Random Rants: 19 to 20
Hey welcome to random rants (SPOILER’S AHEAD). I’ve been wanting to do this for so long but have been avoiding it because this one was personal. I am 20 and in the biggest career slump of my life since I’ve begun my career (which I’ve not).
Recently, I completed watching 19 to 20, a Korean reality show about 10 teenagers entering adulthood together. South Korea has a different aging system where all people grow 1 year older on the 1st of every year. Hence, here we have the sweetest, most talented, and unmeritedly hilarious teenagers going to a school together to learn about life, more practically, during their last week as teenagers, and then live together in a bungalow with each other exploring themselves and finding “their person” during their first week as young adults.
“Ugh! Another teenage show?!”, if that’s your reaction then hold your horses because this is something different. This is neither an average teenage show nor another average dating show because as a 1-year-old adult, this show has affected me in ways I don’t want to admit.
The first few minutes where the teenagers were introduced were straight out of a kdrama, too good to be true. These people had their life figured out, right in front of them, a few stops more, right across the corridor. There was a Hapkido guy, a Taekwondo guy, a cyclist planning a Pilates career, a baseball player turned actor, a robotics engineer. It just made me rethink life and the way I’m living it right now.
School is fun, it’s boring but it’s fun and it has one rule “a dating ban”, and you know what happens when a bunch of teenagers are put in a room and told not to do something. Yes! You guessed it right; they are inclined to do that exact thing they aren’t allowed to. Everybody starts mingling with everybody and it is a whole lot of chaos, it is organized, but it is chaos. The series is edited in a way to tell the stories of the ones that did end up dating or actively did something related to dating. It was a bit monotonous seeing everything with one thing in mind: who’s liking who? But let me take a step back and say it was at no point boring, you won’t even realize drowning in the show even when you just wanted to dip your feet.
My favorite episode was episode 7, their last day as teenagers; how they celebrated the last day of 2022 as one big family of friends, tightly knit together, awkwardly comfortable in each other’s presence. They went out to buy soju later and proudly flashed their IDs at the cashier, I wish I get to do that when I turn 21, I wish I get to spend the night with my friends. Them taking care of the drunk, sorting the groceries, taking turns shopping, looking out for each other, and being cozier around each other as the alcohol started to hit, was the most endearing thing to view. Also, the to-be couples flirting with each other, and the super shy boys finally speaking up, it was everything.
Some complaints were the lack of inclusivity, all the teenagers were perfect, they were mature, they dealt with fights as well as adults do. I mean, aren’t teenagers supposed tol be effed up and have no idea what they’re doing with their life? The subjects in the school didn’t seem as practical as they were supposed to be, I thought this was supposed to be some real adulting where they were taught how to change a punctured tire, but it just ended up being dance and cooking classes where each student wanted to be paired with their supposed person of liking.
There were genuinely heart-fluttering moments (the library scene), and genuinely disappointing moments as well. The narrators of the show, especially Kyuhyun, really helped me match my opinions and interpretations of the teenagers with his own. The narrators felt like my reflections as their exaggerated reactions matched mine when I saw these teenagers experience their firsts.
The real fun began when the playground was open, school was over and all of them started living together. “Chinguya neol ja (Dear friend let’s play)”, Yerin’s words as she and Heeji woke the boys up on their first day as young adults, 1st January 2023, that was when it felt like this is game-on, this show is completely entering it’s dating genre.
The dream dates and the fierce competition of the young adults to get the best ones, the Lotte World date, ARGGHH, I felt like Heeji and Pyeongseok deserved that date more than anyone for being this loyal to each other. But the dates that each of the actual couples went on were precious like they went there to spend time with each other rather than just enjoy.
One thing I found a little weird was how slow they took things (not that I’m complaining) but as 20-year-olds I had expected them to do some “get-into-it-yuh” things. They made me appreciate this slow pace in a relationship where a simple wink, a brief eye contact, holding hands, interlocking fingers, everything felt so intimate. I think I would like to experience something like that for myself through a reality show and expose myself to the camera as I go through a plethora of emotions.
Some people like Seoyoung and Sangwon remained under-appreciated. Seoyoung just ended up being the sad puppy rejected by everyone, she is more than that. The editors lacked in covering her personality in the show. Sangwon is the kinda guy you date if you want a 3-year stable relationship, he stuck to the girl flirted with right from the beginning and limited his chances and interactions with the other girls, who were clearly interested in him.
Yerin is the real-life interpretation of “being delulu is the solulu”, falling for men who made her heart flutter, holding onto that brief high of elation. She was the hot chick amongst the girl group, the “it” girl, the quirky one, that personality would’ve made her everyone’s crush if this was “Too hot to handle”. But amongst these young adults, she looked a bit immature to me.
Seyeon taught me one important lesson, whatever the situation your messes should not affect your career dreams. Heeji will continue to be the mother every fried group ever needs, and Pyeongseok will continue to be the boyfriend that every friend group mother ever needs.
I wanted more episodes because the days I spent watching this show, were really warm. I did not binge-watch it, but I also did not go one episode at a time, it was a frequency of not more than three episodes a day. Also, being a hopeless romantic I wanted each of the contestants to match with someone. Obviously, that did not happen, but what happened is something you should see for yourself. It a show you should watch, to take you back to high school days, to your firsts, your first time getting drunk, your first kiss, the moment you felt blood through your veins, to that feigning innocence, the warmth you’ll feel is immeasurable.