March 20, 2007: It's Not Fair!
Thanks to a 76ers game preempting this week's episode, let's jump right into this one. (Maybe next week it might air at the normal time.)
Sisely seems to think that nothing's fair anymore. She doesn't get enough sleep, the coaches put too much pressure on her, her left cheek is not hanging out from her shorts enough (OK, so I made that last one up). Really though, that might not be far from the truth, as it seems like any random thing that doesn't go her way isn't fair. So let's start a list of things I don't think are fair:
1. Half the episode was dedicated to Sisely.
2. The first 30 minutes were almost like I was seeing last week over again.
3. They sent the wrong girl home.
4. McGrathbot.
I have to admit that I was far less entertained by this episode than the last. I think it's simply because I didn't know what to expect last time. This week, I knew the format and, man, did they stick right to it. They really don't have to shoot much footage of this show. Save some money, shoot about a dozen shots of the girls dancing and another dozen of them around the piano with the vocal coach and, viola! Twelve episodes in the can. Just overdub different tunes every week. So what if their mouths don't match the lyrics? I mean, it's not like the Dolls actually sing on stage, right? Right?
Really, this only needs to be a 30-minute show. If every week I'm going to have to hear the same whining Sisely and the same "she's not a dancer" speeches, then it's not worth the time. The exciting parts of this show are the challenges and the performances, of course. One of my challenges, though, is still trying to really figure out what the judges are looking for. Are they really looking for a singer? Or a dancer with a decent voice? Or just a look? I can't really tell right now, and that bugs me a bit.
The challenge baffled me a bit, too. I thought Mariella sucked singing the chorus of "Don't Cha," but Ron Fair loved it. My ears heard dying animals, Ron's heard excellence. So I guess I can cross off
record producer from my list of things I might want to become one day. The one thing I definitely know about that challenge is that I never want to hear Ron sing "Don't Cha" again.
Now as far as the peformances go, again I think the song choice really was quite odd. Both "Heartbreaker" and "Free Your Mind" are great songs, but I'd really like to compare the girls singing at least the same type of song if not the actual same song.
I completely understand that they are performing as a group, but these girls are really going way too far to help out Chelsea. Chelsea may not be trained, but she brings it each week. Sisely was complaining how little time she had to rehearse, and yet all she was doing was running frantically and screaming like a banshee, trying to show Chelsea what to do. Hello??? Two eliminations now where Chelsea has gotten praise from the judges. So why do these girls still worry that she can't do it?
The En Vogue group was good. Last week, Melissa S. could have used that free pass, but she didn't need it this time around. I thought she was the best of the crew. But Asia was poor again. She better step it up, or my early favorite could soon see an exit.
I didn't think the girls doing Pat Benatar were that bad as a whole, but I guess I'm only seeing a snippet of the performance on my screen. Sisely was terrible, though. She was completely offbeat and looked like Lil' Kim loaned her some plastic. Melissa R. knew she sang poorly but still wasn't as bad as Sisely. I liked both Jamie and Chelsea, so when Jamie was sent packing it was a bit of a shock to me. She wasn't going to win it with her confidence problem, but it should have been Sisely's turn this week. And Chelsea's really working her way up the pack now, though she looked
much better before the makeover.
Before I leave you to ponder and comment, I just have to ask - who replaced the real
Mark McGrath with the McGrathbot? He's supposedly an entertainer, yet those are some of the stiffest cue-card reads I've heard in a while. And was that Tuesday's white T-shirt he was wearing, or Monday's? What? That was his dress white tee? Who knew!
Until next week, friends.
