K-Dramarama: Kingdom:Legendary War

Ok, so this isn't exactly a K-drama, it's a reality show. But, it's Korean and there is plenty of drama, so I'm counting it. I've mentioned this show before (and I definitely will again and again and again) because it's the show that gave me an appreciation for K-pop boy bands. I was already super into the girl groups, but I just did not get the boy groups.

This show is actually the 3rd in a series of sorts, but it's the only one I could easily find to stream in the US. The first was Queendom, which I'm absolutely dying to watch since my favorite K-pop band of all time is on there (more on them later). You can find the performances on YouTube here. The second was Road to Kingdom, which as the name suggests, whittled down 7 boy bands to one to move on to Kingdom.

Kingdom itself featured 6 bands. The more junior groups: The Boyz, Stray Kids and Ateez; And the older groups: SF9, BTOB and iKon. BTOB I've already talked about in a previous post, but I will be talking about the other five of these groups in the future. It was hosted by U-Know Yunho (who is honestly barely in it) and Max Changmin, members of the K-pop duo TVXQ. Yunho has very little screen time, but Max carries the bulk of the host duties and is charming as hell. The hoobaes fanboying and his reactions are nearly swoonworthy. (Don't know the terminology? Learn more about hoobaes/sunbaes here.)

Usually, when I describe this show to people, I describe it as Korean Great British Bake Off. Yes, there is some stress, keeping my fingers crossed for my favorites in any one round, but none of that stress was ever because people were being catty. These guys were all so sweet and so supportive and SO excited to see the others perform. It made it so much more exciting to see them enjoying what was going on and not just scheming how to be more cutthroat. Like seriously, GET. IT. TOGETHER. American reality TV. Some of us want nice.

Of course, having a little background into the world of K-pop makes you wonder how much of that is real and how much is staged. I'm not sure what backstabbing may or may have not been going on in the background, but they certain made it seem genuine.

In the end, I'm not sorry with the way the show ended. I'm not sure I would have been unhappy with ANY of them winning. They were all stunningly talented. It is well worth your time, even if it's a little harder to find. The performances are available on YouTube and the whole show can be streamed on Viki (for free at the time of this post).