Fall shows have been amping up the last two weeks and I can hardly keep up with all the new shows. I've watched a lot of TV in the last week trying to keep up, and there are yet still more shows clogging up my DVR. So for efficiency's sake, I'm going to summarize my first impressions of a few of the new seasons and the new series I've seen so far.
Late Show with Stephen Colbert:
I think everyone who ever watched the Colbert Report or saw clips of Stephen Colbert in the last ten years has been curious of what the man is like when the cameras are off. He certainly is as liberal minded as the rest of the liberal elitist news media (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (RIP), Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Huffington Post, etc.) We all knew what Colbert's politics had to be given the heavy handed satire he dished out nightly for nearly ten years. But what was he like when he was just Stephen?
Now we get to see Stephen Colbert cast in a more genuine light, although as with all public celebrities, I have no doubt this is just another iteration of the "real" Colbert. My first reaction was, besides the lack of overt and ridiculous conservative remarks, that he's really not that different. He's still charming, funny, and as handsome as ever. Possibly even more handsome actually because if anything he seems more at ease. The biggest difference is that now he hosts a different show. The format for the Late Show was crystallized decades ago and besides the normal evolution of talk shows, Colbert has stuck with it's basic template. The ranks of our night time talk show hosts are getting pretty impressive, but I have no doubt that Stephen Colbert will fit right in.
Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris:
This show is just plain ridiculous. It is as if Ellen and Oprah were thrown in a cocktail shaker and Let's Make a Deal was used as the garnish. Audience members are receiving prizes and trips to Tahiti like it's the end of the world, A-list celebrities are performing bizarre tasks like zip-lining, and Neil Patrick Harris is doing acrobatics like he is an extra for Cirque Du Soleil. Hosted by Harris, as far as I can tell, he basically spends an hour doing whatever he or the pack of producers want to do, including embarrassing celebrities and audience members alike and throwing around money like it is on fire. Harris is either going bankrupt to produce this show, or he is calling in a lot of favors.
Unfortunately the show itself has about as much attention span as a two year old and thus the staying power of maybe a season. It doesn't give its audience enough credit to pay attention for more than 30 seconds, which is unfortunate because with the plethora of high quality variety and talk shows out there, we have become smart consumers of dumb television. We are not impressed by your kitschy camera tricks and flashing lights; we want substance. I will be surprised if the show lasts long. The whole time I sat stunned, repeating, "What is this show?" out loud over and over again like a crazy person. Once it was over I was struck by two thoughts: 1. I never need to see that again and 2. I will not remember this as soon as I turn off the TV.
The Muppets:
Oh God, I wanted to like the new Muppets show so badly. So far as I can tell it is centered on the cast of the original Muppets producing a late night talk show with Miss Piggy as the star, Kermit as the producer, Fozzy as the comedian-sidekick-announcer, Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem as the house band, and the rest of the cast as various members of the production team. In some ways, the new series mirrors the original show in terms of the roles of the characters in putting on a show; Scooter was and still is the dopey production assistant, for example. Except now they are creating a late night talk show as opposed to a goofy variety show.
Perhaps my hopes were too high. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations. The fact of the matter is that the show wasn’t really terrible. It just wasn’t successful. It missed the mark in almost every scene. The worst part was that the writers of the new show were close enough that the audience knew their intentions, they just couldn’t quite stick the landing.
I am really hoping the creators of the show get their stuff together because so many people were excited for The Muppets to be back on TV. If only for the sake of the franchise's future, they need to sort themselves out. It's almost as if the Muppets and Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris got their formats swapped. Muppets, you go back to doing wacky, campy variety shows, and NPH, you go back to doing sitcoms.
The Voice:
The Voice is back. Blind auditions are here and I have been furiously fast-forwarding through the sentimental parts to get to the singing and the chair-turning (or lack thereof).
I have never been a huge fan of talent shows, much to the chagrin of my ex who was obsessed with them and made me squirm through countless episodes of America's Got (No Damn) Talent until we broke up and I was finally free of freaking dog gymnastics. I did go through a pre-teen phase of enjoying American Idol when it was first popular and I would call and vote for the cutest guy on the show. My mom and I spent a couple years watching Dancing with the Stars when I was in high school, but that was more about seeing the stars than appreciating the dancing. After a while talent shows become too formulaic for me, and I'm stuck banging my head against a wall as they slowly eliminate all my favorite performers until by the finale I am left with someone I hate and someone I have convinced myself out of desperation that I like. Meanwhile, while all of this is happening, some cranky British man is slowly disintegrating my soul.
The Voice has been touted as unique since its inception. The blind auditions are supposed to remove a judge's biases based on looks so that *The Voice* is what matters in deciding if singers stay or go. A few minutes of critical thinking, however, is all viewer needs to see right through this. First of all, these aren't just people picked off the street. There are auditions for The Blind Auditions, wherein a potential contestant is vetted by producers. Show runners pick the first wave of performers based on backstory, voice, and *of course* looks. They *of course* pick a few people whose looks don't match their voices just to add drama to the blind auditions. In this season so far Jordan Smith and Siahna Im are the most notable examples of this that come to mind. They are incredible singers with uncommon voices and as soon as the judges turn around, the show confirms that it is blind to the look of an artist. Well, as long as you forget that they were planted by producers.
This may sound like I don't give the artists enough credit. On the contrary, Jordan Smith, who the audience also didn't get to see until he was revealed to the judges, was one of my favorite artists of the first week. The gimmick (and I've already established that I love gimmicks) is used to surprise the audience when it is revealed who the face is behind the voice. But a smart viewer (in this case, listener) knows that the show runners want to create the most dramatic reveal; so if an effeminate voice is singing a Sia song it doesn't take a huge mental leap to guess that it's a man singing. But if you allow yourself to recognize the gimmick and accept the gimmick, you can enjoy the gimmick and the rest of the show.
Surprise reveals and sentimental back stories aside, the first few weeks of this show are less about the singers for me. I find myself fast-forwarding past the emotional backstories just to see whether or not the contestants are any good in my opinion, whether or not the judges turn their chairs, and whether or not Adam Levine has to beg for people to join his team. This season’s judges consist of Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Gwen Stefani, and Pharrell Williams. I’ve always been impressed by the judges on The Voice. They are active members of the industry for which they serve as gate keepers for contestants. This makes their feedback, their advice, and their interactions with the contestants feel legitimate. Since a judge becomes the coach of the contestants they choose to endorse (if the contestants choose to join their team) the process feels more like a collaboration among artists, rather than a judgement handed down by an apathetic god.
Scream Queens:
I really didn't know what to expect from this show. I wasn't even sure I was going to actually watch it when I first heard about it. Within the first thirty seconds of watching the skeptic inside of me had raised my eyebrows so high, they had become part of my normal hairline. The show centers around a sorority, in particular the evil sorority president who is unabashedly racist within the first five minutes. The whole show is based on increasingly ridiculous, far-fetched premises. This show is what I imagine Glee and Pretty Little Liars would be like if they were fused together, but honestly I don't know because I never saw either.
Speaking of Glee, Jamie Lee Curtis, the suspicious, hard-ass Dean of the college is simply the new Jane Lynch from Glee. They even have the same hair cut. I wanted to love Jamie Lee Curtis but her character's strong, feminist, anti-sorority personality felt just as catty and vicious as the sorority president's. I was happy, therefore, once I realized that all of the characters in this show are written as suspects in a serial murder plot, and I was able to accept her evil overtones. At one point she says very sternly, "I'm going to barf on your face unless you get out of here". That's when I was truly sold on her character.
Nasim Pedrad who plays the spacey house mother (who was definitely involved in the 1995 incident which starts the show) is the best part of the show so far. The show is supposed to be a comedy and she is the only one who is able to truly convey that properly.
Another highlight of the pilot was the first encounter with the fraternity brother Nick Jonas and Glen Powell. It was possibly the most hysterical continuous scene of the first two episodes (aired together). The scene ended with Glen Powell's character, Chad Radwell, saying, "We're just trying to have a nice day hitting gold balls at hippies." As a hippy I cackled at that line.
As for the rest of the cast, I would say they are pretty forgettable so far. Most of the sorority girls blend together in an amalgamation of blonde, blue eyed, petite femininity, so that I can hardly keep them straight. This includes the freshman who the audience is supposed to side with morally. The newer sorority members are intentionally diverse, created by the writers to be a rag-tag team meant to be funny more than anything. The show creators didn't include an Asian American lesbian to the show to be diverse--they do it because it is "funny", only it isn't really.
Overall the comedy aspect of the show struggles to find the humor, which is equal parts due to the writing and the acting. The script is certainly flawed, but if Nasim Pedrad can land her jokes, other people should be able to as well. The horror/drama is properly campy yet intriguing and that may be what keeps the audience watching. I did finish the two hour finale intending to continue watching, if only to find out who the killer is.
And thus ends my first wave of fall premieres' thoughts. If I have additional thoughts on any of these shows in the future, I will keep you updated. My next article will be about the new seasons and series of crime procedurals that have premiered in the last couple of weeks. Stay tuned.
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