Why You Should Watch American Idol Season 14
American Idol has run into a string of bad luck the past few years. It's biggest competitor, NBC's The Voice, finally overtook it in the ratings, public fights between the judges (which have been in the worst game of musical chairs lately) turned the focus away from the contestants, long time sponsor Coca-Cola ended their partnership, and frankly the winners of the show haven't been doing so hot since about Season 8. Have you seen Lee DeWyze, Candace Glover, or Caleb Johnson anywhere? Even the bigger winners like Scotty McCreery and Phillip Phillips are struggling with McCreery crooning on cruise ships and Phillips struggling to match his "Home" single's success. But even with all of that, the show is finally getting its act together again.
You see, desperation breeds good television. With its new overseeing record company, good chemistry between the judges, and a few production changes, Season 14 is shaping up to be the most entertaining (read as "watchable" yet).
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I've been an adamant follower of the show since season 2. I'm a big reality competition junkie, and time and time again American Idol has proven to be the best singing competition. As different as shows like The Sing-Off, The X-Factor, or The Voice are, they've never quite reached the same level. Sure people watch The Voice, but winners of that show (and the runners up are less lucky) are forced into an even worse fate than AI winners. Name me one non-winning contestant on The Voice, I dare you. But that's besides the point as AI has gotten far too comfortable and is finally waking up after all the shake ups. Two or three seasons ago, American Idol finally allowed instruments during the auditions as a ploy to recreate David Cook's success from Season 7. And while it didn't work then, it's finally gaining traction in Season 14 thanks to a few noticeable changes.
Taking a cue from The Voice's practice of auditioning seasoned musicians, American Idol has put an even bigger focus on singer/songwriter types who've worked on their talent for a few years. There are still a few new faces, because AI loves a good underdog story, but from the first half of the auditions the point of view has shifted away from sad stories and the like and more toward the music. More of the auditions are shown, we get less "joke" auditions, and the talent is the best it has been in years. And Idol is so confident in that talent, they're not afraid to build up hype for the live shows. For the first time, Idol has (slightly) revealed the Top 24 contestants. In the video above, we get silhouettes performing the most overused song on the program. This already confirms two good things. One, we won't have to hear "Feeling Good" anymore, and two, the talent is palpable. Also there's a fun little game now of trying to match auditions to voices.
From what I've seen of the season, there have only been good decisions. They kept the last panel of judges (Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Harry Connick Jr. make a great team besides all the JLO closeups during the performances), Adam Lambert was the first past contestant to guest judge on the show (a little bit of desperation, a little bit of confidence), Randy Jackson is no longer involved and we'll have a, possibly better, in-house mentor (no more "It's pitchy, dawg") with Big Machine's Scott Borchetta backing the winner so hard, they'll get a huge push in record sales. And more so than in other seasons, I've already got a few favorites from the first half of the auditions. That hasn't happened in a long time. Here are a few of the standouts:
"Hollywood" Anderson, who I can't spot in the Top 24 video but deserves all the record deal money:
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Jax, who's actually IN the Top 24 video:
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Cody Fry, who is one of those seasoned musicians I mentioned:
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Jess Lamb, who was the first piano audition in Idol history:
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So with Hollywood Week coming up soon (two weeks probably), things are heating up for American Idol again. Can the show ever be great again? Regardless, it'll still be entertaining thanks to all of these big changes reeking of desperation. I definitely know this American Idol-izer won't want to miss that.
The Top 25 Episodes of The Simpsons [12-1]
When the first official episode of The Simpsons, "Bart the Genius" aired on Fox on this day 25 years ago, it changed my life quite a bit. Through strife, laughter, and love, this series has done so much for me over the years. To honor the series' 25th Anniversary, I've listed my favorite 25 episodes of the series.
Picking up where I left off with the first half, there are just far too many episodes I want to talk about and so little time. It was near impossible to boil it down to 25 (and this half especially) but with a few hours of work I did just that. Enjoy!
Honorable Mentions: Treehouse of Horror V, Thank God, It's Doomsday, A Star is Burns, Gump Roast, Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment, Marge vs. The Monorail, Lemon of Troy, And Maggie Makes Three, I Married Marge, Marge Be Not Proud, Flaming Moe's, The Mansion Family, Brick Like Me, 'Round Springfield, 22 Short Films About Springfield, Homer the Whopper, Stark Raving Dad, Lisa the Beauty Queen, Homer's Phobia
The Top 25 Episodes of The Simpsons [25-13]
On January 14th, 1990, the first official episode of The Simpsons, "Bart the Genius," aired on the Fox network. Who knew that 25 years later, we'd still be getting brand new episodes every Sunday? While most folks see the show as an ailing series in steady decline (I won't lie, it was rough around Season 18), I've been hanging on for those 25 years. See, The Simpsons is a very, very special show to me. It started five months after I was born (the show and I are the same age), it was my first word (a garbled mix of Homer and Bart, sounding like "Hort"), and a little piece of me is going to break when it finally ends.
In honor of this monumental anniversary for my favorite TV series, I've perused my DVD sets and VHS tapes and formed a list of my Top 25 episodes. I've set no rules for myself (so unfortunately there's a lot of love for season six), and tried my hardest to fully utilize my experience as a Simpsons junkie. I've broken up this list into two parts, with the second half located here.
Nick's Top 10 Pop Songs of 2014
As a twenty-five year old, 6'3" 300 pound Latino man, I know a lot about pop music. Forgoing what some would classify as "good" musical tastes, I grew attached to songs playing on the radio at a young age and the obsession grew with time. Now thanks to the internet, I'm more in tune with pop songs than ever. And thanks to that very same internet, popular music covers a wider ranger than ever with varying tones, subject matters, and butts.
Oh yeah, 2014 was the year of Da Butt. But let's talk about that some other day. Here are my picks for the Top 10 Pop Songs of last year.
[Interview] Gabriel Iglesias (The Fluffy Movie)
To promote his upcoming comedy special turned movie, The Fluffy Movie (which has since been delayed from July 11th to today), I got a chance to speak with Gabriel Iglesias about the project. I didn't know what to expect. I'm not the biggest fan of his comedy, but seeing as he's one of the few prominent Latino comics, I give him his due. I've got a lot of respect for the man as he knows exactly what he's doing.
Through this interview we talk stand up versus film, control over your property, pushing the "Fluffy" brand in any way he can, and with laughs all in between. Read on to learn a little more on the man, the myth, the fluffy, Gabriel Iglesias.
[Review] Made in America
Ron Howard has always been an interesting director. His projects range anywhere from How the Grinch Stole Christmas to A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code. Coming off his successful project Rush last year, I was curious as to what he'd direct next. To my surprise it was Made in America, a documentary about Jay Z and his Made in America music festival.
With Howard's track record (filled with both spectacular hits and misses), I was worried about how this doc would turn out. Would we get an in-depth look at Jay Z and his career? Would we get the bare minimum to please music fans? Well, the answer is more in the middle.
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Made in America
Director: Ron Howard
Rating: NR
Release Date: July 11, 2014 (Theatrically)/July 22, 2014 (VOD and DVD)
Made in America documents Jay Z and his organization of the Budweiser Made in America music festival. Through interviews with artists like Janelle Monae, Tyler, The Creator, The Hives, Rita Ora, Eddie Vedder, and Jay Z himself, the doc hopes to better understand and frame the true meaning behind the "American Dream" while celebrating music and what it does to better everyone's lives.
The most interesting aspect of Made in America is how it's filmed. In an intelligent move, the grassroots like camerawork (using only one or two handheld cameras) clicks with the film's thematic resonance. The phrase (and its mentality) "pulled up by the bootstraps" is used quite often through the interviews in order to emphasize that each artist worked through tough times to find their current success. This wouldn't have worked so well had the production quality of the film been any higher. Hilariously enough, with not a lot of care put into the filming process, a few of the walls these artists have are broken down. For example in an interview with Tyler, The Creator, you can clearly see a boom mic in the background for a few seconds. Rather than clean up that scene in the final cut, it's left in so the interview has more character. The interviews are full of little imperfect touches like these.
While that imperfectness might not make for a visually compelling documentary, the relaxed nature of the film makes it easier to sit back and enjoy rather than absorb every bit of information. To emphasize this, the interviews are cut in between bits of the festival's performances. Capturing the overall essence of the festival, these bits are fun, aren't too impeding, and the cuts to Jay Z hard at work backstage are a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, this also means there's a lack of solid structure. It becomes needlessly difficult to discern the underlying message of the documentary as it jumps around and loses focus quite a bit. The doc can take you anywhere from an interview with D'Angelo to Run (of Run DMC) cooking eggs to Jay Z taking a tour of his childhood home. As Jay Z is the only one who gets a hefty amount of screentime, he's the only one we learn anything about. We get a brief refreshing bit of Janelle Monae's past, but everyone else gets two or three minutes and are then gone forever. While that might be acceptable for this doc's demographic, it's not going to be a draw for those who aren't so in tune with the music industry.
But what is here is entertaining to listen to. Howard has a few regular folks with unique perspectives (basically the antithesis of the "Rags to Riches" success stories presented by the artists) interspersed, and they're so engaging, I wish we would've got more of them. One in particular is a young roadie who's barely making ends meet, and has to live in a house with many other people in order to make rent. He gets two brief scenes, and his story remains inconclusive. I suppose that may be a criticism of the faulty optimism of the American Dream, but it completely clashes with the vibe of the rest of the film. It just begs the question of why bringing up the idea in the first place is necessary when it isn't used for anything of substance.
But Made in America accomplishes what it set out to do. An entertaining pop documentary with surface level information. That's not necessarily a bad thing here as the format of the film will appease fans of these artists, but it's extremely alienating for those outside of the bubble.
Made in America is not going to bring any new fans, but it's a fun party for those willing to attend.
[Trailer] Exodus: Gods and Kings
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Although I've already seen the best possible interpretations of Moses' biblical story already (The Prince of Egypt, The Ten Commandments, and Simpsons Bible Stories) I'm hoping Ridley Scott's take on the classic tale has pizazz. Directed by Scott and starring lots of talented folks like Christian Bale, Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver, and Aaron Paul, Exodus: Gods and Kings is an adaptation of the Book of Exodus which chronicles the tale of Moses, a man who helped free the Isrealites from Egyptian tyranny thanks to powers bestowed upon him by God.
If Darren Aronofsky's Noah from earlier this year and Gods and Kings have anything in common, it's that they're both extremely pretty to look at. But something still feels off about this debut trailer. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's almost as if the whole thing is hollow. Of course, it's still too early to tell for sure. Besides, if this helps usher in a new age of religious films, I'm all for it.
Exodus: Gods and Kings releases December 12th.
First Image of Don Cheadle as Miles Davis in Miles Ahead
For the past few weeks, Don Cheadle has been working on an IndieGogo campaign for his Miles Davis biopic, Miles Ahead. Starring Cheadle as Davis (with Ewan McGregor, Michael Stuhlbarg and Emayatzy Corinealdi in tow), Miles Ahead focuses on Davis' "transition into music after a five-year hiatus—otherwise known as his “silent period”—and tumultuous relationship with first wife Frances Taylor Davis." With shooting starting this week, we now have our first look at Cheadle in full Soul Glo courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.
Man, does he look good. I had no idea I'd be so into the idea of a Miles Davis biopic before now. Since this is Cheadle's passion project, I'd expect a lot of care to be put into this too. He learned how to play the trumpet, and Cheadle claims that the film isn't going to be another by-the-numbers biopic either. And even if the IndieGogo campaign sounds troubling, it's only for production costs (as the film doesn't have big studio backing).
We'll keep an eye on this as it progresses. Miles Ahead doesn't have a set release yet (but click here for the IndieGogo page).
[via EW]
