Anyone who's been watching SBS' "new" variety show 'Barefoot Friends' knows that the show isn't doing well. I've personally been following the show since episode 1, and I wince whenever I look at the ratings (averaging at about 5%).
Many people are going as far as to be angry at the show for bringing 'Running Man' down. I digress, but this isn't necessarily true. 'Running Man' had begun its own slow descent since around February, falling continuously until its ratings dropped from averaging 20% to 12%. MBC's 'Dad! Where Are You Going?' and 'Real Men' have become the new strongholds of Sunday nights.
So what's wrong with it? I can't say I'm an expert, but as a viewer, I already see a lot of things that are wrong.
1. What's the point of this show?
Every variety show has a point or premise. '1 Night 2 Days' aims to introduce the beautiful corners of Korea (and we can't forget its trademark 'luck-fire-luck' game). 'Mamma Mia' brings on celebrities' mothers onto the show to reveal stories only mothers can know. 'Running Man' is, at the basics, a game of cat-and-mouse, where players must protect their name tags until the end. 'Real Men' shows what the real army is like. 'Dad! Where Are You Going?' has 5 children and their 5 dads going on relationship-mending trips every episode.
But what's 'Barefoot Friends' got to offer? For the first few episodes, they were in Vietnam, and then for the next set, they were in Indonesia. The episodes were dragged out for too long for one country, but it still had a 'point' – of visiting countries and villages where the people made much less money than the average Korean did, exposing the experience to their everyday life. But then the 'Barefoot Friends' staff have realized it costs quite a lot to constantly fly 7 celebrities back and forth every two to three weeks. Not only that, I can't even imagine the complaints they must have gotten from their labels, making their cherished actors and idols work in the unforgiving sun and giving them all sorts of injuries with heavy labor.
So to remedy this, 'Barefoot Friends' took its members to everyone's houses, but the members only have a house each – that wasn't going to last beyond an episode and a half. The members then headed to Mt. Jiri, and spent about two episodes doing pretty much nothing but stand under the waterfall one by one and ditch Kang Ho Dong.
And now you've reached a point where 'Barefoot Friends' is a diving series. I can't yet tell if this is going to be the point of the show – to 'overcome weaknesses', but I hope they figure something out soon.
2. The show lacks its own color
'Barefoot Friends' is an ugly mish-mesh of a bunch of big variety shows into one. I see parts of '1 Night 2 Days', and parts of 'Family Outing'. If I watched 'Running Man', I'm sure I could find parts of 'Running Man' in it, too.
When Lee Hyori was on the show as a guest last week, I thought I was watching 'Family Outing' again, especially with Yoon Jong Shin also on the show. Yoon Jong Shin himself acknowledged it was like the old show when he commented, "Wow, it's been a while since I got ordered around by Hyori." Hyori did the main cooking as she directed everyone else around her, the main set was a large wooden sitting area in front of a traditional house, and then they went to enjoy the scenery. Where have I seen this before? Oh, right. It sounds just like 'Family Outing'.
It's really depressing that Kang Ho Dong has decided to make his new show, his big new start, to be just like '1 Night 2 Days'. It's even worse because the real '1 Night 2 Days' is airing in the same time slot as 'Barefoot Friends' and 'Barefoot Friends' has half of the ratings '1 Night 2 Days' does. Kang Ho Dong uses the same phrases for 'Barefoot Friends', but the worst part is when he screams 'Barefoot Friends' in the same tone he used to shout '1 Night 2 Days'. It's time for Kang Ho Dong to realize he's not on his prize show anymore and that he has a new show and a new direction to go.
Sadly, that might be hard, especially now with Eun Ji Won joining the cast (semi-permanently), blatantly bringing his famous 'elementary kid' character from '1N2D' together with him. But at least now the 'Knee Drop Guru' mood is gone, with Yoo Se Yoon stepping down from the show.
3. The weak female link
Don't get me wrong - I worship the ground UEE walks on. (Anyone who visits my Personal Twitter will know this) But she's not doing the show any favors. I can tell the 'Barefoot Friends' staff took ideas from their sister-show 'Running Man' and tried to have a female center like Song Ji Hyo, but it's not working out quite well.
UEE's one of the hardest workers I've seen on variety shows - she jumps into waterfalls without hesitating, wipes her makeup clean for the camera, carries fruit that weighs probably just as much as she does, dances on command, and she doesn't complain even a bit. She respects all of her sunbaes and oppas on the show, blinking in attention as she listens to every single word they say, and she really tries her hardest to be a full member of a panel filled with testosterone.
Sadly though, she's not very interesting. Hardworking doesn't equal funny and engaging. In the end it leaves her very little screen time. On top of that, it looks like the 'Barefoot Friends' staff is struggling to make a loveline with her and either Yoon Si Yoon or Kim Hyun Joong (why they left Eunhyuk out of this triangle is beyond me), just like the adored Monday Couple of 'Running Man'. But it's not working as well, because neither Yoon Si Yoon, Kim Hyun Joong, or UEE have the variety show experience to make it happen in a funny way.
Another problem is that UEE has two roles in one - she's both the only girl and the maknae of the show, meaning the show has to make her take on two roles at a time. The show can't decide which role they want her to focus on, so she's left flopping back and forth between the two characters.
4. The show's boring.
What it basically comes down to is the show is boring.
UEE, Kim Bum Soo, and Kim Hyun Joong aren't variety rookies, but it's their first time being permanent panel members of a variety show, and they're not nearly as funny as the rest of the cast. Kim Bum Soo makes up for it with his self-depreciating humor, but Kim Hyun Joong and UEE just aren't that funny. Both of them try hard; they're probably the hardest workers out there. Even Lee Hyori was awed by UEE's hard work. But like I said before, working hard doesn't always equal funny.
Another big hole in the cast is Yoon Si Yoon, who's completely new at this variety thing. I have to admit he works just as hard as KHJ and UEE. He's especially impressed me with his hard work during the diving segment, but people don't want to be impressed, they want to laugh.
Another factor is Eunhyuk, who hasn't been able to find himself a role in the panel yet. He just kind of fades to the background and has been receiving disappointing screen time. When I asked a friend on what she felt about Eunhyuk's role in the show, she responded with, "Wait, Eunhyuk's on the show?". His character overlaps with Kim Hyun Joong's, meaning he's pushed to the background more often than not.
Talking about the diving series, it's a huge mistake. They've already gone through 3 episodes showing us the same old, same old – celebrities dropping into the water at high places. Woohoo. That was exciting (maybe) the first episode. Not so much anymore, after 180 minutes of it.
Now the show is bringing on idols onto the show next week, which is sad because the idol-card works well for maybe 1 episode (and because the show ALREADY has three idols in Kim Hyun Joong, UEE, and Eunhyuk, and maybe another in Yoon Si Yoon). The competition they're going to be at is on July 11th, and since shows take anywhere from 1-3 weeks to edit, this may mean we'll be seeing the celebrities dive until the end of July, or maybe into August. That's 3-4 more episodes of the same thing. Watching people jump into water.
5. Will things start looking up? Hopefully!
I had really big hopes for 'Barefoot Friends', and it's mostly because of the awesome cast. You've got the veterans Kang Ho Dong and Yoon Jong Shin (and Yoo Se Yoon, before he stepped off). Kang Ho Dong has his loud, boisterous sense of humor as well as his innate ability to lead everyone through. Yoon Jong Shin's got his own trademark dry wit to balance him out. Eunhyuk had plenty of experience on variety shows. Yoon Si Yoon would bring his freshness to the show, and Kim Hyun Joong and UEE would have a chance to show what they were really made of. That hope still exists. Kang Ho Dong just has to step away from trying to revive his old shows. Eunhyuk just has to find a different character for himself and speak up louder.
UEE is compared to Lee Hyori from the time the latter was on the show, but I disagree that UEE needs to be like Lee Hyori. She's recently actually found a role for herself that seems to work (it's definitely the funniest she's been since the beginning). She took on the 'forgetful goldfish' character, messing up on drills and sending everyone else into laughter. She made the choice to be 'one of the guys' instead of being the girly center, which is the same choice Song Ji Hyo made for herself. Now she's gotten close enough to the guys that they can make fun of her and tease her and feel comfortable about it, so she's started to carve a place out for herself.
I've still got a lot of hope for this show. The panel is great, and they work really well with each other. The big fault really lies within the writer and the PD, who really have to figure out a clear direction for the show. Make it fun and the people will come.
Are you a fan of the show? what do you think is the main reason it's not doing well?
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