For many networks this week marked the beginning of the fall television season. Some might say that with the advent of the summer series, premium cable, on demand, DVRs, and Netflix, the “new television season” has lost some of its specialness, but clearly they’re grouches and I won’t waste my time on them.
Among the returning bunch of shows are a whole slew of reality talent competitions. After all, it has been several days since the summer reality talent competitions crowned their champions. I know we’ve all got talent and think we can dance and just want our shot at the x factor, but I think it might be time to scale back on the televised avenues available to achieve those dreams.
Although, to be honest, the sheer number of them wouldn’t bother me quite so much if the majority of them didn’t thrive on humiliating the delusional ones. Could some of these less musically talented egos use a check? Yes. Does it need to be nationally televised? No.
You can blame the producers, the talent, and Simon Cowell all you want, but at the end of the day these shows are staying on the air because we’re watching them. Sure, they go on to build up the ones that made the cut and it’s inspiring. So why not skip the televising of the putting down?
I could proselytize for days on the “everyone gets a trophy” philosophy this myriad of “get rich quick” talent shows enables, not to mention the illusion it’s created for so many aspiring performers; however I think I’ll let one of the great tales of the 21st century help me out.
This sage advice comes from an unlikely place: Pixar’s “Ratatouille.” In perhaps the greatest of modern soliloquies, the notoriously brutal food critic Anton Ego comes to understand the true meaning of the catch phrase of his former nemesis, Gusteau: ”Anyone can cook.”
As Ego comes to realize, Gusteau did not mean that anyone could be a great cook, but that a great cook could come from anywhere…much like great advice (thank you Pixar).
Now, to translate that into the world of reality talent shows, I believe that at their heart these shows (at one point) meant to highlight that a talented singer (dancer, magician, etc.) could come from just about anywhere, and that the truly talented deserved that shot. Unfortunately they’ve become a platform for creating as many celebrities who are famous for being famous as they have actual music artists.
Do I expect that to change anytime soon? Probably not, but I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that there are better choices out there. This is a golden age of television, there are wonderful stories being told and you’re watching mediocre singers embarrass themselves for the sake of 15 seconds of fame. Take a chance, step away from the spectacle of the reality show and hear a story.
To conclude, that’s why I watch “The Voice.”
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…bi-daily smile…
