So. I might be in love.
This is my first time watching a reality TV series from Korea, and while it's vastly different from the ones I'm used to (mainly Drag Race, Big Brother and Love Island), my God is it entertaining to watch.

Above all, I think the cast is absolutely perfect. They are so loveable and genuine and they look like they enjoy spending time together. They're also so different and unique and bring different talents to the table, which I enjoyed when watching them perform. They're sincere in their emotions, care for each other, and earnestly try to do better not only as individuals, but as a group - I really appreciated that.
The music is GREAT. Man, I've never been a kpop stan, but I'll be adding a lot of these songs to my playlist lol. And the choreos are super intense and engaging, and the camera work during the performances really adds to the dynamism that they exude.
Lastly, I had so. Much. Fun. I've laughed a lot watching this series, and that NEVER happens. Shows like Drag Race never hit the spot for me, that type of humor is not my style at all - but it wasn't the case here. The reactions were great. Maybe they were a little bit over the top at times, but hey, that's reality TV for ya. I'll be quoting 'You're a BIRD' and 'Take me home tonight- gimme gimme' for the rest of my life, thanks.

I've seen other reviewers mention the production company, the voting system and the editing. Being relatively new to this genre of reality TV, I honestly cannot speak on this because I didn't even know Mnet existed until like a week ago. The voting system didn't really bother me, to be honest. At first I thought it was going to be excessively unfair to the G team, but it ended up being quite balanced in the end. I have to admit, though, that some trainees were eliminated when they shouldn't have been (I'll never get over Jay nor Haruto I'm sorry), and others stayed around for an astonishingly long time (Takuto was super cute, but let's be honest, what did he even excel at?? How the hell did he get through the first round?).
The editing I did notice. The repetition and constant replays were a little bit annoying at times, and I get that they were trying to get everyone's reactions, but maybe it's not needed to hear the same fucking audio bit back to back like five times?? And I also didn't like how they left out a LOT of performances. One of the trainees called them out on this in one of the songs and honestly, I felt so bad for him (and others). Imagine working so hard and then finding out that you're not even onscreen for three fourths of the episode. I think this could be solved by either 1) reducing the number of trainees at the beginning, so that everyone can be onscreen, or 2) having longer episodes / more episodes.

But yeah. This was a great watch. I'll be watching 103227 edits of the series for the next three months, if anyone's looking for me. I'm hoping for a season 2 but idk if it's ever gonna happen.