JTBC's 'Girl Who Eats Well' earns negative reviews & backlash

[yohan94.livejournal.com]

1. [+1,713, -66] What's the purpose of creating a show like this? Are we really living in the 21st century? Sitting female idols down like that and staring at them eat as prettily as they can and then judging them for it? ㅡㅡ This show gives me goosebumps

2. [+1,241, -29] Please get rid of this show

3. [+773, -31] The things you have to do to make money ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

4. [+211, -2] Even as a fan of these idols, I could barely stand to watch it...

5. [+181, -2] What is this dumb show?

6. [+154, -4] There were about 20 articles about this show just 30 minutes ago but all of them had hate comments so they were deleted ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

7. [+155, -7] They give these girls 10 minutes to try and eat their food as "naturally as possible" but then the MCs are staring them down as if they're watching some horse race. Yeah, I'm sure their food will go down well.

8. [+119, -2] Who came up with this idea? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ They have a whole audience staring at a couple girl group members eating food. That's so boring.

9. [+98, -5] I felt bad for all of them but Tzuyu especially. She's not yet accustomed to Korean culture or language and you could tell how visibly nervous she was. Everyone's staring at her and the situation's so awkward and embarrassing while the MCs keep telling her that she's eating too slow or chewing too slow. It's a wonder if she doesn't get indigestion.

10. [+70, -1] One of them's going to throw up at this rate

source: @oven1408, netizenbuzz, naver 1 2

Comments

[rennehollic.livejournal.com]

someone please explain this show to me.
all they do is eat and who eats first wins?
the hell?

[fabulousdoll.livejournal.com]

no, they don't have to eat fast. They just have to eat for some time when that time ends people vote who they liked more whatever that means... It's the dumbest thing ever. It's basically mukbang for tv.

Sorry for the edits. Today I don't know how to write lol

[lizanka23.livejournal.com]

i know that it takes a long time to record anything in korea but do they really have to eat for 4 hours straight? they're girl group members. they'll get so much hate for getting fat or looking like slobs :/ and i can't imagine eating like that in front of a big crowd. i have anxiety issues so everyone seeing me slobbering over food would be embarrassing. i knew this show wouldn't be a good idea when i heard the premise

[nekosogi.livejournal.com]

Emm so I haven't been following this and I'm confused, could someone be kind enough to briefly explain me what this show is about ?_?

[fabulousdoll.livejournal.com]

Basically they have the girls "battle" against each other in couples.
The "battles" are basically the two girls doing a mukbang show at the same time. They eat different food and have to give reactions. Then some judges and the public vote for which one of the two girls liked more. There is not a specific norm about what is right or wrong so the reasoning for the votes are all over the place.

A mess that makes no sense and is boring as fuck.

[honey-baymax.livejournal.com]

This show sounds terrible and boring. Like who thought this would be a good idea lol.

[cagallisakura.livejournal.com]

Can't believe such an amazing cast of girl group members is being wasted on this shit show

Petition for Invincible Youth 3 please

[fabulousdoll.livejournal.com]

+11111111111111

[mercury-sound.livejournal.com]

I was worried about this from the start; someone else on Tumblr summarised the reasons for that better than I could:
"Girls Who Eat Well is a good idea in theory because these girls have probably starved themselves for years in order to debut and they are on crazy diets, etc and they finally get to eat! Yay! But at the same time, think about what happens after the show. Their managers probably make them hop on a scale immediately and their strict diets probably get even worse, they’re probably under even more pressure to lose weight. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them starved themselves prior to filming in order to make up the calories." (source (http://biasislife.tumblr.com/post/145967733494/girls-who-eat-well-is-a-good-idea-in-theory))

But this makes it sound even worse. Why is it impossible for people to come up with a fun, respectful show for female idols (I don't wanna say women b/c at least there is Unnie Slam Dunk (?) now, which lots of people say is good) more often than every five years or something!?

[aidolls.livejournal.com]

Let's be real - I'm sure some (most?) of them are purging after the show. How else would that work? Ugh. And all that messing with their food intake will have a crazy effect on their metabolism.

[seulgibear.livejournal.com]

this show could have been so good, there are so many good things they could write around the mokbang concept. it could have been a ~talk show while eating, it could have been them trying out different foods from around the world, it could have been a half cooking half eating show, you know any kind of show where the girls would get to participate and not just stuff themselves for the pleasure of the viewers. what is with all the flop show ideas lately and why for the love of god is jo seho in all of them

[yohan94.livejournal.com]

MTE

i was so excited for this show i thought/hoped it would be like a happy together late night cafeteria chill sort of thing but the cuts i watched were so disappointing and awkward. also i need jo seho to never get a job again, he's insufferable

[fabulousdoll.livejournal.com]

I tried to watch this live because I liked all the girls casted, but it was so creppy how the MCs were asking the idols if they starved themselves before going, because hey! girl groups have to be pretty and healthy and everyone knows healthy means no fat at all even if you are starving! I had to stop after a couple of battles, it was getting on my nerves and it was also really boring.

I hope this show gets enough negative comments so that we don't have to see more of it.

[chimpansee.livejournal.com]

That is so depressing God, that they asked them if they starved themselves :/ that really really shouldn't be okay to ask

[leavesabound.livejournal.com]

The concept of this show sounds like a nightmare to me. Trying eat "well" while you're being stared at by an in room audience and judges. No thank you.

Also, with all the pressure idols are under concerning their weight this just seems like it could cause all kinds of shitty issues.

[love-quake.livejournal.com]

what is this show even? sounds boring af. adding to that, it sounds nerve-wrecking and kinda creepy having all eyes on you while you eat.

[annayism.livejournal.com]

i've figured it out: the virus affecting these shows is jo seho himself

real talk tho, the premise of this show is gross like the concept of watching girls eat for 4 hours ugh plus with all the implications of female idols having to starve themselves.... just no

[chimpansee.livejournal.com]

lmao jo seho is involved in so many awful things, it can't be a coincidence tbh!

[moomoo-moonstar.livejournal.com]

Okay, we know all about the shitty extreme diets and impossible weight expectations idols deal with.

And now they throw them into a show where they have to stuff their faces for the amusement of a live audience, after which they'll probably be horribly chastised if they put on an ounce of extra weight.

This has to be the most fucking ironically-named show ever.

[luvikakulubnika.livejournal.com]

Good.

No offence to anyone who likes Mukbang but imo this is one of the dumpest recent internet trends and making an actual show out of it was/is a stupid idea.

[fabulousdoll.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to say that every time I see your icon I smile lol

[buckleyourboots.livejournal.com]

Yikes. What an awful concept considering the industry these girls work in and the body image, diet and weight pressures that they get thrown at them daily.

At least a lot of people seem to be calling it out, I guess.

[mlmello.livejournal.com]

this whole idea of watching someone eating is still a thing I can't really understand. I get that it's an internet thing in korea, but I just can't see how this is entertaining... if you cooked the food and someone is eating and really loving, I can understand. but watching it on a live broadcast on the internet? and it's not like the people eating are talking about the food, its origin or whatever... I just can't understand the appeal lol

with that being said, this show bothers me on another level. you cast some pretty young female idols to stuff them with food. idk, this looks really weird and creepy for me?

I could feel bad that the show is getting negative reviews because I'm sure the girls are doing their best, but I wouldn't mind if they canceled it.

[klauses.livejournal.com]

i'm gonna be a downer but when i was struggling with my eating disorder i would constantly watch youtube videos of people cooking/eating food because it sort of gave me the same satisfaction of eating but not actually eating

[simplyseasalt.livejournal.com]

After reading about the show's concept, I don't actually get why people thought this show was good enough to get approved?

They could have just made a show about going around different restaurants that serve like huge portions of food and have the cast challenge themselves to finish it or like go to restaurants and order multiple dishes and eat/review the food since they can eat a lot. Cast members could break into smaller groups and each group could go to a different location. The cast could form different groups each time according to their taste preferences like if there are members that love seafood and a restaurant they're going to is a seafood specialty restaurant.

[bomsnose.livejournal.com]

i didn't watch, cause i don't even want to give views to this show based on the summaries i read...
but after reading this last round of comments, i kind of want to get cast just to eventually, accidentally, do something like this while looking at seho (do not click this if you've just eaten or if you don't like a good artsy vomit) https://youtu.be/a8Uyf4Eh4kc?t=2m43s

[fabulousdoll.livejournal.com]

Why did I click?! WHY?!!!

[921227.livejournal.com]

I feel like mukbangs are a niche market (I've sat through a handful and have mixed opinion) and it was super weird to make it the premise of an actual variety show with idols, female ones at that with male mcs and from the stills, a startling male audience

Anyone with any ounce of self awareness can see that the atmosphere is very strange and I hope the negative reception to the first ep causes a drastic change in premise, or if not, a scrap

[maknaeroli.livejournal.com]

I mean is anyone really surprised this show just sounded like a stupid idea from the beginning and now the girls on the show are gonna be forced to eat and that's not going to end well esp since like Mina has already been called fat orz it's a
disaster from start to finish

[banira94.livejournal.com]

to be honest when I first heard Jo Seho was going to be on it I wasn't interested because I knew it was going to be messed up

[donutism.livejournal.com]

Can't they use this amazing cast somewhere else?

[lechuza-yoya.livejournal.com]

yes MTE.

[sra-interesante.livejournal.com]

just the description was weird af .... i wasnt imagining they would literally try to emulate mukbang


that's such an specific trend, i doubt they could make it work like a tv show format

[lettace.livejournal.com]

the format is lame
the panelists and mc's are lame

these girls deserve better.

buuut i love how tzuyu kept arguing w the panelists/mc's and continued to do what she wanted lol

[chimpansee.livejournal.com]

Tzuyu is a really strong girl. She also spoke out when people tried to make her feel bad about her skintone. I really hope she won't be getting backlash for speaking up for herself in the future.

[chimpansee.livejournal.com]

JTBC is such an odd channel. They have some great variety shows, but other are SO odd. Like Witch Hunt for example. That show was also a greenhouse for sexism. They would get really young idols on, ask her questions that she sometimes visibly didn't want to answer and/or was uncomfortable with, and then a group of men would bully her into answering them anyway. And all the advice they gave was so sexist, Christ.

[aleksu7.livejournal.com]

You know, i was trying to see the bright side on the other post, like well at least we can see all those amazing girls together doing something, lot of girls i love are there but you all are right, this is awful! Like how incompetent you can be with this awesome cast to do something so fucking bad? Hell i could see all those girls talking about the fucking weather or what is better to use vinegar or lemon on your salad and it could be much more interesting!!
Someone start a change.org petition to use the cast somewhere else please, what even, im gonna do it myself...
At least we got this

[springsky.livejournal.com]

Aw, this is adorable! What a waste.