MBC My Teenage Girl Ep. 8 review

So we finally know which teams got awared the remaining four spots in the final group. In my review of last week, I considered the two possible options:

• either the junior/senior alliance wins, and no sophomore students get into the final group;

• or the freshmen/sophomore alliance wins, and the final group ends up with a significant number of kid members.

But of course, I didn't envision the third option: a draw!!! Yes, the 2v2 battle happened to be scored a draw. Both teams received the exact same number of points from the live audience: 2000 vs 2000. It's hard not to find all of this a little fishy. I mean, the odds are unlikely and it's very much in line with the show's reliance on dramatic editing and twists. But paradoxically, it might look too rigged to be rigged for real.

Anyway, so in the end, each grade received a spot in the final group, and the line-up will be as follows:

2 spots for the seniors (4th grade)

2 spots for the juniors (3rd grade)

1 spot for the sophomores (2nd grade)

2 spots for the freshmen (1st grade)

Six contestants were eliminated right after the announcement, including an early fave of mine: 4th grader Lee Yumin. I knew her time would come since she was not a very remarkable contestant, with zero favorable editing whatsoever, but at least she stayed long enough to have an official fancam on MBC youtube channel.

Now that all the spots have been awarded, the time of battles between grades is over. From now on, contestants within each grade will compete against each other in hopes to grab a spot in the final group. This inner competition started in this episode with the six remaining juniors. Half of them performed Twice's 'Likey' and the other half Mamamoo's HIP. After the live audience voted, Kim Hyunhee unsurprisingly retained her #1 rank among the juniors, and poor Lee Taerim ranked last. Once all contestants from all grades have performed in this round, nine(!) contestants will be eliminated so it's likely that Taerim happens to be one of them.

I wonder how the final line-up will turn up. I'm kinda unsure about all this. I feel like it's just gonna resort to a popularity contest in the end, with the actual stages and performances having minimal bearing on the result. Too much emphasis has been put on dramatic rules and selection processes, and too much power has been given to the online voting audience imo.

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This week's performances:

3rd/4th grade alliance rap unit (Kim Hyunhee, Kim Yunseo, Oh Jieun, Lee Yumin)

song: Doja Cat - 'Boss Bitch'

1st/2nd grade allilance rap unit (Minami, Choi Subin, Sung Minchae, Jung Siwoo)

song: BTS - 'Mic Drop'

3rd/4th grade all-rounder: Lee Mihee

song: aespa - 'Next Level'

1st/2nd grade all-rounder: Choi Sarang

song: Lisa - 'Money'

3rd grade full team (Kim Hyunhee, Oh Jieun, Lee Taerim // Choi Yoonjung, Kim Yunseo, Lee Jiwoo)

songs: Twice - 'Likey' // Mamamoo - 'HIP'

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Doyouram recap:

Quote from SleepingGiant

That was the most rigged thing I have seen in Survival Shows yet, and I basically watched all of them

1000 live voters each round for 4 entirely separate rounds ending exactly 2000 vs 2000 is so inconceivably unlikely you have to think the Producers are just laughing at the viewers back stage

I would agree if not for the mentors who seemed genuinely taken aback by this unexpected turn of events. And I don't want to believe they willingly partook in a convoluted plot like this. So I don't know, maybe it just happened the way we saw it. Even though not the likeliest, these scores were not impossible. The onsite audience was comprised of 100 voters, who each weighed for 10 points for each four rounds. So 4000 points were to be awarded, divided among the two teams. In that regard 2000-2000 is little likely, but not as unlikely as winning the national lottery or something.

Anyway, it's not even the biggest criticism one can address towards the show. The young age of lots of contestants, the fate of some being decided by online polls that occured weeks ago... Actually the fact that one spot was awarded to each grade during this episode was possibly the fairest decision we've seen so far. lol

Quote from Elbereth

I like some of 4th graders tho like Chaewon, Mihee, Inhye, and Myunghee. But probably Chaewon and Yooyeon will take the spots since the popularity for those two seems strong.

Yes, right now Chaewon and Yooyeon seems the most likely to take the spots among the 4th graders. Besides Myung Hyungseo, the other girls are pretty low in the online rankings.

Quote from Riki_Lee

I wish it was more than 7 spots

I understand the feeling, even though I appreciate they didn't aim for the usual 9+ mega group.