Title: 꽃보다 할배 Kgotboda Halbae
English Title: Grandpas Over Flowers
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Year: 2013-2018
Season - Episode:
- season 01 - 07 episodes
- season 02 - 07 episodes
- season 03 - 08 episodes
- season 04 - 07 episodes
- season 05 - 09 episodes
- 이순재 Lee Soon Jae
- 신구 Shin Goo
- 박근형 Park Geun Hyung
- 백일섭 Baek Il Sub
- 이서진 Lee Seo Jin
SYNOPSIS
Grandfathers Lee Soon Jae, Shin Goo, Park Geun Hyung, and Baek Il Sub travel abroad together.
To help the grandpas in their travels, the production team get a younger person to become their porter, translator, tour guide, and overall person-in-charge. Actor Lee Seo Jin is tricked into accompanying the grandpas on their trips.
They go to Europe (namely France, Germany, and Switzerland) for the first season, and to Taiwan for the second season.
REVIEW
Grandpas Over Flowers caught my attention because it is about traveling, and I love traveling!
What made Grandpas Over Flowers particularly engrossing is the fact that the production team tricked Lee Seo Jin to be part of the show by saying he will be accompanying girl idols on the trip (for season 1) and basically forcing him to agree to do the show again (for season 2). I pity Seo Jin for not knowing what's really going on and for being forced to do things but you have to admit that the show's trickery is great for entertainment purposes.
The four grandpas and Seo Jin have different personalities and it's quite interesting to see them interact with each other. It's also fascinating how much the age hierarchy factors in on each person's role in the group and influences how each person relates to the other people in the group.
One travel tip I was reminded of while watching the cast travel in France, Germany, and Switzerland is to pack light, especially if I have to use public transportation.
I'm intrigued how the grandpas wanted to eat Korean food while in Europe and even more so how the production staff brought several luggage full of Korean instant food such as rice, ramyun, and soup stock. I wonder how many people do the same when traveling?
Whenever I travel, I don't really bring any food item with me and the longest I have stayed in another country is around two to three months. I try to eat local food as much as possible, and if I do eat in an international restaurant chain, I try to order something that is unique to the locality and is not available at home.
I love the part where Lee Sun Kyu or Sunny from Girls' Generation spent a few days traveling with the grandpas and Seo Jin in Taiwan. I think it's fascinating how the relationship dynamics changed over time. Initially, it seemed as if Sunny is the daughter-in-law that Seo Jin introduced to the family elders, and then later on it seemed as if Sunny is the actual granddaughter or even real daughter of the family.
Anyway, I'm actually wary about getting into Grandpas Over Flowers because well, I don't really know how long the show will go on and how many seasons it will have with the same cast. Based on my knowledge of other Korean variety shows, these productions seem to go on forever and I'm just not sure if I can commit to such a long-running television program. I mean, I do that with variety shows hosted by my favorite Japanese idol group Arashi, but I'm not sure yet if I'm willing to do the same for the grandpas and Seo Jin.
I don't know if I will still watch the succeeding seasons if the cast is different. It just seems like it's a different show altogether. I'll probably try to at least check out the first few episodes though.
Related:
꽃보다 할배 Grandpas Over Flowers (2014)
꽃보다 할배 Grandpas Over Flowers (2015)
꽃보다 할배 Grandpas Over Flowers (2018)
Alike:
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꽃보다 청춘 Youth Over Flowers in Peru
꽃보다 청춘 Youth Over Flowers in Laos
꽃보다 청춘 Youth Over Flowers in Iceland
꽃보다 청춘 Youth Over Flowers in Africa
꽃보다 청춘 Youth Over Flowers in Australia
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꽃보다 할배 Grandpas Over Flowers
