Parenthood Wrap Up and Modern Family's Visit From the Godfather

This was a busy week in television with the return of American Idol and the beginning of the new Kevin Bacon series The Following on Fox. I have already written about The Following and while we watched Idol it is kind of a big yawn.

Not boring this week were a couple of our regular favorites. Parenthood, the much loved but low rated NBC series, ended it's season with a show that wrapped all of the bows of the season up in a nice package. If you were looking for there to be any loose strings you did not find many. The Ron Howard produced show is consistently one of the best shows on the air, people joke about crying each week, but folks only cry when a scene hits home.

NBC finished the series off quickly as they want to make room for their rebooted show SMASH, which coincidentally is another cult favorite that the network would like to see build a broader base. As to Parenthood the worry each spring is NBC will pull the plug but it seems unlikely that they will throw such a well regarded show over the side. If that decision is made certainly it's viewers will have to be happy with the season end.

Over on ABC Wednesday night Modern Family had a smart episode. The plot line was typical sitcom stuff but what made this show standout was the ending sequence which out of the blue put together a spin on the culminating scene in the Godfather when the baby is being baptized and at the same time a wide variety of hits is going down all over Gangster world, even with the " Do you renounce Satan" line. The short clip at the end of the series even had Phil and his son closing the door to the den in Claire's face telling her " not to ask him about his business." This is pretty clever stuff and while silly this is culturally aware silly as opposed to the foolishness that typically goes on HIMYM that I wrote about last week.

Both of these shows are standouts this week.

The End of the Voice and X Factor

As we sit here on the afternoon of the first day of the year we are in that wonderful respite from singing shows that we will all be enjoying until American Idol returns in two weeks.

We spent a good deal of time viewing these two shows this fall, my wife is big follower of the singing shows.

A final thought on the two shows from this past fall.

The Voice I believe has been the more popular of the two and for good reason. With the exception of Christina Aguilera all of the judges on this show are extremely likable. Blake Shelton wears his crown as the current King of Country Music well and Adam Levine is the most polite man with tattoos you will ever meet. The contestants on this show were consistently good this year and with the judges having more impact on which guests reach the final episodes the show appears to follow a much less strict formula and be less subject to the whims of demographics.

The final three contestants on the show were all talented, in the end I believe that the correct person won. In the beginning of the show I was not a big fan of Cassadee Pope. She was obviously very physically attractive but outside of that I did not think her singing was over and above everyone else. Nicholas David the long haired, long bearded, constantly faux bowing soul singer might well have been the most talented performer on the show but his personality while apparently genuine was almost mawkish. Watching these shows, perhaps we become cynical but at times it seemed his intense devotion and public displays of loyalty and love for his wife and young family became as integral to his act as his singing. Lastly we had Terry McDermott a Scottish immigrant to America who seemed perhaps the most likable of the group. With his elven features and his absolute desire to sing Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, and other giants of eighties rock and roll there was not much to dislike in his performances. For me however he was just good, certainly not special, I am quite sure I could go to a club in anytown America and find someone about as good performing tonight. He was, in effect, to me, our everyman. It was a good group and in terms of potential to make a mark on pop culture the correct person clearly won.

The X Factor for whatever reason just does not seem to measure up to be even as good as the sum of its parts. Simon Cowell is excellent in everything he does and his formula in this show of his creation is that each celebrity judge takes a certain demographic of the contestants and is their advocate and coach. To some extent this works but for me the idea of especially Demi Lovato being a real coach to any young performer is kind of silly.

In a complete opposite to The Voice on the X Factor Simon was the only judge who was even remotely likable. I found Demi Lovato to be the worst I have ever seen on any singing show, LA Reid is pompous in the extreme, and Brittany Spears while sometimes fun to look at seems incapable of putting two words together. Spears also is a sad reminder too often of what lies at the end of the rainbow for many if not all of these performers who strike it big.

The talent on the show was solid but for some reason it just never seems to work for me in a lasting way. The winner this year was a Country Singer named Tate Stevens. Very talented and with a solid chance at a career this man, plucked off a road crew seems to be about as grounded as you would want a person in this position to be. His major competition all season turned out to be a thirteen year old superstar in the making named Carly Rose Sonneclar. This young lady had an incredible voice but again as is so often proven in the pop world a great voice is not often the first prerequisite of success. Let us hope that she gets a large first contract when she signs her record deal because we do not know that she will be successful.


With Idol starting up soon with three new judges one wonders if the era of these shows might soon be fading. When you lose the continuity of the hosts the shows do lose something. Next year's X Factor might well have three new judges beside Simon and even The Voice is giving Christina and C Lo a season off to tend to their careers. In short if continuity is one of the keys to the success of these shows they might soon be in trouble.

Perhaps that would not be such a bad thing. Let's not tell my wife I said that.

The Unlikable Christina Aguilera

Watching the voice on Monday evening one thing became apparent. Christina Aguilera is fast becoming perhaps the most unlikable person on television. Her obvious contempt for anybody who has the camera on them while she sits on unloved momentarily is becoming more and more apparent.

Monday night watching the show with my wife as Juliet sang the James Brown song It's a man's world when it came time for the judges to make their comments I pause the television and said to my wife watch Christina make this about her.

Sure enough she did. We were treated to her reminisces about when she performed a song on the Grammys and how wonderful it made her,she means Juliet,feel to sing that song.

I am sure ratings wise Christina is to The Voice as Simon Cowell was too American Idol. You either love them or or you don't. For me however I've had plenty of friends who made every single thing about them, they are not really very good friends and I certainly don't want to watch them on TV.

American Idol----The Save Was Used

Last Wednesday night my wife and I did our normal Wednesday night routine and watched American Idol. As has been discussed before on this site my wife loves these shows.

Now I will be the first to admit that, watch the show as much as I do, I do not know the singers names. At this point I know them as Country Girl, Blonde British Petite Girl, Dave Matthews wannabe, Christian Rocker dude, Jersey Girl with the big face, Incredible Black Guy and Petite Hispanic Girl.

They are all very good singers. I think that it could be the best seven singers that they have ever had on the show. They all have appeal. Of the seven the only one who at this point might be suspect is The Jersey Girl and still when she rocks out like she did doing a Zeppelin cover a couple of weeks ago she was great.

So as we are watching the show last week and I am watching the singers and then the judges reviews something struck me. I have noticed each week that the judges just are in love with the Incredible Black Guy and the Petite Hispanic Girl. They are good. I think the girl is a little cold and I always think it is a mistake to take a song that a good portion of the audience is not going to be familiar with. This is what she did. Now the fellow was amazing. I think he is an incredible talent and he might well win the contest. I do not think it is a given however. The fact is that at this point all of the singers have their own niche, I am not sure how many people are changing their votes each week. The loser each week might be the one who gains the least of the votes from the singer departed the week before.

The judges however, to me, have gone over the top. I think that all the singers are good and to go after Blond British and DMB Wannabe last week as hard as they did while praising Hispanic Girl for doing a song no one knows is silly. I told my wife on Wednesday that I wondered if there was some level of conspiracy on the show to make the winner be the most talented technically and more diverse. The Voice is providing some competition, perhaps they are trying to be more serious. My wife said I was being silly and moreover she wanted to enjoy her favorite shows without conspiracy theories thank you very much.

Still watching the judges have a hissy fit over the girl getting eliminate and scolding America to vote for the best one was ridiculous.

Lets be clear about a few things. The show has always been a popularity contest, the contestants that have the widest niche that they fill get to the end, and the judges feedback borders on the nonsensical each week. Telling contestants to be more diverse in their choices and when they do criticizing them for trying to be what they are not is just one example.

The judges on this show need a total revamping. What they really need is Simon.

Scolding your audience and telling them to vote for the judges favorites is perhaps not the best way to treat your audience.

I was put off by it. I myself think that Dave Matthews wannabe and Country Girl could easily win. They could be on the radio tomorrow. I think having the ability to have a commercial success right away is a good trait.

So judges say what you think, but don't say something for the sake of saying something. And don't scold me. I do not respect you enough to put up with it.

American Idol

The first week of the performers singing on Idol last week was nothing short of atrocious and gave me fears of how bad this season was going to be.

Last nights episode gave us hope however as it was well worth watching with some very good performances. Hopefully the women will tonight do as well.

Ellen Degeneres is growing into her role as a judge, she is just so likable. Kara has some spray on tan that she could do without and Simon is still the best judge by far.

It is good to see the show get its feet under it....my wife would have been sorely disappointed.

American Idol

My wife and daughter love American Idol. They look forward to it like I look forward to Major League Baseball Spring Training. So with anticipation we watched the season premier last evening. Perhaps the format is getting old. Perhaps I am. Maybe it is a combination of both. My response to tonights show was nothing more than a yawn. Simon insulted, Randy kept it real, Kara was Kara, and guest judge Posh Spice looked, well scary. Those who were auditioning were in Simon's words "forgettable."

Perhaps the tryouts, which used to be our favorite, have gotten old and we will enjoy it more when the actual contestants are picked.However, yawn or not to me, I know that spring training is coming and I need to build up viewing credits for baseball season. With that in mind rest assured we will be watching American Idol whenever it is on from here to the end of the season.

I just hope it gets better.