Brooke James

I'm having very mixed feelings about this. Honestly, it was good until episode 5 came around. There was an undeniable amount of racism and xenophobic feelings for Indonesia in that episode. You honestly can't defend SBS or the producer or such and give excuses due to the fact that "they didn't mean to". This was unexpectedly rude and very hurtful even though I'm not Indonesian, nor having Indonesian family. (I apologize if that came out a bit rude. I don't mean to hurt anyone by these words in any way.) But as a point of view of someone who actually did team (not national, but just regular team) badminton and went to other countries to compete, whining is a natural thing coaches do all the time. You may think it was just S.K. coaches whining, as a person who did team badminton in U.S.A., honestly had to live through the tough whining coaches did. I understand why people may have been offended, but just letting you know, coaches do that all the time. "They must've given us a bad hotel on purpose" and blah blah blah so much more. Heard it from other team coaches as well (which is ironically funny in which they tell us to "not whine and be grateful of what we have and get during tournaments"). Now heading to the part about when Japan's national team came over and the coaches on the South Korean national team said a bit rude things. Unless you're South Korean or Japanese, please don't argue unless you have knowledge of what I'm saying next (I'm half South Korean and my parents have told me this several times). Though Japan and S.K. may look like "okay, alliances" type now, no. As the history goes back along time ago from the conflict that arose within S.K. and Japan (you have to look at point of views while doing this and it's hard to explain), the adults will definitely have hard feelings (S.K. coaches) toward the Japanese team even though they showed tender feelings in-front of them. Now in that episode, the kids do show that not all people should be judged from the family they're from due to history that happened along time ago. This isn't racism nor xenophobic, it's actual life. YES, there are people in Japan who show mild hatred towards S.K. YES, there are people in S.K. who show in Japan and that won't change, that's how people are going to grow up from due to what they learn in school with their, our, history. Please don't account this episode as racist or xenophobic because that's just major offensive towards us S.K. people as well as Japan. But episode 5, there's nothing to defend except Indonesia. That was a majorly rude and xenophobic part and SBS should lowkey apologize about it. Don't defend SBS nor the producer about this because it's a Korean show, they should honestly apologize and even though I'm also a viewer, I'm sorry to those who've been hurt by that episode and majorly offended. (But again, most coaches do that but I do understand) Other than that, I think it's an okay show. The first episodes may be a bit boring and you may want to stop watching it and I understand, but things DO get better (obviously not episode 5) and there is much more character development as well as the climax that's peaking now with the new episodes.