going seventeen special | going seventeen agenda
(this isn't going to be a real ranking but mostly me reflecting on my thoughts)
premise:
seventeen and their staff members reflect on the lukewarm reception of going seventeen 2025
comments:
i'm a lot more dramatic about the time i spent away from being a carat between 2018 and 2020 because at the time i had dropped keeping up with seventeen entirely; while i missed seventeen a lot and got a lot of fan fomo (the vernon phone case saga being one of the things i remember the most feeling like "i should be more of a carat"), i didn't get into them again until going seventeen 2020 had aired. all these episodes were so much fun and truly brought me back into the group, and i even explored a bunch of their content that had come out in the time i had missed. since then, i've tried keeping up with seventeen and going seventeen as much as i can. it's one of the things i can always look forward to, especially now that 8 members are actively enlisted.
i did stop keeping up with seventeen as actively in 2025 due to the unit debut plans and since i was exponentially much more busy with school. now that i have a bit more of a break, i'm returning to the diamond life, but in watching gose 2025 i found myself not... actively enjoying a lot of the concepts as much? and it has definitely dampened my opinion of the series. just look at my current rankings: majority of the bottom tiered episodes are from 2025.
why is this? well, a lot of things. it's hard when you have four members who had to enlist last year, with each member's absence certainly being felt. it's also difficult when the concepts have somehow gotten more complicated (jun complained that concepts have gotten too hard for audiences to follow, while minghao said that this increased difficulty in concept also makes it more difficult for him and jun, as foreign members, to participate... something i certainly see in episodes like the gejang, especially for minghao who was the last member of seventeen to join at the time. did he even experience these original recipes?), but too simple at the same time (let's go home was picked apart especially hard in this episode, with seungcheol pointing out it has a considerable drop in views and the going team saying they let the members who were enlisting soon leave too early).
i don't want to say it's entirely team going's fault that the going seventeen balance has been harder to maintain. again, they had to work around the absence of four members in this season. but i do think fans do raise some concerns. the editing is something i've spoken about a lot with recent seasons feeling emptier and integrating less jokes for a more serious tone. i think jun's concern over the increased complication of the concepts is extremely valid. however, i also think a lot of the charm of going seventeen is, as the members point out, reliant on the members having fun. however, team going raises the concern that 1. they don't want to burden the members too much with being too funny and 2. they need variety in the episodes. and i get it. i've complained about it sometimes that a large part of the fun with going seventeen is with the members and too much production can muddle that, but a truly amazing episode can stem from a genius concept. at the same time, going seventeen's best seasons were 2020~2021. seventeen were much younger then (that's six years ago now) and much more energetic (even comparing ttt1 to ttt3 there's a huge drop-off in their energy because they're growing up and getting older). and those episodes took place during the pandemic, when no one was going out -- of course they'd be excited to be doing these games and going on expeditions. and of course they're much busier now with overseas schedules, many more solo activities and opportunities, and, of course, enlistment. they can't dedicate the 1000% to going seventeen like they used to. it's a very complex and layered thing to tackle, making going seventeen as fun as those episodes.
but. BUT. i think whatever they're doing after this time with reflection, it's working. what happened on the set, red ball, blue ball, and digging clams are already going seventeen classics. and the next episode to come out, who are you, is already getting so much praise on twitter that i can't wait to see both parts this upcoming wednesday. going seventeen is the reason i started loving this group again. i can't wait to see what's next.
oh P.S. joshua having to pay for the dinner here AND for the groceries in 12,317 won OH MY RICH MAN LET'S SAVE UR WALLEt