The Shouty mouth-hole is back! And he’s bringing some old friends. Na PD, who is pretty much varieties impish golden child right now, is coming back with a new variety show. With the exception of Thee Meals A Day: Fishing Village, his shows have been ratings gold ever since he made the jump from network to cable. One right after another, Grandpa’s Over Flowers (which was so popular it got several seasons and is one of the only Korean shows to actually make it to production as a US remake), Noona’s over Flowers, Youths over Flowers, and finally the oddly super popular Three Meals A Day.
While any show from Na PD would be a cause of celebration, this one called the New Journey Into the West is especially big because he’s bringing in the big guns…his cast from his first big show, One Night Two Days–we’re talking Kang Ho Dong, Lee Seung Gi, Lee Soo Gyun, and Eun Ji Won. Okay, I don’t know Lee Soo Gyun, and Kang Ho Dong can irritate me with his shouty-ness but I do love me some Lee Seung Gi and I actually got to really enjoy Eun Ji Won when he joined the Barefoot Friends team halfway through their run.
Actually, during some of those unbearable food episodes at the end, he was one of the few reasons I kept watching. Remember when he was the one who was super nice to the chubby boy who everyone else made fun of during the diving challenge? Yep, he pulled an awwwww from me on that one.
Since this is a proven team with chemistry, and people have fond memories of what they consider the golden days of 1N2D, I’m sure that this show is going to be hugely popular. The one really surprising thing about this is that the show is slated for broadcast online rather than on television. I wonder why this is? Is this Na PD trying to push the envelope again? Did tvN (his cable network as of late) decide not to pick it up for some reason? (Although I’m not sure why they’d do that.) I’ll be interested to see if 1) someone picks it up to sub 2) if this format will be successful for them and 3) if this will start a new trend of internet programming. While at first it seems weird, but essentially isn’t that what Netflix series are? For the most part that’s really worked out well for us.
4 Comments
I try to enjoy the reality/variety tv series from Korea, but they(the producers) have an annoying habit of replaying right away whatever funny thing just happened. I’d like to watch the show without this hirkey-jerkey method of telling us what was funny. Does this bother you? Or did you just get used to it. I would like to watch the one you mentioned as i do love LSG.
I had the same experience, Denwanai, and all I can say is that after awhile you tune it out. I also had a similar problem with the laugh tracks they use, but I don’t even notice them anymore.
I think that as long as Lee Seung Gi is in something someone will sub it. He has a pretty strong i-fan base. I watched the original 1n2d and all of Na PD’s shows ad he can make anything funny imo. So I’m so pumped for this!
You’d think! But Woo Bin was in a variety show and that wasn’t subbed.