going seventeen | kickball
premise:
seventeen play kickball with a bit of a gose twist
comments:
i remember this being an episode i really really enjoyed back in 2021 when it first came out, but i can't remember whether that was because i was actually starting to catch gose episodes in real time again (context: i lowkey stopped keeping up with seventeen as intensely from 2019-2020... aka when the big going seventeen shift happened) or because it was a genuinely good episode. now, is it still a good episode? i'll say yes, but with a itty bitty asterisk next to it.
because yes, this is a really entertaining episode. the fact that part 2 is 45 minutes long and yet breezes right by speaks for itself. watching goated moments like dk catching ball after ball and team chicken scratch getting three home runs from one kick are fun and all, but that's not why anyone likes this episode. in the same vein of four wheeled rider, there are so many absurdly ridiculous "power ups" in this episode that at a certain point you forget you're even watching a kickball game. i love the image that is mingyu running in flippers, s.coups and hoshi in dinosaur costumes, woozi dragging around a tire, jun riding a scooter, and wonwoo dancing left and right, meanwhile the umpire (the8) is sitting on a yoga ball and calling "out!" and suddenly you remember you're watching a kickball game.
2021 was definitely the year of these small, simple concepts! this one felt more stripped back than the usual ones though, despite the props. i'd say in terms of scale this one is probably similar to the8 and the 12 shadows and let's go seventeen (the next episode after this one was ttt water sports edition, so maybe this one's saving budget out of necessity). and yes, this one being very stripped back and simple opens the door to so many natural chemistry moments. however i do fear just because of the sheer simplicity of this episode it just ends up falling behind as a going seventeen episode. it's very, very fun on its own, but it's unable to go toe-to-toe episodes prior like don't lie or the ones since it that have amped up scale, like hide and seek or where's seventeen. it's not really a mystery why they haven't done a kickball since then, but i do see the 'school' episodes like best friends, know and don't know, and sevong elementary school, following up on the simple "seventeen plays a game" premise by adding multiple games and more context (and, as you can maybe tell in my review, boo seungkwan and ball sports being a bit of a regression of this concept).
ranking:
concept: 7; fun but not very memorable
chemistry: 8; lots of cute member moments but feel a little restricted due to the kickball format
enjoyment: 8; like i said, used to be one of my favorite episodes, but has since then fallen behind
overall - 7.6/10