I-LAND (2020)

Pro's and Con's (because many reviews take mostly one side)

The concept of I-Land can be understood without having seen all the episodes. In this review I would like to describe both 'good' and 'bad' aspects of the show, so that I don't tell anyone directly that they should or shouldn't watch the show. There are no major spoilers in this review, just small facts.

Pro's:
- their experience definitely helps the trainees of Bighit (the 23 participants)
- once a trainee has been selected to leave the show, he knows what his goal must be to have his debut later on
- they make close friends with different age groups (1998-2006)
- they improve their ability to work in a team
- they broaden their horizons with the help of their team members
- they learn that compatibility is very important ➡️ a dispute MUST be solved with talking to each other, you can't just hope that it will be over sometime without doing anything➡️ they get to know each other better, understand others more, become more selfless / cooperative / supportive to each other
- they learn how much responsibility a leader and the person with the most singing/dancing parts have ("the team is as strong as the weakest member")
- they learn that it can be either harder or easier to reach the goal as a team
- all participants are from different countries (South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Australia etc.)
- the songs are sooooo good!!
- the participants are absolutely good looking... Stunning! !! (just to mention that too)

Con's:
- the show did some of them dirty
- 'uninteresting' members are rarely or not at all shown, which can lead to them getting fewer votes in global voting
- the drama is always shown (there are mainly good moments to be seen, but of course in the middle of it scenes are shown where a participant behaves stupidly and then no good moment is shown by him ➡️ which can lead to less votes)
- it focuses mainly on dancing (they have to sing and rap well when performing, but it doesn't seem as important as dancing and facial expressions
- They have to choose each other out and into the team
- they have to distribute their parts in songs with each other ➡️ they went through all the parts of the song and one of them wanted every part (because he didn't get the last part) every time but never got the part (he probably got the feeling that he is not good enough)
- because of the scoring points (0-100) they get the feeling that they have never given a perfect performance
- they all make friends with each other, but they don't all make their debut together at the end (only 7/23)
- you automatically have a favourite, but you have to hope every episode that he gets further
- they have to solve tasks as a team, but are valued against each other in the evaluation

I think bighit should have done the kind of survival show that Straykids did (a fixed group being tested to see if they have the potential to make their debut). Still, the show contains many beautiful moments that make the audience love the participants.
I hope my review is helpful and my english isn't too bad :)

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It's an Mnet survival show...what do you expect?

Writing this review based on:
1. Watched it just a month ago
2. Already knowing who the final line-up is
3. Never really finished watching any other survival show (saw PD101, PD101 s2, WIN, MixnMatch)

Firstly, I want to say that knowing that this show was produced by mnet, I expected the evil-editing to be more evil but it wasn't as evil as I thought.

I actually decided to watch this show after seeing Enhypen for the 3rd time on weekly idol. So I came in watching is not as a fan but as someone who is interested in getting to know the group more. (I do really like the group now. Not enough to stan but I watch some of their videos on YT once in a while.)

What I find interesting about this show versus the Produce series is that the starting number of participants is quite small (23) so participants have more chances to get screen time. That said, there were still many participants who I didn't get to see much of (I didn't bother watching the individual cams anymore). The style they chose to separate the "better" trainees led to some participants getting more screen time than others. As a viewer, it was more difficult to support ground trainees because they didn't get to do as much so they didn't get to show off their skills as much.

There was obviously clashes among trainees but I don't think the show singled out any person as a bad guy. The reason why I say that is because the participants who initially seemed "bad" had a character redeeming moment later on. You would see how they admit that there was a point where they made mistakes and admitted to it and did better later on.

There were some members who seemed promising to debut but ended up getting eliminated which I agree; it was sad to see those participants go. But I also think that there's a chemistry among the current members that wouldn't be the same if we ended up with a different lineup. I'm not saying this because I don't like the other participants rather, I think they would do much better in a different group.

Overall, I say that watch this only if you like Enhypen or want to get to know the group otherwise you'll be wasting your time. It's a typical K-pop survival show with frustrating screen time distribution and bias towards certain participants. You also might get attached to some participants who don't end up in the final line-up. This show made me appreciate the group more though seeing what they had to go through. And it's probably because of this that despite what people will say about the group, I'll keep rooting for them :)

P.S. This show also has some really good performances too so I do like to look back at them once in a while.

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