Things I learned from The Voice season 2, week 2

This week on The Voice, we started to see the characters come out … both the artists and the coaches! We also doubled the number of four-chair turnarounds that we had all of last season. It’s this mix of personality and real musical talent that’s made this show a success. We just happened to get it in one convenient hour-long package.

Firstly, these coaches are always going to be a riot. Adam was not short of one-liners (“I’m the a-hole that didn’t pick you,” he told Jordis Unga, while admitting that Erin Martin made him “confused and a little bit scared”), but actually was not bleeped for the first time this season. Meanwhile, Cee Lo continued to make passes at every attractive woman on the stage, Blake discovered pointing at himself actually works, and Christina appeared to be more interested in her manicure when she was talking to Sarah Golden. This was before we got into the idea of a hypothetical arm-wrestling match between Adam and Purrfect the Cat.

I’ve talked before about the coaches’ altruism, but we saw it bite them in the behind this week. They all spent so much time trying to convince each other to turn around for David Grace (with Christina looking at Blake who was yelling at Adam, who was in turn pointing back at Blake) that nobody picked him. I love how they want the artists to end up with the right coach, but we’ve now seen there’s also a risk of letting a good one down by not making a move.

The artists were certainly interesting, too. There was Pip, he of one name and the bow tie, who “blew the roof off,” to quote Carson. I was thrilled that my team snagged him; I think Adam can do some really interesting things with him. Erin described herself as an “Egyptian warrior princess,” whatever that means. The uniquely named Jordis Unga sung the heck out of “Maybe I’m Amazed.” One artist who didn’t get picked was Winter Rae, who happened to have bright blue hair and be buddies with Perez Hilton. Sorry, Winter, but Casey Desmond‘s hair was cooler and she was a better singer.

This brings me to a gripe I had last year and that I have again this year: I understand that we can’t see every blind audition in its entirety, but could we at least get to see all the ones from artists who made teams? It happened to Casey Desmond last year, and it happened to Nathan Parrett, Brian Fuente and Moses Stone this year. It seems really unfair to both the artists and to the audience; we don’t really get to hear who these people are and why we should want them on the show. This is particularly glaring when it comes to Moses, since he’s the show’s first MC. I don’t even like rap, but c’mon now.

We’re down to only one more round of blind auditions, and looking at the field as it now stands, I have to say it really could be anyone’s game this year. Last season we only had two artists get all four coaches to turn; this year, we’ve already had that happen four times. Last year, the majority of my favorite artists were on Team Adam (Javier Colon, Tim Mahoney, et al.) This season, I do have quite a few favorites on Team Adam, but I do have my eye on artists from Team Christina and Team Blake as well. This is definitely going to be a different season, and that’s what we needed this year. Trying to straight follow the awesomeness that was season one would have been a mistake. Season two had to make its own identity, and I think that it certainly is doing that with these new artists.

Maybe it’s the benefit of my experience with season one, but this season I find myself almost more interested in what the coaches will do with these singers, as opposed to just the singers themselves. I really want to see what Adam is going to do with Pip, or what Christina will be able to get out of Chris Mann. It’s much more about the ongoing process for me this time around. Let’s see who the final team members will be next week … when Michael will be back to keep you updated, because I’ll be working on my tan in Arizona.

Who were your favorites this week? (And is anyone other than me playing the 5th Coach Facebook game?)

Clacked by Brittany Frederick
on Feb 14, 2012 @ 13:28 EST5EDT