Category Archives: Reality TV
Push Girls Needs to Be Pushed Off Television
Even before I started watching the Sundance Channel’s Push Girls, I knew I was going to be very critical of it. I was right. I didn’t expect it to be anything I could consider “good television”. There were parts of it that I found profoundly irritating and even offensive. The reality series, revolving around four women who use wheelchairs, opened with two episodes on Monday night. The entire goal of the show seems to be to inspire a viewer to believe that they can achieve anything in life regardless of obstacles. It is a very repetitive and uninteresting message. The message starts to sound sickening when you realize that none of the women have lives that are particularly impressive.
The tagline for the series is “If you can’t stand up, stand out.” This annoying because it tries too hard to be cute. It wouldn’t have been as bad if it was accurate for any of these women. It seems not to be. They just don’t seem that special. While their situations certainly took perseverance to overcome, it seemed that Tiphany, Angela, Mia and Auti were simply women who left me wondering why they got a show.
America’s Got Talent Goes to Austin
America’s Got Talent held auditions Austin, Texas. The first thing that struck me was that there were very few dance acts and that this season seems to be more positive than past ones.
Sebastian De la Cruz and his mariachi band were the first act of the night. Despite only being 10-years-old, De la Cruz was charming and a perfect gentleman as well as extremely talented. He also dressed the part, which only added to his preciousness. (Seriously, the number of times Sharon Osbourne and the Internet have used that word to describe De la Cruz is not going to do him any favors in high school.)
Time for the bad act montage! That would be great if any of the acts were remotely memorable. There was a sideshow act, which I barely remember because all sideshow acts make me sick. Well, except this one. The Tinderbox Circus Sideshow appeared to solely exist so that the members can staple paper to each others chests. It was very tame compared to the sideshow from earlier in the season that had one of its members pick up a brick with his eye sockets.
What Not to Wear Changes Format
What Not to Wear got a makeover this season. The new season premiered this past Tuesday with a live studio audience. This completely changed the feel of the show and not for the better. Someone at TLC fixed what wasn’t broken.
The show used to be sort of a documentary about one woman’s clothing journey. Clinton Kelly and Stacy London would throw out all of the woman’s old clothes and spend the week boosting her confidence and giving her a new look. Now with the live studio audience, What Not to Wear has turned into a highbrow point-and-laugh show.
While the part of What Not to Wear where a secret camera follows the unwitting participant was always creepy, the show never went into cruel and unusual punishment territory until this season. Even though the first person made over, Ana, looked like a teenaged hooker with her sort skirts and dead Muppet vests, she did not deserve the meanness that comes with the new format. You could hear the audience laughing at her as soon as she walked through the door. With the old format, you might have been laughing at the badly dressed woman at home, but at least it wasn’t to her face.
America’s Got Talent Visits St. Louis
Issac Brian Brown
I had some faith that Tuesday’s episode of AGT would be better than Monday night’s, simply because the odds are they would start to find better talent. I was mostly right. They had never visited St. Louis prior to this season, which sort of surprised me. Regardless, St. Louis’ first audition show two weeks ago was also a good showing. It makes some sense that this show would be good too.
America’s Got Talent begins every episode with a feature story. It’s normally a tossup as to whether it would be a terrible act that happens to be entertaining or an act of genuine talent. When “Imagination” from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” started playing at the beginning of the guy’s feature, I knew that this wasn’t going to be a good act. When the contestant said he was a puppeteer, I was positive it wasn’t going to be good. Aside from the fact that this type of act is immensely unlikely to be worthy of 1 million dollars, the viewer quickly discovered he wasn’t even a good puppeteer. Nick Cannon promptly turned to the camera with a sock puppet in his hand and said, “I’m a better puppeteer than this dude.” Despite the complete lack of potential this act had, I was still entertained. The contestant had very high energy and the judges’ spirits seemed very high. This was going to be a captivating hour.
America’s Got Talent: Not that Inspiring
This early in the season, there’s a lot of novelty in America’s Got Talent. I try to look at these acts with a critical eye and not simply take pleasure in America’s failure. During the show’s tenure, there has been a lack of success in finding a sustainable “star.” There could be many reasons for this, but AGT is a talent show with absolutely no parameters. Perhaps, it’s got to come to terms with the fact that America hasn’t been that good. There’s still plenty of audition shows left, but the country has a lot to prove.
Monday’s episode was enjoyable, but not overly impressive. Some acts were good, but I sincerely doubt I saw one with a serious shot at winning the competition. Conversely, some acts were bad, but I don’t think the public will be talking about them or that their performances will spread around YouTube for the sake of hilarity. It was just an hour that did an adequate job of holding my attention.
This episode opened with a singing and dancing troupe called Inspired, which is also a non-profit organization with a focus on the inner-cities. They told the judges they have been referred to as “the urban Glee.”
As cynical as this sounds, it is at this point where the show gets less entertaining. I’m all for sentimentality, but one would expect that at least one act with a troubling or “inspiring” background would not make it to the next round because they just aren’t talented enough. I do not remember a single instance of that happening in any competition show, especially AGT. I suppose, on shows like AGT, everyone needs a good story, but I didn’t appreciate knowing that Inspired would go through before I saw them perform. They inevitably were voted through to Las Vegas. I would tolerate this better if they were a spectacular act, but their rendition of “Lean On Me” wasn’t anything exciting.
Weekly TV Update: May 28
Each week we bring you stories from around the Internet that you might have missed.
Don’t know what TV shows to look forward to? Here is a list of upcoming shows.
Robin Thicke apparently thinks he’s not famous enough to win ABC’s Duets. Then again, he is competing against Kelly Clarkson and John Legend.
History has a new miniseries about the Hatfields and the McCoys. It will star Kevin Costner.
Mediaite’s Sarah Devlin has an article about Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner’s Woman Problem.
Will the musical Rags be riches for Nickelodeon? The New York Daily News reviews the latest Nickelodeon Original Movie.
The Forgettable Season of Food Network Star
The Next Food Network Star is one of those shows that I watch because I think it’s going to get better, but it never does. It’s hard to believe that Food Network Star made its debut in 2005 with Marc Summers as host. The show hasn’t had a true host for about 5 season. Instead, the judges take turns announcing rules, so that the show does not completely lose its way. Each year Food Network Star continues without a host, I wish Marc Summers was back to keep track of things and help viewers keep track of the contestants.
Spoiler Alert
The contestants for season 8 of Food Network Star.
We Can’t Believe We Defended Piers Morgan
In “Howard Stern or Piers Morgan: Who’s Got Talent?”, Jeremy argued that Piers Morgan was entertaining on America’s Got Talent and made a decent judge. As an avid viewer of AGT, I agree that Piers Morgan did have his redeeming qualities. I actually would go as far as to say Piers is a better judge than Howard Stern, who appears to be making AGT “The Howard Show”. However, Jeremy and I both think we need to make it perfectly clear that while we like Piers, we in no way think he isn’t a scumbag.
Piers has been involved in several scandals in the United Kingdom, the most well known is the News Corp. hacking scandal. Before Americans knew him as a reality show judge, Brits already knew him as the unlikable editor of several tabloids, such as The Sun and The Daily Mirror, who was somehow redeemed by his friendship with Simon Cowell. To make up for defending Piers Morgan, here is a clip (starts at 4:30) of him getting slimed/gunged on Noel’s House Party.
Also, we would like to inform our British friends that we are well aware no one likes Noel Edmonds and have no idea why he’s still on television.
Howard Stern or Piers Morgan: Who’s Got Talent?
In June 2006, a competition show premiered on NBC, ostensibly to compete with the hugely popular American Idol. It was hosted by Regis Philbin with judges David Hasslehoff, Brandy, and a controversial British tabloid journalist named Piers Morgan. The show was called America’s Got Talent, and it is profoundly surprising that 7 years later, after so many changes, it’s still doing well. None of the original cast is on the show anymore, with the most noticeable change coming this season. Piers Morgan is no longer at the judges table. I have seen at least a few episodes of every season since the show started. Morgan, who started out as a blatant Simon Cowell imitator, was the one constant. As the years went on, he development his own (albeit still antagonistic) style. With him gone, I didn’t know what to expect this season. I will say unequivocally that Howard Stern, with his experience in the entertainment industry and reaching out to audiences, was a very good choice as a replacement. I do believe he will do well this season. However, as a somewhat loyal viewer from the beginning, I am going to miss his predecessor.
The show has been at its best since Nick Cannon took over as host in Season 4 because he had a far more captivating presence and higher energy level than the previous two hosts, Regis Philbin and Jerry Springer. It concerns me that his enjoyable quarreling rapport with Morgan can now longer be part of the show. Morgan had a reputation of being harsh with the buzzer, while Cannon was known to defend the acts. It made for especially good TV when Cannon would walk out onto the stage during the audition process to stick up for the entertaining untalented acts. Cannon would enthusiastically shout “Hit the track!” and continue an atrocious singing or dancing act, ensuring that even the disgraced contestant would have a good time. Last season, Cannon was relentlessly pulling for karaoke artist Udi Abgagnale, so the judges just left the studio, so they didn’t have to listen as Cannon, Abagnale, and the crowd kept singing “Hot Hot Hot.” Morgan just asked the camera incredulously, “Do you see what’s going on with Nick Cannon?” Who’s decided Udi is the hit of the show.” That was good television. The best interactions in competition shows the last few years between a host and a judge have been between Cannon and Morgan. Whether it was Cannon’s defense of acts or Morgan’s ridicule of Cannon’s fashion choices, their relationship on the show worked. I have yet to see the same type of interaction between Cannon and Stern.
Wait! What's A Dial? 