#511 - Big Bang Special #1/ Santa Academy #3

Aired on: 17-12-2016

Guests: Yang Se-Hyung, Big Bang (G-Dragon, Taeyang, T.O.P, Seungri, Daesung)
AGB Nielsen Korea Rating (nationwide): 12.9%
- up 0.1% from last week
- 4.4% higher than the nearest variety competition (1.0% drop from last week)

Episode at a glance (minor spoilers):

Big Bang joins IC as both groups celebrate their 10th year in 2016!

Staying in a studio setting, they had a dance battle, showed their acting chops and did an anonymous vote over certain questions pertaining to their group (e.g "did you think a member would not have made it without Big Bang").

The last segment was a follow up to last week's Santa Academy. They just sat around with the newly crowned santa to talk about people who did a good deed.

My Review (minor spoilers):

I said it last week and will say it again. Very often the best episodes are those where the members just talk and poke fun at each other. 

Nothing much happened during the Big Bang segment but time flew by. The talk show format worked because Big Bang were spontaneous and funny in nature. 

The acting between Seungri and Yang Se-Hyung was so funny that i watched it a few times. Se-hyung's gibberish when it comes to foreign language has been used so many times, but this is seriously the funniest yet!

I look forward to part 2!

The Santa Academy part 3 was a surprise because i thought this episode would focus solely on Big Bang. The segment, though meaningful, is a little boring.

Not looking forward to part 4.

Backstory, Reference, Inside Jokes:

1) Hae-soo is Jun-ha's character as Myung-soo's servant that appeared in episode 503 when Myung-soo had to be a natural man.

2) The last time Big Bang appeared on IC as a whole was in episode 248-249 during the "Gangs of Seoul" special.

3) The last time any Big Bang member appeared was in episode 495-497 when G-Dragon appeared as Mr. Kwon in Infinite Company. 

4) The last time any Big Bang member other than G-Dragon (because he's practically part-time IC member no?) appeared was in episode 435-440 & 442, when Taeyang joined G-Dragon as part of the bi-annual music festival.

Entertainment Rating: 5/5

Meaningful Rating: 1.5/5 (comes from the eventual delivery of presents)

Episode Rating: 9/10 

510 - Santa Academy #2

Aired on: 10-12-2016

Guests: Yang Se-Hyung
AGB Nielsen Korea Rating (nationwide): 12.8%
- up 1.1% from last week
- 5.4% higher than the nearest variety competition (1.7% rise from last week)

Episode at a glance (minor spoilers):

The members continue to train as Santa. 

Their first mission is to guess what the kids are drawing. 
Second is to wrap presents. 
Third is agility test
Fourth is the test of climbing onto chimneys as individuals
Fifth is test of cilmbing onto chimneys as a team
Last is to deliver presents on sleigh.

The one who gets most silver bells from wins will become the santa.

My Review (minor spoilers):
After watching the first part of Santa Academy last week, many were saying this episode will be a "filler", "bottle" or boring. 

Turns out not! Very often the funniest episodes are those where the members have no agendas. In such episodes, they are not so pressured about the episode flow, the screentime, etc. They just have a jolly good time.

I especially enjoyed the 2nd, 3rd and last mission the best. I totally LOL at all the ridiculous presents that the PDs made them wrap. I also always enjoyed the ad-libs that they say, and it this episode there were plenty (the random christmas carols, etc)!

All in all a pretty funny episode.

Backstory, Reference, Inside Jokes:

N.A

Entertainment Rating: 5/5

Meaningful Rating: 1.5/5 (comes from the eventual delivery of presents)

Episode Rating: 7/10 

509 - The Tears of Polar Bear #2/Santa Academy #1

Aired on: 03-12-2016

Guests: Yang Se-Hyung
AGB Nielsen Korea Rating (nationwide): 11.7%
- down 2.3% from last week
- 3.7% higher than the nearest variety competition (0.9% drop from last week)

Episode at a glance (minor spoilers):

Myung-soo and Jun-ha continue from where the previous episode left off - looking for more wild polar bears! They then failed to see aurora at night. Next day, they continued to find wild polar bears. After which they learned how the villagers dealt with polar bears who entered the village. Jun-ha also dressed up as Nora to recite some poem, in a parody of a viral video by Ludovico Einaudi. The message is clear, save the earth, save the arctic!

The two of them came back to some fanfare and is being mock-interviewed by the members in a studio setting. It was a segment they called, Yoo Jae-Suk's sad day. Jae-suk also took the opportunity to announce one of 2017's project, people's cabinet special.

The last part of the show was "Santa Academy". It looks like it will be a christmas special where the members have fun and play some games among themselves. They also showed a calendar with graphics of the key events they participated in this year. The calendars were sold, with the receipts going towards funding of a IC scholarship.

My Review (minor spoilers):
I was disappointed with the 2nd part of the polar bear special. It felt like they had to drag the special into at least another episode to make the trip "worth it". 

The middle part was pretty much banter that is weak by IC's standards. 

The last part (yes there were 3 different segments and the episode felt a little disjointed) where they talked about the scholarship was meaningful though. Like what the netizens are saying, IC is doing more than what some politicians are doing. The quiz part was pretty entertaining though.

Anyway, it looks like the Santa Academy special will be a low-budget special that is not so taxing for IC, financially and physically. After months of hard work, i think they deserve a less hectic special for once!

Backstory, Reference, Inside Jokes:

1) The polar bear special is made because of the "Letters of Fortune" special in Ep 464. In a gist, the members had to write letters earlier in the year and send to a mail that only posts out a year later. Jae-suk wrote a letter to Jun-ha saying that he enjoyed watching him interact with Polar Bears in 2016. 

2) Jae-suk wrote that because it became a running gag that Jun-ha had affinity with animals. In 2015, he was sent to Africa (Ep 430/431) to take care of elephants. His interaction with the elephant named "doto" was very well-received. He wrote a song with a line about doto and even became ambassador of Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation. He then visited "doto" again that was shown in Ep 441 and 445.

3) Myung-soo accompanies Jun-ha on both the trips to meet elephant and polar bears.

4) With the completion of this challenge, they have finally concluded the challenges that were mentioned in Ep 464. They were:
- Jae-suk to dance with Exo (Ep. 498)
- Myung-soo went back to "nature" and sat under a rainfall (Ep. 503)
- Jun-ha became a slave of Myung-soo (Ep. 503)
- Jun-ha rode one of the world's scariest roller coaster (Ep. 493)
- Jun-ha auditioned for Show Me The Money 5. (Ep. 472)

5) Nora is a character that Jun-ha always appear as when he cross-dress. I won't be listing the episodes because there are way too many! I am not too sure of the origin though, would appreciate if anyone knows!

Entertainment Rating: 2/5

Meaningful Rating: 3/5 

Episode Rating: 3.5/10