Wednesday, April 27, 2011
FRENCHIE! Look, other than the Flyers' beatdown of the Sabres last night there was nothing else on, so I, too, sampled a few minutes of The Voice. Dan Fienberg has a fuller summary, but my attitude for now is that I've seen enough audition episodes in my life, so I'll wait for the mentoring/coaching to begin to see if this spin on the singer-competition genre presents something new and worth watching. You?
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I'm more interested in the ratings numbers. NBC has clearly put all their eggs for May Sweeps in The Voice's basket (with "who will be the new Office boss?" as their only other backup). The 90 minute Glee was a really smart stroke by Fox against it, preventing folks from immediately flipping over to the start of The Voice, and given that they saved the two big production numbers (including the much-hyped Born This Way) for the final 30 minutes, not a lot of people likely to abandon it. Judging from last night's Twitter trending topics, they got good sampling.
ReplyDeleteFor a show supposedly about sheer vocal talent rather than appearance, they managed to select an awful lot of telegenic "singers" to work with.
ReplyDeleteBut what about the girl who is constantly being judged for being extremely pretty AND having a stunning voice? You've got to admit, her lot *is* pretty tragic.
ReplyDeleteLOL. The beautiful and talented are a tragically overlooked demographic. I'm so glad she finally overcame her dual handicap.
ReplyDeleteoops -- not guest. Me!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, despite the "set up" contestants/editing and the judges/methors/whatever being a little too quick to like someone (hazards of fame, I'd guess; or, they were told to), I kinda liked it. Not sure where it's GOING and not sure if it has more than a short run in it, but I'll give it a shot to see where it goes. Even if it's to see how long it is before Adam lays the smackdown on Christina (love-hate anyone?).
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed it (Glee was being recorded). Mark Burnett knows how to create drama in a reality show, and these "audition" episodes were much more compelling than Idol's because of the competition aspect between the mentors. It's also obvious that this show is "cast" like Survivor, the Apprentice, etc., with other aspects of personality/background taken into account, rather than a cattle call.
ReplyDeleteAnd damn if the opening version of "Crazy" wasn't a ton of fun.
I turned it off when they "suspensefully" cut to commercial before a contestant picked her judge. No tolerance anymore for reality show bloat. How's that for a hook fo a new talent competition? No nonsense, just singing and judging. You could show three times (at least) as many singers/songs on these shows as they do.
ReplyDelete<p>I figured I'd watch a few minutes and then switch to Glee, but I ended up watching the entire thing. I have to say, I loved it. I agree that the opening was really fun, and it also established the credibility of the judges as singing talents who also have some chemistry together. I think the judges make the show for me -- they work together really well, and I liked their conversations with the singers. I'm recording the season. I have no idea how things will go when the judges become coaches -- that will require more criticism, and we don't know how well they can do that -- but I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. Really a pleasant surprise (and a good way to cheer up after the thrashing of my Sabres).
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I watched bits and pieces of it. When I figured out the premise, I thought they were looking for a Susan Boyle moment -- the dowdy middle aged woman, or the overweight, acne-ridden teenager, or someone similarly unattractive -- who would have a giant voice and then be turned into a star. But all of the contestants just looked like all of the other contestants on all of the other reality shows. Did I miss anything?
ReplyDeleteI watched, and fast forwarded through a lot. I kind of love Cee-Lo and Blake Shelton together (though the "I'm the NICE country guy who's going to make sure that your mommy and daddy still have a baby not chewed up by fame" crap as a selling point to singers is annoying). I also love that Cee-Lo is much more willing than other folks to turn around his chair for singers of other genres.
ReplyDelete"<span> Look, other than the Flyers' beatdown of the Sabres last night there was nothing else on,"</span>
ReplyDeleteWell, there was the epic game 7 between the Blackhawks and the Canucks, and good luck to the Casnucks in the next round...
I think "The Voice" going two hours to eleven countered any FOX move to jerk them around. It's like they took everything annoying about IDOL and cleaned them up. I think I'll check it out more as it progresses. The woman who sang the Nirvana song had a pretty clear voice. And I also liked the girl who had the raspy voice who sang the Script song.
ReplyDeleteI watched the repeat of the premiere, and I'm hooked. It was great to see an audition episode without all the intentionally crappy performances by people who just wanted their 15 minutes of fame. I don't even bother to sit through Idol's audition rounds anymore, but this was much more fun. I liked all the performances and enjoyed the by-play among the judges (or coaches). My only concern is that this will be the anti-Idol, a show in which the audition rounds are great and the actual competition is anti-climactic. But so far, so good. I was very, very surprised by how much I enjoyed this and wonder if this will end up stealing X Factor's thunder.
ReplyDeleteI particularly liked the performances of Time After Time and Breakeven. And it was interesting to see the woman who complained that she was always judged by her flawless looks, if only because she came from a small town in Florida just north of Vero Beach, where I lived for over a decade.