Please tell me how Starships is related to the theme 'Heroes'?

 

Regardless, however much you love her, she wasn't gonna be big, in the same way Shelley this year isn't gonna be big. They don't have mass appeal.

Have a read of the lyrics. They can be interpreted as 'hero'-type lyrics. Just because it's a generic, catchy pop song, doesn't mean it can't have meaning. :lol:

This topic is interesting in so far as it's highlighting a common theme. Namely that of public fatigue. I've given up on the show this year as, just from looking at the ratings since 2010, many others have. TBH with last year's series the sole reason I kept watching was so I could understand what Olly and Caroline were saying over on ITV2. And it's really lost it's way as a show now that the forced tension has ultimately ended up putting people off.

 

There needs to be something in it's place which is more like this format - a different set of say 5 or 6 acts each week, a head judge who's permenant with two different guest judges each week, and one or two a week go through to a live final.

I think that a good thing to do would be to have something like guaranteeing an act a place in the final 6 or something, like, for the first two weeks the person who receives the highest votes is automatically given a spot in the final 6, and then for the remaining weeks it's just decided by normal public vote - and then the remainder of the final 6 (four of them) are decided by the public. (I totally did not find that idea from BB USA)

Oooh now that's even better. But you know something a bit lighter. More jazz hands, less puppet strings.

I don't think it is rigged, that would be voting fraud, a criminal offence but they certainly know who they want to win or who their faves are and pull every trick in the book

 

The one who was most stitched up was Mary, they changed the whole plans for the semi final just so Cher would be in the final and cast Mary aside like a piece of rubbish, introducing a sing off at the last moment because they knew Mary had wiped the floor with the chav in the public vote

Edited October 17, 201311 yr by Sandro Ranieri

Sophie didn't win though. It's just a matter of when you're dropped by the producers.

 

Yeah but look at Chris Maloney. Considerably more air time than Sophie but when they gunned for him to be eliminated (THAT horrid staging!) he still topped the vote all the way until the Final. Same with Janet Devlin, took them a few weeks to get rid of her after they realised she wouldn't play ball.

A fix is a fix. Of course they can't fix the phone votes as this is the only area that is scrutinize, but they can fix everything else. I have heard from people who attended Bootcamp that Tamera was badly off key for most of the show, but this wasn't shown on tv. Why is her VT all about being such a lovely & beautiful person, not about her drug taking, beating up school girls or two-timing her boyfriend? She is getting every chance to make it as far as possible. About 6 acts got major help from an over loud backing track to cover poor vocals. Tamera, Sam B, Rough Copy, Kingland Road, Hannah and Nic. At one point, Kingsland Road stopped singing but their voices didn't. Sam B got the biggest support. She appeared on tv just as Strictly finished, so was the first person the middle-aged brigade saw. Her lighting was in a soft focus angelic golden light, her vocals were seriously boosted by a backing track, she had loads of close ups so she could connect with the public and she received OTT praise by from the judges.

Compare this to Dynamix, who had a terrible song to sing, had a dark setting with annoying lights which zoomed all over the place, no close ups except of the dancers. They had bad comments from the judges and when they were saved Nicole gave a fake "OMG how did they survive" look, as in they'll be gone next week.

 

Last year James "the voice of a frog chewing a wasp" Arthur went from 7% bottom over 50% in one week after the judges told the public "you're voting for the wrong person, you have to make sure James wins".

 

In 2011, they had to pull so many tricks for Little Fix to win. Like covering for them forgetting the words, focusing the camera on them when they came on stage in the final with Marcus, making Marcus look like an extra in the wrong scene. The pulled the same trick to dump Amelia the previous day. LM also sang their best performing songs in the final while Marcus the ones that got in the lowest votes in the series.

 

It's no coincidence that some get to sing songs such as "I'll always love you" while others sing "I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo" or "Freak like me".

 

One of my favourites it during the 6 weeks of hate the show showered on Janet Devlin the camera work on Under The Bridge aka pushed under the bus. The camera never gets close to her to prevent any connection, it swoops from side to side and is constantly pulling away from her as though she's disappearing. At one point, the camera pulls away, then cuts to the judges, returns to show Janet shrouded in fog, shows the background of her floating head (in red and black as though she's in hell), switches back to the judges, shows the back of Janet's head, sweeps past again, shows Janet from the side, shows the back of her head again, then shows her from the front as the song finishes. Then the judges call her boring for the 4 millionth time just to make sure the public can repeat it like a mantra implanted in their heads. I also liked the number of times they showed her in black and white imagery, just to make sure we understand that she's dull.

 

So they can get James from bottom of the votes to winner, and stop Janet winning despite having more votes than Little Fix, Marcus, Amelia and Misha combined. The show is the epitome of a fix.

 

Even so, I wouldn't want it to end. It's a great show to bet on when they tell you who they want to get rid of and who they want to win.

 

 

 

I supposed singing Freak Like Me would be somewhat of a curse. After all, they won't be able to come close to Sugababes 2.0 never mind the flawfree rendition MKS treated us too live.

Re. Kingsland Road, surely that could be a simple error of the timing of the sound and the actual footage not matching one another on the final cut? I do agree with most of what you've said though, there's ways they can manipulate the audience's viewing through the directing, etc - it's just all wrong.