MiniCap: The Voice

The Voice

By TheCzar | Wednesday, May 11, 2011 | 7:00 am | 8 Comments
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in: MiniCaps, Recaps, The Voice

“And on to the Battle Round!” That’s what Napoleon said as he charged into Waterloo. Luckily, the battle round of “The Voice” is no where near as messy – but one does get the feeling it’s much, much longer.

In this episode, the judges pair up their contestants into duets and choose a song for them to sing. Together. It makes for some amazing harmonies but there’s a catch: After the performance, the judges must cut one singer from each duet.

The singers have to work together and are pitted against each other at the same time – so it’s kinda like the cheerleading squad at my all-girls Catholic high school. They gave it their all when they cheered on the female basketball players… but boy, were they ever so ridiculously competitive when it came to catching the star center’s eye!

To make their jobs easier, each of the judges are given a “consultant” – some super-important person in the music industry to assist them with coaching and, ultimately, their decision. The only one you’ll probably recognize is Reba McEntire, so I’m not gonna waste my time by getting into the details.

The renditions include “Single Ladies” by Frenchie and Tarralyn, some old Elvis song by Patrick and Tyler, “Leather and Lace” by Tim and Casey and “Perfect” by Niki and Vicci. They’re all great, but in the end, it’s up to the judges to decide who gets to move on. And the winner is…

Frenchie vs. T 5.10.11
Pysche!

You think I’m going to reveal the winners now? You’ll have to wait ‘til the full recap. But I will tell you this: The results are about as surprising as hearing that Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger broke up.

I promise that I will write as fast as my little fingers can type. But get used to waiting, my friends – we still have 12 more pairings left, which means we have three more episodes of the battle round alone. You have so, so much more to look forward to.

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8 Comments

  1. 1
    Enrique's Mole
    Posted May 11, 2011 at 7:30 am

    Totes agree – no surprises, but I enjoyed it just the same. I’m getting soft in my old age…I liked how kind the judges were to all of the contestants.

    So glad you guys are covering this show!

  2. 2
    itchy
    Posted May 11, 2011 at 3:33 pm

    The format of this kind of dragged… they could have trimmed down the segments, gotten to the actual singing a little quicker, for my taste. I’ll care what these people have to say only after they’re definite for the full season.

    Thing I hate: those stupid fucking twitter blurbs. Annoying as hell.

    I’m looking forward to next week though. Looks like they paired the ex-drunk Mr. Clean guy with the Hunchbacked Redhead and her “Leader.” Wonder how that’s going to work?

    But yeah, so far I like the spirit of this show. It definitely helps that the producers chose people who can actually sing, as opposed to “that other show”.

  3. 3
    Lizbot
    Posted May 11, 2011 at 5:25 pm

    Umm Czar…you’re making me feel old. You don’t remember Monica?

    I thought there were some really good performances in that show — it was weird — competing against each other head to head may have brought out the best in those singers. Their duets were waaaaay better than what we hear on AI. I wonder if it’s the coaching or talent.

    The other thing that I liked about this episode was that the winners seemed logical to me. Every person who I thought should win the duet wound up winning. Now, I think the judges (if they’re smart) go in with the strategy of pitting the team members they’re not too excited about against team members who are more talented to they are. Ultimately they’re not going to pit their best singer against their second best singer and thus reduce their chances in the team vs. team rounds. Still, I found it enjoyable to watch.

    It also seemed obvious that the other judges were often trying to steer the voting judge in the direction of the weaker member of the pair. Again, that makes sense given that the teams will eventually competing against each other, but none of the judges were stupid enough to fall for the bait.

    No offense to fans of Haley on AI (this is just an opinion) but does Casey strike anybody else as a younger, prettier, more talented version of Haley? I’m impressed with the maturity of his performance given her age. She has some more maturity to gain, but I think she’s shows loads of promise.

  4. 4
    sarcasatire sarcasatire
    Posted May 11, 2011 at 5:45 pm

    Okay, help me out here as I am a little confused by the format. I assumed that after the top four from each coach are selected through these battle rounds, the format will change to a regular solo singing competition for America to vote. Am I missing a step? Or do the top four now have to go through another Battle Round, this time paired against members of another team, with America voting the winner?

  5. 5
    Lizbot
    Posted May 11, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    According to Wiki “In the final phase, the remaining contestants will compete against each other in live broadcasts. The television audience will help to decide who moves on. When one team member remains for each coach, the contestants will compete against each other in the finale.”

    That doesn’t explain if they’re competing head to head though…

  6. 6
    sarcasatire sarcasatire
    Posted May 11, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    Thanks, Lizbot. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.. the format enough will keep me in suspense as to what comes next. Now, as far as the scheduling, am I the only person that finds it weird that a show like this comes on at 10pm? Most shows at that hour are for adults..where as AI or DWTS come on at 8pm to draw a larger primetime audience. Who is The Voice’s target demographic with a timeslot like that? (Or maybe they are avoiding competing against AI or DWTS so they come on later?)

    Am I overthinking this? LOL

  7. 7
    iamrufus
    Posted May 11, 2011 at 8:59 pm

    They may be purposely trying to avoid the “tween” vote that has tainted AI’s voting system. I’m still unsure how they can avoid turning this into a popularity contest as well.

  8. 8
    itchy
    Posted May 11, 2011 at 11:56 pm

    This Casey is definitely a more developed (eh-hem) version of Haley, except Haley is not named Casey and this Casey doesn’t growl as much, although she does have that weird trembling thing in her voice. As soon as I saw this Casey walk out in that super-tight, short dress, I knew she’d win over the older bald-guy-in-a-hat.

    Shows like this are inevitably popularity contests. If only because it’s impossible to quantify creative talent. If the show’s smart, they’ll allow the coaches to have a say in who goes home too, otherwise, yeah, Tween Nation will take over this show as well.

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