fluffysheap

Swell, two weeks in a row I had a new favorite and two weeks in a row they went home. But that is not unusual really. Also, I'm a Cubs fan.

Hated this episode. God, the music! I usually only notice music when it stands out, either for good or bad. It was so obnoxious in this episode I ended up watching it on mute with the closed captioning. There was this constant low frequency droning-thumping through the entire episode that just was intolerable. Sure, once in a while you might want to underline a dangerous or ominous situation but this was like having a boom car parked outside.

At first, I thought Veronica Mars crossed with Tru Calling, but I don't really see that much Tru Calling in it. Aside from the morgue setting, there's not that much that seems the same to me. Then there's Dollhouse. But the themes and structure of Dollhouse are very different. Just the bit about absorbing personality is shared, but even that is done differently. In Dollhouse, Echo's ability to slowly regain her original memories and personality is key to the show, whereas here it is taken for granted and not really much of a focus (although Rose McIver plays it very well). The one that keeps coming to mind is Dead Like Me. Thematically, it's very similar. You have someone who wasn't really alive when she was alive, and only learns to engage the world after she's forced to be apart from it. And she's forced to cut off, more or less, everyone in her old life. It's not as stark as it was in Dead Like Me, where George was not allowed to have any contact with her old life at all, but here Liv is totally alienated from them, which is probably a little better overall. Being completely cut off was pretty awkward because George's mother and sister had all these scenes where they just could never interact with the main character at all. Here we don't have to prance around the contrivances, they can just be in the same room and not understand each other. The Liv all her friends and family knew is just as dead as George was. And also like Dead Like Me, Liv's unlife lessons come when she's forced to see things through the perspective of whichever dead person she's responsible for in that episode. Also, Bryan Fuller, who was the showrunner for Dead Like Me, went on to do Hannibal, who has no doubt eaten the occasional brain. And, of course, there's the whole Not!Seattle thing, although it is done better here. The settings in Dead Like Me did not, in any way, shape, or form, resemble Seattle. Here, if you don't look too closely, you can sort of buy it. The shipping dock looks almost right, and the overpass over the skate park kinda almost looks like the monorail, and the downtown architecture is not too far off. They seem to go back and forth between using real street names and bogus ones.

Am I the only one that has thought that they really should try to bring in Jim Gaffigan for an episode? Whether as a zombie, or just a guy who gets mistaken for one, either would do.

Top 8, in which everyone takes a slow song and sings it too slowly. Except Hannah, who is still stuck in the 80's. Not their best week! Last week's performances were much better, and now I'm even MORE glad that this year it goes 8-6 and not 8-5 like before. It only bothers me when it messes up the song somehow. Like, last season when Anita gender-switched "Rude," I hated that because it made the song completely nonsensical. "Something" is not gender-specific so it doesn't bother me much. "Creep" is different from both, frankly I think the song is problematic for any female singer who isn't Haley. Even there, I probably wouldn't like it if she were somehow a contestant doing that song today, because when she changed the style of the song it was kind of a bold move whereas now everybody does it. I'm not sure if I've heard anyone actually do it in the original style since then. Note to contestants! Copying a new idea from ten years ago is not the same as an actual new idea! The contestants seem to be much closer together in ability than usual this season. The only one I really hate is Corey, and all he's guilty of is excessive blandness (really, really excessive blandness). Usually at this stage there are about three people who I really want to be rid of yesterday. I'm picturing the coaching session here. Christina says, "You know how Rob just got sent home for singing a whole bunch of random notes instead of the actual song? You should do that." Between Kimberly, Meghan, and Koryn, you've got three belters who all happen to have different musical genres but a similar singing style. Of the three I prefer Koryn, then Meghan, then Kimberly, but I think at this stage of the competition they are redundant and it's probably time to send one of them home. That said, I think the quality of their performances this week is basically the reverse order of how much I like them. My rankings: 8) Corey. More or less a permanent fixture on the bottom of my list at this point, he is just so incredibly boring. Apparently, the only thing you need to do to a rock ballad to make it country is to add a steel guitar. And slow it down, which is the theme for today. How far will the bland guy/devoted fanbase strategy go? Hopefully no more than one more week because all the chaff is gone now. Somebody on youtube has a whole steel guitar songs playlist, which I will listen to while writing the rest of this post, even though I sometimes go back and listen to the performances again. Electric steel guitars don't sound as good as acoustic ones. 7) Koryn. Sad to put her this low, but it's not her week. Although she didn't blunder, exactly, she slowed the song down too much and then oversang it. And not a song that's easy to oversing, either. If ever you wanted to see a demonstration of a song performed to perfection that is nonetheless not good music, this is how to do it. It's like the Hubble mirror of music. 6) Joshua. Too slow and too many notes, what is going on this week? Joshua's past his sell-by date. 5) Sawyer. All his songs are starting to sound the same, and sooner or later people will catch on that he just doesn't have any range at all. I mean, sure, he's got a surprising amount of dynamics for a guy in his style, but I wonder if he even has one octave. It doesn't matter, he's probably going to the finals anyway. 4) India. Same problems as everybody else. Must be some bad burritos in the food this week, everybody has a case of the runs. Also, too slow and oversung, geez. Still, pitch-perfect as usual, and apparently this is a song that is meaningful to her. So, if this is what she does when she has a song she really loves, I guess she's just kind of a robot. Tessanne overcame that by mixing up styles and showing more personality as time went on. Can India do that? Signs point to no. 3) Meghan. As usual with her, I didn't like it all that much, but lots of other people were worse. I am just sort of belter-averse, I think. At least she stayed true to the song and didn't go bananas, but I do think this week showed a little bit of how she lacks dynamism. She's got one setting, 100%. At least she's not a fire alarm and her voice has enough natural texture that it kind of makes up for it, but I would like to see her do a song with a soft part AND a loud part. Especially if that song already has a soft part in it, cough cough. 2) Kimberly. Usually with her I'm just sort of grudgingly admitting that she's pretty decent, but this week it's a little less grudging. Everything else is up above. 1) Hannah! Looking hot this week (and not just compared to her early look) and probably the only performance of the night I genuinely enjoyed. I think most impressive about this song is that she sang it the same way Tina does, even though their voices are actually pretty different. You can tell the difference in the second chorus, she's starting to get a little tired, I think, and doesn't do the rasping any more, but she still nails all the big notes. This is really a fantastic performance. Copying someone else's style when they're naturally different is just as impressive as redoing a different song in your own style. Hannah has quietly gone from "awkward filler" to "probably my favorite." I think the problem is that originally I pegged her as the Quirky Girl when actually she's the Rock Chick. Naturally, she'll get sent home. All of her songs have been pretty old, and I am OK with that. Maybe next week something from Blondie, maybe "Call Me" or "Hanging on the Telephone" would be good. Who should go home: Corey and Joshua (Koryn would crush those guys in the Twitter sing-off) Who I expect to go home: Hannah and Joshua

Yes, exactly. I'm sad she's gone, because I liked her (not the same as thinking she was the best) but I wish she had enjoyed the experience more. I don't disagree that it was her turn to go home. It's just that her voice is so much better than her results. And, style-wise, I thought she was gorgeous. The prettiest female contestant in the top 12 and it isn't close. She's thinner than all the remaining female contestants except Kimberly and India, and Kimberly looks like an alien cancer patient. The outfit looked fine. I think because she's so tall, whenever she wears anything striking, it makes her look big (because she is big, not the same as fat) and this is just a little outside of expectations. I assume she spent all of junior high towering over everybody and is still a little bit getting used to herself. Yeah, Josh isn't good enough to get past next week. He actually has kind of the same problems as Deanna, his voice is good and better yet it doesn't sound just like everybody else, but his performances always seem to come up short. So, just how much of an advantage is going last in the Twitter save? If he gets the Twitter save next week (barring some sort of extraordinary performance) we'll know going last is basically an unsurmountable edge. Which is, it's safe to say, quite bad for the competition. The funny thing about this is that it isn't what I'd expect. Because a lot of the people voting in the Twitter save, because of the stupid time zone thing, haven't seen the performances at all and are just naturally not going to be influenced by the order of them. So why does it seem to be such a big deal? It doesn't make sense. I hate the 8-to-5 cutdown. It's basically a foregone conclusion that the top four will be Meghan, Sawyer, Kimberly, and if it's Corey I will kill myself I mean probably India. So the actual main show hardly means anything. The only meaningful singing next week is the Twitter save. It's going to be absolute crap for Koryn and Hannah to both be in the bottom of the top 8. (Or Hannah and India, or whatever, the point is they are all too good to be eliminated at top 8). The show really needs to fix this. Take two weeks out of the battles and knockouts and add them to the elimination bracket so it can go 8-6, 6-4, 4-3. Actually if it were up to me I'd take three weeks out of the preliminary rounds and have every week from top 6 on be a single elimination. Even going 12-9, 9-7, 7-5 would be better than what we have now, where the fifth semifinalist basically gets drawn out of Sawyer's hat. The thing about this season is that it's starting to seem like Meghan and the Seven Dwarves. If I described the Top 8, other than Meghan, as Spazzy, Snoozy, Shouty, Warbly, Preachy, Hairy, and Rob Schneider, would anybody have trouble knowing which one was which? Which is funny, because Meghan isn't really my favorite, I like India and Koryn better, but I can't point to anything about her and say, hey, that sucks, send her home.

The twitter save makes a shock elimination all but impossible. There would need to be basically a whole shock bottom three. This is a big part of why the wildcard is absolutely, totally unnecessary. I'm not sure this season had a frontrunner fall apart like say Matthew in S5, but I think the falling apart story this season is Pharrell having the strongest team at the live playoffs and then getting wiped out with two weeks to go. This would mean two or three contestants getting bussed every week. No thanks. Best case, this season that would mean Anita/Ryan and Luke/Danica instead of Chris and Damien. I don't think that's an improvement. In S5, it would have meant Caroline or maybe even Kat instead of Will or Tessanne, which would have really not been an improvement. It's about the contestants, not the coaches, and who cares if they're bored? They get paid just the same and it's not as if a bored coach can't deliver the same mind-numbing pap comments. It also would mean four finalists, which is way too many finalists. The simplistic "first past the post" style of voting used by reality shows (and American politics) works poorly when you need to pick one winner out of a large group of candidates, which is why we have a two-party system in the US. The more candidates, the less meaningful the first-place result. This is OK up until the finale, because you can look at the entire series of rounds as an elimination runoff system; the fact that The Voice likes to eliminate huge chunks of candidates such as in the top 8 round is one of the problems with the show's format as it distorts the effectiveness of the elimination-runoff system. Anyway, with four candidates and the voting system used, you may as well just pick one at random. Narrowing to two candidates on the other hand means you can get crap finale situations like AI season 10, or more generally, having a problem where you don't have enough musical styles represented in the finale. So three is the right number. It's another reason the wildcard sucks.

Super happy - and completely shocked - that Damien won the wildcard. Not just because he's talented, but because he may have been the 4th place contestant anyway, which makes the wildcard just as pointless as it could possibly be. I've kind of been assuming that T3N was/would have been the 4th place in votes, but that's mostly because he has a better image - Damien's the better singer, certainly. The wildcard blows up on the producers and the guy with the best voice ends up going through. Couldn't ask for much more than that, except for me not ranking him as "no chance" at the start of the thread :) Now, whether Damien can actually win, I'm not so sure. I think it's between Craig and Matt. But that's why they sing the songs. I will probably be pulling for Chris, actually. Damien seems like a good guy, but for maximum wildcard blowuppage, he unfortunately really shouldn't win.

I haven't watched the coaches' comments since the battles, except occasionally by accident, but I feel pretty confident that the answer is no. The cost factor is a really great insight. But I'd be happy to have the whole top 12 come back for say... six or eight duet performances rather than something that supposedly counts. It gets the contestants more exposure, which I'm sure they'd love to have, and works as a retrospective. And they wouldn't have to have SUCH a rushed pace for the show. Agreed on Wentworth Miller, mentioned it the other day. On the topic of the actual show... almost everybody stunk! That's kinda the best-case scenario for my hope that the producers don't bring this stupid idea back again. In reverse order of how much I liked them... Ryan was not interesting enough to me to pay attention to the performance. I watched it, but don't remember it, couldn't even tell you what he sang. Nothing against the guy, but he had no chance and he's not as interesting musically to me as some of the others. Anita was all over the map. This is exactly why I disliked Anita in the early going. She's singing all right, but I can't figure out where the notes are coming from. This is kind of a general reggae allergy with me, but I think this was excessive. She doesn't deserve to get to the finals, but if she somehow does, I hope she wins (because it would stick a thumb in the producers' eyes if she did.) Jessie was pretty much just being Jessie. Song was a perfect choice since it has the same trills in the original that she likes to do, but she missed some notes and didn't supply enough power when it was needed. Glad to see her again, but I don't want her in the finals either. DaNica didn't live up to her potential. Her breathing was impeccable as usual, but her pitch was off (sharp, I think, which is unusual) and she actually seemed to run out of range in the low end. Someone whose strength is technical skills can't afford to have problems like this. Reagan might still be hurting. Let me ask America... is she better off than she was four weeks ago? Her performance was long on style and breathing and short on ... song. Overall though, I liked it - not really enough to want to bring her back though. Glad to see her again, but I don't want her in the finals. T3N had to keep being himself, messing around with the melody since he couldn't mess around with the style as it was already in his style. The trouble with fiddling with the melody is nobody can tell what's supposed to be happening. It's tough to get the benefit of the doubt. I'm still rooting for him, strategically speaking. Damien was pretty much just being Damien. Nothing really wrong with the performance... but it wasn't moving, and it needed to be. Maybe 90 seconds isn't enough time, or maybe he's just all cried out. He should have done this song last week, or three weeks ago, or whatever, when he could have had more time. This song is not exactly a rocking dance number, but it's about as uptempo as Damien gets, and doing this song earlier in the show might have shaken off some of that cloud of gloom that's been surrounding him. Sugar actually was pretty good, and that's upsetting, because she annoys me and if she gets in it'll just encourage the producers to do this again next year. Still, I actually did enjoy this song. Solid choice for her, and although I was distracted by how purple her hair was, I found little fault. No, she's not tortured enough to be Amy Winehouse, but she does kind of look like her, and I never felt like she didn't get it. Kept his... lips... wet. Ok. Well, network TV, I guess. The only complaint I would have is that she was a little shrill, but not in the way that the original was, but shrill from being at full power too long. But accurate. Luke did the best IMO. Adam complained that he seemed lost, but I really just didn't see it. I went and rewatched to see if he made one of his trademark blunders but I just didn't see it. Unlike most of the contestants, he managed to actually perform the song instead of yelling it. It's a loud-in-the-middle song and although there wasn't time to go through the whole progression, he did the build up part well - considering only 90 seconds to do it in. I thought it was actually pretty good, and I liked the song choice as a way of asking for another chance. That's not what the song is about, of course, but it seems like it is if you only listen to the hook. Might be good enough. Even though Luke was the best tonight, I'm still hoping for T3N or, as a long shot, Damien, since they are the only ones that actually deserve it. One 90-second song should not undo four weeks of (what passes for) full-length songs.

Option 1. Send Adam away, move Gwen over to that chair (their music is different, but not THAT different), bring back Xtina. Pharrell or Usher interchangeable. Option 2. Send Blake away, bring in Reba, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, or Martina McBride. Reba's probably too old, Shania is actually pretty busy still, but she might do it. I'd love to see Martina McBride, I think she'd be great. I wasn't real impressed with Miranda as a guest mentor, so although she'd probably do it, I am not sure I'd want her. Option 2+. Also send Adam away and get Ryan Tedder or Chris Martin. Option 3. Send Pharrell away, bring in Alicia Keys or Jill Scott, who were both good as guest mentors. Option 4. Send Adam away and bring in Pink (if she'll do it) or Alanis (great idea!). Pink would bring very, very much-needed honesty to the proceedings. If somebody sucks, she'll let them have it. Alanis is Canadian, but apparently the Canadian version of the show is French, so maybe she'd do the American version. Option 4+. Also send Blake away and get, who knows, let's say Brad Paisley or Tim McGraw but there are so many guys in this genre, it's really just whoever would do it and fit in. I'd love to see Garth Brooks, though he's a bit older. Brad Paisley I think would be more clued in when it comes to the non-country world, which is sort of a handicap for Blake. Option 5. Bring in a country-but-really-pop artist like Shania or Jewel and let them replace Adam, so there would be two country-flavored coaches. Shakira's super fun, good performer, and obviously really smart, smarter I think than anybody else in the coach's chairs, but she doesn't seem to really "get" it in the strategy department. She usually figures out the best thing to do, and then does the opposite. Taylor Swift and Katy Perry are way, way too hot right now to accept a coaching gig. You might as well ask for Madonna in 1988, or Jewel in 1997. The Voice might not still be around in 7-10 years, but I wager there will be some sort of singing competition still on the air, and that's when they'll be at a stage of their career when they'd consider it. I love Lady Gaga, but she's way too weird to be a coach. Madonna would be great, but I doubt she'd do it, and would cost a fortune. She's also a little old, the coaches are usually 30s-40s, and Madonna's pushing 60.

I think When I Was Your Man is just a better song. Lots of people really love it, but it's more of a blank canvas song that's easy to put your own stamp on, unlike, for example, I Still Haven't Found... where you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. I'm a little curious about what was really going on with the arrangement of Sugar. Adam's voice is so high that it might not be a falsetto song for him, and if they transposed it for Chris's throat voice range, it might have sounded wrong. I haven't heard Adam's version, so I can't say. I try not to count the popularity of a song for or against the singer (except in extraordinary cases like T3N and Blank Space) and I just thought Chris performed it well. Also, I thought the Robert Palmer girls were amusing, perhaps not entirely appropriate, but not annoying. Part of every coach's job is to get the most votes possible for their contestants within the rules. Pandering might help you win, but that doesn't make it not pandering. In this specific case, I think it probably wasn't actually intended as pandering, but it still kinda looks like it, and in a popularity contest, perception is as good as truth. But even if it was, I wouldn't count it against Blake, since Craig picked the song.

Some speculation on the wildcard results. I think it's a foregone conclusion that T3N and Damien will be "eliminated" and, essentially, get to do a Twitter save against nine contestants instead of just each other. I don't understand how the wildcard voting works. Is it a Twitter save, or is it a regular vote, where the results aren't known for a whole week? Both are pretty awful (the whole wildcard thing is a trainwreck, honestly). If it's a Twitter save, then it's just as bad as the regular Twitter save, except worse because most of the voters won't have heard most of the singers in weeks. If it's a regular vote, then it's kind of goofy to not know who's going to be performing the following week. So, so dumb. One interesting quirk is that this vote, with so many contestants, will work more like an early-season vote. Having a small but devoted fanbase could be enough as the vote will be split so many ways. If there was a polarizing contestant like, say, S5 Kat or S6 Cole, that contestant would probably have a huge edge in this type of vote. But this season has been pretty bland overall. Reagan is the only contestant who seems like she might have that sort of following. Anyway, handicapping the contestants. No Chance: Ryan, Sugar, Jessie, Damien. Ryan is just not that good, and Sugar and Jessie are OK, but not really good enough compared to who else is available. I'm looking forward to seeing Jessie perform again, but realistically, is she going to beat Matt or Craig in the finale? No. Damien is a good technical singer and seems like an all-around good guy, but he's sort of boring and I think most voters would rather go for someone a little more exciting. Interesting Possibilities: Reagan, DaNica, Luke. All of these are otherwise strong contestants who managed to put themselves out. Reagan broke down, Luke got the yips, and DaNica picked bad songs and sort of had a bad day in the toughest week of the whole competition. If Reagan's healthy again, she's the most interesting, but DaNica is the best technical singer in the whole contest - and I think there might be a tendency to go for a female singer given the sausage party of the top five. I'm over Luke, but he was good early on, and might recapture that early magic. Likely Contenders: Taylor Three Names, Anita. I'm really, really rooting for T3N here. Not because I think he can/should win it all (I don't), or even because I want to see him perform again (though I do), but because it makes the maximum mockery of this bleeding abortion they call the wildcard save. They go through all the trouble of prepping seven extra contestants, most of whom are clearly undeserving, make a big deal about the wildcard, make the voting so baffling that neither the audience nor the contestants can understand it, and then - poof - the winner of all that mess is the guy who probably would have been fourth anyway. Perfect. But if you want a contestant who might actually stand a chance to win it all, then why not Anita? Wouldn't it be awesome if the wildcard save takes the win away from charismatic, marketable Craig or Chris and gives it to a wonderful person but very unmarketable reggae singer? Nelson Muntz, get your ha-ha ready. What would be fun: If the whole top 20 was eligible. I think Elyjuh, Bryana, Jean, and maybe James could really do something with another shot.

Apparently Matt, Craig, and Chris all have the iTunes bonus this week, making the eliminations a foregone conclusion unless T3N or Damien also earns the bonus (seems unlikely). I agree with those results. Performance comments, in order I liked them... I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For is a great example of the dangers of doing a song that everybody knows. You'll be compared to the original, and you'll either be marked down for sounding like the original but not exactly the same, or else for doing something that doesn't sound like the original. This one clearly copied the original - as close a copy as I've seen on this show - and I have to admit there were a couple of places where the performance didn't quite live up to the original. But remembering that that's a studio version and this is live, and that was Bono at his peak, I think this performance is the standout of the night. If he'd done exactly the same performance but the song was lesser-known, I think everybody would be raving. I think the competition is Matt's to lose. I'm just waiting to see what he does next week. [edit: I haven't seen U2 live, but pivot is right - the original does have more of a buildup, instead of being full throttle all the way. I probably ought to take points off for that. I still think it was the best performance of the night, though.] Sugar really surprised me. I've always thought of Matt has having the best falsetto, but Chris really brought it. He's certainly peaking at the right time. I don't understand how, but all of a sudden, he's gone from just sorta hanging around to being a finalist. It's just a question of whether people will forget his forgettable performances earlier in the season and focus on what he's doing now. And I have the sneaking suspicion that I'm going to like this version of the song more than Maroon 5's when I eventually hear that. Speaking of, it's a bold move from Adam to let Chris do their next single before they release it. I'm not sure if it's dumb or brilliant but it's probably one of those. I am not sure why they brought out the Robert Palmer girls though. Odd stylistic choice - this is not a particularly Robert Palmer sounding song, or even a particularly 80's sounding song. I do agree that Chris's natural personality and Adam's vision of what he should be don't exactly line up, but Adam's the guy who won the sexiest man alive, so I gotta go with Adam's judgment on how to build a pop star persona. Dude looks like Wentworth Miller, so he ought to be a sex symbol. Not wanting to be is just going to make it more endearing. She's Out Of My Life was a flawless performance. But much like Damien's pattern over the season, a flawless performance doesn't equal a standout performance. Even though Matt and Chris both had some imperfections, both of their songs were more difficult. Damien's not phoning it in - he's actually doing great - but his songs are just not getting to that next level. I Don't Want to Wait was interesting. I liked it better than the Paula Cole original as well - I think it's better from a male singer, and actually I thought Paula Cole lost some of the meaning of the song in the original anyway. Damien's performance lacked some of the musical range of the original, but this is an all-emotion song and that's Damien's strength. I wish he had used the full musical range of the original, though. This could have been a breakout performance. I'm not going to hold it against him that this was the Dawson's Creek theme. That's irrelevant to me, as the song was not written as a theme song and got plenty of airplay in its own right (for a few months anyway). Workin' Man Blues was a fun take on the song - I don't agree with Blake that it was totally different from what came before, as this was a pretty rocking country song already 45 years ago, when rock & pop crossovers didn't happen every day. So it was more just slightly updated than totally redone. But I liked it. I guess this is the week when Craig covers the bases in country subgenres he doesn't usually do. Still, it was well done and he didn't screw up. Huh, I am feeling like Craig somewhat turned into James David Carter this week, except the stage still loves him. I guess I'm hoping for something a little more innovative next week. Blank Space is rated a little more highly here than it deserves, as the next two actual performances were better. But I mark it up just for being the most Taylor thing ever - to do a #1 song right after Taylor Swift came in and did the original. And it's a song that doesn't make any sense for T3N, or really anybody but Taylor Swift, to do. Hugely ballsy move and I love it. It's just that the performance itself... well... I knew it would leave me breathless or leave a nasty scar. The good news is, there's a blank space in the finale, and I bet quite a few people will be writing in his name. I am starting to think that T3N is kind of like S5's Nic but with better taste, and I'm not really internally comparing him to Will Champlin any more. Make it Rain was new to me, but a great song for Matt, being well within his range and yet very different from the U2 song. It showed off the other end of Matt's skills, the more subtle side, with just enough frills to remind that Matt can really sing but mostly being a good moment. Good choice in a two-song week. This is the sort of stuff Damien should have been doing all along. Actually, maybe Damien should have done this exact song. The Old Rugged Cross gets marked down a bit for seeming like pandering, but since nobody did Hallelujah this year, I guess somebody had to do this instead. The performance of course was good. In a week when you get two songs, you might as well do one like this, in genre, but far from the usual style. But I don't have that much to say about the performance itself, just.... it was good. Nothing stood out. He did the song the way I expect it to be done and didn't screw up. Good. Ok then! When I Was Your Man is the other song Damien should have done. Agree with burntheflaws - this is a non-flashy song that should have technical perfection and lots of sentiment, which makes it the perfect Damien song. Chris didn't really nail this one, although it was still decent. I think Chris put more effort into Sugar this week and this song felt like more of an afterthought. Falling Slowly was the fail of the week. T3N's voice was way off kilter here. His falsetto notes were flat as a pancake and he was underpowered in the regular registers. He sounded better (though still not really good) in Blank Space, so he probably isn't sick or whatever - he just didn't perform this song well. And it seemed to lack his trademark sense of whimsy. I think he is just tired out, and prepping two songs this week can't help.

Hee! Power ranklings. I'm not too rankled, though, I pretty much agree, although Damien could surprise as he's the best remaining technical singer. Chris killed it in the save performances. Definitely the best of the four, when I expected Danica would blow everybody else away. Her song was too belty and didn't really show off her strengths, but I'm not sure you could pack enough variety into 40 seconds to do that. Luke blew it again, and Ryan never had a chance. I apparently missed the kiss, but that would... actually not surprise me at all. I wonder if it surprised Ryan. Hated Grimmie's performance. It's funny, because I was one of her YouTube followers (still am, but don't pay attention) but did not like her performances on the show and like her much less now than I did before - plus the producers and Adam's blatant favoritism left me feeling pretty sour as I was a Kat fancier. Was not familiar with RaeLynn due to not watching that season, but I have heard the song, just never knew who it was by. "All About That Bass" seems to come up if you search so somebody has apparently been making that comparison, but it reminds me much more of a country version of Meredith Brooks' "Bitch." I think the song is OK - not great - but I can see why RaeLynn did not advance that far on the voice as her style might be annoying in the way that Jessie's seems to annoy some people and she doesn't really seem to have a ton of range. For whatever it's worth, I liked the live version better than the radio version, which I think is a bit overproduced.

Finally caught up, out of town for this episode and last week. So, Gwen & Pharrell. I actually thought this was pretty much the most Gwen thing ever. I don't think the OMG-LOL is any more ridiculous than the whole bananas thing in Hollaback Girl, and the cloud thing, well. Does anybody remember that commercial from a couple years ago when she first launched her fashion line for tweens, and they found a 13-year-old Gwen lookalike to star in it and she floated around on a cloud? I guess I am too much of a Gwen fan, heh. Anyway I think this is really not excessively weird for Gwen and Pharrell has always been goofy. The two things that I was thinking during the performance were, well, this is entertaining, I am amused, but also, I hope this song doesn't become a hit, because I think I am only going to be entertained by it once. Plus, I loved how the seatbelt holding Gwen on the cloud blended in perfectly with her cloud outfit. Disclaimer: I don't take acid, but I do watch Adventure Time, which is pretty much the same thing. My rating of performance quality by the actual contestants... Liked Damien's song choice and glad it wasn't some bland 50 year old elevator music song for a change. I've kinda been rooting against Damien for a while now because of this. I have to say that I never thought Adele songs would work for male singers but between this and last year's winning performance I have had to change my mind. You do have to rearrange them a bit but it actually works pretty well. He deserves to advance, but this is my least favorite week of the season every year because of the elimination bloodbath. Have not heard The Blower's Daughter, and I thought Matt's performance was good. Matt's been coached very well by Adam. The song choices have clearly defined his range, matched up well with his skills, yet without ever being too predictable. Basically, I would consider him the likely candidate to win at this point. Chris is another guy who is well coached by Adam. This is one of Adam's high-risk, high-reward songs and it worked out. Chris is not the most talented singer in the competition, but he does have a lot of charisma so might as well give him a song that relies on that rather than total singing talent in this, the toughest week of the competition. And it paid off. All three of Adam's song choices were A-1 this week. T3N - The Cat in the Hat - this guy is just so weird. I don't know whether to like him or not. On the one hand, he's nothing if not interesting. Never know what he's going to do from one week to the next. But this show isn't called The Quirky Creative Song Arranger. It's called The Voice. He does little with his voice. He's always solid, but his singing is really just not special in any way. Will Champlin pushed himself in his performances, but for a guy whose stylings are so out-of-the-box, his singing is very much in the box. He's an interesting musician, but I'm going to have to declare myself Not A Fan. Despite that, as always, the music was interesting and I'm glad I heard it. Danica was a bit of a letdown this week. The staging was really weird with her being rooted in place with that enormous dress train. I guess it snaps on since she was able to take it off and get down. I wonder how they got her up there? Maybe she floated up on Gwen's cloud. Anyway, it's all been said; Danica didn't perform this song well. She did need to do something out of the diva genre and this was pretty close, but after last year saying that nobody should ever do Pat Benatar, I think I probably would have recommended "We Belong" for her - she has the range for it, I think, and it's a song from a rock singer that doesn't actually rock all that much, which would have given her the out-of-genre credit she desperately needs without setting her up to fail. I'm sad to lose her, but there's no room to misstep in the round of 8. Luke has kinda lost me by this point. I don't think this week's performance was bad, exactly, just that it was more of the same from the guy with the soulful voice but not a lot of actual soul. I don't know about the mistakes; I have to admit I did not pay very close attention to this song as the dog distracted me and I did not bother to rewind and watch again. CWB also was a letdown, but he squeaked by; I'm not really upset by him being picked over Luke and Danica, as he probably has more overall winner potential. I don't know if he botched the lyrics or if they intentionally rearranged them but it counts against him either way. And this is the first time I've ever heard a song where they take the banjo out and yet the song sounds more country than the original. The Eagles are an interesting choice; in Craig's wheelhouse but not actually a good fit for a solo singer due to how much the original depends on the band's harmonies. If I hadn't been distracted by the lyrics changes I might have appreciated it more. Ryan was only still around by virtue of everyone else bungling their Twitter save performances. Time to go home, but he seems like an OK guy who I don't hate. Good luck to him.

From the recap: When Taylor Swift is involved, I think being immortalized in song is pretty much exactly what you don't want. I'd rate Reagan and Danica higher, and Craig and T3N a little lower. It's interesting just how similar what people say about Danica now, compared to what they said about Tessanne at this point in S5. Not connecting with the songs, not connecting with the audience, frumpy style, lack of originality, but what a great voice. And the next thing you knew, Tessanne was up there getting her victory song cut off by the credits. But Tessanne had the reggae style up her sleeve. Danica may not have anything like that. Maybe Danica is secretly a screaming rocker. Or, you know, maybe not. If Reagan was really sick this week, then next week I expect a return to form. If not, then her time may be up soon. I'm also wondering if she's one of those singers where the genre she wants to do is not the genre she's actually good at, which would be bad news unless Blake works a miracle.

It's a better name, anyway. Why change it when your original name is just fine? blah. They have it in their pocket. Last season when Kat got the Twitter save every week, she basically had to prepare two new songs each week. And I agree that his last chance song was much better than his actual song, the performance, song choice, and arrangement all. It's a reality show, so people pretty much just vote for whoever they want to. I mean, lots of people vote for the actual president of the country based on who they think looks the best, so for something like this, that doesn't really even matter... why not, right? I usually end up having three favorites. First, somebody who I just personally like, even if they aren't the best; this is usually the Breezy-Voiced Waif if there is one, and this year is no exception as I liked Jessie in this category. Second, somebody who I feel is underrated or is really good but not quite catching on; this usually tends to be the Quirky Girl or Rock Chick (certainly not this year though). Both of the previous years this was whichever Kat there was, plus Caroline. This season that was Bryana. Finally, there's whoever I think is the best serious contender, and that can be anybody in any genre and change from week to week; this year so far it's Reagan. She's ok. Not the best. Among current artists, IMO Sara Bareilles is the best, but the genre peak popularity was back in the late 90s. Jewel and Sarah McLachlan were huge back in the day, and I wonder why contestants never seem to do Jewel songs (licensing problem maybe?)

Muffyn wrote: I once had someone ask me (this would have been 2006) if The Killers were a Christian rock band...

I don't even know why I watch these shows, it's pretty much just an exercise in watching my favorite contestants always go home on a week when they had one of the better performances of the night. That said, I can't get TOO upset about the way tonight went down. Sugar's song was probably a bad choice. I think actually as fun as these big super-well-known popular songs are to do, they probably ought to just be avoided entirely outside of a karaoke bar. If you do the song the way the original was done, you will get blamed for not doing anything unique. If you do it differently, you'll get blamed for not sounding like the original. And in this case, you'll mostly just show that you aren't as good a singer as Whitney Houston was. Less range in the top, less accuracy in the mids, less excitement in the lows. Ryan's song, on the other hand, was an excellent choice. The original is well enough known that most people aren't sitting around wondering what you're doing (well most people in their 30s and 40s anyway), but the original is so stripped-down and simple it's almost a blank slate. You can do, basically, anything with it. Ryan didn't do all that much, but he didn't need to. So props to him for that. Jessie's song was a decent choice. It's a good song, and Sara Bareilles is in the right genre. It's a song that is neither too hard nor too easy. But I think it was sort of a microcosm of why so many people didn't like Jessie. As Padma said: When Caroline would sing, most notes would be clearly distinguished from each other so as the listener you could be sure she was hitting exactly the right one (and she did, always, hit exactly the right one). With Jessie, there's this lilty-trilly sound to it, where as the listener you're not sure if she doesn't know what the note is supposed to be, or can't find it, or what. I'm pretty sure she generally was doing what she wanted to, but it isn't really obvious. It's disappointing, but I will grudgingly admit that Ryan did the best tonight. Still, overall, I think Jessie is clearly better than Ryan. I HATE-HATE-HATE the new four-person final. That is too many contestants for a final! If they want to have somebody come back after being eliminated, they need to eliminate one more person along the way. Really though, between the ever-increasing number of steals, the Twitter save, and now this, I think this show just can't accept that sometimes people get eliminated. Why not just have all 80 people or whatever that make it past the blinds perform in an epic six-hour final show? That seems like what they're going for. Really I think the single biggest problem with this show is that they spend way too much time on the mediocre contestants and not enough on the good ones. This is just further down that path. And since the Twitter save makes the shock elimination impossible, I'm not even sure what they are even trying to accomplish, except making sure that somebody in the finals doesn't deserve to be there and is just taking up space and time that ought to belong to the actual finalists. Especially this season, when the overall talent level is lower, there's basically just no way that this wild-card contestant adds any value whatsoever.

Bad show. I agree with whoever said that there might have been a sound problem as most of the contestants are usually better than this. Well, at least it proves they aren't lip-syncing, right? I cannot imagine watching this show without a DVR... I am so sick of the coaches jumping up and down and saying it's the omgbestestevar when the contestant obviously sucks. Especially on a night like tonight when almost everyone was bad. If this is the best they can do, I'm trying out for next season. My ratings.... 12. Luke. What a huge mistake. And then he had to go on stage! (yuk yuk yuk). And he didn't really recover until about halfway through the song, the blunder was obviously bugging him. Still, he's shown enough so far that I'll give him one free pass. Saved only by this being the easiest round of the competition. 11. Ryan. I finally figured out who he reminds me of! It's Nicholas Brendon! Bad pitch, and he wouldn't have been here in the first place if not for Gwen's crush. Maybe Gwen can get chin implants on her next round of plastic surgery. She's already unrecognizable (and that makes me sad because I always really liked her look and she already looked at least a decade younger than she is). Aside from the constant pitch issues, I personally am not a huge fan of this song. I think "Come Undone" is a superior song in every way. 10. Sugar. Actually not as bad as it could have been, and tonight's first victim of the Stylist Monster. If you're going to go home, you might as well go home belting. She is just the least talented singer remaining. Why did they put her first? This arrangement was nothing special, the singer certainly isn't, and they can't have known in advance that everyone was going to blow it. 9. Reagan. This was not her best work. I was amused by what they tried with her styling, but it didn't actually work. 1985-era clothes with a 1990-era song is not right! So, I'm starting to think that Reagan has stopped trying her best and is just kind of winging it. Maybe she had something going on this week. Maybe she's starting to believe the constant fawning by the coaches (advice to Reagan, watch the show, they say that stuff about everybody). But this performance was phoned in. 8. Taylor. This was not his best work. Taylor's strength is putting an innovative spin on a well-known song, and I guess that's what he did here. It might have been more interesting if everybody else was doing power ballads and diva songs, but when everybody else is singing lullabyes, this gets a little lost in the swamp. Maybe just the wrong week for this. But, I'm starting to wonder when we'll get to see Taylor actually push his voice. 7. Danica. Well, it was interesting, I have to give her that. Good time for her to try something experimental since no one will accuse her of coasting (the worst thing that can happen to a technically good singer) and yet if it flops, there are lots of worse singers out there that she will probably beat anyway. That said, what a truly strange and bizarre song choice. For this song, you have to hate either yourself or your, for lack of a better word, target. Ideally both. And I am not getting that from Danica. I'll play along with the arrangement, but the song just doesn't lend itself to Danica's gentle attitude. For what it's worth, I liked her outfit; I thought this was the best she's looked so far, and the only one that was actually done up well by the stylists. On the down side: What's with all the fans? I guess the producers were as confused by this song as everyone else. 6. Craig. I finally figured out who he reminds me of! It's Richard Branson! I felt this was a solid performance, nothing special (I guess I was expecting a little more excitement from Craig, and maybe I should have rewatched it with that in mind) but "solid, nothing special" is actually pretty good for tonight. 5. Chris. I thought the song choice here was good. He's a boy-band guy, so Nick Jonas is completely appropriate. I'm expecting more songs like this from him. Like everyone else, he had some technical issues, but after the NBC Elevator Music Two-Hour Special, I was ready for something a little more upbeat, even if the performance was merely solid, not outstanding. 4. Damien. He did as well as he could with a lousy song. It's soooo boring, and while the sentiment is nice and all (and unlike so many others does not get misinterpreted by almost everyone that hears it) there is just no opportunity for a singer to shine here. I know the song was a huge hit back in its day, and popular covers and all that, but I don't feel my life was enriched by this. This should have been like an 8th-best performance except that everyone was just so bad tonight. I originally rated it 3rd, but after reading my own comments, I decided that I liked Jessie better tonight. 3. Jessie. One of the better performances of the night. I went back and rewatched it because, right after she got up from the piano, there was this moment of dissonance where she sounded like she was really flat, but I think it was supposed to sound that way, because she held the pitch through a few words and it sounded much better after the accompaniment caught up. I really liked her choice to do the first half of the song at the piano and then get up and do the second half engaging with the audience and singing in a more uptempo, belty style. The obvious comparison is with Caroline, and that was one of Caroline's biggest problems, her lack of performing range. Jessie isn't going to match Danica for vocal power or Reagan for stage antics, but she needs to be more than just the Lucky Charms marshmallow. I'm glad she did it, and I'm glad it was her idea. She's probably not quite as skilled as Caroline was, but she's a better overall musician, or maybe she's just got a better coach. She's not likely to win, but I hope she does well. 2. Matt. Can't believe I'm rating this second. I think it's a testament to just what a good song this actually is. Matt was in full-on James Wolpert mode, chewing the scenery and crawling around on the stage, and he has this problem where his falsetto is about half the volume of his throat voice. I don't know if he can learn to improve that or not, but I hope he does, because his falsetto is unusually accurate for a male singer. And the audience, and perhaps Matt, and maybe even Adam, had no idea what the song was about. See also: "Born in the USA." It's still a great song that must be as fun to sing as it is to watch. Hoping I get to do this one in karaoke someday. 1. Anita. I didn't see this performance. I watched the show, then at the end realized I hadn't seen her. Went back and rewound looking for her, didn't see her again, and then got distracted and erased it. Considering how bad everyone was tonight, by default, the performance I missed is the best! Who I expect to go home: Ryan and Sugar. Who should go home: Ryan and Sugar. But if it's Luke, he can always try out for this!

So, I'm doing what is for me a rewatch, with a friend who has never seen Buffy or Angel before. When I watched originally, both shows were over and I binge-watched on DVD. I watched Buffy first, never really intending to watch Angel, and then after it was over, I went back and watched Angel anyway. Now that I get to go back and do it over again, I'm curious how everyone would recommend ordering the episodes. We can either watch Buffy first and then Angel (or maybe just Buffy), or else watch concurrently, in (more or less) original airing order. There are zero spoilers, even to the point that I haven't even said that Angel gets his own show although she might have figured that out anyway. We're still in Buffy S2, so right now it doesn't matter. The pros and cons as I see it: Watching concurrently preserves the impact of the crossover episodes. Watching each series independently is more focused in terms of following the storylines and themes. The Amulet of Ridiculousness makes even less sense if you aren't watching Angel. Parallel storylines (Connor and Dawn, the travels of Drusilla, etc) happen at the right time. Angel S4 and Buffy S7 happen at the same time. And without even the consolation prize of getting Firefly at the same time, since we already finished that.

My favorite parts of the result show: Carson: "Blake, tell us a little bit about your strategy" Blake: "I don't really have strategy any more, these are all individuals." followed by... Carson: "Blake, which individual will you save?" Blake: "My strategy is to take not the best singer, but the one who is the best fit for the show's format" And also: Pharrell: "Never let anyone force you to play their game. Never let them make decisions for you." Carson: "It's time for you to decide which contestant you will allow to continue play the game." Seasons of The Voice don't actually repeat, but they do rhyme... No big surprises for me on Adam's team, but Adam's team seems to be the most consistent top-to-bottom with no real obvious bad choices. Damien has a great voice and story, but his range is limited. He'll be out when the limitations become apparent. This reminds me of Season 5 Matthew (granted different genre). Matt seems to be Adam's Designated Bro for the season, but I think in comparison to Taylor Three Names, he's not as good. Chris is very pretty. I am glad Adam didn't take Taylor P. In the immortal words of Dracula, "You are strange and off-putting. Go now." Pharrell is writing the textbook on how to screw up a good thing. He's still got two strong contestants, though his team could have been better than it turned out to be. Luke reminds me a lot of S6 Josh Kaufman. I think he's got a long way to go and has a lot of potential, but his style is necessarily more of a slow burn. He's flashier than Josh, but still one of the lowest-key in the competition. I'm glad that Danica made it. While she's not the most exciting or the prettiest, she has a very good voice. Her challenge is emotional connection. All this reminds me a lot of S5 Tessanne. I don't think Danica will win - Tessanne was very good - but I wasn't super excited about Tessanne at this stage either. And don't the demographics of the viewership skew a bit to middle-aged mom? That could help Danica out. IMO, Gwen only has one really strong contestant: Taylor Three Names. His strength is in the arrangement and spin he puts on songs. His singing voice is good - but it isn't the most important part. The hipster guy with the innovative approach reminds me a lot of S5 Will Champlin. But as the competition went on, Will pushed his actual singing ability pretty hard - and also made a couple of missteps in his song choice and arrangements. Taylor will have to push the voice while avoiding the pitfalls. Choosing Ryan over Bryana is I think a pretty serious brain cramp for Gwen. I think Bryana started off in the wrong genre - just because she looks like Ariana Grande doesn't mean she needed to also copy her musical style. When she switched to the more operatic style I think she really came into her own. If Gwen had been paying attention, Bryana could have been Jacquie Lee. It seemed like she just liked Ryan better on a personal level, but I don't think there was any problem with Bryana and so I think it's the wrong choice. I do not get Anita at all. It's not her personality - her personality is her best asset, IMO. I just don't like her singing choices. Didn't like the lyric changes to "Rude" which basically just made the song nonsensical (it would have made sense - albeit differently from the original - if she had just sung it as written), and didn't like the musical changes to "All About That Bass." She didn't follow the original nor have a clear alternative direction. Just meandering. And she made a pretty major blunder right at the start of it when she just missed a line. Not a fan. At all. Blake had the tough choice. Obviously Reagan had to advance, even if she hadn't been voted in, as she's clearly got the star power even though she may not be the best technical singer in the competition. Craig deserved to go on as well. Taylor B wasn't bad, and prettier than the stylists gave her credit for (why must they put everyone over size 8 in a tent - don't put a big girl in a big dress!) But I felt that she was the weakest singer on Blake's team. The tough choice of course was between James and Jessie. James was coasting. I think it was James' own strategic choice. He looked at the competition, realized he was a better singer than almost everybody, and decided to play it safe and not take any risks. I felt Ricky was also coasting - maybe hoping to get by on his looks. The trouble is that Ricky wasn't good enough to get by coasting, whereas James was on a team with four people deserving to go on and only three spots for them. I don't think the choice of James vs. Jessie comes down to overcrowding country. Now Craig is the only country singer left, and he's almost as much southern rock as country. James might as well have been Blake Junior. There's enough space in the competition for two country singers, and strategically speaking, unless by some horrible fiasco both of them went home in the same week, splitting the vote wouldn't actually hurt in the end. It's pretty clear that Jessie wanted it more, and her style along with Blake's comments clearly make her an echo of S5 Caroline, except she's Lucky Charms instead of cotton candy. Blake also might have had higher standards for James because they are so similar. I can just imagine Blake thinking to himself "Ah kid dew better'n at" during most of James' performances. Whatever things Blake can do, he can't sing like Jessie! I wonder if Blake and/or Jessie had heard Frou Frou's version of Holding Out For a Hero? There are lots of good influences in that style, and they all seem to just end up copying Ellie Goulding (not specifically this week, just in general). Which is rarely a good thing.