Thursday, November 18, 2010
MAYBE THEY SHOULD CALL IT "THE MUSICAL TALENT SHOW WHICH AIRS ON FOX ON TUESDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS": Because a show without a semifinal round, without Simon Cowell and in which the “finalists will face new challenges, including contests to make the best music video, to promote themselves, and to work with a band and dancers for an awards show-style performance" does not sound like American Idol.
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Yikes. Are they TRYING to get this show canceled? I haven't been one to jump on the "American Idol's collapse is inevitable now that Simon is gone" bandwagon, but this is starting to look disastrous. If they wanted to drop something, drop those audition rounds to a single week. Having these challenges seems similar to that stunt they pulled in Season Two (I think it was Season Two anyway) when they tried showing what was going on in their house occasionally in an attempt to turn it into a mini-Real World. And that didn't work either.
ReplyDeleteIt almost sounds like The Musical Apprentice, come to think of it.
ReplyDeleteI came in to type this exact sentence.
ReplyDeleteTwo thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. The glossy production stuff sounds a whole lot like "X Factor." Are they trying to beat Cowell's new show to the punch?
2. I'm wondering to what extent they want to use "producers pick the Top 12" as a way of having even more control over who the finalists are. The fairly deep runs by Sanjaya and Clifford the Crunchy Muppet might have been avoided by pure producer selection.
That said, it's certainly better than pretending that the show didn't have problems that need to be fixed.
Well, this could be a nice change for those of us who don't watch Idol. Instead of interminable discussions on the contestants and their song choices, now we have new complaints to idly watch pass by. Bring it on!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds sort of like Bands on the Run! Awesome!
ReplyDeleteAck. That sounds awful.
ReplyDeleteI think they're fixing the wrong problems, though. More songs, less blather, end on time.
ReplyDeleteBut does not cutting right to the Top 12 but keeping the season the same length imply there will be more actual singing this year. Though they completely blew with the Judging Panel selections, I can get on board with these changes.
ReplyDeleteProbably not. It will probably still be a structure of dropping one person each round. There may be more singing during later singing rounds because of the drop in number of judges from four to three. (Before they upped the number of judges, we were getting more songs in the Top 5, Top 4, and Top 3 rounds than we did last year.) That said, it sounds like they are adding in a lot more stuff, so my guess is that there won't be longer songs and possibly not any more songs in the finals. With the loss of the semis, there might actually be less net singing.
ReplyDeleteOh Bands on the Run! I loved that show. And every time I saw the name "Soulcracker" I automatically read "Soul Coughing," and then I was disappointed. Ah, early 2000s reality tv...
ReplyDeleteFlickerstick!
ReplyDeleteI'd just like to register my surprise that Paul Tabachneck hasn't chimed in with a 5000-word love letter to Bands on the Run yet.
ReplyDeleteAllow me to rectify that!
ReplyDeleteRobin says this, by the way, because on my last visit to Pittsburgh, I was staying on her (and her fiancee's) couch, and after doing extensive research due to a long stream-of-Google-consciousness, said: "Yeah, I don't think they're EVER going to do a DVD release of Bands on the Run." Which was so random to her, but also, is a crime!
What a great show. Good (Flickerstick) v. evil (Soulcracker), rock and roll, a jam band gets eliminated in like episode 2, band politics, and so so many memories:
- When the bassist of the Josh Dodes band lectures the backup vocalist that she is wrong for getting a back massage because "as a black woman, [she is] a queen, descendant of queens."
- When Soulcracker skips a city to go ahead to the site of the finals and badmouth Flickerstick as being "Total corporate rock." This, an episode after they refer to themselves in confessional as "Soulcracker, Inc."
- Every bullshit thing Beastie ever did.
- AJ constantly going, "Check it out. Check it out. Check it out."
- Harlow being awesome, although not that great a band. I was so sad when they lost, even though it kept my favorite dichotomy in play.
- Did I mention the jam band leaves first? That part is awesome.
- Josh Dodes, pre-Andy-Bernard, brags about using his ivy-league connections in each city, then one day, puts up by getting his band a FLAT-BED TRUCK to play on in a parking lot in Pittsburgh.
- EL DANGEROSO!
Man. I need to watch that show again. Now. Does anyone have any way for me to do that?