So You Think You Can Make a TV Show That
is Incredible
Warning: this post is not funny at all!
If you used to read me over at BestWeekEver.tv, you know I am completely obsessed
with So You Think You Can Dance. If you have never watched this show, you should
start right away. It's currently in its seventh season, but it's the type of show that just
keeps getting better. This season is staggeringly good already. If you think it's some
kind of kids' version of Dancing with The Stars, or some niche version of America's Got
Talent...you're wrong. Dancing with The Stars is where washed up tabloid uggos try to
win themselves a bonus 15 minutes; and where ballroom dancing as an art form is shat
upon week after week. America's Got Talent is where your substitute teacher gets his
revenge on all those students who made fun of his ventriloquist act.
What makes SYTYCD different from these is that it is, fundamentally, a show about art.
Let me explain...
Yes, it's packaged in a way to make you think you're about to eat a box of Lucky Charms. And it definitely tastes like Lucky Charms. But if you look closely, it's made out of organic bran nuggets! What I'm trying to say is that this shit is good for you, and you don't even realize it when you're scarfing it down, and then suddenly your cholesterol goes down and you lose weight and you feel alive again. In other words, it's the best kind of cereal.
Cereal metaphors aside: week after week, SYTYCD showcases artistry on a level that is unmatched in primetime reality television. They've brought the nation's (the world's?) top choreographers together to create original dance pieces that are performed by literally the best young, mostly undiscovered dancers around. The dance styles are varied and rich. The choreographers pick music that is interesting and relevant and draws a cultural-dud like myself into the world of cutting edge dance. I mean, some of the stuff they do on this show is really edgy, and weird, and dark. And insanely beautiful and moving. Like, make-you-cry type of stuff, and you have no idea why you're crying. (I mean, the only things I know about dance I learned from watching The Grind.) You get the feeling that underneath, it's the kind of shit someone did in their one-woman show about gender. But it's disguised within a pop song and it's playing on your TV on Fox. How does this show EXIST?
I'm sure hardcore experimental dance aficionados might disagree - they might say what we're seeing on this show is watered down and gives dance a bad name. Even if that's true, at least I'm paying attention to dance now, people. And I am becoming a not-by-choice dance nerd now. Like, I actually want to go and pay for tickets to see people writhe around on a stage in a loft in Bushwick. So don't complain. You see? They have figured out a way to make us eat our vegetables!
It reminds me of Project Runway in its early days. Project Runway was the first reality competition show that was completely dependent on a person's skill. If you didn't know how to sew, there was no effing way you were going to last. You could not fake it on this show. The challenges were real and many of the people designing were people who had spent their lives building a career.
Now. Anyone who tries to say that American Idol is doing this is a little bit wrong. American Idol is about kids who are blessed with a singing voice - and yes, you need skill to get to the end - but there is always a feeling that some contestants could float by on charm and sheen. I've always thought the music business has allowed untalented people to become extremely rich and famous based on very little skill. But entertainers are different from artists, right? Unless you're Lady Gaga, and then perhaps you can be both. At least she can really sing and play an instrument while wearing a dress made out of Habitrail tubes.
I digress. What I'm trying to say is that SYTYCD is increeeehhhdible and if you are an emotional, physical being, and you watch this show, something happens inside of you when you're watching it. And no, I'm not talking about an orgasm! I think it's the feeling you get whenever you experience artists at the top of their game doing what they were born to do! People using their bodies and music and really really tight abs to express the most basic human experiences. DANCE!
Oh boy. This is embarrassing isn't it? I just wrote a dissertation on a television program called So You Think You Can Dance and I'm talking about art like someone who reads the New Yorker, like actually reads it, and I'm not even wasted.
Maybe this post is just a passive aggressive way to say that Last Comic Standing gives me severe diarrhea? Partly because I am watching my friends go through a meat grinder on national TV and partly because (in my opinion) it does the opposite for stand up comedy of what SYTYCD does for dance. It does not properly showcase this art form, at all. It is not honest about comedy, it has not figured out how to show the world what a burgeoning comedy star looks and sounds like. And it does very little to show you the actual existing talent of its own contestants. I know I know I know everyone says this season of LCS is going to be different. I hope it is! The people on this show are truly talented and I have seen them with my own eyes be amazingly artful and skilled. So, at the risk of sounding bitter - pleease please please, LCS, stop feeding me shit flakes and telling me it's Fruity Pebbles. (I'm interested to see if dancers feel the same way about SYTYCD that I feel about LCS - am I being hypocritical?)
Next time on Things You Didn't Want to Read: I discuss how life imitates The Real Housewives of New Jersey!