I notice that the first season of Produce 101 rarely gets that much attention in international spaces. I decided to document my thoughts on PD101 for entertainment purposes. This is also the first survival show I've watched in length. Warning: I am a massive hater Episode 1 The episode starts off with the classic "101 girls, 1 dream, who will debut?!??!" premise. The host, Jang Keunsuk, heavily emphasizes that the audience will be the show's producers. I find this extremely hilarious as we all know what happened to the Produce franchise after the first two seasons. Anyway, we got a JYP plastic pants jumpscare. Clearly the show's editors were proto-r/kpoopheads users. Proof for the skeptical For people who are unaware, the trainees introduce themselves by walking into this room with 101 seats, all numbered. At the very top is this giant #1 throne. Who chooses to sit on in it? None other than Heo Chanmi, who I'm convinced has a spiritual connection to Fu Yaning. Mnet's editing is super obvious. All the trainees are shown remaking how scary she is and how insane it is that she's already debuted. While not as ambitious as Chanmi, the Jellyfish Entertainment trainees chose to sit in the top 11 zone. Also, everyone's jaws collectively dropped as soon as they saw Somi was representing JYP Entertainment. After that, we got to see some of the auditions. First were the Starship Entertainment trainees. I'm absolutely in love with Yoo Yeonjung's voice. I can't believe she got just a B! It's shocking to see contestants receive comparatively low grades for performances that would be seen as extraordinary today. Then was Kim Sohye. To be honest, I felt bad for her. She clearly didn't want to be on the show, but man, what the hell was that performance. Sohye's performance was followed by another mid one. The DIA girls audition was pretty underwhelming, in my opinion. I do wish Dani debuted in T-ARA instead of Hwayoung though (fuck that bitch). The best audition in this episode was from Jellyfish Entertainment. Kim Sejeong and Kang Mina specifically caught my eye. Sejeong is such an amazing singer and Mina's dance is so eye catching. Another performance I liked was from Jeon Soyeon. Without the benefit of knowing about I-DLE's massive success, I would have voted for her back in the day. Bae Yunjeong, also known as the human incarnation of Satan, gave the DSP trainees a D grade for not shaking ass. Um, weird. I would've gave them a C personally. Park Hayi, the show's oldest contestant at 28, was basically called a hag by the host. At least the mentors all roasted the shit out of him. Even though I sympathize with her for facing ageism, I can't deny her singing was really bad. Next was the creme de la creme of flop performances: Yoon Seohyung's IU cover. I'm convinced it was a publicity stunt because I can't believe anyone would have the confidence to sing that song as their audition. This is also the moment of the show that I realized the PD101 set looks like the backrooms, like one of SM Entertainment's old box MV sets from hell. Thankfully, the remaining few auditions were good. I can't deny that Heo Chanmi is skilled, but who told her to turn Don't Stop The Music into a ballad? The Pledis trainees went off. As for Somi, I thought her performance was B quality. Her voice has this bright poppy quality that I like, but I don't think she performed to her full potential. The trainee who I think was done the most dirty was Kim Juna. Her voice is really, really good, but she only got a C because she couldn't dance on the spot. Personally, I don't give a shit if an idol is bad at something if they're extremely talented in another area. Just stick her in the back of all choreography and you'll be fine. Episode 2 First voting results! Ham Yeji going "wtf, I'm in 101th place" was really funny. Here, we got to see the remaining auditions. To be honest, I don't think this batch was as notable as the ones from the previous episode. I liked Han Hyeri's team even though the judges were hating. I found them super adorable. Choi Yoojung briefly mentioned learning sex ed, which really makes me remember this show is from 2016. I don't think today's trainees are even old enough to know how babies are made. I'm guessing the producers didn't know how else to reach the one hour mark, so we got another succession of bad auditions. I actually wasn't a fan of the 24 Hours performance, although Chungha saved it with her insane freestyle. I honestly thought she practiced it beforehand. Risa Ariyoshi's performance was a bit hilarious. They hyped up her jaw-dropping, earth-shattering visuals only for Bae Yunjeong to remark that she has the skill of an elementary schooler. After the auditions were over, the mentors sorted the girls into different letter grades. A for the best trainees, F for the worst, and so on. In 3 days, the girls would all have to perform "Pick Me," simultaneously the worst and the best Produce song. Yes, it's annoying as fuck and deserves to be in the CIA's special interrogation Spotify playlist, but the EDM beat drop is admittedly sick as fuck. The purpose of the letter grades was to sort the girls into training groups. To be honest, the training really annoyed me. I barely got to see the mentors give the girls actual vocal and dance lessons. There was a lot of emphasis on 'hard work' and very little on technique. I thought this was a missed opportunity and really shows what's wrong with the trainee system. It's like they value the appearance of perfection and grinding a ton without valuing the journey there. The trainees got to call their parents for the first time. I admit I felt a bit sad for the girls. Also, wow. The show pushed Sohye to an insane extent, which I thought was a disservice to the trainees without much screentime. One thing I liked was how the trainees appeared to be nice to each other despite the psychological struggles they faced. I honestly expected some anger from the trainees toward the ones who were falling behind. Anyway, at least they're all free from Produce hell now. Overall thoughts Just to get the negatives out the way, fuck the rigging (although this season was considerably less rigged than the later two). I also disliked the training system as you can tell. That said, I will definitely be tuning in for more Produce 101. I admit the editing makes it super addicting. If you asked me to vote at this point, these would be the trainees (not conclusive) that I would pick: Kim Chungha, Jeon Somi, Jeon Soyeon, Kim Nayoung, Kang Mina, Yoo Yeonjung, Kim Sejeong, Kim Juna, Han Hyeri submitted by /u/Aurelian369 [link] [comments]
I watched Produce 101 Season 1 so you don't have to (Episodes 1-2)
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- 2025-08-15 05:32 event
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