/directors. I rooted for so many contestants across teams, but I did have a clear favorite.
The only thing I didn't like was the voting system. I'm not a fan of everything being decided by fan votes. Firstly, it opens up the cheat flood gates. Secondly, only those that are most popular come out on top. It wouldn't have been an issue if a few of the guys didn't already have fan bases for whatever reasons. That's not fair to the guys just starting out. You're only hope as a newbie is to ride their coattails. The directors should have been judges. Or they could have had a panel of judges each week that remained unknown until the end. Something to take the decision out of the hands of the general public. Truly, it's my only real complaint about the show. The voting is crazy skewed, and crazy suspicious, especially in the last few episodes.
Acting
I scored acting simply on talent. As I said the guys are extremely talented. I would have liked to have seen more interaction with the directors and/or the directors being more hands on.
Some were shown to be more attentive than others. They deserve 10s. And can we talk about the sexy El Cap..however you want to spell it? He made me want to sing Prince songs to him. (If you know, you know.)
Music
Goes without saying doesn't it? They did a great job singing famous idols songs, but when it came to the originals songs, they all came alive on stage. I wish we would have been given more details on song releases and/or seen the guys recording.
Rewatch
I intend to rewatch my favorite performances, but not the entire episodes. I don't need the pain. j/p
Overall, UL is worth watching for music fans of all types or just idol fans. I'm not a lover of idols, I honestly had never heard of any of the directors before, but I enjoyed UL nonetheless.
OH 1 other complaint: The group name is dumb AF! Are idol groups named by some kind of random word program? You plug in a topic and it'll spit out words associated with the topic. skh
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To all the players who did not debut, please don't think that you did not made it, because you actually did. You have the whole world notice you and see how great performers you are. You have gained support and love. This time, survival show, company and spotlight might not be the right one for you guys, but the right one will be yours at the perfect time, survival show or company. You will soon have your own spotlight. Please do not give up, we are waiting for your wonderful success. Also, to all the directors/mentors thank you for comforting them, I know you are telling them that this is not the end, yet the beginning of their journey to be a global idol. Fighting 💜
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Despite a good start, it very quickly became bland and repetitive
The format of this survival show is a bit different from others as it is takes a lot of inspiration from sports. There is a lot of sporty reference with participants being splitted into three teams (Rhythm, Groove and Beat) with Directors coaching them. Another difference is the amount of original songs in this show : some were more forgettable than others but still there is at least one or two songs performances I will rewatch for sure.Unfortunately, the show interest radically decreased at his halfway mark. It got very boring with results becoming more and more predictable. In addition to loosing its steam halfway through its run, the buggest issues of the show is the rules regarding the trading of the players and the yellow cards. It was so unbalanced that loosing once meant very little hopt to get better, the situation being bound to get worse and worse.
The cast is quite varied with 42 competitors that have very different level of training. Some have already debuted, some have trained for a long time and some are total beginners. More than the participants, the best part of the cast was the "Teams Directors" coaching the candidates. Some were more involved and hands on than others, but overall it was really what made the show to see how they built their team with their own vision. I loved to see Ten and Yang Yang from WayV and most of all the formidable Lee Changsub from BtoB working on the program. The other directors : producer El Capitxn (aka Jang Yi Jung) and Kim Yu Gyeom from GOT7 also deserve a mention as they did a very commendable job in a though situation.
If you are a fan of one of the directors or of survival shows in general, it might be worth to give it a shot. I personnaly feel it loose too soon its steam and became very predictable because of unbalanced rules. But there are a couple of performances that I really enjoyed, in addition to having some talented participants. If the concept would have more fair for all the teams, and the gap in votes smaller, it would have been definitively more interesting to me.
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Next level of Survivor Show
I think this is much better compare to other 2 survival shows this year.The directors / mentors has a chance to choose the potential contestants but its hard if the others want also the contestants not only the battle of contestants and its also the battle of mentors/director!!
I really like that !!
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This review may contain spoilers
This is my ot7 after watching episode 3,JL,Kenta,Sirin,Park Han,Koo Han Seo,Gwon Hui Jun,Shuang Suaibo.Hope in next episode they don't use the Korean audience for voting.They don't see the real talent they just see the look of the contestant.But atleast thankfully they make Gwon Hui Jun to be the MVP of ep3 on his team because he really deserve it. ♥️♥️♥️
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