NBC’s ‘The Voice’ review: Did Jacquie Lee, Tessanne Chin, or Will Champlin win first part of finale?

“The Voice” finale week is here, and we have to admit that for the first part of what we were hoping to be an epic episode, we were really expecting a million times more than what we ended up receiving: A surprisingly bland number of performances. Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera chose to play it safe rather than go for the throat, and that made this into the show that casts a dark shadow on what has otherwise been a very fun, very engaging season.

We’re going to rank the contestants based on the three separate rounds in the competition, and in case you are wondering, Carson Daly is ranked last for continuing to give such inane introductions. Is Jacquie Lee REALLY surprising to anyone anymore, Carson? Really?

The Reprises

3. Will Champlin, “Not Over You” – Out of all the songs that we would want to hear again from Will, this is one that makes us want to groan. The performance wasn’t particularly great, since the pitch fluttered all over the place. It also didn’t show off the same sort of artistry and emotion that we have seen from him at other times in the competition.

2. Jacquie Lee, “Back to Black” – The final ten seconds of this song was a screechy mess, but the fact that she still wins round 1 really shows that this entire first batch of songs were not the best for this final three. Jacquie felt like she was trying way too hard to make this into this sort of epic performance when she should’ve focused on the soul of it. But the people on the internet are probably a billion times too harsh on her.

1. Tessanne Chin, “Try” – We prefer the song from Jacquie, but the actual performance here from Tessanne. She’s really won us over just by being consistent, and delivering solid vocals and having the perfect interpretation of the music. We do wish that she got a chance to do a different song, but alas, it is what it is.

The Duets

3. Will with Adam Levine, “Tiny Dancer” – This duet was so unremarkable that it actually took a few minutes for us to really remember that there actually was a duet performed to this song … which we usually love for obvious cinematic reasons. This was really just the continuation of more disappointment throughout this final round.

2. Jacquie with Christina Aguilera, “We Remain” – They weren’t always together, but perhaps the bigger issue here was just that we expected something much more interesting than Christina trying to look like Jacquie’s big sister on the stage as they stood there and performed this song together. We figure that this will sell very well still, thanks largely to its ties to “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.”

1. Tessanne with Adam Levine, “Let It Be” – This was somewhat subdued, but we really liked it because it never forced anything. Instead, it just kept the attention solely on the chemistry that Adam and Tessanne had as vocalists. Plus, it had that AWESOME little reggae line thrown in there. Such a cool, smart arrangement for these two to come up with.

The New Performances

3. Will, “Everything I D0 (I Do It For You) – Another opportunity to watch Will unfortunately squander what could have been a big night for him. There were again some pitch issues, but we don’t love that Adam gave him something to do in this last round of the competition that was so dated and uninspired. There is nothing about this Bryan Adams song that makes you want to log onto iTunes right now and pick this up.

2. Tessanne, “I Have Nothing” – We just wanted to shout “NO!” and shake the television when this was happening: Tessanne performing our least-favorite song in the history of singing shows. There is just nothing right now that is appealing about hearing this song again, and while she did a very good job at it, this dull as dirt choice left the door open for someone else to get more votes. A waste of a song choice.

1. Jacquie, “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” – Oh boy. So apparently, this entire song list was chosen by the executive producers of “American Idol.” Another song that has been done to death, brought back in zombie form, and then done to death again. Jacquie gets credit for killing the song and winning the round, but we hate having to hear this song again when there are thousands of great choices that have never been done before. License some new music people!

Overall, this episode was a bummer. The bad song choices and a few good performances don’t make up for all of the letdowns. We watch “The Voice” to be entertained and surprised, not to hear about Will’s family again or that Jacquie is 16. We like to be surprised, and the only time we were tonight was during the first twenty seconds of Tessanne’s duet. There’s great talent, but poor execution. Grade: C-.

Who was your favorite on “The Voice” tonight? Share what you think below, and also click here if you want to see where we ranked the contestants going into this show.

Photo: NBC