The Only Reason I Like Wednesdays (or the Chaos of Going Seventeen)

We’ve all heard it before. Wednesday, “hump day.” The lull in the middle of a school week unless we have an odd day off.

Typically, the only particular and constant positive I used to like about Wednesdays is late start. While I still appreciate those, I’ve also found that due to the bus schedules on Wednesdays I’m about 20 min late to first period every week at Central. I also regularly fall into the trap of thinking, “I can work more,” on Tuesday night, and regretting it the next morning immediately as I find that waking up an hour later doesn’t actually matter if I go to sleep two hours later.

Now, there is a regular highlight to my Wednesdays though. One that is, unsurprisingly, related to K-pop. The beauty that is…

Going Seventeen.

In case you didn’t read my early blog post series, I love Seventeen. Full stop. A lot of people in our area sadly don’t know them but they are one of the biggest K-pop boy groups of the 3rd generation (groups that debuted around late 2000’s – early 2010’s including BTS, GOT7, Blackpink, Twice, EXO, and NCT). As talented and incredible as they are artistically, one of my favorite parts of Seventeen is the chaos, predominantly shown in their series, Going Seventeen.

So for some quick background, Going Seventeen started out more like a behind the scenes series for them. Sure, they visited a coffee bean farm and a cow farm at one point, but it was mostly to show their backstage antics and snippets of their daily lives. However, starting in 2019, they changed the direction of the show to feature a monthly edition of Seventeen activities (still releasing an episode each week) more similar to a variety show. The editions cover a wide range of activities, from shooting and creating their own magazine spread and playing human chess, to solving escape rooms and debating the benefits of turning into a pigeon.

On a more serious note, Going Seventeen is a shrewd way for Pledis (Seventeen’s entertainment company, now technically a subsidiary of HYBE) and Seventeen to market themselves while building a stronger connection with their fans. Seventeen as a group are pretty popular on Korean variety shows, especially main vocalist Seungkwan who won the daesang (major award) for best male idol entertainer this year at the 2022 Korea First Brand awards. However, in making this series, the company is able to take full control over the direction and content so that members can best express themselves without interference from external entities. As a famously self-producing group, Seventeen is also responsible for suggesting different episode ideas and activities, working with the Going production staff to produce the hilarious and hit worthy episodes. Rather than merely being a side project to their music and performances, Going Seventeen has become a popular way for people to get to know Seventeen and draw them into the group.

As a Carat, this is part of what makes Seventeen so easy to talk about. There are constantly new contents, jokes, and stories to share and the middle of the week is highlighted for me with each new episode that is released. As Going Seventeen is released both on Vlive and YouTube, it’s also pretty accessible compared to other popular shows that are only released on Vlive. (Tip: it usually takes a few days for the Vlive version to get subtitles in different languages but the YouTube version always has them when the video is released!)

All in all, Going Seventeen is something that just always makes me smile. Plain and simple, it’s the spark of joy I get excited for each Wednesday. While going through all of my favorite Going Seventeen moments would take literally hours (to be fair, they’ve released weekly episodes for the past three years so there’s a lot to talk about), there are some moments that are iconic to all Carats (Seventeen fans). So with minimal context, here are just a few of the most iconic Going Seventeen moments and a sentence to describe each to close out this post.

Hoshi takes Mafia too seriously