Wednesday, January 15, 2014

338. Family Outing

Title: 패밀리가 떴다
English Title: Family Outing
Genre: Variety, Reality, Comedy
Episodes: 2 Seasons 102

Summary: The show typically followed a format comprising a series of two-episode arcs. These comprised a two day shoot, including an overnight stay for the cast and crew, that was later edited for broadcast over two weekly episodes. Generally, the events transpiring on the first day of filming would be shown in the first of the the two-episode arc, with the second day's events broadcast in the second episode. These two days of filming were generally filmed biweekly, with the cast and crew regathering every two weeks. Guest cast members frequently joined the permanent members for the two-episode arc, appearing in two successive episodes before departing.
The first of two episodes typically starts with a phone call from Yoo Jae-suk, the MC of the show, notifying the Family members where and when to gather for the next location of filming, which was frequently a remote, rural region. Each member arrives along with any guests, as they greet each other and the viewing audience. The guest is usually then given a map to lead the Family to the house in which they will be staying for their two day stay. Upon reaching the house, the Family greet and send the homeowners off on a vacation. At this point, the Family reviews the list of chores that the homeowners have assigned before setting upon the first task. While completing the list of chores, the Family compete in various mental and physical challenges. After completing the first chore, the Family may proceed to the next assigned or return home to prepare dinner. For the latter, the Family usually divides into teams to gather ingredients, clean, prepare, and cook.
After eating dinner, the Family typically play another game before preparing for bedtime. This competition oftentimes determine sleep positioning or assignment of late-night/early-morning chores. Sleeping arrangement allowed the Family to determine where each member would be positioned overnight, with this ranking of particular importance if sleeping locations included particularly undesirable (such as cold or cramped) quarters. The ranking process involved the female cast members numerically ranking the men in the Family, oftentimes based on their performance either in the preceding game or over the course of the day. The male members then repeat the ranking process for the female Family members. In addition to bedding location, the ranking system or game was used to determine which Family members would be assigned the undesirable task of late-night/early-morning chores. These chores were typically menial tasks such as delivery, collection, or preparation of food.
The second of two episodes typically begins with the continuation of the previous night's activities. Frequently this involved some late-night conversation before the Family dozed off. The next morning, Jaesuk is oftentimes the first waken and assigned the task of waking the other Family members. The reluctant waking process is usually presented for comedic effect. After the Family rise, Jaesuk initiates a "Wake Up Mission", where the losing member would be tasked with breakfast preparation, alongside other members s/he selects. While they make breakfast, the rest of the Family either return to bed, or completes another chore. The Family members that are assigned breakfast duty are frequently filmed gathering ingredients from around the community before commencing preparation and cooking. After the Family re-waken to eat breakfast, they typically perform the last chores assigned by the homeowners. While completing these final tasks, the Family will often participate in another competition before returning to the house. The homeowners are then shown returning from vacation and bidding the Family farewell. The episode concludes with a sneak peek of the following episode, including the next guest/s. 

337. Sword Art Online

Title: ソードアート・オンライン/ Sōdo Āto Onrain
English Title: Sword Art Online
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science, Romance
Episodes: 13

Summary: Sword Art Online (SAO) is a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), released in 2022. With the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds.
On November 6, 2022, the players log in for the first time, and later discover that they are unable to log out. They are then informed by Akihiko Kayaba, SAO's creator, that if they wish to be free, they must reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if their avatars die in-game, their bodies will also die in the real world. One of these players is Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya, a skilled player who is determined to beat the game. As the game progresses for two years, Kirito eventually befriends a female player named Asuna with whom he ultimately falls in love. After the duo discover the identity of Kayaba's avatar Heathcliff in SAO, they confront and destroy him, freeing themselves and the other players from the game.
Upon being sent back to the real world, Kirito learns that Asuna and 300 other SAO players have still not awakened yet. Following a clue about Asuna's whereabouts in another VRMMORPG called Alfheim Online (ALO), Kirito also enters the ALO's mainframe. Helped by his sister Suguha Kirigaya, known as Leafa in the game, he learns that the trapped players in ALO are part of a plan conceived by Nobuyuki Sugō to perform illegal experiments on their minds to put them under his control, including Asuna, whom he intends to marry in the real world in order to take over her family's company. After Kirito foils Nobuyuki's plans, he finally reunites with Asuna back in the real world.
Soon after, Kirito plays another game called Gun Gale Online (GGO) to investigate the mysterious connection between it and deaths occurring in the real world. Assisted by a female player he meets in the game called Sinon, he identifies and exposes the culprits, who include some former members of a murderous guild he had previously encountered in SAO.
Kirito is later recruited to assist in the development of a state-of-the-art game, UnderWorld (UW), which has an interface that is far more realistic and complex than the previous games he had played. In the UW mainframe, the flow of time proceeds a thousand times faster than in the real world. However, he ends up falling into a trap set by one of the murderers from GGO and wakes up inside the game, unable to log out, with his real self left in a comatose state. Eventually he starts to question if he is the real Kirito or an artificial intelligence modeled after him.

336. Where Are You Going, Dad? (China Version)

Title: 爸爸去哪儿
English Title: Where Are You Going, Dad?
Genre: Variety, Family
Episodes: 12

Summary: Where Are You Going, Dad? (Chinese: 爸爸去哪儿) is a reality show based on the original South Korean reality show Dad! Where Are We Going? featuring five fathers and their child as they travel to rural places.

335. Dance Moms

Title: Dance Moms
Genre: Reality
Episodes:

Summary: Set in Pittsburgh, Dance Moms follows the Abby Lee Dance Company's Elite Competition Dance Team of young girls aged 8 to 15 as they travel week-to-week to various competitions in hopes of a national title. Much of the program is focused on the mothers of the dancers as they both encourage their daughter's careers as dancers and rival the other dancers' mothers. Later in the program, Candy Apple's Dance Studio (located in Canton, Ohio) was introduced as a rival dance company.
Every week on the show, Abby uses a pyramid chart to show the moms and the dancers who she feels did the best in her eyes, and who needs to improve. Miller had never used a pyramid In her studio prior to Dance Moms, and when asked about the pyramid Miller stated in an interview, "I've never done that in my life. That has nothing to do with me. That's the show; they came up with that whole process." The pyramid changes every week, and it has been reflected that the moms' behavior often affects the girls' placement on the pyramid.

334. The Queen of SOP 2

Title: 胜女的时代/ 胜女的代价2/ Sheng Nu De Shi Dai/ Sheng Nu De Dai Jia 2
English Title: The Queen of SOP 2 / Successful Woman's Time
Genre: Modern Idol Drama, Romance
Episodes: 22

Summary: Zheng Shuang plays a pair of identical twins born to a rich family, but one of them is switched out by a poor mother who wants her dying daughter to get medical treatment. The older twin and the poor woman's daughter are raised as fraternal twins, while the younger identical twin is raised by the poor woman. After the girls grow up, the older twin is in love with an ordinary man that her mother disapproves of, played by Zhang Han and she elopes to be with him. She does in a car accident and the rich mother happens to see her real other daughter and makes a deal with her - pretend to be the dead twin and the rich mother will pay for the poor mother's medical treatment, not knowing that they are in fact real mother-daughter.