going seventeen | svtside out ii
premise:
the members play arcade games and bowling while controlled by 13 different emotions, one for each member
comments:
there's a point where jun says, "today's concept really is weird, isn't it?" indeed.
sequel to svtside out and, i realize this now, but svtside out wasn't even in the top ten favorite episodes of 2020, so i'm even more shocked it got a sequel! anyway, this one's tough to rank for me because the emotions for both the first part and the second part don't actually feel too central to what they're doing unless it's like, all that they're doing. however, the premise of these episodes also hinge on the activities, so it becomes easy for the focus to shift on one or the other, without a lot of synergy between them. for example, minghao's rage, as i spoke about in the first svtside out ("sit down!") or the flexing in this episode take place without the activity, and, by the end of the nailbitingly suspenseful bowling games, the members begin to ignore the emotions entirely. there are some moments where the emotions and the activity come together, like vernon's crying face during 'sadness' after bowling awfully, or tribe-teen coming back during a joyous emotion, but those moments are pretty far between.
now, i usually hinge on the belief that the best going seventeen episodes are the ones with a minimal concept that props up the members to be competitive and have lots of chemistry with each other. this is one of the few episodes where i would say that is actually a bit of a drawback because holy shit they played four back-to-back games of bowling??!!! like i'm glad the members are enjoying themselves and some members glowed up in their skills but like.... did no one want to step in from the production team??? like a big problem they often talk about is having too little content (hello white zone and carnival) but i also feel like there's such thing as having too much (aside from this episode, i'd argue mousebusters and maybe even going rangers teeter on that 'too much' level sometimes). like why didn't we trim the fat?? i'm glad the ending genuinely has you on the edge of your seat but at the same time it's like .... bro??
anyway, aside from that i actually did enjoy this episode, especially since it's the first one in 2022 that had jun and minghao!! i do wish we got a behind-the-scenes for each of the 13 members at the end like we did in svtside out i but the talk show with hoshi and dino was quite sweet. (i also love this episode for further pushing the 'seungkwan is amazing and the performance team are terrible at sports' agenda)
P.S. this episode with the sudden scene interjections of SVTside out made me realize that gose doesn't really...? do that anymore...? and it's an editing quirk i really miss! one of the episodes that utilized this quirk was also TTT! they must've gotten rid of this editor or something but man i miss it
ranking:
concept: 6; a second-take without much addition (aside from new emotions) of the first iteration
chemistry: 7.5; is there such thing as too much content?? when the members want to keep going??
enjoyment: 6
overall - 6.5/10