A rather straightforward episode that details on the duo’s journey to American Idol Mars Brightest, this week feels like those competitive singing shows we normally watch on TV with a colorful set of oddballs. As such, this episode’s main appeal lies less in narrative strengths but more about music and the fun when these music redefy its singers’ traits. But let’s focus first on the (little) narrative this episode has. It’s obvious from day 1 that Carole & Tuesday will eventually face Angela in the final, a sort of showdown between fame vs rookie, artificial music vs genuine one. This episode makes one significant step into that direction, as Angela “acknowledges” the duo’s talent by flat-out says she dislikes their music. It’s fun to see Angela acts like a total jerk towards her new manager (subtlety about her bitchiness is out of the window but hey, it’s fun to watch) and I suppose she will have to go through a phase where she accepts this new hapless manager and deals with her “Mama” issue (who we find out in one of her pic was a man years ago). But that is for future development. For now, Angela will show her true power in the next episode.
I’m still a bit split on the way this Mars Brightest functions, as a nit-picking note. Choosing 8 talents out of thousands just based on single short performance isn’t credible, at all (there’s no way an actual musical contest work like that to begin with). What’s fun is that these 8 contestants do bring out their unique personality just based on their appearances alone. Add to that we have these songs and styles that constantly bring out different side of them, and well-composed music on top of it. Take the three performances this week, for example. Fire Brothers are old deaf twins but still manage to bring fire, quite literally, with their meTAL GROAning. The social network sensational Pyotr’s performance makes it clear that he’s serious about this contest, even if he normally brush it off. And finally, and most interestingly, OG Bulldog, appeared as ex-gangster, does a hybrid opera-rap that takes everyone, real listeners included, by surprise. The show smartly uses a typical hip-hop beat and lets it run wild before OG Bulldog sings the first verse. The weird hybrid makes it my favorite performance out of the four.
Unlike the audition stage in which the judges are too plain (Wooper pointed that out in his post), these three judges nail their assigned “roles”: a strict Catherine, a fashionable Benito and an AI judge Shakti (an interesting twist). I’m actually agree with the judge regarding Carole & Tuesday performance, that they are the plainest. And this is one of the many issues I have with the show so far. Not only the titular characters are the least development ones, they are given too much “special treatment” from the show, that their singing can win people over (it doesn’t with me. Too plain). There’s also Cybelle, one of the contestant, who has a yuri affection to Tuesday. I suppose she’s going to be some sort of the duo’s sidekick in the future. At this point, I’m pretty much loose hope that Carole & Tuesday as a ambitious show. It doesn’t have the aspiration that Shinichiro Watanabe usually brings, but taken as a popular mainstream show it’s still enjoyable week after week.
