queendom puzzle recap/review: ep 1

june 14 2023

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a sucker for trashy reality TV shows— they're my guilty pleasure. I'm also a K-pop fan (or used to be), so I've watched a fair amount of K-pop "survival"/competition shows. Idol School, Produce 48, Girls Planet 999, Queendom 2, Girls:Reverse... I've seen a lot. And I've seen enough (and am old enough) to catch onto the formula, especially Mnet's formula. Mnet are truly desperate at this point to recapture the smash success of Produce 48 survival group IZ*ONE, since their attempted follow up, Kep1er, has fallen short in many ways. They keep coming up with new ideas, each more convoluted than the last, to try to make The Ultimate K-pop Survival Group. Their new show, Queendom Puzzle, is like a strange mashup of Produce/Girls Planet and Queendom, taking a bunch of already debuted groups of varying levels of popularity and forcing them to compete for limited spots on a new group.

I have a lot of complicated feelings about survival shows and the method of producing a group via fan committee (check out my TripleS deep dive for some of my thoughts), but setting that aside, I just wasn't super interested in Queendom Puzzle at first. When I watch survival shows, I tend to watch them because either 1. Someone I already know and support is competing (Hyerim on Girls Planet, Loona on Queendom 2) or 2. I want the opportunity to be introduced to brand new talent that hasn't been seen before (Go Yujin in Produce48). Queendom Puzzle had neither. It had a couple groups I was mildly interested in (like Cherry Bullet, H1-Key, etc), but no one I was really invested in.

Then I saw a preview clip of the first episode. Dohwa (known better as Chanmi from AOA), was performing her "audition" stage, and had a moment where she was supposed to rip off her skirt to reveal a shorter skirt underneath. But the skirt got stuck, and it clearly flustered her and made her late to her dance break. Smash cut to— a bunch of trainees... downvoting her?

Yeah, that's right. The first round of competition for this show is called the "Up-Down Battle," meaning each girl prepares a solo stage and all the other girls either give her an upvote or a downvote. Immediately, I thought, "This is so messy. I'm obsessed." So I watched the first episode, and here are my first impressions, as well as my thoughts on the performances we've gotten so far.

The first episode premiered as a livestream, so when I went to go watch it, a chat replay was also included. Something that really shocked me was how many people were taking it on face value that a certain girl was actually downvoting when Mnet showed a downvote and then cut to a girl pressing a button. Do people honestly not know Mnet (and every other reality TV show) is so heavily cut up and rearranged that it basically has no resemblance to the actual footage/real events. Unless a girl sits on camera and says, "I downvoted X for this reason" (which some do!), I do not trust Mnet's editing. There's a reason they give the contestants a list of who voted for what during their performances, but don't say it to the audience. Surely that's good drama, right? Why wouldn't they show that to the audience unless it contradicted their already existing narrative?

What I'm trying to get at is that nothing in this show is real. Don't get worked up over rivalries/"disrespect"/beef between the contestants, because it's likely all fake anyways. Mnet is trying to make "entertaining" television, which is different from truthfully showing what actually went down. I take all of the "drama" between the contestants in good fun, and I don't take the show seriously. You should too!

Mnet likes to drag their shows out for as long as possible, so I'll skip recapping the long opening that consists of each contestant entering, trying to guess who else is coming, interacting with each other, and being sorted into "tiers" based on some arbitrary popularity measures. Mnet must have some insane dirt on Taeyeon, because she's back to MC for this show as well (which means she mostly sits there and looks pretty and occasionally makes some encouraging comments).

Then the performances start, and Dohwa is first, performing a medley of AOA songs. I actually know Dohwa from Girls: Reverse (which was like... Girls Planet 999 in VR? Idk, it was hilarious) and I think she's pretty funny and talented. I've already talked about her skirt debacle, and besides that, I think her performance was just... fine? I don't really have much to say about this one! It didn't wow me, but it didn't really disappoint me either, even with the whole skirt thing. She gets mostly downvoted with 11 upvotes and 16 downvotes because of the skirt, and I feel bad for her.

Next up is Zoa from Weeekly, and they do a little segment about her and Jiwoo from TripleS being classmates and tall baby besties, since they're both only seventeen. It was weird to me that they stressed how young she is, considering she immediately goes into a... slightly risque performance of f(x)'s "Rum Pum Pum Pum." She is a really great dancer and has a lot of effortless charisma, but the choreography and the styling (a tiny plaid skirt that was so short you could see her black safety shorts underneath) were too adult for her. I want to make it clear that I'm not blaming Zoa for this, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing for a woman to want to wear a short skirt and do a sexy dance. I totally support that. But Zoa is seventeen, and her company should never have suggested this/let her do this in the first place. That aside, she finishes with a respectable 16 upvotes and 11 downvotes.

Jiwoo from TripleS is next performing her own song, "Rising," and they make a big deal about her both being the youngest age wise and debutwise. She only debuted seventy days ago at the time this was filmed, and I hate to say this (because I don't want to pick on a seventeen year old), but it kind of shows? She seemed a little nervous and stiff, and she got a lot of downvotes because she wore a really big hat that covered most of her face. Which is a shame, because she clearly knew how to use her facial expressions to make an exciting performance. I really don't think she's bad, I just think she's young and needs more experience. She has the second worst score so far, with 7 upvotes and 20 downvotes.

Jiwon from Cherry Bullet is up next, and injects a shot of much needed life into the show with her performance of Chungha's "Gotta Go." Her performance is the first (and one of the only, to be completely honest) that genuinely wowed me. It's not just that she's a good dancer, although she is. It's not just that she makes a good effort at singing life, although she does. It's not just that she's effortlessly charismatic, although she is. It's also that she gave a performance, not just an audition. The choreo is intricate, interesting, and makes good use of the space they were given. She brought props, set pieces, interacted with props and her backup dancers... I was really impressed! This performance is just objectively really really good! She ties for second with 24 upvotes and 3 downvotes.

After an attempt at setting up a rivalry between Jiwon and the next contestant, Suyun from Rocket Punch, simply because they're wearing similar outfits, Suyun performs Taemin's "Advice." I have really mixed feelings about this performance. I don't think she did bad, and I don't give a shit about Mnet's editing trying to push her as jealous and cocky. She was good. I think Suyun is clearly a talented dancer and singer. I just don't think she's learned yet that just because you can doesn't mean you should. She dances very aggressively, and she takes "Advice" up into a super high key that doesn't really suit the song or her. It sounded like she was singing the notes fine, but the backing track was very loud and piercing and drowned her out a lot. Personally, I think Suyun just needs to learn that sometimes less is more. The other contestants might agree with me, because her final score is 12 upvotes and 15 downvotes.

Next is Nana from woo!ah, covering Taemin's "Move." A bold choice, considering how well known and well loved this song is, but I think it really paid off for her. This is how you do a Taemin cover. She kept it in a low key, which was a comfortable range for her, and focused on her dancing. Clearly, she's a really good dancer! I wish she sang live a little bit more, but overall I thought this was a really solid performance. Plus, her relationship with her backup dancers is really cute. She finishes with a very respectable score of 19 upvotes and 8 downvotes.

Next up is Chaeyeon (soloist and former IZ*ONE member) performing Lee Hyori's "Toc Toc Toc," and this segment/her editing is made hilarious by the fact that everyone already knew she had dropped out of the show before the second episode was filmed. Mnet tries so hard to give her an evil edit, portraying her as this stuck-up, arrogant downvoter who doesn't care about anyone else and just wants to make it to the top... and the whole time she's no longer even in the show. Thank God she escaped. Side note, her downvoting every other contestant no matter what is not disrespectful, as some people have tried to argue. It's a strategy, and one that clearly worked for her.

Overall, her performance was good. She suited the song and brought a lot of good energy to it, and is a very good dancer. I'm not really a dancer (more vocal oriented), so I have nothing to say but "She's good!" If I can be really nitpicky for a second, I don't think the styling suits her. She gets 20 upvotes and 7 downvotes, and Mnet try to make it out like she's pissed that she wasn't voted higher, but in a conversation with the other contestants in her tier it's made clear that she's actually upset because she thinks they voted her too high, and her performance wasn't that good. Poor Chaeyeon. Again, I'm glad she escaped before they could smear her name further.

Next is Fye, who is a soloist from Thailand who writes and produces her own music. She apparently went viral on Insta/TikTok for her laidback cover of New Jeans' "Hype Boy" and has now come to the show to try to launch her career in Korea. She performs her cover of "Hype Boy" and a rap she wrote. Uh. I'm gonna give her a reverse-compliment sandwich. The rap, at least to me, is not very good. She's an amazing singer, and has a really smooth and melodic vocal timbre! She is also not a very good dancer either, stumbling through a couple basic steps while she raps. There was also a lot of discourse about her in the chat replay, but nothing I'm comfortable repeating, because I don't know if any of it is legit or not. Look her up if you're interested in that. The other contestants give her 16 upvotes and 11 downvotes.

Next is Riina from H1-Key, performing "Rose Blossom" and Nayeon's "POP!" Mnet are also clearly trying to set Riina up as an overconfident, careless mess, which makes me sad because I really like H1-Key's music and was glad to see them getting a little bit of well-deserved recognition with "Rose Blossom." Riina is very cute, very charismatic on stage, and is a great dancer. She sings live pretty well but fumbles the high note, and her voice cracks a little. Because of the crack, she gets slammed with downvotes and ends up with an 8 upvote, 19 downvote ratio. Harsh.

Jihan from Weeekly goes next, also performing "POP!" They try to set up a rivalry between Riina and Jihan for doing the same song, cutting to Riina looking upset and "bitchy," and trying to act like it's because she hates Jihan when she's clearly just tired and disappointed with her own voice crack. I need them to stop with this stupid rivalry shit when both Jihan and Riina are super cute, nice girls who could take over the world with their combined charm. Jihan's performance of "POP!" goes off without a hitch, and I like the way she's rearranged the song to display both her cute and more mature side. She "wins" the rivalry with 17 upvotes and 10 downvotes.

Wooyeon from woo!ah is up next, performing "INVU" by Taeyeon in front of Taeyeon. She talks in her interview segment about really looking up to Taeyeon and is clearly super super nervous, which causes her to be a bit stiff and her vocals to be very shaky. She's very cute and can clearly dance, but because she's so nervous she barely sings live and doesn't even attempt the high note. All the other contestants are not impressed and she gets a wicked downvote ratio, with only 4 upvotes and 23 downvotes. Even Nana, her own group member, downvotes her! I feel really bad for her, but I can't say it wasn't totally deserved.

Yeoreum from WJSN is up next, performing a mashup of WJSN's "As You Wish" and Kai's "Mmmh." Side note here: if you needed proof that Mnet's Queendom series is a complete waste of time for the contestants with zero material benefits, you only need to point to the fact that WJSN won Queendom 2 and are still sending a member on Queendom Puzzle. Dohwa was also on the first Queendom with AOA, although they didn't win. It's still wild to see them back and realizing that the show really does nothing for them. That aside, I've always thought Yeoreum is very talented and charismatic, and she gives a great performance here. She's an amazing dancer and pulls off some very interesting and complex choreo, including a couple of lifts that she pulls off effortlessly. She ties with Jiwon for second place, with 24 upvotes and 3 downvotes.

Next up is Bora from Cherry Bullet, a survival show veteran at this point. Can FNC stop tormenting this girl by sending her on survival shows that make a big stink over how good of a vocalist she is before throwing her to the curb because people like dancers more? The good thing is her self-esteem doesn't seem to have been dinged at all. Bora seems like a really nice, genuine person who is just happy to be here. She was one of four to upvote Wooyeon's performance, specifically telling her group member it was because she felt bad that she seemed so nervous.

Her performance is really good too, calibrated to show off her skills to the best of her ability. She performs IU's "My Sea," (GP999 viewers will know) and choreographs it like a musical number. The dance is simple, focused on being emotionally expressive, which lets her stand still and really go for high notes. She's clearly an amazing singer and sings all of this live, which is insane. The cherry on top is her performance's little storyline, which is about her gathering the courage to send a letter to a lover, and ends with her backup dancer giving her a crown which empowers her to finally send the letter. It's very sweet and moving, and overall this was another one of the best performances. Her vocals take her straight to the top, and she takes first place with 25 upvotes and 2 downvotes!

Mnet closes out the episode by trying to set up a vocalist rivalry between Kei from Lovelyz and Bora, cutting off the episode on a cliffhanger right as Kei starts singing. Again: all these rivalries are dumb. These girls are clearly just excited to have a friendly competition with a vocalist on the same level as them. Overall, Queendom Puzzle was more exciting than I thought it'd be, but I wonder how it will sustain my attention when the up-down battles are over. They have one more episode of those before the show moves on and gets to the meat of the competition. Do they have more drama up their sleeves? Or will it slowly lose my interest? Only time will tell, so I guess I'll be back next week with my thoughts on the new episode.