I posted over the weekend the following statement about FOX’s new reality series ‘On the Lot’:
As we head into the finalist-segment of the show where people will compete on a weekly basis, the show is in jeopardy of being cancelled and being replaced by repeats of House and ‘Til Death. I believe that the show deserves to continue as its real format that will be followed for the rest of the year has yet to be revealed. However, it needs to pull itself together and emphasize the product that it is creating. That website is worthwhile, interesting: I can only hope that the show, at some point, becomes the same.
Well, last night in a two-hour extravaganza, we saw what that final format was. And, I think the general consensus is that it was a soul-sucking, awful, derivative version of American Idol with little to no understanding of the show’s true qualities. It had a number of different problems, all of which are the result of simply poor execution on the part of producers.
1. The Judges
American Idol works because its judges can be harsh, and because they actually provide some level of constructive criticism as to the singing that occured. And, for them it’s easy: good singing is good singing, and bad singing is bad singing. Songs that hurt our ears are bad, songs which seem pleasurable are good.
The problem is that filmmaking, far more than singing, is a subjective art form. This week, provided with a broad category of comedy, different people did very different things…and yet the judges didn’t criticize them for it. Rather than really analyzing their filmmaking techniques, everything was covered in platitudes. They were will to be far less positive and even negative with some films for being politically incorrect, for being incomprehensible, but they were only willing to say that it was “not their type of humour”.
This is why the American Idol format of a judging panel doesn’t really work. These people should be analyzing these films in a much more direct nature, and these judges can’t do it. Carrie Fisher is far too sweet and kind, and her criticism never seems strong enough. D.J. Caruso seemed to know the most about filmmaking, but he’s just a guest judge.
And then there’s Garry Marshall. Who kept talking about how he loves women directors, and how he would love to see more of them, every time he talked to a female director. He was incomprehensible at points, failing to get his point across, and the person sitting in that chair should be someone relevant and understandable.
2. The Host
I don’t know her name, and I don’t really care enough to look it up: no matter who she is, she was a terrible, terrible host for the show. This is a show about short films, and it needs a host who actually knows about them. They need someone snarky, someone sarcastic, someone capable of actually reacting to some of these films in a realistic fashion. The host needs a sense of humour, and she doesn’t have one.
And it drags everything else down: it makes it seem like just another second-rate Idol rip-off when it could be a first-rate Idol ripoff with the right sense of presentation…and Ms. Costa is not living up to that. I think that’s her name, anyways.
3. The Contestants
Honestly, some of these people are incredibly stupid. I can’t tell who I think is worse: Kenny for basically copying Bam Margera’s filmmaking style, or Marty for thinking that ignoring the assignment (A 1-minute comedy short) by making a trailer was “taking a risk” as opposed to “ignoring the assignment”.
They’re actually kind of interesting, some of them, but with 18 of them there’s just no time for differentiation. I have no clue who some of them even are, and I really don’t view this as a problem. They are diverse personalities, but they seem willing to whore themselves out to this show a little bit too much.
4. The Films
The films were interesting, intriguing, and it’s too bad they had to be part of this crappy show. Each showed us a glimpse of their filmmaking talent: in the case of Kenny’s skateboard video, he was revealed to be a talentless hack. In the case of Andrew, he was revealed to be someone who knows what it takes to win (A Barfing Alien is a commercial goldmine). For someone like Will, whose “Lucky Penny” was perhaps the most universally loved film, it showed that he had an eye for humour and heart. These films are fascinating.
But why can’t the show be fascinating too? I couldn’t even spend two hours watching the trite and frustrating episode, opting instead to check out the films online this morning. This is a show that works under a great concept, but is bogged down by its inability to escape television conventions. The involvement of Steven Spielberg has only brought us the following tradition.
Host: “…and they’ll receive a one-year deal from Dreamworks Studios!”
Cut to: Audience applauding.
Every. Single. Time. We get it, Steven. You run Dreamworks. We don’t need to be shown people applauding that fact every few minutes.
It is this type of inane stuff that makes me wish that we were to the point where reality competitions could be online entirely. They would be less painful, and perhaps the show could live up to its potential on a smaller and less annoying stage.
Cultural Learnings 