The X Factor Finals: Week 7

November 23, 2009 9 Comments

This week’s theme was George Michael.  Meh.

Saturday

Running Time (including the Xtra Factor): 140 minutes

Time I watched it in: 59 minutes

X Factor Ratio: 42.1%

Lloyd – Faith – The exciting news is that Lloyd has had a bit of a haircut.  The unexciting news is that his singing is as ropey as ever.   It’s not that he’s got a bad voice, as such, he’s just really patchy.  I suppose that you have to remember that he’s only 16.  There’s no George Michael masterclass, so the theme seems a bit OTT.

Louis is wearing a ridiculous bow-tie, and so it really suited him.  The crowd went wild because Simon described the performance as ‘not bad’.  Is this the level that we’ve sunk to?

Stacey – Don’t know – They had her sat down to start the performance whilst wearing a very short dress – quite brave.  The song was really boring, whatever it was.   It would have been quite a good performance but there were one or two dodgy bits in it.  She’s still a lovable gonk though.

The crowd seemed to be suffering from mass hysteria; I wonder what they feed to them before it starts.  Stacey looks really bashful when she gets praise, which is quite endearing.  People will probably think that she was putting it on, though.

John and Edward – I’m Your Man – This was a relatively subdued performance from the twins as they cavorted around on a 20-foot high scaffold.  They were definitely back in the absolutely rubbish category, but at least they aren’t boring.  Simon described them as an “unstoppable machine” – a truly frightening thought.

Danyl – Careless Whisper – I don’t really know what I thought about it.  He’s on a different level to the other acts and so it’s difficult to really judge him.  Cheryl said that parts of it were really flat – she gets in her weekly Danyl dig – good girl.

Olly – Fast Love – Another one of the acts with dodgy bits.  I think I’m going to have to accept that I just don’t like him, even if it’s really unfair.  His stupid dancing was quite subdued, which was a shame.  Overall, I thought it was pretty bad, he seems to be getting worse if anything.  Danni said that there were tuning problems in the first half of the song.  I’m glad it wasn’t just me that thought so.

Joe – Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me – Simon did a great appreciative nod towards the beginning of the song.  Joe’s not really my cup of tea but he’s certainly consistent each week, and that’s more than you can say for the others.

We’ve got to the stage in the competition where Louis loves everybody.  He did manage to to open his rule book and have a go about it being an Elton John song and not a George Michael one.  Simon managed to take credit for the performance, as he always does.

The main show seemed to fly by tonight, so my comments seem to be a lot shorter than usual.  Could The Xtra Factor help me pad it out any?  Well, Joan Collins was in the audience looking like a leopard-skin scarecrow.  It was quite scary so I just focused on Holly and I felt instantly soothed.

Up in the studio with the judges and Cheryl was wearing a ridiculously short dress to be sat on a stool.  The stylists appeared to be going for the upskirt factor.

Someone asked Louis why he has to be childish whenever he’s being criticised, he said ‘because that’s what I’m like.’  Which was a good answer, to be fair.  Someone else slagged off Simon’s song choices for Danyl.  Another guy suggested that Louis has had a face-lift.  Gina phoned up and nastily accused Cheryl of favouring Joe over Lloyd.  God, I love Britain.

Predictions:

Should be in bottom 2: Lloyd + Olly

Will be in bottom 2: Lloyd + Danyl

Sunday

Running Time: 120 minutes

Time I watched it in: 35 minutes

X Factor Ratio: 29.2%

The group song was Wake Me Up Before You Go Go.  Like always, it was hideous.

Skipping through a lot of rubbish (Susan Boyle and Mariah Carey), it boiled down to John & Edward and Olly in the final two.

Jedward sang Boyzone’s No Matter What, the first time in the competition that they’ve actually ‘sung’.  It really showed just how bad they are.

Olly sang a song (I knew what it was but I’ve already forgotten what it was) and was distinctly average.  Sadly, ‘distinctly average’ is too much for Jedward to contend with.

It was pretty obvious who was going to go, but I found myself praying that the twins would survive.  Sadly they didn’t.

In conclusion

It’s quite incredible that Lloyd wasn’t in the bottom two, maybe people are voting because they feel sorry for him.  Jedward are finally gone – they were absolutely rubbish singers, but the show is going to be a lot more boring without them.  There’s no one left that I’m really rooting for – a sorry state of affairs.

My favourite acts:

1. Stacey – Meh.

2. Danyl – Meh.

3. Joe – Meh.

Total Duration: 260 minutes

Total time I spent watching it: 94 minutes

Overall X Factor Ratio: 36.2 %

Filed under Television Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The X Factor Finals: Week 6

November 16, 2009 5 Comments

This week was ‘Queen Week’ and I’m totally bored of the themes.  They could only save it by having ‘Indie Week’ in which Joe sings The Stone Roses and Jedward cover The Smiths.  We can but dream.

P.s.

I inexplicably can’t put breaks between paragraphs in Sunday’s bit.

Saturday

Running Time (including the Xtra Factor): 150 minutes.
Time I watched it in: 70 minutes
X Factor Ratio: 46.7%

The show started with a strange serious bit.  After some disparaging comments about the show, Simon challenged Sting to come on to the programme as a mentor.  Well done, Simon, you can’t beat a good celebrity feud for a bit of drama.  He then went on to insist that last week’s decision, not to save Lucie, was definitely not tactics and that he’d never do that.  He also restated the trust that has in the public to decide.  The public, coincidentally, buy records.

Jamie – ‘Radio Ga Ga’ – I think it’s a bit of a weak song but he proved that he’s actually a good singer, and didn’t do too much shouting.  I still thought he was awful though.  Cheryl sat po-faced while she was watching him and then looked bemused after he had finished.  Dannii said that the song didn’t show off his vocal range and Louis said that he’s out of his depth.  Cheryl and Simon were both complimentary about him without really saying anything.  The phrase ‘damning with faint praise’ sprang to mind.

Lloyd – ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ –  It was apparent before he even started singing that this song was too much of a stretch for Lloyd.  I felt like I had been transported to a 1980s Butlins and the Red Coats were putting on a show.  He was better than he has been in the last few weeks, though.   By that, I mean that he looked a bit less like a zombie when he was performing.

Simon described him as: ‘Like a puppy taking part in the Grand National.’  This made no sense whatsoever, but it was pretty funny.  Although, it was only funny because it didn’t really make sense.

Olly – ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ – Olly seems to be a lot of people’s favourite but I’ve never been impressed, so I tried to take a fresh look at him this week.  My instant reaction was ‘Meh?’  I suppose he’s quite good but I can’t help but feel like there’s something wrong with him – and I don’t just mean his epileptic dancing.  Dannii said to him: ‘Your dance moves are incredible.’   I came away with the feeling that maybe this means that I’m an incredible dancer too, because I can writhe around like an idiot just as well as the next man.

Joe – ‘Somebody to Love’ – I’ll just make the same point as I do every week; he’s got a good voice for musicals but he’d make the least convincing pop star since Susan Boyle.  Sadly, he’s probably one of the best singers left on the show.

Louis’ rule book reared its ugly head again, this week he claimed that having a choir was cheating. Cheryl told him to shut up.

John and Edward – ‘Under Pressure\Ice Ice Baby’ – I thought it was inevitable that they were going to speak ‘We Will Rock You’, this week.  So, if the song choice was a surprise, I don’t know how you’d describe the fact that they actually sounded OK on the singing bits (relatively speaking).  Fortunately, the ‘rapping’ (speaking) bits were terrible and so normality was restored.  At one stage a man jumped around on stage with a pineapple on his head.  It was impossible to tell if this was supposed to be part of the act or not.

I suddenly became overcome with a startling vision – Jedward are going to sell millions of records.  It was a sobering thought.

In all fairness, they were actually pretty good this week and not just ‘so bad that they’re good’.  You definitely couldn’t accuse them of being ‘karaoke’.  Obviously I say this with my X Factor head on;  I’m fully aware that in the real world they’re shit.

Louis’ rule book stayed suspiciously closed.

Stacey – ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ – If I was in a sarcastic mood I would answer: ‘Not me.’  Anyway, for the girl always accused of doing no performance they pick one the most plodding songs ever and she’s required to walk about 4 steps.  On the other hand,though, she was much better vocally than she has been recently and was easily one of the best on the night.  The judges bigged her up to the Nth degree – was she really that good or are they just scared of losing the only girl left?

Danyl – ‘We Are the Champions’ – It was a tough week for Danyl as he was given maybe one of the worst songs of all time. The first part of the performance felt like he was reining himself in too much, and so it seemed a bit strange.  He picked it up for the second half and proved that he’s still the best singer in the competition, by far.  Simon made a really good point in saying that Danyl sang the song like he meant it – it’s such a cheesey song that it’s hard to take it seriously – but Danyl managed to pull it off.

And that was all the acts done and dusted and it just remained to flick over to The Xtra Factor.  Holly revealed that  it was Calvin Harris that jumped on stage with Jedward (with a pineapple on his head), and that he had been booted out of the studio.  At least we now know that it wasn’t part of the act.

I found it pretty easy to make my predictions pretty this week:

Should be in bottom 2: Lloyd + Jamie

Will be in bottom 2: Lloyd + Jamie

Sunday

Running Time: 120 minutes
Time I watched it in: 46 minutes
X Factor Ratio: 38.3%
The group song was Bohemian Rhapsody, and, while it wasn’t quite as cringe-worthy as previous efforts, it was all pretty gang show.  Brian May and Roger Taylor joined in with them.  I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or not.
Next up was the charity single.  I think it’s actually quite good that they do this – it uses the massive popularity of the programme to raise money for a good cause – and it also gives some of the unsuccessful acts the chance to at least have one hit single.  Sadly, the song is Michael Jackson’s ‘You Are Not Alone’, one of the most depressing songs ever.
The final two were Jamie and Lloyd – Good god, my predictions were 100% right!  I claim no skill in this, I had to get it right eventually due to the law of averages.
Jamie – The Show Must Go On – Another Queen song?? Over the last couple of nights I’ve realised that I actually quite like his voice, but the problem is that he does absolutely nothing for me as a performer.  I was totally bored and fast forwarded through the second half of the song.
Lloyd – No idea (not the name of the song, I just don’t know what it was) – Lloyd is one of those singers that has a nice tone to his voice but still somehow sounds awful.  There’s not much to choose between these two – they both deserved to go.
Simon and Cheryl understandably chose to save their own acts.  Louis sent home Jamie as he thinks that Lloyd has more potential and appeal.  This meant that the final decision came to Dannii and she chose to send home Lloyd.  She did qualify this by saying that she was actively choosing to save Jamie rather than passively taking it to deadlock.  Yet again we were relying on the public vote and Jamie went home.  Simon looked like he was shocked, but how could he be?
On the Xtra Factor Simon was asked whether he used tactics by choosing the themes to suit Jamie?  His answer: ‘Obviously not.’

In Conclusion

It’s a pity that Lloyd couldn’t have gone as well as Jamie, but then we’ve already established that I don’t really like any of the acts.  Jedward survive another week which is continuing to prove that Louis was somehow right to pick them in the first place.

My favourite acts:

1. Danyl – the best singer.

2. Stacey – better than last week.

3. Jedward – they’re not boring.

Total Duration:  270 minutes

Total time I spent watching it: 116  minutes

Overall X Factor Ratio: 43.0%

 

Filed under Television Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The X Factor Finals: Week 5

November 9, 2009 2 Comments

It was ‘Movies Week’ on the X Factor this week, but this was essentially just free rein for them to pick whichever songs they wanted (virtually every popular song has appeared in one film or other).  On a personal note, my post might be a bit shorter\rubbisher this week due to blogging fatigue and a technical failure.

Saturday

Running Time (including the Xtra Factor): 155 minutes
Time I watched it in: 61 minutes

X Factor Ratio: 39.4%

Stacey – ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ from Pulp Fiction –  Stacey had a few ‘sexy’ dance moves to perform this week but it looked a bit like she’d had a stroke.  I usually quite like Stacey, but, although the vocal was technically pretty good, the performance felt really flat.  Simon got his digs in early this week with ‘it was a lazy song choice’ and ‘you could be vulnerable’.   To be fair, she could have been vulnerable as it wasn’t great.

Olly – ‘Twist and Shout’ from ???? –  I’m never really blown away by Olly and I’m starting to think it’s because he seems to give the same performance every week.  Plus, he always sings old fashioned songs.  Simon went ‘woo’ after the performance, so I guess he liked it.  Louis said:  ‘Why the silly song?’ and Dannii also had a go at him.  The judges were really on top form.  Cheryl said that he always sings retro songs; great minds think alike.

Lloyd – ‘Stand by Me’ from the film…Stand by Me? – I don’t really know what I thought of it, but if I had to guess I’d say pretty bad.  The judges are being really harsh tonight, I wonder if something was said before the show.  Lloyd, deservedly, got really bad comments so the screaming young girl vote might need to kick back in to save him.

Jamie – ‘Crying’ from ???? –  Simon pulled a funny face at the beginning of the song and it made me wonder if the rumours are true that him and Jamie don’t get along.  I thought the song was really bad, but I’m struggling to explain exactly why.  I seem to feel the same about a lot of the acts.

Apparently the song was from the film was Gummo.  Louis then claimed that Simon was cheating because he’d never heard of it.  Cheryl and Simon then had another lovers’ tiff.

Lucie – I’ve no idea what the song was, never mind the film –  While not being completely convinced, Lucie was certainly one of the better acts this week.  For the first time, I could actually imagine her being a pop star and she made the song her own, whatever it was.  She also had the best judges comments up to that point.

Danyl – ‘Purple Rain’ from Purple Rain – In a shock move, to silence his critics, Danyl had a new hair cut.  He still didn’t seem back to 100% but he was a welcome relief because he gave a good performance that left me with no mixed feelings.  Let’s hope that all the bullshit around him is done and dusted and he can just get on with him singing.  It seemed pretty obvious that Simon’s glowing praise was intended to boost his confidence.

John and Edward – ‘Ghostbusters’ from Ghostbusters – There were plenty of boos in the studio, which seemed totally unfair until they started.

Fuck.  Me.

It was perhaps the most horrific thing that I’ve ever seen as they did a panto recreation of Ghostbusters.  They even had the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man show up.   It was jaw-droppingly bad and there were plenty more boos for the twins when they had finished.  To be honest, it’s all getting a bit awkward.  Incredibly, Simon said it was ‘sort of good’ – you can take this as a sign that the end of the world is nigh.  I couldn’t decide whether he was being nice to make sure they got voted off, or if he was hedging his bets in case they win.

Joe – ‘Circle of Life’ from some Disney shite – Joe should very clearly be working in musicals, but, as much as it pains me to say so, he’s still miles better than lots of the others.

Over on The Xtra Factor I was pleased to see the judges were upstairs again.  Simon gamely picked ‘Simon’s unfair’ and the caller questioned Simon’s commitment to Jamie with Paxmanesqe determination.  Not to be outdone, Cheryl picked ‘Cheryl can’t pick songs’, which was just an excuse for someone to have a go at her.  It’s all so refreshingly honest.

I usually give my predictions for the bottom two, but I hadn’t written my notes up before the results show and so I’d feel like I was cheating if I were to do it now.

Sunday

Running Time: 120 minutes
Time I watched it in: 33 minutes

X Factor Ratio: 27.5%

Well, inexplicably, there was no sound on my recording of the results show.  Some people might consider that to be a blessing, but it does mean that I can’t give any details other than what I could guess.  Jedward were finally in the bottom two but, somewhat surprisingly, so was Lucie, who was one of the best acts this week.

I’ve no idea what the sing-off was like, or what they sang, but I’ll take a wild guess that Lucie sang better.

Bizarrely, Simon took the vote to deadlock and Lucie went home.  I can only assume that Simon must be playing some tactical game to take it to deadlock.  On the Xtra Factor everyone seemed a bit gutted.  The feeling was summed up best by Maz from Fife as she asked Simon what on earth he was playing at.

In Conclusion

Well, just as I was getting to like Lucie she went home.  I might keep my trap shut from now on.

I’ve realised that I don’t seem to like any of the acts, so I’m going to force myself to pick my top three.  These are just my personal picks and not who I think will win.  I would have included Lucie if she hadn’t gone.

1. Danyl – It doesn’t really matter if he has the ‘likeability factor’ or not, he’s easily the best singer.

2. Stacey – Incredibly, I’m really struggling to pick someone other than Danyl.  I’ve plumped for Stacey because I liked her in the early weeks.  I think she’s been pretty bad for the last two weeks.

3.  Joe – There is no rational explanation for me to pick Joe because I’ve consistently given him a slating.  In my head, I know I should pick Olly, but I just found myself picking Joe.  It’s not a good sign for the series as a whole that it was such a struggle for me to pick.

And that’s the end of this week’s rather lacklustre report.  You can tell that I wasn’t really in the mood because I’ve sworn at least 3 times during the course of the post and I’m such a good boy that I don’t usually use naughty words.  I’ll see you next week for whatever bogus theme they think up.

Total Duration:  275 minutes

Total time I spent watching it: 94  minutes

Overall X Factor Ratio: 34.2%

Filed under Television Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The X Factor Finals: Week 4

November 2, 2009 6 Comments

It was ‘Rock Week’ on the X Factor this week and it meant that I might possibly like some of the songs.   That said, they were always likely to be somewhat flexible in their definition of ‘rock’, so I wasn’t banking on liking any of them.  On a more mundane note, I hurriedly finished this post on my dinner, so please forgive any mistakes until I get chance to go back and edit it.

Saturday

Running Time (including the Xtra Factor): 165 minutes
Time I watched it in: 78 minutes

X Factor Ratio: 47.3%

Without further ado, let’s get down to the singing:

Joe – So far he has been my least favourite contestant, perhaps unfairly.  Even though I had no idea what the song was that he was singing,  I actually hated it less than his other performances.  That’s quite a compliment coming from me.

It struck me, even this early in the evening, that there’s a possibility that none of the contestants actually have the x-factor this year.  Disappointingly, there was no Bon Jovi master class; I was strangely looking forward to it.

Lucie – I had pretty much the same thoughts as I did last week; she’s got a lovely voice but it all seems a little half-hearted.  I feel completely unfair criticising someone who sings so well, but you end up being hyper-critical when you watch these kind of programmes.  Simon came up with his first of many funny quotes: ’The reason I didn’t like you last week is because you were boring.’  Mr Cowell did praise her but it felt a little like he was forced to.  It made me wonder if, following last week’s shocks, they were going to be grimly positive for anyone that they consider to be a ‘singer’.

Danyl – The performance that all the vultures were looking forward to most; how would he cope after the shock of last week?  It’s not quite clear to me why he is  ’hated’ and  I find it all slightly weird.  His introductory VT set the scene with the obligatory sob story.  Danyl sang the Aerosmith ‘Armageddon’ song, which was a classic Simon song choice.  Incredibly, the early part of the song was awful – he didn’t sing the melody and he was out of tune.  What on earth has gone wrong with him?  It was a terrible performance and he knew it; he looked like a broken man.  Dannii’s comments were spot on, but it felt a little harsh after he had been so much better than anyone else in previous weeks.  Cheryl told him that, ‘You don’t do it for me’, which seemed like she was being tactical again.  Simon cagily praised the second half of the song, but the implications for the first half were clear.

The cynical part of my brain wondered if he was acting sad on purpose.

Lloyd – In previous weeks I’ve been quite lenient on Lloyd because I like the tone of his voice.  Sadly, a poor vocal this week highlighted his rabbit in the headlights performance style, but I don’t want to be too harsh on him because he is only 16.  He sang a Katy Perry song so you can consider the definition of rock well and truly stretched.

If he didn’t have screaming girls voting for him then he’d be in real trouble this week.

Stacey – They gave her a more elaborate performance this week after being compared to a statue in previous episodes.  The first half of the song consisted of her sitting on a box which is surely less effort than standing still.  Eventually she did a bit of walking whilst singing.  What amazing choreography.

I like Stacey purely because I could imagine listening to her to help me fall asleep.  This is weird in iteself as I don’t listen to music when I’m falling asleep and it can hardly be considered a compliment.  Simon said: ’I was more impressed with your walking than with your singing.’

Jamie – It was a deceptively tough night for Jamie because it was ‘his week’ and he needed to do something special.  He didn’t. And, to make matters worse, the fake band were back.

I feel like I judge him more harshly than some of the others, I think, because I expect more from him.  I didn’t like it, but was he really any worse than anybody else?  I’m finding it increasingly difficult to make objective comments on any of them.

Cheryl questioned why we suddenly have rock week in the one year that Simon has a rock singer in his category.  Simon looked deeply offended by the insinuation.  Awesome.

Rachel – She really stepped up last week and needed to keep her momentum going.  The first thing to that needs to be mentioned is the terrible dress that she was wearing.  Even I could have picked a better one.  Not that it’s really relevant.  She sang ‘One’ by U2 and I was a bit worried during the first half of the song, but she really pulled it together and was probably the best act so far.

Simon, modest as ever, said: ’I take complete credit for turning you around.’

I feel like there is a decrease in the number of sarcastic jokes in my post this week. They’re obviously not giving me enough material to work with.

John and Edward – Simon said (as he was laughing): ‘This is worse than a nightmare.’  The nightmare certainly continued as The Twerps did a rap version of ‘We Will Rock You’ by Queen.  It was certainly very appropriate for Halloween.  My theory, on Friday, that they would be asked to do a toned down performance was WAY off the mark.

Actually this was the least bad that they’ve been in the whole competition, which, ironically, means that they’re probably going home.  God forgive me for saying this, but I would sort of prefer them to  stay in rather than some of the others.  At least they have a bit of personality.

Olly – Oh yeah, that Olly guy is still in the competition.  I can’t really criticise him vocally, but he’s yet another contestant where I’m just not feeling it.  Simon seemed to like it; he looked like he was being sucked off under the desk.  Olly was the final act for the night.

Over on The Xtra Factor, the judges were in the upstairs studio and took part in a new feature in which they picked a viewer to speak to, based on a brief headline.  It was actually quite a funny segment and the judges had fun picking callers to wind each other up.  On a logistical note, Cheryl was really not wearing the right dress to be perched on a stool and she did well to conceal herself.  It’s a real struggle for me not to say something complimentary about Holly.

The best part of the whole evening came when Heidi from the Sugababes phoned up and Simon sarcastically asked how they were all getting on these days.   They swiftly moved on.

I’m really struggling to know who to pick in my predictions.  Nobody is rubbish, but neither is anybody standing out. As such, I’m just going to pick on whims.  To be fair, I can’t be any less accurate than previous attempts.

Should be in bottom 2: Lloyd + Jamie

Will be in bottom 2: Lucie + Rachel

Sunday

Running Time: 120 minutes
Time I watched it in: 46 minutes

X Factor Ratio: 38.3%

The show started with the customary group song and it continued its tradition of being unspeakably awful.  I don’t think we should discuss it any further.

I fast forwarded through lots of stuff here and got straight to the results with Rachel and Lloyd being the bottom two.  I predicted Rachel would be there and did so simply because she had been there before.  Even though she was one of the best performers on the night, she is the one that doesn’t seem to have a fan base.  Lloyd was a surprise despite me thinking that he should be there.  A few weeks ago the Scottish block vote myth was shattered (when Rikki went home), and this week the Screaming Young Girls block vote myth was dispelled.  How bizarre.

It was a tough call on who should go.  I felt that Rachel was the stronger act, but how many second chances should you give somebody?  We’d have to see how they performed in the sing-off.

Rachel – ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’ by Oasis – It must have been tough for her in the circumstances but she pulled through and gave a good, solid performance.

Lloyd – ‘You Are So Beautiful’ by Joe Cocker – Cheryl stressed that Lloyd had a bad throat before he sang and he did a nice touch of the throat, while he was singing, to emphasise his poorliness.  To be fair, he was clearly struggling and did the best he could – which wasn’t great.

The two lady judges voted with their acts and Louis voted to save Rachel.  It was all down to Simon who fairly, yet boringly, took it to deadlock and the public vote.  Not surprisingly Rachel went home.

After switching over to The Xtra Factor, it seemed that Lloyd actually couldn’t talk.  He did well to be able to sing at all.

Following on from the success of the previous night the judges were back upstairs on their stools.  Cheryl was sensibly wearing trousers this time.  It was a good idea to move them to the Xtra Factor studio and you get much more out of them when they’re not sat in the main studio.

They went to the phone lines again and Louis loved the fact that they picked ‘Simon can’t mentor’.  The callers all tend to be unflinchingly direct and it makes for enjoyably uncomfortable viewing.  One of the callers basically just told Cheryl that her dress was horrible.  I don’t think she quite knew how to respond.  If you’re not watching this bit then you’re missing out.

In Conclusion

It’s a shame that Rachel went  home as she was by no means the worst contestant.  After this week, even taking in to account his sore throat, Lloyd seriously needs to buck his ideas up.  Quite remarkably Jedward live to fight another day. How long will their reign of terror go on?

Total Duration: 285 minutes

Total time I spent watching it:  124 minutes

Overall X Factor Ratio: 43.5%

Filed under Television Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

X Factor News (of the World)

October 30, 2009 4 Comments

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from Mark at i-level (a marketing company) offering me weekly X Factor updates supplied by the News of the World.  This gave me mixed feelings.  I find it gratifying enough when somebody reads my blog, but this was someone offering to send me exclusive material for me to use.  On the other hand, I felt a bit unsure how I felt about promoting a tabloid newspaper.  After a bit of internal debate, I’m afraid that vanity got the better of me and I thought I’d give it a try; it will be an interesting experiment if nothing else.  It’s possible that you could be questioning my integrity at this stage, but a) it’s stories about X Factor, so integrity doesn’t come in to play, and b) since I’m receiving no form of recompense for using the stories then I can’t exactly be accused of ‘selling out’.

As a Liverpool fan, I am aware that some people are uncomfortable with the NOTW as it is owned by the same parent company as The S*n and is seen as its ‘sister paper’.  It is my understanding of the boycott that it applies purely to the aforementioned ‘newspaper’, which I would have nothing to do with it.  Some of the content that I have been forwarded comes as an embedded video format, which, although it only has NOTW branding, features a link to the NOTW web-site where there is a link to the rag.  For that reason, I have decided not to use that embedded link.  I thought I better state my position clearly before I start.

Anyway, with that serious stuff out of the way, here is a preview of a couple of stories that will appear in this Sunday’s News of the World.  The first contains the X Factor’s chief choreographer Brian Friedman’s thoughts on The Twerps:

X FACTOR dance ace Brian Friedman is begging viewers to stop voting for the Grimes twins – as a win by Jedward would “make a mockery” of the show.
Choreographer Brian has admitted that while Dublin lads John and Edward are great entertainment, they could ruin the credibility of the country’s biggest singing contest because they don’t have any talent.
So bad are their raw vocals that Brian, 32, says listening to the boys sing is like “entering the gates of hell.”
Still the boys, 18, have yet to be left in the bottom two by voters – and are now ranked with a 14/1 shot at winning by bookies.
Meanwhile, Brian has been ordered by Simon Cowell to make sure star singer Danyl Johnson, 27, does not face a repeat of last week – where he was left in the bottom two despite being the head judge’s key talent.
He said Simon’s initial worries about a Grimes victory have been eclipsed by the thought that Danyl – one of Simon’s favourites to ever appear on the show – could be next to leave.
Brian said: “There is no way to figure out exactly what the public are voting for.
“But I really hope the viewers with actual music taste got the wake up call they needed with Danyl and Miss Frank being in the bottom two last week – they have to get voting for people who can sing.
“I absolutely do not think the Grimes twins deserve to win. And I’m not alone in that – but if you want to make a change you’ve got to get on the phone and vote.”

On the surface, this seems quite a non-story – anyone with any sense agrees that the twins are rubbish.  What is interesting, though, is that someone internal to the programme has come out and criticised one of the acts, and this seems quite unusual.  It’s especially strange as it is Brian’s job to prepares the contestants to perform.  Does this mean that we should expect a stripped back, no-gimmicks Jedward performance this week, in order to highlight their flaws?  You may also remember that in my post  for Week 3 that I mentioned that Brian had to go to an emergency meeting following the live results show.  This story has made me even more curious to know what was said in that meeting.

The second story is about little Lloyd:

X FACTOR heart-throb Lloyd Daniels is too busy for love – but he’s got a crush on fellow contestant Lucie Jones.
The teen hunk – dubbed a “little David Beckham” by Louis Walsh – split with girlfriend Molly shortly before things started to hot up on X Factor to avoid distractions.
But he has a huge soft-spot for fellow Welsh contestant Lucie, his best friend on the show together with Essex single-mum Stacey Solomon, according to his proud mum.
And he’s smitten with glamorous judge Cheryl Cole, too.
Lisa Daniels, 41, told the News of the World: “When he first met Lucie in the early stages of the competition, he said to me ‘mum, I’ve just met the most beautiful girl from Cardiff’.
“He said said she was absolutely stunning and lovely as well. He really liked her. Lucie and Stacey are his best friends on the show. Whenever I ring him he is with them.
“I think one of the reasons Lloyd gravitates towards Stacey is because her son Zac is close in age to his little brother Tylor who is 18-months-old.”
She added: “Lloyd thinks Cheryl is absolutely beautiful and has an incredible figure.
“For a boy of 16 she is pretty much the perfect woman. A couple of weeks ago Lloyd knocked on her dressing room door.
“He was going to ask her something, but he can’t even remember what it was now because he was so excited about what happened.
“He rang me straight after and said ‘I’ve just spent 40 minutes in Cheryl’s dressing room drinking tea with her and Louis’.
“He was so excited. I asked if they talked about his songs and routines, but he said they just talked about real life.”
Lloyd has become an overnight sensation on the ITV1 talent contest, wowing fans and judges alike with his innocent personality and choir boy good looks.
Last week Louis hailed the blonde teen as a boy-band star in the making, saying: “I think he’s fantastic. He’s like a little David Beckham.”

I can only assume that this story will be the main story on the front page, with its shocking revelation: 16-year old boy fancies Cheryl Cole.  It’s simply incredible!  Sarcasm aside, the main thing that I got from the story is that I would love to be a fly-on-the-wall of Cheryl and Louis’s tea-drinking sessions, and listen to them talking about ‘real life’.  It’s got all the makings of a hit TV show.

And that’s it for now.  Will John and Edward survive again and will anybody bother voting for Danyl? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Filed under Television Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

The X Factor Finals: Week 3

October 26, 2009 26 Comments

Well, it was big band week, this week, and it usually separates the metaphorical men from the metaphorical boys.  Could John and Edward stay in the competition for another week, purely by being crap?  Well keep reading and you’ll find out.

Saturday

Running Time (including the Xtra Factor): 180 minutes
Time I watched it in: 75 minutes

X Factor Ratio: 41.7%

I started watching Saturday’s episodes at half-past eleven, which isn’t desperately late but is a bit too late to be arsed writing this. I can only apologise if none of this makes sense.

Olly – Was it just me or was he dressed like a five year old at a wedding?  He gave a competent performance, but still had a look of terror in his eyes.  I was impressively underwhelmed.  Thank god for the return of ‘Lil Louis, who managed to use the clichés ’you’re the dark horse’ and ‘you’re the boy next door’ in his first set of comments.

Why did no one tell Cheryl that her head band had slipped?  It was at  the same jaunty angle as Captain Mainwaring’s glasses when he falls over.

Lloyd – He seemingly managed to sing the entire song in one breath as well as developing an American accent.  He did a back flip during the performance and Simon gave him a look that would have been more appropriate if he’d just seen him having sex with a horse.  It was a pretty good performance after something of a shaky start.

Dannii’s dress looked like what the most glamourous woman in a post apocalyptic society would wear (sparkly tatty sack).

Miss Frank – This performance lurched dangerously between good and awful.  My first reaction was that it was going to crash land in camp awful, but I think this would have been harsh.  It was their best performance to date.

I’ve missed Louis’ unique clapping technique.

Rachel – It’s only during Rachel’s VT that I realised that Mike Bubble was doing a master class.  I was doing well with my fast forwarding.  Rachel was excellent this week, and, with a strong up-tempo song (Proud Mary), she proved that she has a great voice.  If she’s in the bottom two this week then it will be a joke.

I’ve just realised that I don’t really mention what songs the acts have been singing.  Is that weird?  It seems a bit weird.  I think it’s an indicator though how much the music actually matters to my enjoyment of the show (not very much).

Jamie – Did he really only have 24 hours to learn the song, or did they just say that to add a bit of drama?  Either way, Angel of Harlem by U2 was a strange choice for big band week.  I didn’t really like it, and he kind of bores me.  And it bores me even more that I’ve said he slightly bores me again.  The performance came across as a bit karaoke, but Simon looked at the point of orgasm at the end of the song.  Louis thought that since U2 were clearly not ‘big band’ then Simon was effectively cheating and that the performance was karaoke anyway.  I seem to have the exact same views as Mr Walsh, which is more than a little disturbing.

Stacey – She’s got an old fashioned, soothing  type voice that I shouldn’t really like and yet I love listening to her.  For that reason, I’ve not really got anything sarcastic to say about her.  I won’t even bring up the 70s sitcom stuff.  I think the judges’ comments were a bit harsh.

Danyl – Something of an enigma; he’s a great singer but no one seems to like him.  The big problem with Danyl is that his performances are so professional that you get no buzz when he gives a good performance and so it’s tempting to not rate him as highly as you should.  Previous winners, Leona and Alexandra, ended up being excellent, but you at least felt that they went on a journey.  Danyl has seemed like an established recording artist from his first audition.  For that reason, I feel that his presence could almost spoil the series.

Joe – I don’t think there is really much point in me commenting too much as he’s really not my cup of tea, but the judges love him.  He’s the only performer, so far, that I fast forwarded through much of the song. He seems like a nice enough lad so I don’t want to be nasty.  That said, he’s surely not  pop star in a million years (I’ve now sealed his fate as a mega star).

Lucie – It’s a bit harsh to zoom in on her face on the 500 inch screen when she’s got noticeable zits.  She sang this exceptionally well, but it left no impression on me whatsoever.

Does each judge have to give a half hearted standing ovation for each of their acts?

John and Edward – The Twerps had a lot to live up to after last week and they spectacularly failed to deliver.  I think it’s safe to say that the joke is now officially over.  The girl in the middle of the Jedward sandwich was pretty tasty though.

Over on The Xtra Factor,  Holly seemed to be dressed as Princess Leia.  Being Holly though, you shouldn’t read this as a criticism.

Predictions -

It’s proving to be really tough to make predictions this year since, Jedward apart, none of the acts are really rubbish and none of them are really standing out.  I’ll give it a go anyway.

Should be in bottom 2: John and Edward + Joe

Will be in bottom 2: Olly + Jamie

Sunday

Running Time: 120 minutes
Time I watched it in: 43 minutes

X Factor Ratio: 35.8%

The show started, as always, with the dreaded group song.  This week it was like a really bad amateur dramatics society musical and there was so much overacting going on that it was actually physically draining.

Thankfully Westlife made an appearance after that, so there was a good five minutes I could fast forward straight through.  Ditto Mike Bubble.

Shockingly,  Danyl and Miss Frank were in the bottom two.  Ok, it was a shock that Danyl was in the bottom two and the mildest of mild surprises that Miss Frank were.  The big question was whether or not either of the female judges have the guts to tactically get rid of Danyl.

Miss Frank – ‘Love Don’t Live Here Anymore’ – It wasn’t a bad performance actually and it must have be tough for them to concentrate knowing who they were up against.  Towards the end of the song I changed my mind and thought that maybe it was terrible.  I just don’t seem to be able to make my mind up about them.

Danyl – ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ (Joe Cocker version) – He must have been absolutely gutted, but he was excellent as always.

Cheryl was the last judge to vote and craftily took it to deadlock.  This meant that there was a chance that she could get rid of one of her main rivals without looking like the bad guy.  Miss Frank still went home though; nice try Chezza.

Over on The Xtra Factor and Holly looked amazing.  I’m probably going to stop mentioning that though as I’m starting to sound a tad obsessive.  In the interview with the judges, Simon was rightly bewildered by the voting.   The other noticeable thing with the judges was, and I’ll put this as politely as I can, Louis looked fucked.

Towards the end of the show, Yvie and Brian revealed that had to go to an emergency meeting because nobody knew what was going on with the voting.  Bring on next week!

In Conclusion

Well, my faith in the great British public was restored when Rachel was safe, but I immediately became suspicious again as Danyl, incredibly, ended up in the bottom two.  With the demise of Miss Frank, poor Louis is left with just The Twerps.  Logically, I would have said that this left him no chance of winning, but strange things seem to be happening.  Will sanity be restored next week?

Total Duration: 300 minutes

Total time I spent watching it: 118 minutes

Overall X Factor Ratio: 39.3%

Filed under Television Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The X Factor Finals: Week 2

October 19, 2009 10 Comments

Well, another weekend has passed and another X Factor contestant has been booted off the show.  It’s also another chance for me to write far too much about it all.   Here’s what happened:

Saturday

Running Time (including the Xtra Factor): 180 minutes
Time I watched it in: 77 minutes

X Factor Ratio: 42.8%

Before I started watching, my mate sent me a text saying: ‘ Jon and Edward! Amazing!’  That certainly built up some anticipation; were John and Edward actually capable of being amazing?  This text was followed by a more detailed description: ‘Red leather/pvc suits – hotel porter trollies – and oops i did it again by Britney! TV has found a new level!’  I decided to prepare myself for a ground breaking piece of television.

Louis was not in attendance, for sad reasons, so it was interesting to see how that might affect the final outcome.

Lucie – I don’t know whether I liked it or not; she’s a pretty good singer but it seemed slightly half-hearted.  There is something about her though, and, as Simon likes to say, she has potential.

Olly – The Whitney Houston bits seem mental so far.  Apparently, Olly was singing a Tina Turner song, but I’d never heard it before and had no idea what it was.  He was pretty good and performed well, but there is still terror in his eyes.  Cheryl said that it was his ‘best performance so far’, since it’s only week two that doesn’t mean very much.

Two acts down and I’m already missing Louis’ funny faces.

Miss Frank – There were some ropey bits during this and they still don’t seem to be a performing as a group.  Actually, there were lots of ropey bits, and I think that they could be in trouble this week, even before I’ve even seen the other 8 acts.  Simon said it was terrible and had a go at Cheryl; he reckons they might be in trouble too.  He’s just copying me.

Cheryl looked pretty nice tonight, although that probably won’t come as a revelation to anyone.  And when I saw she looked ‘pretty nice’, I clearly mean that she looked amazing.

Rachel – She began her performance lying on her back on the stage; I’m no expert, but surely that would make it harder to sing.  Still developed a nice range of facial over-acting during the song, so that was quite funny.  She has a good voice but I wasn’t at all convinced by her and there were a few rough bits.  It seems a hallmark of this series that many of the contestants have decent voices but not enough of them have any ooomph, so far.

Joe – I thought that Joe should have been in the bottom two last week, but I tried to have an open mind going in to this performance.  I suppose he’s not got a bad voice, but I think it would work better if he was a drag act.  Again, the judges loved him; I think I’ll just have to accept that he’s not my cup of tea.

Danyl – Like Rachel, he employed a great range of facial overacting to ‘enhance’ his performance.  I don’t think the song did him any favours, but he’s a cracking singer.  The main problem I have with him is that he’s looking so strong that if he goes on to win the competition, it will just be really boring.

Lloyd – Whitney’s words of advice for Lloyd were the ramblings of a mad cat lady - I’ve no idea what it she was on about so I can’t even try to analyse it.  I enjoyed this performance, and he made the song his own, except for the chorus which was ridiculous in its ineptitude.  And wouldn’t you know it, both Dannii and Simon agree with me.  If only I could convince them about Joe.  Simon had yet another go at Cheryl; what a nasty man.  Cheryl started crying and Lloyd hugged her. Lucky Lloyd.  Anyway, I thought Simon was overly critical of Lloyd and I think he did more enough with the verses to stay in comfortably.

John and Edward – They had a lot to live up to, based on the texts I received earlier in the night, and the performance was suitably mental.  Absolutely mental.  And then, just when you thought they couldn’t get any more mental, they did the talking bit.  If you’ve not seen it, you should go and find it, and prepare to watch through your fingers.  And, they really did sing ‘Oops I Did it Again’ by Britney Spears, dressed in red PVC, being spun around on porters’ trollies.   They’ve clearly given them absolutely ridiculous dancing and outfits and gimmicks because they’re such appalling singers.  In a strange way, that just makes me want them to stay in, so I can see what they are made to do next.  Simon said it’s the worst performance he’s ever seen; in a way, that’s quite a compliment.

Rikki – He could quite easily join Joe’s drag act.  Again, he’s not a bad singer, but it wasn’t great.  I could see him struggling unless the alleged Scottish block-vote saves him.

Jamie – I wasn’t convinced by him last week, but he was excellent this week.  Somehow, though, he bores me slightly.

Stacey – She has an amazing mutant-like ability to look different every time you see her.  They decided to put her in a frock this week, but it still wasn’t very flattering; at least they disguised the fringe.  I do like her voice and find her performances more compelling that they somehow should be.  She seems a bit under the radar at the moment and I have a sneaky suspicion that she could be a dark horse.  Unrelated to her singing ability, I am becoming increasingly convinced that she is actually 1970s sitcom character who has travelled to the real world.

Over on The Xtra Factor, they had a new feature, Dermot’s Debrief, which felt like an attempt to get Mr O’Leary more involved.  I realise that I haven’t mentioned him since my thoughts on the first show, on the 23rd August.  Despite him presenting the more profile programme, I can’t help but feel that Holly is the main presenter; as I’ve said before, hosting the ITV1 show is actually a rubbish job.

Predictions -

Last week, I did say that Kandy Rain would be in the bottom two, but other than that I was completely wrong.  I think it’s even tougher to pick this week, and there’s a few that could/should be in trouble.  I’d love to see John and Edward stick around, but they are actually rubbish.

Should be in bottom 2: John and Edward + Miss Frank

Will be in bottom 2: Miss Frank + Rachel

Sunday

Running Time: 135 minutes
Time I watched it in: 47 minutes

X Factor Ratio: 34.8%

After last week’s cringe-fest, I was dreading the opening group song, but, while it was still pretty embarrassing,  it wasn’t quite as bad as last week.  Not quite.  Stacey looks completely different again, but, to be fair, they’d dolled her up well this time.  I did have to wonder whether or not, ‘Queen of the Night’ was the best song choice they could come up with;  it hardly seemed appropriate.

There was a lot of talk, beforehand, about whether or not Cheryl would mime etc etc.  I’ll have  to be honest, I fast forwarded through it all, so I can’t actually comment.  Needless to say, I definitely fast forwarded through Whitney.

After the usual, painfully drawn-out reveal, we got down to the the final two:  Rachel & Rikki.  Rachel was certainly no  surprise and, with Rikki there, it looks like the Scottish voting thing is a myth.  Because there was no Louis present, it effectively meant that the final decision, on who went home, would be Simon’s.

Rachel sang With or Without You by U2.  I hate to repeat myself, but I will; she has a good voice but I still wasn’t convinced by the performance.

Rikki sang a rubbish Westlife song.  I thought the same about him as  I did about Rachel.

I wasn’t sure who Simon will go for, but he went for Rikki.  Fair play to him that he didn’t just pick Rachel because she’s been in the bottom two both weeks.  Cheryl says that she can’t believe that John and Edward are still in: technically, she’s 100% right.  They may be funny but they shouldn’t really still be in.

In conclusion

Miss Frank and John & Edward dodged a bullet this week and Rachel is going to have to be spectacular next week, in order to stay in.  Rikki was never going to win the competition, so I’m glad that I get to see at least one more J&E mentalist classic performance.

Total Duration: 315 minutes

Total time I spent watching it: 124 minutes

Overall X Factor Ratio: 39.4%

Filed under Television Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The X Factor Finals: Week 1

October 12, 2009 11 Comments

This week saw the first of the live shows on The X Factor, here is how it went down.

Saturday

Running time (including xtra factor): 180 minutes.
Time I watched it in: 90 minutes.

X Factor Ratio: 50%

I was disappointed that they’ve decided to drag it out over two nights, but I think that I’ll just about live.  Plus, it gives me extra time to blog about it all.  I hope you’re all impressed by my invention of the ‘x factor ratio’, the percentage of the original running time that it took me to wacth it all.  By inputting all of these values in to my super-computer, I hope to be able to plot a 4 dimensional graph that represents my relative enjoyment of each episode. Or something.

Here are my thoughts from when I was watching the show:

Rachel – Sang an awful arrangement of ‘Let Me Entertain You’ and it was a bit of a lacklustre performance, but she’s clearly got a cracking voice.  I’m prepared to cut her a bit of slack for being the first contestant out.  The song choice really didn’t do her justice.

Louis looks like he’s had a makeover that hasn’t worked properly. Weird.

Kandy Rain – It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t a complete car crash.  It was therefore a million times better than what I was expecting.  Dannii & Cheryl were right in the whole ‘let’s get away from being  strippers by dressing as strippers’ debate.  They clearly weren’t saying that they shouldn’t dress like that, just that you shouldn’t complain about people not taking you seriously and then dress so provocatively.  Anyway, I like Cheryl when she gets angry, and she gives Simon what for.

Olly – I didn’t really like the song (a Robbie Williams one, was it She’s The One?), so I don’t know whether that put me off slightly, or whether it was just his performance in general.  He’s got a good voice though.

Rikki – Louis pulled a funny face at the start of this.  As for Rikki, he’s quite a little oddball, but he’s another with a good voice.  Louis pulled another funny face towards the end; he’s funny.  There’s been nobody really crap so far, but no one has blown me away either.

Stacey – She’s such a gonk, I love it (although, there is a chance that she could get annoying).  She looked totally different, I wouldn’t have  known it was the same girl.  Her voice sounded a bit old fashioned (maybe a bit country & western), but  I probably enjoyed it most so far.  Her outfit was awful and really unflattering.

Miss Frank – Louis pulled a little sad face for some reason.  The singing actually sounded pretty good but they didn’t look like they were performing together.  Simon didn’t know their names, but at least he was honest about it.

Jamie – He looked a bit silly pretending to be in a band, and I was a bit embarrassed for him.  I hate to agree with Robbie Williams, but the early part of the song was awful.  It got better but I wasn’t really impressed.  Cheryl was right again, when she said that he didn’t look like he believed it when he was singing.  Simon was definitely being biased in his comments.

Lloyd – I thought it was simultaneously pretty good and absolutely awful.  I quite like the tone of his voice, but he seemed to be all over the place.  The ‘dancing’ was also cringe-worthy.  He will  be safe because he’s blonde and 16.

Lucie – She provided the most confident and best vocal up to this point, she was very good.  I thought Simon’s comments towards her were very harsh; perhaps he sees her as a threat.

John and Edward – The Twonk Twins were about as bad as you’d imagine they’d be.  On the plus side, Louis  pulled another funny face.  Cheryl summed it up best when she said, ‘it’s not your fault that you’re in the final 12.’

Joe – Was it just me that thought he looked slightly creepy? He looked like he’s been attacked by the same people who attempted the makeover on Louis.  His voice would be alright if he was in a musical, but I didn’t think he was very good and he looked terrified.  Predictably, the judges loved him.  I still think that I’m right though.

Danyl – After the ridiculous boot camp and judges’ houses auditions, Danyl managed to reign himself in and was awesome, even though he was performing a girls song.  He was head and shoulders better than the rest, so they’re all going to have to go some to beat him.  I can’t believe what Dannii kept saying, with her implications that he was gay.  What was she thinking?

It was a pretty good first show, and I’ll put down some of the lesser performances down to nerves.  There’s clearly not as much dead wood compared to  other years, so the contestants are really going to have to step it up if they’re going to make an impact.  Robbie Williams was perhaps the worst celebrity ‘masterclass’ mentor so far.  I’d probably jump all over that, except he admitted as much himself in an interview beforehand, so fair play to him.   Plus, the contestants all seemed really pleased to see him.

The Xtra Factor really comes in to its own following the live shows; I think that without it, I may not still be watching at all.  The main ITV1 show, apart from the singing, can be a bit stale; sob stories and ‘witty’ soundbites from the judges.  Over on ITV2, you get to delve in to things a little deeper, from extended interviews with the judges, the back stage buzz, and you get to see a totally different side to the contestants.  It’s all ably held together by Holly Willoughby, and you should know my feelings about her by now.

Predictions -

Should be in bottom 2: John and Edward + Joe

Will be in bottom 2:  John and Edward + Kandy Rain

Sunday

Running time: 120 minutes
Time I watched it in: 51 minutes
X Factor ratio 42.5%

Louis wasn’t present, which was understandable following Stephen Gately’s death; Simon awkwardly insisted that the show would go on. And it did.  The first part of the show involved all 12 acts doing a song together.  It was, maybe, the most cringe worthy thing I’ve ever seen (and that’s saying something).  Even now, I can’t believe that it actually happened; it already feels like a repressed abuse memory.  Alexandra  Burke came out next and did her new single; she’s looking pretty good, she sounds great, but the song was a bit lame.

Dannii then made a weird sort of apology for her ‘Danyl is gay’ implication from the previous night. Then,  Simon made some comments to suggest that Dannii was a lovely person and definitely didn’t mean anything by it.  It was all very awkward.

Then we finally got to the results, which I largely fast forwarded through.  The main ‘shock’ being that John and Edward were, hilariously, safe.  Rachel was somewhat unfairly in the bottom two, and probably suffered from going first on Saturday.  I’ve no idea what the song was that she sang in the ‘sing off’, but she surely did enough to stay safe.  She’s got a cracking voice and was much better than the previous night.  She almost started crying at the start of the song and so did well to pull herself together.  Kandy Rain were predictably in the bottom two and it seemed inevitable, at this point, that they would be going home.  Their performance wasn’t bad, but it was a little bit karaoke.  They were worse than on Saturday.

They started the judges’ voting by assuming that Louis would have voted for Kandy rain, so that was fair enough.  Dannii and Cheryl then obviously chose to save Rachel.  It didn’t look good for the girl group.  Simon then, amazingly, voted to save Kandy Rain, which meant that it went to
the overly dramatic dead-lock.  So, Kandy Rain went home.  Ho hum.

Over on The Xtra Factor, they showed ‘candid camera’ style scene from Saturday night in which Cheryl went to Kandy Rain’s dressing room to clear up that she wasn’t attacking them personally. But, why were the cameras there?  It felt like one of those fake backstage bits that you get in wrestling, where they pretend that they don’t know the camera is there.

In Conclusion

The biggest conclusion I can draw from the weekend is that I have written FAR too much about the X Factor and that I seem to take it far more seriously than I would have imagined.  As for the show itself, the right act probably went home as it would have taken a miracle for them to make an impact in the competition.  The other thing is that they shouldn’t have changed the format to have it over two nights.  An hour for the results show was really over egging it.  Thank god for Sky Plus.

Total Duration: 300 minutes!!

Total time I spent watching it: 141 minutes

Overall X Factor Ratio: 47%

Filed under Television Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The X Factor: 2009 Finalists Vs 2008 Finalists

October 7, 2009 2 Comments

Well, I’ve only just posted about The X Factor, but, a comment from my friend, CJ, has made me question the assertion that this year’s finalists seem the strongest line up so far.  I was going to address this point in the comments section of that post, but it seemed entirely fitting for it to be a post in its own right.  So, here it is.

It was certainly my gut feeling that the standard is overall higher this year, but then, as I’ve said a few times, I always tend to think this until you get to the live rounds and it’s only then that you really see who is actually good.  But, is there any basis for thinking that this year are stronger? I thought it might help me to decide if I compared this year’s finalists to last year’s.  This isn’t an entirely fair comparison as when you think about the 2008 contestants you have in mind their actual live performances from last year, and not just the few auditions we’ve seen from the 2009 bunch.  I’ll give it my best shot though.

Girls

2008 – Diana, Laura & Alexandra

2009 – Lucie, Rachel & Stacey

From the 2008 auditions, Laura & Diana definitely stood out more than any of the girls from this year, but I’m not sure this means that they were actually better singers.  Interestingly enough though, Alexandra wasn’t even on the radar at this stage, and yet ended up being the obvious winner.  I’d say that although not being particularly memorable (yet), this year’s girls could have the potential to hold their own.  I’ll have to give the win to 2008 because of how good Alexandra turned out to be, even though this is probably unfair.

Boys

2008 – Eoghan, Austin & Scott

2009 – Lloyd, Rikki & Joseph

One fairly drab lot of boys has been replaced by another lot.  I think Lloyds is quite interesting as his voice is quite different, but, overall, I’ll call this one a draw.

Over 25s

2008 – Ruth, Daniel & Rachel

2009 – Danyl, Olly & Jamie

The 2009 lot are so much better than their counterparts from last year that it’s not even funny, and that’s even after you’ve taken all the awful histrionics in to account.  A clear win for 2009.

Groups

2008 – JLS, Bad Lashes & Girl Band

2009 – John and Edward, Kandy Rain & Miss Frank

Kandy Rain have the potential to be as awful as Bad Lashes and Girl Band, while Miss Frank have the potential to be better than all of them.  Only the potential though, they’re currently awful too.  John and Edward are so bad that I actually quite like them now, but I don’t think that counts.  JLS stand out from nearly every other group in X Factor history in that they managed to achieve the level of being ‘OK’.  2008 will have to win because of JLS.

Conclusions

Based on this rough comparison, it looks as though my gut feeling is wrong and 2008 was perhaps a slightly stronger year.  Perhaps.  As I’ve said before, and as I’ll keep saying, you can’t really compare until we’ve seen the class of 2009 perform live.  We should have this conversation again after the weekend. Bring on the finals!

Filed under 1 Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The X Factor: Judges’ Houses

October 7, 2009 9 Comments

Well we’re getting very close to the live shows on The X Factor, this week sees us visit the judges’ houses (which are obviously not their real houses, so I don’t know why they call it that).  Here’s what happened.

Saturday

Saturday’s episode starts with perhaps the biggest shock in X Factor; Louis was in Italy not in Ireland!  I needed a lie down to cope when I found that out.  We then meet who each judge has drafted in to help them.  Louis had Ronan Keating, the Irish Gary Barlow, so it looks like the two of them are finally talking again.  Cheryl had Will young who is so posh and sincere that I could listen to him all night.  Sadly, Simon had Sinitta helping him yet again.  I can only assume that she must have some incriminating photos of him.  Over in Dubai, Dannii has the somewhat more impressive Kylie to help her.

I was a little underwhelmed by the ‘Boys’ category, although they seem pretty solid throughout and with young male singers, their looks play as big a part as their voices.  I was slightly baffled by Daniel Fox, but I wouldn’t be shocked if any of them got through.

The ‘Groups’ category is notoriously rubbish, and this year is no exception.  Ronan and Louis seemed to criticise every single act after they sang, and didn’t have a good thing to say.  You’d have to say that that was quite worrying for Louis’ chances of winning.  I don’t think it actually matters to the outcome of the show which three  acts they pick.  Unsurprisingly, Louis still managed to find time to defend John and Edward.  More surprisingly, and despite slagging all the acts off, they still audaciously claimed that they have a potential  winner.

Simon seems to have the most difficult job in selecting which of the ‘Over 25s’ will go through, the category looks to be very strong.  It’s actually a bit of a joke when you compare this group to what Louis has to work with.  The most disappointing moment of the week was when Danyl sadly didn’t reprise his hilarious cover of ‘Holding Back the Years’.

The ‘Girls’ category is definitely stronger vocally than the boys, and they certainly look better in bikinis (was it not a bit gratuitous that they sent them down a water slide?).  I’m not sure which ones are the best singers, but I definitely fancy Stacey McClean most.

I realise that at this point that I haven’t picked any of the contestants to go through; it just seems too tight to call this year and I’d struggle to single anybody out.  I also realised, as I was watching it, that the episode seemed endless; this was because, unusually, I actually watched most of it.

Have I mentioned this week that The Xtra Factor is the better programme?  I’ve come to the conclusion that I big part of the reason for this is that you actually get to see the personalities of both contestants and judges; you don’t just get sob stories and cheesy soundbites as you do with the ITV1 show.  It also doesn’t hurt that Holly is almost unbearably lovely.

Sunday

I was a bit apprehensive about watching this episode beforehand as it tends to be full of people crying and I find it totally unbearable.  To be fair to them, it’s not surprising that they cry considering the way that they drag out the reveal as to whether they’re going through or not.  It’s bordering on animal cruelty.

The ‘Girls’ were the first group to be revealed, and Lucie Jones was the first contestant through through.  She has that girl next door type appeal, so she could do pretty well.  Sadly, Stacey McClean didn’t get through. Typical.  Next through was Rachel, who I could tell you exactly nothing about.  The last girl through was the other Stacey; I though that this was a good decision as has distinctive voice and a likeable, goofy personality.

The dreaded ‘Groups’ were up next and I couldn’t have cared less, other than the vague hope that John and Edward would get through for comedy value.  First through were Miss Frank, who, if I was being cruel, I might rename as Miss Take.  Next through were Kandy Rain, the girl band consisting of ex-strippers.  They should be popular with the largely female voters then.  Last, but by no means least, came The Twerps, sorry I mean, John and Edward.  This pair of idiots were somehow the most nailed-on finalists in the whole competition.  I won’t pass comment on Louis’ possible motivations for this.  That said, you can always rely on Louis for a mental decision to keep the show interesting.

The slightly lacklustre ‘Boys’ were next and first through was Weirdy Eyebrow Man (Rikki), quickly followed by Lloyd, whose voice I probably like most in this group.  Before the third finalist was revealed, we had a bit of drama with Cheryl having to stop in the middle of her decision over Daniel Fox.  I’d like to think that her dilemma was genuine and not done to build up the tension.  Since I fancy her, I’ll assume that it was genuine.  Last through was the totally unsurprising, Little Geordie Joe.  It seems to be the rule that you put through people who are from vaguely the same geographical area as you.

Finally, we got to the ‘Over 25s’, and early bookies favourite, Danyl goes through.  They’ve been slightly critical of him since boot camp, but I think this was mainly to not make him seem like the dead cert to go through that he was.  Next through was slightly quirky Olly and finally came Jamie.  I was a little bit surprised by Jamie, not because of a lack of talent, but because I thought Simon would put through at least one of the girls.  They still look the strongest category.

And that’s nearly it for this week, apart from The Xtra Factor.  Have I mentioned that The Xtra Factor is…oh, I have.  Well, what  about Holly…oh, I’ve done that one too.  Never mind.  The most interesting thing was that Holly also thought that Simon would put at least one girl through, proving that great minds think alike.

And that really is that.  I’m actually looking forward to next week, as the live finals really separate the men from the boys (so to speak).  See you there (not literally).

Filed under Television Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 207 other followers