The reason I’m entranced by The Voice
I have never voluntarily stayed on a reality TV program for longer than it takes to change the channel, and yet, last night, it was so.
Last night I watched The Voice. Not only did I watch it, but I structured my evening around it.
No, you don't understand. This is the first time in my life that I've ever thought "ooh! I better start dinner! It has to be done by the time Australia's Biggest Dancing Block is on!"
The Voice is special. It seems unspoiled. It seems genuine.
Ever since Australia was infected with reality TV, a lot of different franchises have come and gone, but let's talk about a couple that are on right now that I have been coerced into watching.
The Biggest Loser is Channel Ten's biggest reality show at the moment. The show is ostensibly about fat people being tortured in different ways for the entertainment of the public. We can say that it's about people getting healthy, but really it's about schadenfreude.
In an epic fat-burning journey, the contestants are forced to go off their regular diet, which makes them grumpy. Then the show makes them crawl through mud and lift heavy things and ride exercise bikes until they cry. Then they dangle delicious food in front of them and watch them succumb to temptation.
Meanwhile, the frustrated, starving, angry contestants all shout at each other and stab each other in the back. The drama is so delicious that we wish we could dangle it in front of them for a temptation challenge.
Then there's Celebrity Apprentice, Channel 9's remake of a successful American comb-over-based show. A bunch of "celebrities" talk about each other like they're actually famous, then generate drama out of nothing in order to keep an audience watching.
The real drama comes from the desperation that the "celebrities" feel over how long they're going to get to stay on the show, because the longer they stay on, the stronger the tiny spark of fame is.
The Voice is different for two primary reasons:
Number one: The judges are actually famous, and not for being married to someone, or for winning a reality TV competition sometime, or for doing something crazy that gave them 15 minutes of fame, but actually for their talents.
Soul singer Seal has been on the world stage for over two decades; rocker Joel Madden's band Good Charlotte are internationally famous and still making records; Delta Goodrem is still one of the darlings of Australian music; Keith Urban has a serious following for his country-rock music, particularly in the United States (he's been doing well at hiding the fact that his Aussie accent is almost gone).
The fame of these four judges/coaches far surpasses the competing judges in other similar shows. Invariably, the alternative "talent show" formats all resort to using pseudo-celebrities to fill the judge slots.
While I can easily name several of the four The Voice judges' hit songs, I struggle to name even one of Dannii Minogue's. I find myself really caring what they think and growing to love their anachronisms: the way Keith sings along to the songs; the way Delta beams at every contestant as she turns her chair; Joel's inability to sit still for longer than 45 seconds; Seal's insistence on giving everyone a hug, all the time. I feel like I'm really learning about these people. It doesn't seem like an act.
Nailing stars of this calibre down for the amount of time it must take to make this show can't have been cheap for Channel 9, but whoever made that call deserves a raise - if there's any money left.
Other talent shows also seem to think they need a bad boy character on the panel as well.
These days, this place seems to always be filled by Kyle Sandilands (whose image always looks slightly out of place to me above a banner entitled "Australia's Got Talent").
Cheap shots aside, Kyle's there to imitate a role created by British music entrepreneur Simon Cowell in the show that started all this - Pop Idol (followed by American Idol). He's there to tell the occasional bad contestant that they sucked, and to be the guy everybody loves to hate. When Kyle's burns are combined with dramatic music it creates great conflict and great promos for tomorrow's show.
This role is conspicuously absent on The Voice. In fact, the concept of conflict is absent as well, which brings me to the second reason I love The Voice.
Number two: Everyone's nice to each other.
It's bizarre, but somehow, everyone being lovely and nice and polite and courteous to each other is REALLY working.
The judges seem to all love each other - Seal and Joel are building quite the bromance, while Keith and Delta are quietly forming their own secret bond between Aussies down the other end. Beyond that, they all seem to have a respect for both the work and talents of the other judges.
Also, they all are lovely to the contestants. Even the contestants that are turned down by the judges are complimented on their strengths and given advice on how they can improve. It's a wonderful thing to see.
The effect of all this niceness is that it feels like I'm not being told who to like and who to hate, who to mock and who to root for. I don't feel like I'm being emotionally manipulated, and that allows the natural drama to unfold.
Last night a middle aged rock-band front man came to the competition with his wife and kids. He sang his heart out, but was rejected by the judges. Seal said he thought the man was nervous and uncomfortable without his band, and the man agreed. He went backstage with a smile on his face to find one of his kids crying. The man gave his son a cuddle and said "Don't cry. Daddy's not crying."
There was no emotive music, just the actual emotion of the scene. It was beautiful.
In previous talent shows like Australian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, it's been all about the manipulative back-story, the emotional music, the tears of joy, despair or anger. In this show there seems to be warmth and love in the studio that isn't being ruined by mean comments or fake emotions.
That's not to say that The Voice is perfect. I'm still not sure why the host of this Australian TV show has a Scottish accent, and I'm also not sure what's going to happen once they've collected their 48 contestants and we start having public votes deciding their fate. It has the potential to descend into long, drawn out Elimination Episodes, which to me is a recipe for very boring and emotionally manipulative television, where you'll find out who will be voted out after three to four more ad-breaks.
Channel 9 seems to have a big winner on their hands. The Voice is rating phenomenally, and it's created must-see television on 3 nights of the week, and here we come to the reason I was glued to the box last night: reality TV can't stay this good for long... can it?