Author: Allison Keene

Adam Taylor/NBC

NBC is looking to double-down on its biggest non-sports ratings hit The Voice by introducing some new blood to its coaching lineup. For this season (at least), Usher and Shakira will be filling in for Cee Lo Green and Christina Aguilera as they pursue their own projects, but there was a network nervousness over how these new coaches might work with veteran coaches Adam Levine and Blake Shelton.

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Spectacularly, it turns out. Shakira and Usher energize the show and seem to do the same for Shelton and Levine, both of whom have mentored competition winners in the past. The new coaches are playing the part as upstarts, getting playfully ribbed by the veterans while also, as Shakira says over and over, potentially benefiting from “beginners luck.” Of course, Usher has also had success in mentoring one singer who’s done alright for themselves outside of The Voice … Justin Bieber.

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From the start, both new coaches established their personalities (and their bribery techniques). Shakira (the “pregnant, hormonal Colombian”) typically played the “I’m the only female here” card to suggest better and more nuanced understanding of those she will mentor (Shelton countered at one point with “well I have a wife in the business,” to which Levine shot back, “Blake just said he has a wife, so, because you are sisters, you’re just like him. What?”)

Whereas Shakira is serious and passionate, Usher is cool and and flirty, often sitting with one leg up in a kind of “come hither” position that the other coaches make fun of, though both new coaches bring a glamor and sexiness to the show that infuses it with a sleek energy.

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Among the contestants, when Shelton is in the mix he seems to be the most popular (possibly because of his winning touch), but Usher and Shakira also get a lot of positive attention from contestants and the crowd. Levine is so conservative in his approach in the first part of the this two-part premiere he doesn’t get much into the competition of convincing the singers to choose him over his cohorts, which is when the claws come out (literally — Levine says to one singer, “I’m going to claw everyone’s face off until you realize I should be your coach.”)

The banter among the coaches shows a lot of genuine good will, though whether this is just a honeymoon period or not remains to be seen. While Levine and Shelton seem the most comfortable bantering with each other, there’s no denying that the new coaches have been accepted into their ranks. Levine is still the funniest, with the sharpest barbs, but Shakira shows no hesitation in going up against him. As Shelton goads at one point early in the show, “she just ripped your ass wide open!”

Series like The Voice don’t need to try too hard to get an audience — they’re inherently fun and easy to get drawn in to, but the judges or coaches do matter when it comes to keeping some skeptical viewers (like this one) early on. But NBC appears to have kept a good thing going, backing the right players in this game.

Did Girls visually assault us? As a friend said, Sunday’s episode of Girls was “the most uncomfortable half hour of television I’ve ever watched.” Lena Dunham‘s HBO series has always generated heated debate, from the protestations that she’s not the voice of a generation (a satirical line somehow made concrete), to the discussion of her insistent nudity (I think I’ve seen her breasts more than my own). There are lots of things about Girls that works, plenty of perceptive bits of Millennial culture that makes us Millennials cringe with self loathing — or laugh with recognition — but there’s also quite a bit more that makes us just wonder.

Most of “On All Fours,” this season’s penultimate episode, was bleak.  It seemed to circulate around a bitter truth that no matter how hard you want to become your idealized self, your real nature cannot be bested. It was uncomfortable to see Marnie (Allison Williams) and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) struggle against who they are versus who they want to be, but it was the very hardest for Adam (Adam Driver, one of the stand-out performers of the series), who went too far this time. Did Girls go too far as well?

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The reactions to “On All Fours” were interesting to document throughout the day Monday. It was like a collective hangover — did last night really happen? There were those who wanted to keep believing Adam was the lovable weirdo who crossed a line but should be forgiven, and those who wanted him arrested. Adam’s request that Natalia (Shiri Appleby) get on her knees and crawl to the bedroom was not even a tenth as bizarre as some of the things he’s asked Hannah to do, but whereas Hannah always appeared willing to go along with him, it was instantly apparent Natalia was uncomfortable. When he grabbed Natalia and threw her on the bed to perform oral sex, she really began to hesitate, muttering that awful line “I haven’t showered today.” But it wasn’t until Adam put her on her back and jerked himself off onto her chest, followed by the gratuitous shots of the results pooling there, that really sent most everyone over the edge.

Some arguments today suggested that if you supported Adam after that, you have a bad boy complex (or you are one) and you’ll get over it in a decade. Or was the scene brave and provocative for being so explicit? Others said that Dunham has just run completely wild with the show and should be better guided by those more experienced. Further, that this scene and this episode were reminders of how self-involved most 25-year-olds are. In the end, the most common reaction was just “ew.”  Were we ambushed? 

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Yes, HBO “went there,” and it’s not like they haven’t done so before (recently, who can forget that post-blowjob mouth and chin wipe that Littlefinger gave the prostitute before he sent her to her next client on last season’s Game of Thrones?), but this sort of ultra shock moment drowned the bigger message, so why shoehorn it in? And isn’t the suggestion of it enough?

Adam tried so hard to be “normal,” and ended up sticking to Natalia’s rules for sex though added his own twist. It was his way of compromising, of letting his own kinks in, but in his drunken state he did so in a humiliating way that crushed Natalia’s trust in him and almost certainly any future in their relationship. Adam can’t change who he is, but in repressing it so completely it just ended up bursting out (literally). But who has time to think about that kind of stuff when you’re staring at a puddle of semen sitting on Shiri Appleby‘s chest?

It was a creepy, uncomfortable, unpleasant and dark thirty minutes, from the milder offenses of Marnie’s awkward singing and Shoshanna’s denial, to Hannah being the only person left on the planet who didn’t hear that PSA about sticking a Q-tip into your ear too far, and of course that gratuitous Money Shot. Whatever your feelings about Dunham and Girls, you have to admit that the show fosters a discussion, or at least a way for us to all cope with our visual violation together. It’s also a reminder from HBO that we are paying for it. One way or another. 

Oxygen’s new supermodel competition series The Face mixes Top Model with The Voice, where twelve hopefuls compete individually and in teams coached by Naomi Campbell, Karolina Kurkova and Coco Rocha. Refreshingly, the series doesn’t waste its inaugural episodes with auditions, which tend to drag. The Face immediately hopes into action by having the twelve featured girls ready to compete, and already placed with their model mentors.

Throughout the first series, the girls will be put through competitions similar to those seen on Top Model — narrative fashion shoots, putting together outfits on the fly — and will collaborate with fashion industry greats (like photographer Patrick Demarchelier), TV personalities (like talk show host Wendy Williams) and others, hoping ultimately to be awarded a contract with ULTA beauty.

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Photographer Nigel Barker serves as the host, but is removed from the real drama (at least as of the first episode), which takes place within the New York City loft the competitors share. The judges, too, bring their own spice to things — which is not surprising at all given the inclusion of Naomi Campbell. Campbell’s infamously strong personality and sensitivity to any slights against her team puts her in direct confrontation with the other judges, particularly the sweet and earnest  Kurkova, who is probably the most balanced and the best mentor in the group. As for the third mentor, Rocha is, to start, on the fringe. While Kurkova nurtures the talents of her team and Campbell gives tough love, Rocha seems in her own world, wanting to shoehorn her team into following her own brazen style, so far with mixed results.

It’s clear the supermodels populated their teams with girls who most mirrored themselves, which means that Campbell’s is already primed for drama. The girls come from all over the world and represent a range of backgrounds and ambitions, but Campbell’s team established themselves the quickest by having some of the most intense personalities in the competition, though she herself outshines them all. “I’m a little bit afraid of her,” Alexandria from Belarus says during the group photo shoot. Her instincts are not wrong.

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There are prizes awarded for every contest — from a $5,000 shopping spree at Top Shop to a featured photo in W magazine in the first episode — but on the flip side, at the end of each hour the mentor of the winning team from the group competition is able to eliminate one member from one of the remaining two teams (chosen by their own mentors). While the rest of the episode took place at whirlwind speed, things ground to a halt during the elimination round, which isn’t surprising but did make me check the clock (still, it’s not as bad as ABC’s The Bachelor, which has set the gold standard for lingering camera shots beyond the point of reason during each episode’s Rose Ceremony). The twist is the aftermath, wherein the mentor who made the elimination must face her other two supermodel mentors — and potentially their wrath.

The Face borrows plenty of concepts from other modeling and competition shows, but it manages to throw enough fashion and dramatic interest at viewers to be engaging. Plus, many of the girls have the personalities or backstories that will make their journeys interesting to follow. Besides, if all else fails, the show has bought itself insurance: leave the camera on Naomi Campbell long enough, and something is bound to happen worth watching.