Judges Judges Everywhere

As I have discussed before our house is doing it's part to keep every singing competition afloat. From Monday to Thursday from Christina to Brittany and back again my wife loves singing shows. Kids need to have their homework done, dogs need to be fed and walked and husbands need to be quiet before the eight o'clock hour strikes.

I do not mind the shows, some performers are better than others but overall it is fine and if she gets enjoyment out of it I am fine with that. What is hard for me sometimes to watch are the judges. I know I have commented on this before so I am not going to revisit their contradictory advice and things of that nature.

I do however want to give a brief rundown of my perceptions of these people we invite into our homes each week.

Starting with The Voice first on the list would be Adam Levine. Truthfully Levine comes off as extremely likable and surprisingly genuine. He is a very good singer, gives solid advice and his back and forths with Blake Shelton seem real and not forced.

Blake Shelton also seems genuine and likable. One gets the sense that Shelton knows that this ride will be over soon, he will be supplanted by the next young gun in the Country line and he is determined to enjoy it. We never really see much more than extremely generic advice from these folks, they are rarely negative, and their exchanges with each other comprise the biggest part of their contribution to the show.

Ce Lo Green is just an odd duck but he is harmless and surprisingly talented. With Green more than any other judge it becomes apparent that he has a great deal of advice for his team members. Christina Aguilera, when I have commented in the past, has been bitchy and generally not nice quite often. This seems to be a bit less this year, she still is a prim a donna but overall she too has been nicer this year.

Overall The Voice is a good show, its singers are good, the premise of picking the team members without seeing them is interesting, and the fact that no truly terrible singers are allowed to audition make the show less exploitative than it's counterparts.

The Fox series X Factor in it's second season added two new judges. Demi Lovato and Britney Spears. Simon Cowell remains Simon Cowell and with that he can be nasty and cutting but this behavior has modified a great deal since this Idol days. LA Reid might be the most pompous man on television but he does know his stuff. I do not find him anything but there on my screen, to me he is not a draw or a reason not to watch. For better or worse the two girls are what brings the audience or drives the audience away. Brittany Spears has been the subject of much comment. In our house we always comment on how she looks that night. It is not always a positive picture. Still an attractive woman, still a talented singer Spears looks extremely uncomfortable in her role. Last week we noticed that in many of her exchanges with her team members she seems to physically recoil from contact with them. Who knows what is up with Brittany.

Still Spears seems like Einstein when compared with Lovato. If I hear her comment one more time that a performance is boring I might have to grab the remote from my wife's hand. It is not her fault. She is in no way a realistic judge. Everything she has sung has been overproduced by mentors, her helping and judging other singers is just a ridiculous notion. I do not know her, she is probably a fine person, she is, however , doing nothing in this show to shine a positive light on her personality or intelligence.

And just think, we are just six weeks from American Idol.

The Voice

So my wife loves singing and she loves singing shows. We only very sporadically check in on Dancing With the Stars and that ilk but she does enjoy American Idol a great deal, we will watch America's Got Talent in the summer and now with The Voice she has found another show she is interested in.

Set up differently than Idol in that contestants are chosen before being viewed brings an interesting take on the game. The singers are good, although some of them are a little extreme for my tastes.

Four strong celebrity judges add to the appeal. Christina Aguilera continues her effort to rehabilitate her image from this past winters gaffes. Blake Shelton homophobic tweets ( I did not take them as such) offers a country slant, Adam Levine from Maroon 5 and CeeLo Green ( since when does non single make you an authority) round out the panel.

The show is interesting but it feels interesting in more of the it is summer we have to watch something appeal rather than the this is a great show we should watch. It will be interesting to see over the next few weeks to see if the show has more and more twists and tricks to get us to our finalists. I have seen a commercial which promises that singers will be singing the same song at the same time...a duel no less.

I hope that the show dos not try so hard to differentiate itself that it loses what could be its appeal. The idea of singing teams each being coached by a star shows promise.

While interesting this show is one we have yet to see the finished product and as yet cannot really be judged for any long term purposes.