In terms of premise, they don’t come much more ambitious than Made in Korea, the BBC’s newest reality TV show.
What if, it asks, we could take five British lads (most of whom have never heard of K-pop, let alone listened to it) and transform them into one of the immaculately-choreographed supergroups that strut across stages from Seoul to New York?
It’s no secret that K-pop is having somewhat of a British boom at the moment. Mega-group Seventeen performed at Glastonbury earlier this year, while their counterparts Stray Kids headlined the final night (to thousands of screaming fans) at BST Hyde Park a few months ago.
So this series feels perfectly poised to tap into that sudden surge of interest (as well as introducing it to primetime TV audiences), and boy, does it deliver. Our five British lads in question are Blaise, Olly, James, Reese and Dexter, who are each given brief intros that mainly consist of their loving family members waving them off at the airport.
They’re very young - in their late teens and early 20s, most have never been this far away from home – and have a kind of puppy dog enthusiasm to them that makes them very easy to root for.
They’re going to need it, too, because training to make it in the world of K-pop is notoriously tough. The first half of the episode goes easy on them, setting up the premise and letting them frolic around their new bachelor pad in the trendy Korean suburb of Itaewon. They even go on a K-pop themed tour of Seoul with a local guide (this invariably involves a stop at the Gangnam Style statue).
The rest of the episode is devoted to training, and it’s tough. Mostly, this consists of hours of classes with vocal and dance coaches in SM Entertainment’s headquarters – aka one of the most prestigious musical agencies in the entire country, with names like Riize, Aespa and Red Velvet on their books.
It’s a tall order, asking five boys to accomplish in three months what most K-pop stars spend years training to do, and accordingly, it doesn’t go well. “Oh my God!” one dance coach squeals at one point, on the verge of a mental breakdown as they fail to get a routine right for the 50thtime in a row. “Is it bad?” Blaise asks, worried. Yes, Blaise, it is.
By far the most stomach-churning moment, though, comes when the boys have their weekly assessment with Hee Jun Yoon, one of the K-pop industry’s most respected names.
No spoilers here, but her verbal savaging of the boys ends the episode on a rather more sober note than you’d expect from a feel-good reality TV show (though we are assured that a lot of mental health support has also been laid on for them).
What else would you expect, though? This is a fascinating behind-the-curtain peek at one of the music industry’s toughest genres, and it doesn’t pull its punches in showing exactly how high the bar is for its young competitors.
Stylishly-shot and featuring a likeable cast, this is a surprising reality TV gem. Even better, there are no fire pit dumpings to contend with.
