Ron Does Stuff

I actually forgot that this was going to air, so I completely missed the first two episodes. But I’m catching up now and will hopefully be on schedule when the third one airs this Friday!

The first episode starts very moody, with S. Coups hesitating to reply to a question about where Seventeen is right now. It’s followed by shots of the other members looking either tired or intense, and I don’t know if this is going to be the tone of the whole thing.

We then shift to them discussing how much of themselves they’re going to show in the documentary, and Seungkwan says they need to show even the moments when they clash during the album-making process, since that happens a lot. And while ideally that’s what a documentary should be, I’ve seen K-Pop stans when conflict is shown on screen. I’m not deep in the Seventeen fandom, but if they have solo stans, prepare for victimization narratives from them. Just saying!

After that, we’re shown a happier occasion — the guys preparing for their Jamsu Bridge performance. If you weren’t around for that, watch it below!

After that, we fly all the way to Mexico for their Tecate Pa’l Norte performance. Didn’t actually get to watch that! We also get snippets of all the events they’ve been to over the past year, like them speaking at UNESCO. Throughout these scenes, we get multiple members of the band either saying they’re still hungry despite all they’ve achieved now, or wishing to see what else they can do in the future.

Then we get the turn, starting with Woozi voicing his fear that all of this is going to suddenly disappear, to S.Coups admitting that he has no control over the ups and downs that the groups goes through. It’s interspersed with shots from their earliest days, from that infamous green room, and I know that this is supposed to be reflective and poignant but whenever I see that green room the thing that always comes to mind is Wonwoo’s nuts getting hit by a football.

ANYWAY, S.Coups I think for the first time says he has a panic disorder? At least from the way he says it in this episode. Again, I wouldn’t call myself a Carat, but I do listen to Seventeen, so if this has long been known in the fandom, do correct me.

Hoshi also shares that he wants to take a break and remind himself that he “used to love this”, which is a pretty heavy thing to say. It’s then repeated by Joshua, and Mingyu, but what’s frustrating for me is that so far, the docu hasn’t been pursuing any threads or being clear about what story it wants to tell. Maybe because there are 13 members in the group, and they each need to have their say? Maybe they’ll be able to wrangle the story later on in the episode?

We then go back to 2024, with them rehearsing for…I don’t know which tour it is they’re practicing for. And maybe I should have just waited because the docu tells us it’s for the Right Here tour. At this point, Jeonghan was already enlisted, while Wonwoo was preparing to go in. There are a lot of adjustments to be made because of the absence of members, as Dino points out, is difficult when you’re a group of 13. At one point, Seungkwan voices out that it’s getting harder and harder to keep their teamwork going.

The docu then switches to a S.Coups-focused section, where the other members talk about him. It’s encouraging to hear that he had fun during this tour, and have the members build him up. But here’s another nitpick I have about this episode, because now Joshua is talking about how they’re not as busy and have more room to breathe and have gotten closer. I’m assuming this is compared to earlier in the episode, but we didn’t even get to see how that was resolved. We’re missing parts of whatever story this docu is trying to tell.

Now we get a Jun-focused section, as he rejoins the tour after finishing a drama in China. It’s mostly him expressing his gratitude to the team for adjusting while he was gone, and that the team keeps him motivated as they move forward.

Then we get them having fun and enjoying…whatever city this is right now. I think this is New York? That’s where the Nasdaq billboard is located, right? Or that Nasdaq LED screen or whatever. Wonwoo is talking about how excited he is to see their schedule because they have fun working together, and that is so gret to hear, but again. I wish the docu followed that arc from the start of the episode where they worry about how much longer they can do this to now enjoying seeing their schedule. What happened in between?

After that, we get to see Joshua speaking at LA City Hall, and he really does look like a church oppa, but a slightly edgier one. Can’t wait until he gets his acting break, because apparently he’s working towards that now? I read it somewhere!

As we near the end of this episode, we get scenes from their different concerts, with the guys talking about how much they appreciate Carats. It’s all very sweet! But the last words are Wonwoo’s, who says that right now, Seventeen feels like a team that’s still at the starting line, ready to run a marathon. Let’s see where else they run to!

All in all, while I enjoyed this episode, I do wish it was structured and edited better, and just like Seungkwan said earlier in the episode, showed more. Like I mention multiple times in this post, there are a lot of moments here where I felt I got the beginning and the end of a story, but nothing about what happened in the middle.

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