Next Recap Project: 2pm/2am/One Day/A week from next Tuesday

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(Written on May 6, 2024)

There was never any doubt in my mind what my next K-pop reality survival recap project would be. 

 

I’ve mentioned 2pm in previous essays and recaps.  “Make It” is one of my K-pop favorites.  Jun K and Woo Young from 2pm were coaches on Wild Idol, as well as Jo Kwon of 2am.  2pm’s Junho, whose chopstick-breaking butt I swear I am done joking about, has had a notable acting career, including the strangely titled King the Land, one of my favorite K-dramas.

All of this was enough on its own to make 2008’s Hot Blood my next recap project.  But there’s more.  This story has a handsome prince.  From America.  Who had no musical background whatsoever when he was approached by a JYP talent scout in Los Angeles when he was just a teenager.  He went on to be the first non-Korean trainee at JYP.  This fairy tale woven into a K-pop survival show was too good to resist.  

Unlike No Mercy and Wild Idol, these ten episodes are only 30 minutes each.  So the recapping itself shouldn’t take too long, but there will be many stories to tell.  For example, our handsome prince won’t be the only American-born trainee.  From the eleven members that will make up the two groups, we’ll get plenty of stories of success and scandal.  And speaking of scandal, we’ll learn just how unforgiving the Korean media can be over careless social media comments.  People talk about cancel culture in the US, but it’s got nothing on how devastating the punishment handed down by Korean netizens can be. 

We’ll see firsthand the grueling life of a trainee.  We’ll see how entertainment company executives will work to wring every possible dollar out of a group, including taking an eleven-member group and breaking them up into two groups that are still part of the main group until the individual members have likely forgotten which group they belong to and what their own names are.  I’m curious to see if any of them wander confused into the streets of Seoul and have to be lured back to the training rooms with Nongshim Shrimp Crackers and Choco Pies.

We’ll learn about pretty boys verses jimseung-dols (beast idols).  We’ll see a guerrilla concert.  We’ll watch non-Korean trainees face the relentless schedule of a K-pop trainee while also learning to speak Korean.  We’ll see the eventual formation of a group that will be called role models by some familiar names that came after them, such as Monsta X, Seventeen, and Stray Kids. 

I am ready to leap right into this rabbit hole.  Grab your parachutes and follow me.

Episode 1:  Someone call the cops.

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