‘The X Factor’ USA review: Denise Weeks, Rylie Brown, Rachel Potter, and Simon Cowell ‘sings’
After a one-hour premiere last night, “The X Factor” ran a full two hours on Thursday. After watching this, we’re starting to think that a one-hour episode should just be the norm. This was boring; sorry, but there’s no other way around it. The majority of the songs failed to contain anything new, and Simon Cowell even feels of all people like he’s just dipping back into the same tricks. Take, for example, when he makes you think he is going to say something bad, pauses, and then says something good. This was never a tease, Simon! If you hate someone, you just say it.
Before we get to any of the individual contestants here, we should go ahead and get the BREAKING NEWS out of the way: Simon actually sang during the show. Of course, by “sang” we mean that he used a horrible voice that is not his actual singing voice. That’s right: The show hyped this up for weeks for something that was simple and stupid. While we do still like the judging panel in principle, we literally felt like we were watching the same show here that we have been for the past few seasons.
The good contestants
Rylie Brown – It’s somewhat surprising that Riley actually struggled at first with her words, given that she does have experience for her age. She’s been mentored by Gavin McGraw, after all, and has been at least working at this for a little while. Very good voice still, if a little rough around the edges.
Jeff Brinkman – He’s a local Colorado musician / doggie day care guy who’s really rocking out with that raspy tone. Our favorite from the Overs so far, though that really is not saying too much just yet given that we have only seen two people in this category who are really any good. The only major concern is that his voice is pretty much Josh Krajcik 2.0, and he has not been able to do much after the show.
Rachel Potter – Rachel has a good bit of recording and stage history but she has been one of those people who has fought very hard for years to make it big. We found it kind of hilarious how the show made it a huge deal about how she was 29 years, as though this was too old to have a career. Let it be duly noted that the reason for Rachel’s struggles is not her voice, which is great; she is perhaps a little to theatrical for the country scene.
Jorge Pena – Ice cream scooper Jorge actually isn’t a bad singer, but he’s very bad at the communication skills. How do you come on the stage and be such an uncomfortable d-bag at the same time. This was just uncomfortable, and no matter how good of a singer he is, no one is ever going to vote for this sort of attitude.
Simone Torres – A nice little throwback performance, complete with quirky dance moves. We have no idea if she will make the live shows, given that there’s no real evidence that she can do anything remotely relevant today.
Roxxy Montana – Here is the second group this season that is actually decent: A soulful trio from Michigan who didn’t even tell their parents that they were auditioning for the show. Granted, one of them is clearly better than the other two, and we wouldn’t be shocked if they force one of them into the forefront more.
Al Calderon – A good-looking, young guy who sings “Happy Birthday” to people at a restaurant. He’s pleasant enough, but a star? Not exactly.
Denise Weeks – Unlike Lillie McCloud last night, Denise seems to be closer to how she is presented on the show: A good singer and a mother with a good story and little professional history. But, with all of this being said, the subway singer was hardly someone we will remember weeks from now unless she blows us away later.
The bad
Yosselin Marquez – Okay, so someone obviously told Yosselin that it would be funny for her to come on stage, do karaoke, and pretend like she has never heard of Simon Cowell. With all of the pre-performance stuff that you do before getting on stage, trust us: You know all of the judges’ names.
Thomas Weiderspon – It’s like Scotty McCreery, but horrible! Baby, lock them doors to keep this guy from coming into a room and singing again.
K+B – We do really like the idea of someone from Puerto Rico on the show, but we much prefer them when they are actually able to sing.
Jocelyn Hinton – Just once, we want to see an obnoxious, arrogant, and ridiculous egotistical contestant actually come out and be so amazing that we don’t see this sort of thing coming a million miles away. The best part was that she was one of those people who just keeps singing in hopes that it somehow changes the fact that she’s terrible.
Russ Puliot – The token delusional old guy who is obviously no good, and thinks that he is. The only thing that was great about this was production forcing Simon to listen to the entire performance.
Who was your favorite from tonight’s show? Be sure to share below! Also, click here for our full review of the premiere episode.
Photo: Fox