Nineteen to Twenty is a South Korean teen reality show released on Netflix. It was created by Sijak Company, written by Ji Hyun-sook and produced by Kim Su-a. The show will follow a group of 19-year-olds, who will turn 20, in a week together. In that period, they will be learning all the essentials for their adult life and some love life experiences as well.
The show is hosted by Kyuhyun, Jeong Se-woon, Lee Su-hyun and Kim Ji-eun. Only three episodes are released with a runtime of about 50+ minutes and new episodes will be released weekly. The concept behind the show is that in South Korean culture, everyone turns a year older on New Year. Therefore, the 19-year-olds (regardless of their birthdays) will turn adults as the next Year ushers in & before that they will spend their first adult experiences together.
Nineteen to Twenty Episode 1: First Encounter
The show opens up with the setting of a school on December 24, a week before the New Year. Each student walks up to the classroom and takes a seat. There are a total of 8 students – Moon Se-yeon, Lim Jung-yun, Oh Sang-won, Lee Ji-min, Jung Seo-yeong, Choi Seo-hyeon, Noh Hee-ji and Choi Ye-rin. Once they took their seats, the teacher and novelist Kim Jung-hyuck greeted them and told them about one rule of the school – no dating.
While nobody really takes it seriously, they are asked to come in front and introduce themselves to the class. After that, they were seated alphabetically and Hee-ji was paired with Se-yeon, Seo-hyeong with Sang-won, Seo-hyeon with Ji-min and Yerin with Jung-yun. Although they all were feeling awkward, to break the ice, the teacher asked them to draw a life graph and at the end of it, he gave everyone homework. Based on the classmate’s life graph, they needed to pick one person and recommend them a book from the library, along with a letter.
This made each of them think about the person to choose and recommend what they might like to read. After lunch, they were given a lesson on money management and were asked to join a club. There were two clubs – Table tennis and Astronomy. Sang-won was made astronomy club head and was joined by Jung-yun, Seo-yeong and Ji-min. Se-yeon was the head of the table tennis club and was joined by Seo-hyeon, Ye-rin and Hee-ji.
Nineteen to Twenty Episode 2: Getting to Know Better
After the awkward and nervous first day, the students were trying to decide who to give their book to. Some gave it to the one they wanted to know better romantically, while some didn’t put much meaning behind it. From the activity, Sang-won and Seo-hyeon seem to get closer, even romantically. Similarly, Se-yeon and Ye-rin found themselves getting attracted to each other. They also had a class called ‘Secret of Dating’ by Lee You-jung and had a discussion about their ideal partner.
As the classmates were getting to know each other better, each one got more assured about their own feelings and with whom they would like to get involved romantically. Some showed their feelings directly, while some tried to assess the other before making a move. The students got the chance to get a bit closer in the physical education class by teacher Kang Do-hyun. The girls were asked to spin 10 times and then give the vest to the boy they wanted to be paired with.
Hee-ji gave the vest to Ji-min, Seo-hyeon to Sang-won, Seo-yeong to Jung-yun and Ye-rin to Se-yeon. The first activity was the three-legged race, which was won by Seo-hyeon and Sang-won. The second was dodgeball, where the guys had to protect their partners from getting hit by the ball. If anything, it brought the students together and even made some hearts skip a beat.
Nineteen to Twenty Episode 3: Transfer Students
Just when the 8 students were settling in and had created a friendship amongst themselves, two new transfer students came to shake things up. Jeong Ji-woo and Kim Pyeong-seok transferred to school 19 and the seating arrangement was once again changed. Pyeong-seok was seated with Hee-ji and Ji-woo with Sang-won. All the classmates were quick to make them feel comfortable and Jung-yun, who wasn’t particularly interested in anyone, found himself taking notice of Ji-woo. Similarly, Hee-ji took a liking to her new seat partner and tried to know him better.
They took a class about AI and mind mining with Song Gil-young and then later a make-up class with Lee Na-kyeom. The make-up class was especially fun for them as they put makeup on each other and even found the excuse to get close to the one they liked. The day ended with an AMA (ask me anything) session, where they anonymously asked each other questions and got to know what was going on in their minds. Lastly, they were also asked to pick up a dish to cook in their next cooking class and the ones who chose the same dishes would become the partner.
Final Thoughts: Nineteen to Twenty Review
Looking at the trailer, I didn’t know what to expect exactly since the concept was not really clear. But it exceeded all my expectations and made me smile throughout. Along with the students, the awkward and nervous feeling of first crushes and the heart fluttering exudes out of the screen and makes the viewers curious as well.
The show was strangely entertaining and makes me excited to tune into the next episodes soon. However, it would have been nice to know what they taught in the classes and could have helped in my adult life maybe. Compared to other reality shows, the innocence and the somewhat drama-free environment feel so good to watch. It is also released at the right time when South Korea is trying to adopt an international age system and the show’s concept reflects the old tradition that they will be letting go.
Rating: 4/5
Nineteen to Twenty is currently streaming on Netflix. New episodes (4-6) will be released on July 18, 2023.
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