The Top 15 Glee Covers
With only a couple of episodes before the series finale, I can't help but feel nostalgic for Glee's greatest hits. I've stuck with the show through its rough patches because it's still capable of churning out an outstanding performance or two. With over 727 songs (give or take a couple) spanning its 120 episodes, it's been tough to narrow down all of these choices but I've developed a system.
For this list, I've tried to limit the amount of songs I chose per season (otherwise these choices would all be from Season 1), made my choices based on how they were used in the show (For example, as much as I loved "Cell Block Tango" it was shoehorned into a domestic abuse episode), and how the performance was laid out. So these 15 covers all had a great mix of story, visuals, and musicality.
So, here are The Top 15 Glee Covers.
Honorable Mentions: Cell Block Tango, Mr. Roboto/Counting Stars, Boogie Shoes, Heads Will Roll/Thriller, Oops I Did It Again, Bust Your Windows, I Want to Break Free, Far From Over, Push it, Take a Bow, Ride Wit Me, Bootylicious, Run Joey Run, Safety Dance, And I Am Telling You, When I Get You Alone, Cry, Don't Speak, If I Were a Boy, Defying Gravity, The Final Countdown, Anything Goes/Anything You Can Do, Don't Stand So Close to Me/Young Girl
[American Idol-izer] Top 16 Perform
The first cut is always the harshest. Some Idol seasons experiment with the Top 24 (like that season where they went from 24 to Top 13 in one round), but this season we're getting the long route possibly because of Empire's well deserved hold on Fox's schedule. With this second round whittling the Top 24 to Top 16, I get flashbacks to early cuts like Season 9's Todrick Hall or Lily Scott before we got to see how talented they really were. I was very worried for my favorites Quentin and Jax, because they're great but they're very weird.
Thankfully, the cuts weren't too surprising overall (as only eight boys and eight girls performed this week) and I'm pretty happy with the results. But I'm not happy that American Idol is already having theme weeks. While "Motown Week" led to a great performance by guest mentor Aretha Franklin, these old fashioned themes always clash with Idol's strive for relevancy. But, like in these previous weeks, all of the contestants had a few problems. The kids on Idol never quite gel with Motown.
But whatever. Praise be to our lord and savior, Aretha Franklin.
What's Going on With Glee's Final Season?
I've been watching Glee on Fox for a very long time. A "Gleek" who has been attached from its inception as a thirteen episode miniseries, to full series order, to second season debacle, trying out for its spin-off The Glee Project on Oxygen, its tumultuous third season, its fourth season semi-reboot shift to New York, its fifth season mid season shift away from McKinley to New York due to a big loss, the death of Cory Monteith and subsequent tribute episode "The Quarterback," and finally, its thirteen episode final season. The show has been through major ups and downs through the years and this last season has certainly been the worst the series has had to offer. Yes, even worse than season four's "Shooting Star."
But why is that? Because Glee doesn't care whether or not we like it anymore. With nothing to lose, the show is taking the biggest risks in its history and that should make for an entertaining watch, yet we've gotten nothing of the sort. Rather than going out with an explosive bow, it's like we're watching these characters circling the drain slowly singing their woes away.
Let's start from the beginning. When the final season began, I was extremely hopeful for what was to come. For those who haven't been sticking around, Glee was no longer the show about losers it originally started as. The New Directions went on to win sectionals, regionals, nationals, and Rachel went on to NYADA (a performing arts university) in New York, landed a role in a Broadway revival of the movie Funny Girl, and then quit that in order to pursue a TV career. Basically, success had become moot as it just seemed to endlessly come. As Rachel reached higher and higher, her stories became less palatable and less engaging. But the final season's premiere fixed that. It reset all of the easy (and noticeably faux) success given to the New Directions as Rachel is forced to go back home to Lima after her TV career fails to take off. And in awesomely Glee fashion, it was during a surprisingly emotional musical number. Rachel and Kurt decide to restart McKinley's Glee club, recruit a new team of kids, and for the first two episodes everything was pretty great.
There were tons of allusions to the first season too. The "New" New Directions started with five kids, like with the original season, they were full of seemingly nuanced characters (and not just the plain archetypes featured in the past), and there was a seemingly tight storyline that set the final season in motion. But that all fell by the wayside pretty quickly. The show quickly forgot about the new perspectives and once again shoehorned in old ideas. With episode three, "Jagged Little Tapestry," we got all of Glee's faux pas in one sitting. Bringing in graduated characters and making them seem like they never grew up, focusing an entire episode on a esoteric set of songs, and one of the saddest character arcs in its history.
My favorite characters through Glee's six season run are Dave Karofsky and Coach Shannon Beiste. It should be telling that Glee can't really write its characters well when two secondary characters actually had the most evolution through the show, but their journeys have been incredibly emotional. But this final season has made a tragic decision. By celebrating itself and promoting equal treatment, it strains and stretches all of its characters into caricatures. Don't get me wrong, equal treatment advocacy on television is fantastic, but it can't work like this. Glee hasn't dealt with these topics with a deft hand in the past and the negativity has built to such a point, it's all blowing up in its face. During episode three, Beiste confessed she had Gender Dysphoria. She stated that she was never comfortable in her body, and always felt she was more masculine. Then after two of the worst episodes in series history (they're completely unrelated to this and deal with Sue wanting Kurt and Blaine to get married just because it's what the show wants even if it makes zero sense), Shannon becomes Sheldon. Although episode seven, "Transitioning," featured one of the best covers in the series (and a choir of 300 trans individuals) this decision made zero sense overall.
First of all, Shannon has dealt with dysphoria throughout the series but it was never a result of her feeling more masculine than feminine. Her entire arc centered around not being treated like the woman she felt she was. The writers just never knew what to do with her. She once had a crush on Will Schuester, competed with Sue for a boyfriend, was in and out of an abusive marriage, and just sort of floated around in the wayside while Glee focused on the same six characters it always had. Glee hasn't had the best track record with trans equality either (it spent its fourth and fifth seasons demeaning Unique by referring to her as "He/Him/It " several times without fulling acknowledging her wishes to be a woman), so this just screams of a false attempt at balancing out the past. It's a ploy rather than the grand gesture it's meant to be and it feels incredibly manipulative...much like its double gay wedding episode.
Yet, Glee no longer cares. This final season is a result of throwing caution into the wind and fulfilling all sorts of desires without giving us a real reason to want to watch. Instead of feeling like a celebration and victory lap, it's a culmination of everything that's been bad about the show over the years. Sure the show hasn't had the best ratings in later seasons, but that's no reason to give up and be as completely esoteric as it is. I never thought I'd watch a double gay wedding episode featuring a song by Gloria Estefan and simply roll my eyes. How can something so effervescent feel so bland and colorless?
I've known Glee was a problematic show from the start, but I stuck around because it managed to hit some genius places every now and again. It's a unique show in television history, and I'm glad I waded through the muck to get here. But was it so wrong for me to want more before it takes the stage one last time? Instead we're getting these thrown together episodes with very little thought put into them as these characters forgo thought processes in order to sloppily serve the story.
It's a shame this won't be as good as the tightly wound first season but, with only a couple of episodes left, there's still time to bring about a satisfying endgame. Aww, who am I kidding? I'll be fine with just a re-up of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'."
Because after all, I'm also just a small town girl livin' in a lonely world.
[American Idol-izer] Top 12 Boys & Girls Perform
Over the years, American Idol's contestants have skewed younger and younger. Lowering its audition age to 15 following the Bieber craze, while still keeping its age cap at 29, we've seen plenty of questionable choices make it this far. Its biggest competitor, NBC's The Voice (in its seemingly 20th season), has gotten so popular because it capitalized on that void and always produces fun to watch acts groomed through years of performing experience.
The lack of experience has never been more evident than this season. While few of the contestants stood out before now, the live shows are usually their chance to break out and get votes. But instead, all we've gotten is a bunch of kids garbling and warbling through poorly chosen songs. It's created a highly visible rift between those who ready, and those we won't want to watch later on.
[American Idol-izer] Top 24 Revealed
After a few weeks of auditions and drama, we've finally got our Top 24 contestants for American Idol XIV. While I don't particularly agree with some of the decisions, unlike other years, I'm okay with the spread overall (even if it skews very, very young this year) There was one moment in particular that irked me during the "Green Mile" process (Why do they call it that?), and I'll get to that in a bit. But if you've been following the posts I've written for this show so far, you already have a jist of my opinions.
So, without further ado, here are the Top 24 finalists heading to the live shows next week (where voting begins) arranged by how much I'm rooting for them.
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[American Idol-izer] Hollywood Week(s)
One of my favorite parts of American Idol is Hollywood Week. Through its fourteen season run, the arduous week of auditions, which include a solo round, a group number, and two follow up solo auditions, narrows the 300 something contestants into an eensy Top 24. Agree or disagree on whether or not each singer deserves their spot as much as you like, but we can all agree how wonderfully dramatic all of it is. Taking advantage of how staged the process is, and AI's usually goofy editing, Hollywood Week is always the best reality TV money can buy.
For Season XIV, it's been a bit different. With fewer spills, fewer breakdowns, but many more talented contestants, there's been less of a focus on the crazy stuff. It's better for everyone that way anyway. Let's go over the highlights of the last two weeks of this, uh, single week.
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Hollywood Week Part 1 (2/4/15)
Last season, the first part of Hollywood Week had the most interesting change yet. The folks who didn't get three yeses during the city auditions had to audition once more in some abandoned airline hangar somewhere all Mad Max style. It was incredibly nerve wracking as you could see contestants crumble over the shake up. Then the coolest part of all of that was the idols to be were placed on two different buses, one going to Hollywood and one to the airport to take them back home. I was hoping for a huge shake up to follow during this season, but was unfortunately given none of that. Instead we got a consequence free (as no one was sent home despite wonky performances) day of performances from the auditioners who stood out the most.
But it wasn't all bad. Jax was the highlight (I'm rooting for you, girl) and one girl fell under the pressure because she felt she need to get her parents "out of the hood." That's way too much pressure for a child to bear, but luckily she's pulled it together long enough to perform.
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Hollywood Week Part 2 (2/5/15)
So this is where all the good stuff started. The group rounds have always led to the juiciest edits as the round naturally creates villains and in-fighting among team members. Some team members go to sleep before others, people blame each other for faulty performances, and so on. But this year we didn't get any of that. The only drama we got was when one girl, Alexis Granville, couldn't find a group, joins a group full of folks I don't like (and Jax) and almost passes out due to panic attacks. This also meant the episode ended on a cliffhanger for some reason. The problem was I didn't care about this girl. They haven't shown any of her auditions in full, and her singing voice is nowhere near the level of the others.
One thing has bothered me since Simon (and to a lesser extent, Nikki Minaj) left that ties in to all this: the constant "kid gloves." In years past, if a contestant forgot the lyrics or broke down under pressure, they'd be sent home instantly. It showed how little experience they had and how they'd fare during the live shows. We shouldn't be getting situations like this anymore. We all know Alexis Grendel won't make the cut, so why make a big deal?
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Hollywood Week Part 3 (2/11/15)
Surprisingly, Alexis makes the cut. She still made it to the next solo round for some reason while arguably more deserving contestants like Rocky, who called and told his mom their life was going to change before getting cut. Ugh, it was heartbreaking. But at least there were some good group auditions. Blvd. (which was comprised of my early faves Cody Fry and Rayvon Owen) was fantastic and Ladies Keep Your Clothes On (formed with precocious youngsters that're all probably going to make the Top 24). All in all, nothing big happened here.
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Hollywood Week Part 4 (2/12/15)
After the group rounds, the remaining 100 something contestants go through one more solo round before getting cut to the Top 48. Here's were it got particularly frustrating as lots of great folks went home for stupid reasons. Jess Lamb (who I pointed out in my first article for the season for her piano audition), and Adam Lasher (Carlos Santana's nephew) who both delivered great Hollywood week performances. It all seems strange when a contestant like Joey Cook, great as she is, can forget her lines twice and still make it through or Nick Fradiani is praised as "experienced" at age 28 when Jess Lamb was more "beaten down" at age 29.
But it wasn't all bad news. One standout solo in particular was Quentin Alexander, the extremely cool and stylish contestant would be missed if he didn't make the final cut. There's no way he's not making the Top 24. Also, Alexis Granville was finally sent home after she broke down again and failed to sing on key. No more free passes, so yay!
That's it for this catch up! This week takes the Top 48 to the House of Blues where they'll perform once last time before the Top 24 is officially revealed. Rumor has it something big went down during the performance so I can't wait to see what comes next.
Jon Stewart Is Leaving The Daily Show After Changing Late Night In the 21st Century
As a kid I sometimes stayed up late to watch the first 15 minutes of Johnny Carson even though I was too young to get the jokes. When Carson left The Tonight Show, I remember adults expressing fondness for him, but Carson as a cultural phenomenon was something I was too young to feel attached to. David Letterman, whose last show is in May, I'm more on board with, but even still, there's a sense of a generational divide, like I missed that train by a decade.
That's not the case with Jon Stewart. We go way back. I was at least aware of Stewart as a TV personality in the early 90s thanks to the short-lived MTV show You Wrote It, You Watch It (the phrase "fish butt" still makes me giggle) and the more successful Jon Stewart Show. As for The Daily Show, I've watched it pretty regularly it since the Craig Kilborn days (which introduced me to the cult masterpiece Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky), but it was Stewart who gave the program a political edge and a moral imperative. That sense of purpose transformed The Daily Show into its own vital late-night entity, one that's as been as important and influential as Late Night with David Letterman and the revamped Saturday Night Live of the late 80s.
With Letterman and Stewart leaving their shows this year, the whole face of late-night programming will change for Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials. But we knew Letterman's exit was coming for a while. Stewart's unexpected announcement yesterday made me especially wistful when it came to my formative late-night memories.
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Stewart isn't retiring from the public eye as far as anyone knows, but the collective shock was enough to render Brian Williams' half-year suspension from NBC an also-ran headline. It's a testament to how much The Daily Show has become a comedy institution that's also more trusted than news itself. Comparisons to Letterman and SNL are warranted. The Daily Show is its own irreverent beast, and it's catapulted multiple careers while changing what late night could be for the the 21st century.
Yet The Daily Show is synonymous with Stewart, which is common when a host puts a stamp on a show. Even as correspondents left to start their own careers—Stephen Colbert, fittingly, to carry the torch from Letterman; John Oliver, also fittingly, to carry The Daily Show's torch in the form of Last Week Tonight—Stewart remained the program's lovably impish center. Viewers could count on him to be honest whether expressing heartbreak, moral outrage, mocking incredulity, or even just confused resignation. Seeing his face so often in the same late-night slot consistently calling out lies and misinformation is what led to Stewart, as much as he hated it, becoming the most trusted name in news. (Walter Cronkite by way of Ernie Kovacs.)
There was speculation that NBC had courted Stewart to host Meet the Press. Nevermind that Stewart's style is too combative for Meet the Press, a program that, like other Sunday morning political shows, functions as a safe zone for politicians to deliver talking points without actually being held accountable—this was true even when Tim Russert was moderator, let's not kid ourselves.
And yet Stewart moderating a political show sort of made sense. Following Russert's death in 2008, Senator Joe Lieberman called Russert the "Explainer in Chief of our political life." For many Gen Xers and Millennials, Jon Stewart was their Explainer in Chief.
The television I loved and that proved so influential to me had that "Explainer In Chief" quality. My understanding of adult life has been molded by or linked to late-night comedy. (This is something I'll probably need to explain to a therapist someday.)
One of the first non-kid books I remember buying was a collection of Letterman top 10 lists. Re-runs of early Letterman were on the E! channel, and SNL's 80s Renaissance was ongoing and also being re-run on Comedy Central (for a while, the original cast in truncated form could also be seen on Nick at Night). Throughout high school, I'd stay up to watch Conan O'Brien. On the verge of being canceled for months, Conan's show in those wild and woolly days featured dancing/farting hot dogs, a 1950s robot dressed as a 1970s pimp, and staring contests chock full of dadaist sight gags. The Daily Show became political when I turned 18, and while I was at least semi-aware of political conversations via Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect, the kinds of concerns and forms of critique and discourse on The Daily Show would prove more influential to my political views as an adult.
In some ways, I grew up on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, but I came of age with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Growing up and getting older with someone on TV is such a strange thing. Even though Stewart's still hosting and the show will continue without him, I caught myself thinking of The Daily Show in the past tense a few times while writing this piece, like an era had already ended simply because I knew it was going to end.
There's going to be a long goodbye to Stewart in the coming months and loads more writing about The Daily Show's place in the late-night canon, not to mention its influence on a new generation of comedians, satirists, media critics, and journalists. There's the odd excitement (tinged with fear) of change and how the new host of The Daily Show will put his or her stamp on the program. The guest list should get more interesting, and I sense Stewart's impending departure may even prompt Senator John McCain to return to The Daily Show for the first time since 2008.
And there are all those questions about why Stewart's going and what's next. Maybe more filmmaking, maybe a political run (like late-night comedy alumnus Al Franken?), maybe a new show with a different format. Maybe, as he alluded to on last night's show, Jon Stewart just wants to watch his own children grow up and become adults.
I miss him already.
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.