This review may contain spoilers
LOVED THIS! Forget Real Men, Steel Troops is the real deal!
This military survival show is incredibly inspiring. I can't tell you how many times I was amazed and touched to see these former Korean soldiers work so hard at mind boggling training and never once give up.The men are divided by the department that they formerly served: special forces, UDT, SDT, Marines, 707, and SSU. They compete in strength, endurance, and teamwork in harsh conditions to see which military group is the best of the best. Because these are former soldiers, to watch them in action is so cool! It's like watching a real life action movie.
It's really interesting to see how the groups and members differ. Some use their brains more (like Pak Goon), some use their brute strength (SSU and UDT come to mind) , some use their speed (go SDT!). You can see who are natural leaders and who are the weak members, but all teams just never give up no matter how freaking tired they are. I mean, I really don't know how they endured some of these missions. It's a good glimpse at the kind of training korean men might have to go through in the military.
I also really loved the MC panelists specifically Heechul, Jong Min, and Kim Sung Joo. They cracked me up because they were just as much of a fan as I was, I'm surprised Lee Seung gi wasn't an MC. He would've been a great addition.
For some reason after watching this, every other variety show pales in comparison and is now so boring to me. I've already rewatched this three times. I really really hope they have a season 2!
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This review may contain spoilers
Captivating and Engaging Military Show
Steel Troop is truly a show that is intense and gets you hooked on the difficult and thrilling missions they need to complete. It also shows the unity and sportmanship both as a team and as multiple teams. The unity these guys have is incredible to watch.Every episode felt like an action movie, I got so emotionally invested and I felt my heart pounding really fast during the missions and it also felt like I was a part of the team.
It was intense from the start until the end. It started off with 707 talking big and provoking the other teams. It was then funny to watch how they ended last in the next battle. It actually kind of enraged me how they acted towards the other teams. The whole team seemed like a bunch of annoying pricks that can't handle real life situations. Perfect example of "all bark no bite". What makes it even funnier is the fact that it got so bad, they had to remove their team leader from the screen. During the missions, you see them skipping the scenes where he is talking or his face is shown. In the end they got so tired they completely removed him from the show and got the team a substitute member.
Among the teams, UDT was my favorite. They had a good variety of members and took care of each other. When they faced hardships, they didn't let it stop them, they kept on going and never gave up until the end. It was nice seeing the bromance between UDT and SSU. Truly a pleasure to watch and it warmed my heart.
I feel like the show itself was well planned and executed from start to end. They have nice panelists, they are funny and they are different types of people, a comedian, Hee-Chul, Chuu, the Master and so on. I liked how they showed the different items that were being used in the missions (e.g pistol, tire etc). You could then get a grasp on how it would be for a regular person to use these items.
This is a show I could recommend to anyone and you don't have to be a military enthusiast to like this show. Its thrilling and makes you wanting to watch even more when you've finished an episode.
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Celebrity panel RUINS IT. Plus horribly poor planning by production team.
The show is great, but I absolutely could not stand the celebrity panel commenting on EVERY. LITTLE. THING. They were basically sports commentators, jumping in every few seconds.Apart from comments like, "Someone's coming!" "He's getting in the boat!" they LOVE to comment on how handsome and strong the soldiers are. Like Jesus christ I don't need a bunch of celebrities talking about how shiny some soldier's eyes are.
Too many forced over-reactions, lots of "Oh no!" "어떻게???" "Wooowww!" and forced CRYING for christ's sake. Every once in a while, they cut to the celebrity group, and they spend a few minutes or more talking about what each soldier did. Like I goddamn saw what they did, I don't need a recap and your thoughts on it.
Apart from a completely unnecessary celebrity panel, the planning by the production team had a LOT of issues. For example, the guns that they used for the target chhallenge. Absolute crap. They were such bad quality, that the soldiers had to calculate and take that into account. Normally, they could just pick it up and shoot without thinking, but you saw them standing there for a minute or two trying to get the aim right. And they kept missing! And the targets were incredibly close, when with real guns, the soldiers could shoot targets 3 times as far away with no problem.
And then there was having certain challenges that some of them had never been trained in. For example, the secret service guys had never been trained in how to carry, launch, and steer a raiding craft (boat). And some of them and some soldiers weren't trained in swimming. So they were put at a complete disadvantage.
If you want a detailed review on the production teams screwups, Ken Rhee has a great video review on Youtube.
If you're annoyed by a celebrity panel constantly talking and cutting in, well, you'll be skipping a lot through the show.
It's a great show, and really entertaining, but it's really frustrating to watch lol.
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