Letter #145: Christmas Present (2024)

Good morning, Erin—and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

And yes, it is about to be the very merriest of Christmases, dear seonbae, as 2023 Erin finally gets the present she’s wanted most in the world: I’ve watched BTS in the Soop.

(See? I told you I knew what I was getting you!)

It’s been a long time coming, and…well, there’s going to be plenty more where this came from—because we’re only going to talk about the first season, today. Y’know, because we’ve got other Christmas things to get to! And because it means the chance for a nice surprise sometime in the future!

…and because I ran out of time to watch the second season before Christmas like I’d intended to!

Now, all in all, my 2024 has been pretty okay—but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that, yeah, not everything went quite how I would have liked it. I’ve been more stressed out in the last month or so than I’d realized, and I’m not quite living up to the improvements I’d made earlier in the year. So, as much as I watched this for your sake, it wasn’t exactly a struggle to see the appeal of diving into a little “healing” television. 

But did I find it a chill time, as you put it? Or did we run into another cross up over the term “chill” like we did with Start-Up? (Well, with the first episode. Which was full of depression and dead parents.)

Well, don your Santa hat and pick up your fishing rod as we dip into “the soop.”

1. …which I know means “the forest.” And which I don’t think they mean literally as forest—though the boys are certainly out amidst a whole bunch of trees. I took it more to mean “a retreat,” but…I’m not a linguist. I’m just saying that’s how I interpreted the use of the term. 

1A. And, also though I’m not a linguist, I’m pretty sure soop is spelled with a 우. Because, that’s right, ya boy knows a few vowels, now. 

2. One of my favorite things about the show is starting the series laughing at how ridiculous RM whispering “BTS—in the soop” at the end of the theme song for the show is, only to later find out that the boys found it equally as ridiculous—at that it being ridiculous is exactly why they have him do it. Their whole theme song sort of being a goof (or at least born of a goof) was probably the most authentic “aww, that’s so sweet!” part of the show. Which is not to say the other stuff wasn’t, but this was so clearly spontaneous and organic and entirely a product of their chemistry and appreciation for each other as a group. Which is something the production obviously wants the show to focus on—very obviously, even, if you pay any kind of attention to just how hard the little narration captions they splash across the screen to give things “context” are working to frame the boys as being the bestest of friends who love each other very, very much.

3. It took me a lot longer than it should have to realize that the occasional chirping bird insert sound effect that would pop up when the boys talked, sometimes, was not bleeping swear words but name brands they were not “allowed” to use. Or maybe it was just whenever they said “LEGO.” Either way—it took me longer than I think it should have.

4. If you remember from my first BTS letter, I rank the boys (from fave to least-fave) as: V, RM, Jin, J-Hope/Suga, Jungkook, Jimin. Well, after In the Soop, I have had to reorganize my list. To what? Well, I will leave that for a little bit later, to give you time to make some predictions! (I know—this is the best Christmas present ever.)

5. I found it particularly amusing that, during the preamble to the show that focused on the group giving the producers lists of the things they would want to do while on this vacation, J-Hope’s suggestions were all, “I’ll just do whatever RM’s doing.” 

5A. Now, in fairness, he does eventually make a point of saying that he really wants to sit next to him and read for a while. He seems never to do this, from what we see, but he does say it.

5B. Also, when J-Hope expresses that he wants to read but doesn’t know what to read, he turns to RM, who tells him to just grab a bestseller from the bookstore. Which…I mean, way to let a bro down, Mr. Reading List. 

5C. Also also, J-Hope spends most of his time with V, from what we see. Which I thought was funny, given how “gonna hang with RM” he seemed in that opening part of the show. (Though he could just as easily have been goofing on RM because he was seated next to him.)

6. Speaking of reading, though, I think we see Suga reading RM’s book more than we see RM reading it. Possibly because Suga picked it up and didn’t give it back until he was done. 

7. I very much wanted J-Hope’s struggle with building his rubber band-powered glider to last the whole length of the show—because I thought it would have been a hilarious subplot. I knew it wasn’t going to happen, but…still I do love a running joke. 

8. Little did I know the running joke was going to be Jin fishing…and the overarching struggle was going to be RM painting. 

9. The boys were constantly playing League of Legends, in case you weren’t aware. The show blurred the game out, but I could still tell it was a MOBA. Which I assumed would be LoL, at first, but which I later knew for a fact was LoL because they explicitly mention characters that I was able to look up on the interweb to confirm. Just another day as the world’s greatest detective.

10. My favorite Jimin moment comes in Episode 3, where the only thing he does in the first 80% of the episode is get roused from sleep by J-Hope walking into his bedroom to give him a spoon (as a way of telling him it’s time for lunch)—but then, outta nowhere, he improvises a song about hating J-Hope for waking him up and giving him a spoon. 

11. My favorite RM moment comes from also in Episode 3, after his RC boat gets stuck in the weeds along the river: “F*** this, I’m going back to my LEGOs.”

11A. …at least, that’s how I took what he said. 

12. These boys sure do like ping-pong. 

13. …though only slightly more than smacking each other on the butt. 

14. V wears a t-shirt with Bert and Ernie (from Sesame Street) dressed like they’re the Blues Brothers. And I thought that was really funny. But doubly funny if he doesn’t get the reference. Which I can neither confirm nor deny. 

15. Episode 2 had some really nice clarinet music as its soundtrack. It never comes back, after that. Potentially to spite me because I liked it so much.

16. I still kind of love how tired and disinterested Suga seems to be about everything. Like, early on, Jin is talking to him at length about fishing, and Suga just seems to stare into the distance and occasionally make an “Mm…” sound. Or later, during the attempt at woodcarving, he sort of whines at Jimin to just make some chopsticks because anything else takes too much effort. 

17. Relatedly: per the show’s tryhard narration captions, Suga struggled to open the door to the RV he had slept in because it was “too early for [him] to have any energy.” During the recording session for the theme song, he’s pretty lively. But otherwise…I think the only time I’ve seen him show any particular oomph was for their performance of “Mic Drop” on SNL. Not that I’ve seen him very much, but…still.

18. Did you notice that most of the boys move like old men? Just, like, when they walk from one place to another. It’s that sort of old man hobble. (No? Just me?)

19. When he goes for his drive with V, the way J-Hope’s wearing his hat, sunglasses, windbreaker, and shorts make him look like a mom. A young-ish mom, but still a mom. And the idiosyncrasies to his personality totally amplify this. 

19A. As do his smooth, shapely legs. 

19B. …what?

20. I really appreciate Jimin’s commitment to his “I’m dressed like I’m from Joseon times” shtick in the first episode. 

21. I really appreciate RM calling Jimin out for dressing like he’s from Joseon times solely because he wanted attention.

22. I really appreciate Jimin openly admitting he dressed like he was from Joseon times solely because he wanted attention. 

23. V really likes doing dishes. And I really like doing dishes! Twinsies! Or, well, I like doing them once I’ve started them. I have a little trouble starting. But once I get going…I find it kind of Zen. So, yeah—twinsies!

24. My favorite Jungkook moment comes in Episode 1, when he hears that Jin is trying to prepare sashimi for their dinner and goes sprinting over to him, shouting, “Jin, I heard you’re making sashimi—and I’m here to interrupt you!” Hilarious.

25. Less hilarious: Jungkook effortlessly being a painting prodigy. 

25A. I mean, seriously, f*** off—what the hell, Jungkook?! What do you mean you just thought you’d give it a shot and see how it went?! No. No, that’s not fair. 

25B. And poor RM. Dude had been plugging away at his impressionist-ish painting for, like, 12 hours, by that point. He’s about half done. And Jungkook spends about an hour tooling around behind him, says that he’s finished, and so RM stands up, wipes his brow, and turns around to see what he’d done in an hour…and it’s a f***ing near-photorealistic mountain reflected in water. He certainly doesn’t make a big deal about the disparity, but you can tell some of the wind has been knocked out of his sails. I mean, good on him, he keeps going and eventually completes the painting. I’d have just thrown mine away after taking a look at Jungkook’s. Like, what’s the point anymore? Yeah, you’re doing it for you, and just because Michaelangelo exists doesn’t mean you can’t try to paint something just because you want to see how it goes. So, of course it shouldn’t matter that Jungkook’s better at it. But…come on. It’s not like he’s an experienced painter. He just decided to give it a shot. I mean, talk about disheartening. Like, I’ve been lowkey depressed with myself since I saw him just whip up that painting. Just…poor RM. 

25C. Oh, and then he has the audacity to do another banger the day after. Just because. As RM struggles through his third day of painting. The total brat. 

26. That said: I love that they all know Bob Ross. My sisters and I used to watch him on Channel 13.

27. I also love that they all apparently know Thomas Edison. Which I guess they probably would. But, still, you know I’m always taken aback by references to American stuff that I’d never think would make it into common knowledge overseas. (Though, again, the Edison thing makes sense, since he invented a whole bunch of stuff that we use all the time today.)

28. Big ol’ LOL at having to blur out Jungkook’s arm tattoos. 

28A. Bigger LOL if they’d gone the Yoojung route and just draped wet crepe paper over his forearm, though.

29. I mentioned how much time Suga seems to spend with RM’s book, but I neglected to mention that he spent all that time with a pen in his hand as he read, which got me anxious every time I saw it. “Surely he’s not going to write in the book,” I thought, gritting my teeth as I waited for the inevitable. And then…nothing happened, and I could relax.

30. …except, no, he eventually does write in the book, so I dropped him to last on my ranking chart.

30A. Which is a great time to tell you my new ranking:

• V, for all the reasons I’ve always liked him.

• J-Hope, who jumped up the list because of his boundless positive energy and not at all because of his smooth, shapely legs I don’t know why you would even bring that up.

• RM, for all the reasons I liked him before, but minus points for calling everything “legendary.”

• Jin, for all the reasons I liked him before, but also he really, really just follows his whims, doesn’t he—which is as amusing as it is bothersome.

• Jimin, who jumps up the list because he didn’t do anything to annoy me. 

• Jungkook, because…okay, while this is technically him being in the same position as he was before, assume there’s an asterisk that says he simultaneously dropped in rank because f*** him for making me feel like I’m even more of a useless, unlovable, talentless failure (I didn’t ask for this. I was promised healing vibes!)...but at least he never wrote in a book.

• Suga, because YOU DON’T WRITE IN BOOKS.

31. I really got a kick out of how wowed the boys were by the standalone cameras that had the ability to move “on their own” (operated remotely by the production staff). I assume they’d never worked with that kind of equipment, but it was kind of cute to see them almost get worried about the technology “following them” when they were fine with stationary cameras being pointed at them from every conceivable angle. 

32. The remote cameras also reminded me of how much I miss my Korean dating shows, but that’s neither here nor there.

32A. …D-20 to SI4. 

33. I don’t know if I’d categorize this as my “favorite” V moment, exactly, but the one that sticks out to me the most is in Episode 3, when he just sort of wanders in from nowhere to mime at J-Hope that he’d cut himself shaving. And then he just wanders off. 

34. Well, actually, my favorite V moment is probably the bit where he arranges to have Jimin lead Jungkook over to him under false pretenses so the two of them can have some drinks and chat. But that’s mostly because it 100% felt like I was watching one of my Korean dating shows. Which, it may surprise you to hear, I miss. 

35. J-Hope’s painting was pretty good. I mean, it turned out more like something you’d slap on a t-shirt than hang in a gallery, but…I mean, something you could easily sell on a t-shirt is pretty good, no?

36. The boys more or less wrap up their time at the vacation house by playing a game of Avalon, which is a Mafia-esque game based on characters from Arthurian legend. What kind of amused me about this was that none of them seemed to know what Arthurian legend is, since they didn’t know what “Avalon” referred to and thought the name Percival was funny. Not that Percival isn’t a funny name, admittedly, but…I mean, he finds the Holy Grail, guys. And, like, you were cool with someone being named “Mordred,” so, like, what’s up with that? 

36A. Unless…wait, do the boys know “Mordred” from the Fate series, maybe? Oh my God—they’re totally gamers, so…do they know “Mordred” from the Fate series?! Oh…oh no…oh no, I do not think I’m ready to consider them understanding history and western myth through ambiguously-aged waifus. 

36B. Holy f***, wait—is this why they know Thomas Edison?!

36C. Okay, I’ve checked it out, and Thomas Edison is in the Fate series, but isn’t a genderbent loli. He’s a space man with a lion head.

…look, Fate is weird. Like, here’s Mordred, King Arthur’s son who eventually kills him in battle:

…and King Arthur:

…and, for good measure, Leonardo Da Vinci:

…God, anime was a mistake.

Like I said: Fate is weird. And I don’t want to think about BTS learning ANYTHING from it. 

…which is, uh,  maybe a good place to stop. 

So, yeah, BTS in the Soop was a pretty okay time. It’s not super-interesting, but it doesn’t have to be. Or, rather, it doesn’t have to be if you already like the members of BTS. Which, fortunately, I do. 

I’ll get to the second season and…uh, the other show where they go to different places on trips—I’ll get to those eventually, I promise. But that’s all the BTS I have for you, for now. 

Next up? Well…only one thing it could be, right?

Merry Christmas, Erin. (And, separately, congratulations.)

More soon.

—Daryl