OK
Talent But No Magic #TheFourBattleForStardom #3weekroundup #recap
#review #FOX
All pictures courtesy of FOX
I’m
going to try to keep this three-week roundup as short as I can
because it is a reality show and I’m more judging it on the
concept, but by this time you should know how well I do with keeping
things short, especially because this sentence is running on longer
than most Oscars broadcasts. At the same time, I have a lot to say
about this show and very little to say about the show. Over
the course of the next few months we are going to be bombarded with
singing/talent competitions all vying to be the next new [insert your
favorite competition show]. The question is: Will any of them be
good, and how many of them will have the opportunity to stay around
for longer than one of my run-on sentences? With some of them old
(The Voice), some of them returning (American Idol) and some of them
revamped from what they used to be (Showtime at the Apollo), who, in
this competition of competitions, will win? Does The Four: Battle for
Stardom (totally thought it was fame and not stardom) start the year
off shining bright or will it last for but a flicker of time like
that dreadful Boy Band singing competition from summer 2017? Let’s
find out together.
The
Four: Battle for Stardom is FOX’s regret over losing the bid for a
revamped American Idol manifested into a semi-creative idea. (Note:
At the time of writing this review, I was unaware that The Four was
actually a foreign show brought to the US. How foolish of me. I
should've known). So, the concept goes that FOX, in their all-knowing
wisdom, searched the nation for a few weeks or months looking for the
hottest, most market-ready, undiscovered singing talent this country
has to offer. This search produced four “finalists” that they
believe could be the next big thing. Ideally these four finalists
would be the top four in any other singing competition. You follow?
Now
that they have their four they are challenging viewers of the show to
come and see if they can beat the Four by out-singing or out-rapping
them on stage on TV (not live TV which I originally thought it would
be). If they can outperform any of the Four, then they get to become
part of the Four and will seemingly be in contention at the end of
this season when the Four is narrowed down to just one, you follow?
That's
the simple part. It gets a little convoluted and starts to lose me as
a viewer when they set up the way that these challenges or “battles”
between performers come about and are judged. Once you’re on the
show, which I can only assume happens by you submitting a video to
the contest, you are called to perform on a small stage in front of a
live studio audience and four judges. The judging is where the show
loses me. You have DJ Khaled, Meghan Trainor, Charlie Walk (a record
label exec), and Diddy. Now, I’ll withhold talking about the judges
for now and continue explaining the setup, but just know that the
judges are not ideal. Oh, and the show is hosted by Fergie.
So,
the judges are there because they are the ones who get to decide
whether the new singers can challenge the Four or not. They do this
by giving a simple yes or no vote that is translated into blue or red
circles. The stage lights up and the new singer stands in the middle.
The stage then forms one blue circle for each yes vote and a red
circle for a no. My problem here is that there are no ties or debates
that can affect the vote. For instance, you know how on American
Idol you always needed a majority to go to Hollywood but not
necessarily every judge? Here, it’s either all or nothing. They
either all think you’re good enough or you don’t get to
challenge. So if even one of the judges acts like a diva and doesn’t
see what three others do, then it’s over for you. Now, to me that
defeats the purpose of even having four judges. Frankly, why even
have more than one? Or any at all? I fail to see what use, other than
star power, the judges really serve here if their individual
knowledge base and experience is not wholly appreciated and the
singers fates are dictated solely by the one. It bugs me.
 |
| Fergie Is The Host, Y'all |
Once
a person makes it to the challenge round, they then can choose which
of the four performers they want to challenge that night. No, it is
not a free-for-all where you can challenge all of them and the best
person wins. You choose ONE and perform against them. Do you have to
perform the same song or at the same time as on The Voice? No.
You perform your prepared song, they do the same and then it’s in
the studio audiences’ hands. They vote and decide which of you will
go into the Four. Here, I see yet another wasted opportunity,
especially because the show is not shown live. When the audience
votes the show doesn’t give you an on-screen tabulation of who is
in the lead with the vote like you would see during a political vote.
There are no percentages that you can watch and turn to your family
to say, “Oooo, it’s close.” No. There’s a counter that says
when the full vote has come in and then the screen lights up which
person won. It’s just not dramatic enough, but I digress.
Sometimes
the person from The Four stays, sometimes they go and a new Four is
formed. Actually, a new Four is formed literally every episode thus
far. And here’s the kicker, none of the original Four are still
around, which really only makes you wonder how exhaustive this
original search was. But even worse, once you are in a challenge that
night, if you are part of the Four or become part of it, you cannot
be challenged again that night. I repeat, you CANNOT be challenged
again that night! Now, I know that there are plenty of people who are
currently shrugging and saying, “So what,” about that idea, but
think of it this way: say that they have an absolutely fire show one
night and there are about four really good people on there that get
to challenge. If there’s a fifth one that comes along, what do they
do? More importantly, what if two really good singers have to go
against each other because there is no one else left to challenge,
even though one of the people currently sitting in the Four and who
can’t be challenged would get absolutely smoked by this new
challenger if they had to go against them? Basically, you are forced
to keep weak talent while a much stronger talent gets sent home just
because. The whole time I was watching it I thought, “Hmm? Is this
really a good format?” The answer is no, not really, but it is made
even worse by a few more things.
First,
there is the audience bias. Every time we get a new one of these
singing/talent competitions the question is always: How do we make it
different enough from American Idol that it feels like our own thing,
yet similar enough for it to draw viewers like AI’s early days?
That question is always followed up closely with the “How do we do
this Live” question. Because something that American Idol did
perfectly, and that changed the entire landscape of TV, is that they
managed to fit in a Live-performance component that also allowed for
viewer interaction. You, as the couch potato you are, got to not just
watch but help to decide the fate of the talent you saw. Granted,
this was partially sullied by the whole Sanjaya debacle in which a
large group of extremist ne’er-do-wells decided to vote through
someone who clearly didn’t deserve to get as far as he did, but the
system usually worked well. And people could debate all day but
winners got chosen and were, for the most part, really good.
Here,
on The Four, however, the judges have first choice as usual, but
there is no development process here, meaning that this isn’t the
third, fourth or fifth time the judges have heard this person.
They’re experiencing these performers for the first time just as we
are. That’s nice and all but when you are sitting at home and see
these idiots choose someone to even challenge one of The Four that
clearly doesn’t deserve it, you no longer feel you can trust the
judges. For me, this show lost all credibility when Diddy not only
chose, but argued vehemently for a rapper named Illakriss to do a
challenge, even convincing the much more level-headed Charlie Walk to
change his vote in favor of this dude. He was so terrible that he
would’ve been one of the many laughed-at people that made it into
the American Idol montage from the early days. It was clear that he
was bad.
But
this bias extends to the entire in-studio audience. If American Idol
taught us one thing it is that there are not only a swath of people
in America who cannot actually sing but think they can, but that
there are also just as many equally tone-deaf people who really do
think these people can sing. I will never forget when Simon Cowell
told someone they couldn’t sing and told them to go out onto the
beach and find a handful of people who think he can sing and maybe
Simon would change his no-vote, and the dude did. Those people really
enjoyed the man's shrill singing voice. It astonished me. On The Four,
yes, the audience has been good about picking people who sound
impressive... so far. But if that Illakriss crap happens again, can
we trust the small studio audience to pick the better
singer/performer? We have no idea how homogeneous or heterogeneous
these people’s choices in music are and America, so far, gets no
say, save for those artists brave enough to come to challenge the
performers on the show. Simply put, there’s not enough TV-audience
engagement so far and there really isn’t enough of...
Drama.
Yes, that is the crux of the next point. The next most important
component of this show is the judges’ panel. I cannot stress this
enough, American Idol was successful in its early incarnation
because of four things: great singers, a jovial side that looked at
terrible singers, the ability of the audience to interact with the
show and the chemistry among the judges. Tons of shows have tried to
duplicate these lightning-in-a-bottle ingredients and many have
nearly succeeded but almost always fail on the judges’ chemistry.
AI worked so well because, for one, while they were all big
personalities, they fit each other. Paula was the biggest star
pre-show. You could tell that they knew what they were talking about
and had good experience. But here’s the kicker, you could also tell
that they weren’t trying to be anything or anyone other than who
they were. They felt authentic and because of that they also felt
like even when they offended each other, they could apologize,
forgive, and have a good laugh about it over a meal later that week.
This authenticity to both themselves, the viewers and their fellow
judges created real drama and empathy. But as soon as they started
bringing in other judges to try playing a role of “the mean one”
or “the nice one,” or tried to supplement people who knew what
they were talking about from an executive perspective with big-name,
current stars, the show started to flounder. And sink. And became
more about the judges than the talent (let's not revisit that Nicki
Minaj and Mariah Carey year). And eventually ended. Granted, they’re
coming back this spring, but so far all I'm hearing about this reboot
is that they are trying the same things that were mistakes the last
time they were on air.
The
Four skipped right past the successful years in favor of The Voice
route and went with stars. Meghan Trainor does not feel like she is
on equal footing with the guys even though she is the current
singer/star. Yes, DJ Khaled is a star, but he is still more in the
background, behind the mixing board. And some people don’t even
know that he produces music. The Walk guy is OK, but he doesn’t
seem ready for TV, at least not with this group. The worst, though,
is Diddy. I suspected this would be the case based on the adverts and
yep, it’s the case. Diddy is too big of a personality.
Yes,
Diddy. The D, the I, the D, the D, the Y, the D, the I, the D. It’s
Diddy. Every time I watch this show I am reminded of two things: the
fact that Diddy was a big enough personality to have his own reality
show in the early 2000s which, if any of you remember, literally went
into the comedy lexicon as an aughts-era-defining show. Making The
Band is still talked about to this day in certain circles and it’s
now-defunct groups each had their moments, however brief they may
have been. But oddly enough, the show was never known for its amazing
talent, but rather its over-the-top antics from its main producer,
the music mogul himself, and the drama between group members. It
showed a side of Diddy that, frankly, pissed a lot of people off.
Which
leads me to the second thing I’m reminded of every time I see this
show, an antecdote from behind the scenes of the 90s hit football
movie Any Given Sunday, starring Al Pacino as a beleaguered
NFL coach. At the time, Diddy (then known as Puff Daddy or Puffy) had
been cast in the other lead role as the rising-star football player.
It was going to be his first big foray into acting, and he was going
to make one helluva splash with such a big role, and it was supposed
to mint a new career for him. But, while still in pre-production,
Diddy apparently felt that he knew more about how the film should go
than the director, writers, and a few of the producers and was
already acting like a diva who had been nominated for multiple
Oscars. He was a star and wanted to be treated as such. But he was
far from having the kind of star-actor clout that the film’s
star-director did have. That director, Mr. Oliver Stone, after
a few weeks of pre-production and going back and forth with Diddy
came into the office with just a few weeks to go before principal
shooting started and told the producers, “I just gave myself an
early gift. I fired Puff Daddy!”
The
role would eventually go to Jamie Foxx who would use that role as
leverage to show that he could do dramatic roles different from his
comedic roots, and we know how the rest of the story goes for him.
What’s important, however, is that I, along with that particular
production crew and many other fans of the film, am convinced that
firing Diddy was the best thing they could've done. I don’t think
that movie is even half as good with him in it. You see where I’m
going with this?
Don’t
get me wrong, I actually really loved the 90s-era Diddy. But as the
years have gone on, it seems like Diddy turned from hopeful music
exec who really just wants to make good music and inspire people, to
some form of buffoonish caricature of the music industry's worst
ills. You think a music executive is an abusive ass? Guess what? You
think a music executive thinks they’re god? Guess what? You think a
music executive is spiteful and vengeful and will destroy you if you
don’t cater to their every whim? Guess what? He feels like Trump in
blackface or Harvey Weinstein without all the allegations. But worst
of all is that none of it seems genuine, which is actually kinda
depressing seeing as how New Yorkers pride themselves on being
authentic and being able to sniff out authenticity. Yet, Trump and
Diddy not only existed but thrived in that environment.
Again,
I say all of this because if Diddy felt more genuine, felt like he
wasn’t playing a role for everyone, maybe this show would work or
the overbearing nature of his personality would allow the other
judges to breathe. But as it is, the other judges almost seem too
timid around him to even share their real critiques of the artists.
Again, going back to Illakriss, the dude’s two chosen songs were so
whack that it’s amazing he even got on the show. And you can’t
tell me that the other three judges, being in the industry for some
years now, didn’t all want to give this young man a
Sandman-at-the-Apollo/Beyonce’s-To-The-Left boot in the butt upon
hearing him the first time. But they all gave him a chance under the
instruction of Diddy. Yet, they didn’t give a chance to some other
artists that actually could sing or rap but maybe didn’t have the
stage presence that could be worked on. At least give them the chance
to challenge if you’re doing it for weak talent. Granted, Diddy did
apologize and say that in hindsight it was probably a bad idea to go
with Illakriss, and I respect him for that, but the fact that it
seems like they’ll be too afraid to actually make a firm stance and
vote their conscience tells me that this show will never survive with
Diddy on the panel. Worst of all, Meghan and Walk feel like his
underlings, leaving DJ Khaled as the only one who is even close to
Diddy’s equal. And I love Khaled, but he is far from assertive in
this forum. I think he still wants to be liked too much for him to be
effective as a judge in the spotlight. And that’s OK for him, but
it won’t work for the show.
Honestly,
I think that if the producers want this show to succeed, then the
best thing for them would be to follow Oliver Stone’s example and
have Diddy step down. Limit it to just the remaining three judges,
get rid of the all-or-nothing judge vote, but keep the yay or nay
circles so that people who do get one red circle know what the judge
will be looking for going forward. Do this all live and incorporate
an at-home voting component somehow. That may be having to have the
contestants fly out a second time the next week to see if audiences
thought they should be part of the new four or not. Something to get
people more involved.
I
don’t know what the ratings on this show are, maybe they’re
actually really good, and they don’t need to make a single change.
But from my perspective, this show will hardly last the tough
competition that’s out there. I give this show a C-.
I’d tell you to watch if you want to, but there are simply too many
other good music competitions coming down the pike. The Four: Battle
for Stardom airs on FOX Thursdays at 8/9c pm (two hour show). Catch
it on FOXonDemand or Fox.com
What
do you think? Have you heard of The Four? If not, do you think you’ll
tune in for an episode? If you have heard of it, have you seen it? Do
you like it? Was I too hard on it? Who has been your favorite
contestant so far and why? The judges and audience keep going for
Zhavia but I’m just not hearing it. Her look is different but her
voice just seems OK to me. Let me know what you think in the comments
below.
Until next time, “Some stars are
meant to burn bright and fast. Others shoot, staying but for a eye's
brief flicker.”
P.S.
Ooo, that's good. I like it. But is it the right quote for all post?
Hmm? Two and a half years of blogging and I've finally written a
quote I might like as my sign-off. I'll have to consider this more
thoroughly. Until then, I'll come up with a better sign-off next
time.
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