Katseye docuseries (Netflix)

[HumanBurrito]

Has anyone else been watching this series on making the new kpop girl group? Not my usual TV fodder at all but I have been watching in fascinated horror. I am APPALLED at what they are putting the girls through. One poor girl is just fourteen, poor kid. Not in a million years would I let mine sign up!

I have!

I keep putting it back on and then feel guilty that I’m watching it as the whole thing seems so exploitative. I think the biggest thing to come out of the series is the exposure of what is wrong with the whole k-pop morph “training” system.
Heel training also made me cringe massively and then they start getting fractured ankles and hip surgery and no one thinks “oh perhaps drilling dance routines in high heels isn’t the best idea”! They kept using the word empowerment as if that excused it.

Whatever way you look at it, I think dreams will be crushed. Crushed if you put two years of work and sacrifice in and crushed if you get in Katseye and end up in a soulless work horse for the rest of your young life!

It seems ridiculously short-sighted of the management company if they think they are going to come out of it looking good. The lack of pastoral care for girls as young as fourteen is just appalling and the "push yourself beyond your limits for your dreams" message is so at odds with today's more positive mental health and self-care messaging for teens. The sixteen-year-olds writhing and thrusting on the floor while middle-aged podgy blokes look them up and down like cattle on market day is vomit-inducing 😒It is positively dystopian Squid Game stuff.

Me. I was talking about it at work today about how poorly they were treated. From how they were talking they didn't get paid? It seemed utterly cruel and exploitative.

I'm so disturbed by the exploitation and abuse, and the emotional and physical damage to these young girls. I feel sick to my stomach as the girls turn on the smiles and the performance for a bunch of paunchy blokes. Their tiktoks/ reels before they got suckered in to the programme/ cult were so full of life and energy and they get reduced to performing robots. Horrible.

I’m watching it with my young teen girls. It’s been interesting for some conversations that have made them think.
That for 14 year old child. Why would any parent agree to this.
The whole k-pop thing creeps me out. A bunch of 40 year old men obsessing over these young women dressed up like teenage school girls. 🤢
Why the uniforms. None of these girls are over 21 I don’t think. Many of them under 18. It’s so weird.

I've been watching with my dds too.
I don't know how their parents haven't protected them more.
I hate the assessments with them performing. It's very exploitative.
Trawling social media for girls who are desperate to be famous.

I think those under 18 were supposed to be living with a parent or guardian! How could you agree to this?
Why pick those 16 girls then just add in a load of random extras who haven’t paid their dues??
Manon? Why?
They would have us believe the girls didn’t know about the whole Dream academy stuff and the voting and eliminations?? Really? Is that legal?
The lip service to the girls mental health and then have them betray each other and work themselves into the ground. I have respect for Lexie.
I’ll be surprised if this group lasts more than a couple of years.

and the poor 21 yr olds being too old, i.e. less pliable. Throwing them out overnight with no homes or jobs to go back to. One from a refugee background who was the family breadwinner. Disgraceful.

Ah found you!

Yes it's awful but it's like they know it's awful so they try to crowbar in all these "empowerment" messages and talking heads saying why they had to create drama etc. It's not right. No wonder they found it hard to fill the 20 spots, it's not like the world is lacking talent but probably most of them were like hell no. No payment, no timeline, no information, training night and day, constant criticism... poor poor kids who were there from the start worked their nuts off, did everything they were asked to do, then missed out at the final hurdle in favour of others who came in much later and were clearly only picked because they brought in more fans/more people to buy their music/concert tickets.

Horrible. Who can hold these people accountable though?

The fans I guess.
Bit so much of the shitty stuff was excused under the banner that it’s ’what the fans want’.
Much of what I read about many k-pop fans leads me to believe that getting what we want isn’t always good for us!

@Smartiepants79 I finished watching last night and I have so much respect for Lexie. What clear sightedness and strength of character. She was so poised and almost regal in that meeting. Again another show of fucked up power dynamics putting one teenage girl up against two intimidating older women. But she had them rattled, almost spluttering.(It reminded me of the Buffy/Goldie showdown if anyone was ever a Buffy fan!)

I was chilled by the meeting of the trainees in Korea with an established k-pop girl group. It was like seeing the before and after. They were so plastic and soulless. Zero spontaneity or life. Personalities erased. I can only hope that the couple of girls who kicked back against some of it, retain that free spirit. Agree with@HumanBurrito it is so Dystopian.

@inthekiddle I don't know how American or Korean TV is regulated (guessing it's an international co-production). In the UK, Ofcom provides a rigourous framework, and production companies have to abide by Duty of Care to contributors. There are very strict guidelines and requirements for working with under 18s. Not sure who holds makers of unscripted TV accountable in the US, but it looks like no one does!

Yes I expect there's little to no regulation. It's a shame they haven't been paying attention to the focus on mental health in uk reality shows which is there for a good reason based on period tragedies. They kept mentioning mental health without actually doing anything to support it and actively working against it. I thought there were a couple of nice mentors who perhaps themselves took the job because they needed it.

The whole set up seemed completely chaotic - starting the "training camp" without a full cohort? No timelines? Just bizarre.

I nean, even Tyra Banks paid more lip service to positive mind and body messaging fifteen years ago in ANTM. This seems so out of synch in comparison.

Oh I’m loving it! To be fair we have seen zero about their pastoral care, there may be loads of it. Why would they show that? Wouldn’t make great telly. Can’t remember the word they used but at one point one of the girls mentions going to their mentor/guardian, as well as Missy, with an issue. So I would imagine they all had an assigned person looking out for them. The directors see when people don’t want to be there and let them leave. The girls all seem really intelligent and outspoken for the most part. Able to stand up for themselves.

I see that it could easily slip into problematic (I don’t agree with an elimination program being sprung upon them; it could easily turn culty if they didn’t let the unhappy ones leave) but I just know I would have LOVED being part of that at that age and would have been desperate to be on the show!

They need to show it happening at least a bit to demonstrate to the young impressionable viewers that self-care is important. And don't get me started on the gross incel types following them online and judging their appearance.

How far have you got? I’m up to about episode 8 and it wasn’t so bad up to about episode 5 or 6. Have you met the poor 14 year old kid yet? She was the most disturbing to me. She’s the same age as my eldest DD. I would never have allowed her to be put through that. That child is being abused and grooomed.

And yes to the awful adult men drooling all over them on the internet. Gross.
All of these girls should have been over 18 as a bare minimum.

I’ve just finished it. Yes I was shocked at the 14 year old! She didn’t have a chance anyway as wasn’t allowed to rehearse/work as much as the others so it was all pointless bringing her over in the first place really. Although obviously she had a mega insight into the industry and probably got lots from it. But being away from your family and school etc at that age is hardcore.

Didn't see any gross incel fans. They were mostly girls/women or seemingly gay men.
Plenty problematic stuff in the show though.

Am very late to this and was hoping there was a thread somewhere. I am up to Episode 6, I think, where the very talented Adela was dropped and the 14 year old whose name I can’t recall but basically turned up halfway through and was a rabbit in headlights. I am watching with appalled fascination, so obviously edited but such a weird way of auditioning girls. Some going the traditional route, others by being DM on social media. So impressed by their multi-lingual abilities. Does seem to have the message that hard work is important but pretty people with the right connections do better. Hate this type of music, it’s background noise. Completely understandable people want to do for the money but at such a cost. Will this ‘band’ fill stadiums?