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Monsta X Starting Point
The show was a heartbreaking, gut punch. I felt so bad for many of the trainees and then the monkey wrench of ADDING I.M. after the 7th episode seemed calluos indeed. Merciless as the cast said.I cried on a few epsiode and I felt like the judging was bad and no one really gave constructive feedback!! It was also quite annoyng when all the judges would say "when I was a trainee..." Who cares about when you were a trainee, that's why you should be a little more sympatheic instead being jerks.
Joohoney was amazing in every episode and makes me wonder honestly why he didn't just become a solo rapper... he is that good.
I'm a new fan to Monsta X and the only reason I even watched this is b/c the new sinlgle they have out, One Day. I became obssessed with Hyungwon from the new MV and wanted to know what he looked like as a younger, not as poslished guy. At any rate, he was super adorable even though I think he looks better with black hair and this has nothing to do with the review of the show!!
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No.Mercy does really mean NO. MERCY.
This is so hard to watch if as a Monsta X fan. I'm not too familiar with kpop competition shows but I felt the judging was entirely too harsh. There would be times where critiques would come BEFORE AND AFTER THE PERFORMANCE. Of course that would affect performances!! And many of the trainees were so likable that it was hard to watch them leave. Each had their moments and ups and downs. This show made me laugh, cry, and want to punch a wall. I love you Monsta X but I am never watching this again.Was this review helpful to you?
MONSTA X was built through pain : NO.MERCY was really no mercy!
I started this survival show, thinking I did not know much about MONSTA X...However, I was surprised on how much I knew about the line up of the debut group. Names recognition is real and those guys have quite an incredible extensive career that made it impossible to go fully blind into it. Having said that, I still felt a lot of excitement and (let's face it) nostalgia (because of how outdated the fashion style from that time period now feel) watching this show.The competition was very intense from start with a strong rivalry between the trainees. They were all from the same agency (Starship), so I did not expect the atmosphere to feel so cut-throat...The average age of the trainees was a bit older than some of the other survival show that I saw, giving a general more mature feeling to the show. The judges were mostly artists part of the same agency or producers working regularly with them, some really taking their role to heart and some seeming to be though for the sake of creating angsty situations.
The songs and stages felt also quite gritty and underground, with every participants fighting hard for their spots with the production team constantly pushing some rough tricks on them. I liked the imperfections of the performances, it felt real at showcasing the skills of the participants without overproducing it. Pacing was also pretty good with not a lot of filler, quite straight to the point.
I would recommend this to people that enjoy survival show and / or want to learn more about MONSTA X and how the group was build up. It clearly belongs to the category of "agency-led" survival show, featuring a reduced number of trainees from Starship. It has a more mature vibe than some shows promoting youth / fresh style, here it is more dark / rap / sexy performances. It is also such a nostalgia throwback of the 2014 era, with the make up and styling from this time period. Despite usually preferring to go blind and surprisingly knowing much more than expected in terms of names recognition, I am definitely happy to have watched it to learn more about the group as I knew very little about MONSTA X lore as well as the specific faces, talents, personalities of most of the members. There were also some very good performances with very creative concepts, making it worth the watch.
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