The Voice

The Voice is a show on NBC that I'm liking more and more. The premise is that this show is based more on finding great voices than looks. While I don't think they're totally sticking to that idea, I still enjoy the show. Today I decided to do a kind of review on the show. I say "kind of" a review because I'm mainly going to be discussing some of my thoughts on the show and different moral dilemmas that have come up (who would have thought that

In the first two episodes, people who had previously auditioned for the show and were picked to perform, performed for the four judges while they had their backs turned (thus they would be picked on voice alone). The judges had to pick eight people for their team out of the many that performed, and if they wanted a certain person on their team, they would push a button and their chair would turn around. If more than one judge turned around, the person would pick which judge they wanted. Now the show is in the battle rounds where each judge pairs up people in their team and the two singers have to sing the same song on the stage but only one of them gets to move on.

So, now for the good stuff. While I applaud the show for having the original auditions where the judges couldn't see the performers, I think that as soon as the judges turn around, the show isn't about their voice anymore. Especially because from that point on, all of their performances are watched by the judges. Also, I think it would've been better if the viewers weren’t shown the performers at first as well. But maybe that’s asking too much, I mean it is a tv show. Either way, I guess, the coaches seem to be focusing on voices, which is good.

As far as the contestants themselves go, during the auditions I didn’t think they were that good. I thought some people had great voices and other people really weren’t that good. BUT, during the first battle round, I liked everybody’s voices a whole lot better. I thought they all did fantastic! And I definitely did not envy the coaches’ positions, I could not have chosen between any of them. Despite the fact that there were some fantastic duets during the first battle round, I find the whole idea of a battle round sad. Maybe I’m biased because I hate competition more than anything, but I just think it would be terrible to have to sing a song with someone else knowing that your coach could only pick one of you to move on and that you had to sing better than the other person to stay on the show. That would seriously suck! It made me think about what I would do in that position (even though I will never find myself in that position) and I think that honestly I would either purposely do bad or ask my coach not to pick me, which seems silly, but I really, really, really, really, really hate competition.

The first battle round also brought about some moral dilemmas. Everyone that I wanted to go through was picked to move on. BUT I started wondering if I wanted certain people to go on because I thought they did better than the other person or if there were other reasons. For example, the first match-up was between two ladies on Christina’s team and I wanted Frenchie Davis to go through, and while I’m pretty sure that I wanted her to go through because I thought she legitimately did better than the other lady, the other lady also seemed really cocky and I don’t like It when people are cocky, so I was wondering if I didn’t want her to go through because she was cocky and not because she didn’t do as well. Also, there was another match-up between a guy called Patrick and a guy called Tyler. They sang “Burnin Love” and both did really really good. I wanted Patrick to go through, and he did, but afterwards again I was wondering if my motives were pure or not. First of all, I thought I might want Patrick to go through simply because he looked so sad when two of the other judges said that they would pick Tyler ( I have a tendency to root for the underdog). Also, Patrick was pretty cute. But also, Tyler during the audition round said this thing about how it was hard growing up Mormon because he was gay and he hadn’t come out to his father yet, but he guessed that by saying so on the show he was coming out to his father, and that just didn’t sit well with me. SO, did I really think Patrick sang the song better? Or did I just not like Tyler enough to wish him well? It makes you think about what really motivates people to make their decisions in situations like this, there are so many factors that may be subconscious.

Despite the fact that I went through some semi-depressing moral dilemmas after the show, I can’t wait for next week’s episode. I really enjoyed the duets in the last episode, I thought that everyone’s voice was fantastic, and I would recommend this show to anyone who enjoys music.

Also, because I can’t help it, as a final side note, Adam Levine always looks really really nice. Even with a beard.