Category Archives: Television

Reflection: NBC’s The Sing-Off Season 4

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So I totally mis-understood the televised schedule for this little gem and decided that since it is already a few weeks after the “finale”, I am probably better off just posting my thoughts about NBC’s The Sing-Off on my personal blog as opposed as on the PureTVNet.com blog… at least until I get my life back to relative normal instead of burned-out.

In case you don’t know, NBC’s The Sing-Off:

[…] showcases the country’s top a cappella groups performing popular songs in ways that viewers have never heard before. “The Sing-Off” has no lip-syching, backup bands or safety net.

Granted even though the series has been on hiatus for over a year, it was nice to see this back on the airwaves. However, one cannot help but wonder if this was because of the slowly growing success of Season Three’s winner Pentatonix?

And if you have been living under a rock for the past year… here is Pentatonix’s Evolution of Beyonce:

The fourth season of “The Sing-Off” showcased ten a cappella groups over seven weeks of singing, competing for a recording contract and $100,000…

So who won?

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Possibilities: After The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

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For any and all fans of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice who were hooked on the online adaptation called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries the next question is now: “What’s next?”

Although the showrunner Bernie Su mentioned that there are a few ideas out there – but won’t say what exactly – it is up to the fans of web series to speculate what could work in a similar format.

If we are looking at specifically Jane Austen’s novels…

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Fleeting: Modern Adaptations of Old Classics (Shakespeare Edition)

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Being a lover of Shakespeare, I am always on the look out of modern adaptations to some of Shakespeare’s works. Some have been hits (for me) others have been misses (you gotta have some) and some fall in the in between.

So what worked for me may not work for you guys, but hey, that’s what opinions are for, no?

Keep in mind these are adaptations that are also modernized… I will not be looking at pieces like Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet… which is essentially the play with a modernized feel, what’s the point.

ROMEO AND JULIET
West Side Story
This has got to be the most obvious. Taking a look of who kills who, what happens to whom and most of the ending (Juliet doesn’t really kill herself as much as she may want to). It is well written, well composed, and chock full of dancing, singing, and drama. Classic in a Romeo and Juliet piece.

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Fleeting: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (Supposition)

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DISCLAIMER: I am not in any way affiliated with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries… I am just a fan that recently came across the YouTube online series and fell in love with the storytelling… who is providing her own supposition on what could happen down the road.

From yesterday’s post I did fall down a hell of a rabbit hole… but there was something that was nagging at me.

When looking at the various YouTube accounts for The Lizzie Bennet Diaries… during the time that Lydia was separated from Jane and Lizzie she created the YouTube Account: The Lydia Bennet. So when Jane and Lizzie are off on their real world adventures, Lydia kept up her own account which have now been featuring… you guessed it: George Wickham…

Interesting how something that would appear to be so small before would mean so much now…

Well while scouring the internet I came across this little gem: The Gigi Darcy YouTube Channel.

Yup apparently the little sister of William Darcy has her own YouTube Channel… granted there haven’t been any videos uploaded at the moment… but if you have caught up with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries AND know Pride and Prejudice like that back of your hand like I do (well almost do)… then you should know where exactly in the story this is all coming about.

If you are unfamiliar with the Pride and Prejudice story and do not wish to **potentially** be spoiled do not read any further and just move on your merry way through the internet.

If you ARE FAMILIAR but are still confused and do not wish to **potentially** be spoiled then again… do not read any further and just move on your merry way through the internet.

If you are familiar with Pride and Prejudice and you enjoy the story like myself so much that you can’t help but put clues together and living with the characters then you probably should have figured out by now like I have that…

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UPDATES: Changing up the Review process

So I am going to try a new thing when talking about shows that I have seen… since I have a bad habbit of over chatting. At the top of the post I will have a list of points that I either liked, loved, or could do without… then if there were any standouts I would list them.

Once the basic bullet points are over then if you would like to read more in detail then I would do so as I normally would.

Hopefully this would help more in understanding what I was trying to say in the first place.

So the first thing anyone would see when coming onto my blog at the top would be the typical table breakdown of the show, director, musical director, and the creators. Afterwards for musicals I would include my instant thoughts of acting, singing, staging, set, choreography… and finally I would list the standouts and any other quick thoughts that I believe are rather important.

Then after the break I would go into my usual song and dance breaking everything down even more if you want to know the whys behind the whats.

Why am I am changing it up (again) well… after seeing Company out in BrightSide in Naperville with a friend earlier this week I realized that in every show I have gone to I would say something of the following:
– Acting: meh
– Singing: liked
– Set: meh
– Staging: loved
– Choreography: liked

Then I would proceed to go into details of the whys… by doing it this way I think it would give you the readers a chance to do a quick look of my “instant thoughts” as I call it and then if you have time could continue to read.

Would I go back to some of the past reviews and use this system? Probably not, it would take too much time, might as well just start with now.

Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Rounds – Hồ Ngọc Hà Edition)

Finally we have the fourth and final team for whom we will look at the breakdown of the seven vocalists as they are whittle down to five.

Taking a look at the official posted results we can easily figure out at least two of the final five that will be moving forward.

First off let us get the runaway favorite out of the way for this team who happens to be Bùi Anh Tuấn who sang Hoang Mang (Bewildered). He received 47.2% of the total team vote.

The second place public vote recipient went to Đinh Thị Thanh Hương (13.81%) who sang Forever And One

So who were the lucky vocalists to be given a free pass by the judge to move on to the next round?
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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Rounds – Đàm Vĩnh Hưng Edition)

As I have done in the past for the Thu Minh and Trần Lập Editions… this time around the vocalists for the teams of Đàm Vĩnh Hưng and Hồ Ngọc Hà.

First on the list: Đàm Vĩnh Hưng.

Now just like with the previous two teams, The Voice of Việt Nam have posted on their website the results of the public voting.

So just like the previous two teams, the top two contestants of the public vote get an automatic pass to the next round and they are:
Vũ Thanh Hằng who sang Thu Cuối (The End), she received 26.93% of the total vote for the team.

The second highest public vote went to Phan Ngọc Luân who sang You’ll Be Sorry with 17.92% of the total votes of the team:

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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Rounds – Trần Lập Edition)

As I did with the Thu Minh Edition… I will look into what happened with Trần Lập’s team and how they got whittled down from seven to five. If you do not remember how the breakdown happened go to the post of the Live Round Edition – Whittling Seven Down to Five.

Looking at Thu Minh’s team there is a massive run away winner in the public vote. In the case of Trần Lập’s team there were three member that got the lion’s share of the public vote with everyone one else trailing a bit behind them. The top two of the three got an automatic in via the public vote:

Nguyễn Thùy Linh (31.7%) who sang “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”

Trần Thi Kim Loan (31.63%) who sang “Và ta đã thấy mặt trời” (Finally I Saw the Sun)

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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Rounds – Thu Minh Edition)

With the second round of two teams of seven participating in the second Live Show from teams Hồ Ngọc Hà and Đàm Vĩnh Hưng, let’s look and see how the first two teams fared in the first set of Live Shows. In case you do not know how the teams are whittled from teams of seven to a team of five head to my post: Live Round – Whittling Seven Down to Five.

Taking a look at the online list of how the public vote was separated, Thu Minh’s team had a clear winner in the popular vote running away with more than half of the votes that were called in and everyone else just trailing behind.

The Public Vote winners of Thu Minh’s team were:
“Phạm Thị Hương Tràm” who sang “Anh” (You). According to statistics she apparently earned the lion’s share (57.23%) of the public vote from her team.

… in case you did not know, she sang a Whitney Houston classic during her blind audition.

As for her team mate Dương Trần Nghĩa he sang Bay which translates to Fly (mind you Bay is the Vietnamese word, not the English word). He got about 11.09% of the vote.

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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Round – Whittling Seven Down to Five)

So I was catching up with The Voice of Việt Nam, Việt Nam’s version of the United States hit The Voice.

A lot of the premise is still the same, but there are some things that I found to be rather interesting.

First let’s go back to what I mentioned about reality television in Việt Nam in general

I didn’t realize this show existed until I was chatting with family in Việt Nam and noticed a news article on Yahoo.co.vn site about a contestant on Việt Nam’s version of The Voice… also known as “The Voice of Việt Nam”. Complete with a Facebook Page, “The Voice of Việt Nam” is similar to that of the first two seasons of America’s version of The Voice. The blind auditions, the battle rounds, then the live rounds.

Each judge/coach has to comprise teams of fourteen vocalists from the blind auditions, then during the battle rounds those fourteen are whittled down to seven. As of this past Monday (September 24) the Live Rounds have begun.

The judging / coaching panel includes:
– Thu Minh: Dance, Pop Ballad
– Trần Lập: Rock, hardrock
– Hồ Ngọc Hà: Pop, R&B, Ballad, Dance
– Đàm Vĩnh Hưng: Việt Nam Pop

Unlike the United States version of The Voice, the judging / coaching panel tend to stay more in the similar realms and don’t really stretch out that much.

So it has been two weeks and already there are changes between the Việt Nam version and what we know in the United States:
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Review: NBCs the Voice (Updates)

Before I begin here is one vocalist rendition of a Whitney Houston classic from “The Voice of Vietnam”

So NBCs the Voice has been on the airwaves for the past several weeks starting with the Blind Auditions on September 10th and 11th. The blind auditions have continued on for the next three weeks with the last set being October 1 / 2. Afterwards are the Battle Rounds. What is interesting is that tickets to watch the Battle Rounds live were issued for early August… so by this point in time those that are awaiting to be seen in the Live Rounds have been working on their bits for almost two months.

Blind Auditions:
– September 10 / 11 / 12
– September 17 / 18
– September 24 / 25
– October 1 / 2

I will provide commentary, information, thoughts sporadically once the Battle Rounds start over at the Pure TV Network blog. I have also been watching The Voice of Vietnam and will be posting a little bit about that (if it relates to the United States in anyway) over at that blog as well. Anything that is dealing strictly about The Voice of Vietnam you can find here on my personal blog.
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Fleeting: Reality Television in Việt Nam

So I have this little obsession, not really obsession but something that I haven’t really voice all that much before. I have an addiction for reality television… but not necessarily in the states… in Việt Nam. Quaint isn’t it?

It all started with my love of reality television (Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Got Talent and The Voice) and blogging about them. Which is bad enough as it is… then I learned a long time ago (aka a couple of years ago) that there is a version of Dancing with the Stars already on the airwaves in Việt Nam. Well needless to say I tried to figure out a way to watch it… but to no avail. Ah well.

The same goes for the other reality tv competition shows… no way for those Vietnamese-Americans on state side to watch if we wanted to, so off to YouTube we go.

Anyway what drove me to write this post? The following clip that I saw while at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport (aka Saigon International Airport):

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UPDATE: London 2012 Olympics Coverage

While the Olympics are going on, I will be posting my thoughts about them at the Pure TV Network blog.

GYMNASTICS
– United States Gymnastics Olympic Team (both Mens and Womens) the Qualification Round
– United States Mens Gymnastics Olympic Team Final Results
– United States Womens Gymnastics Olympic Team Final Results
– United States’ Danell Leyva and John Orozco in the Individual All-Around
– United States’ Alexandra Raisman and Gabrielle Douglas in the Individual All-Around Preview
– United States’ Alexandra Raisman and Gabrielle Douglas in the Individual All-Around Results
– United States Mens and Womens Gymanstics Individual Apparatus Preview

OTHER OLYMPIC COVERAGE
– Michael Phelps a Look Back
– The NBA at the Olympics

Other posts at the Pure TV Network:
– NBCs the Voice Season 3: Advisers to the Judges Chosen
– Stars Earn Stripes: NEW Celebrity Reality Show on NBC

Since the other shows that I watch are on hiatus due to the Olympics I will be focusing on wrapping up a few Pure Dancing with the Stars summer projects as well.
– Dancing with the Stars Season 15: Elimination Predictions w/o Professional Partners
– Dancing with the Stars Season 15: Who would you choose as the 13th Celebrity?

Hope to see you there!

Entertainment: New Sailor Moon Anime Debuts Summer 2013

Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about this. I love the original comic/manga series from Japan, was glad that as bad the original English translation was it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as how the Americanized translation treated the Japanese animation. Ugh.

In fact it was so bad that I don’t think I ever really watched many of the individual episodes, however, I really liked the films/movies that came out of the series… to the point that I actually have the original VHS/DVDs somewhere.

So is it with some amount of cautious optimism that I will look at this theoretical Sailor Moon Anime series. I mean, the updated Sailor Moon manga series I am very glad to see… so yeah, we’ll see.

Entertainment: Michael Phelps at the London 2012 Olympics

Just as a fair warning the below is just a quick post about Michael Phelps’ individual events in the Olympics thus far, there will be another post that would focus on the relays that he has participated in the past as well as which he is expected to participate in the upcoming Olympics.

With Michael Phelps choosing to drop the 200m freestyle from his swimming card for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, I thought it would be interesting to go back in time and watch his progression from the first Olympic Trials that he participated in: the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia:

During the 2000 US Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, Michael competed in three events and how he fared:

EVENT PRELIM SEMIS FINALS
200 Meter Butterfly 1:58.61 (Q) 1:58.24 (Q) 1:57.48 (Q)
200 Meter Individual Medley 2:06.91
400 Meter Individual Medley 4:25.97

So way back when, Michael only qualified for one events in the Olympics, but considering he was only 15 at the time… well what would you expect? He was making his mark on the scene and the world wasn’t going to forget Michael in the years to come.

Since then Michael has expanded his swimming dance card to the point that he was able to compete up to eight events per Olympics. Below is a table of all the events (individual only) he has competed in during the past three Olympic Trials (2000, 2004 and 2008) broken down by event.

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