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%

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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!

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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).

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