‘America’s Got Talent’ review: Emily West, Miguel Dakota, Dan Naturman try to shine

The first “America’s Got Talent” live show is here, and we couldn’t be more excited! Seriously. While we dislike the judges’ long-winded critiques and all the product placement, we live for the scary acts, the creative, and the people we’d really want to see live.

Sure, there are also some duds mixed in there, but we’d say that tonight was by and large a pretty impressive array of talent. We’ve definitely seen far worse at this point in past competitions.

Like with some of our reviews for other competition shows, we’re going to rank all the contestants here in order of worst to first.

12. The Willis Clan – Hokey. Too hokey for their own good. The reason this sort of thing went out of style decades ago, and the reason why is mostly because there are so many other avenues that provide what a family band does, but better. It’s also interesting that nowhere has the family’s Great American Country show ever really been referenced.

11. Sean & Luke – This was almost as good as a routine featuring these two guys doing tap really can be. As for whether or not that is a compliment or an insult … we’ll let you decide. The only thing that we’d argue is that “So You Think You Can Dance” blows these two out of the water.

10. Jasmine Flower – Despite Nick Cannon’s “wow” and our hope that this would be amazing, we actually felt like there were some little issues with this. Nothing in here was particularly new or revolutionary to us, and it felt like there were times when things could be a little more precise with the individual movements. You have to compare it to Baila Conmigo later in that department.

9. Julia Goodwin – Once again, we wonder if the “America’s Got Talent” producers only clear songs that are practically licensed for free. Why “Iris”? Why stick a teenage girl with such a dated song? She sang decently and the string arrangement was nice, but there’s nothing here that will get people clamoring to see her live. The song choice is a big part of that.

8. J.D. Anderson – This was fairly entertaining, a little self-indulgent, and we’re really not sure that everything in here went according to plan with the cement blocks. We’ve seen some acts do what he does, but we’ll give him at least some credit for having some personality and trying to do so many tricks within the span of 90 seconds. With that being said, we’d concentrate on just one if he advances.

7. David & Leeman – Somewhat disappointing, given that we put a lot of faith in them before tonight, and the trick was good. It just took a little too long. They’re probably much better than this showed when you get to see a full magic show; with their emphasis on humor as well as magic, having to do a two-minute performance simply is not enough.

6. Baila Conmigo – For a young salsa dance group, this was very impressive. We admit that we find dance groups very repetitive, and while good, you really can’t win with one of them. We still feel that way, but if they manage to get some new people out there dancing, then that is probably good enough for them.

5. Flight Crew Jump Rope – It’s crazy how there is almost no middle ground with something like this. If there is just one mistake, they probably don’t advance. However, we didn’t see a single one, and we appreciated the trampoline and some of the acrobatics. Even the music choice was great for what they were doing. It was more than just a standard jump-rope act, and they deserve all the credit for that.

4. Miguel Dakota – “Come Together” is a tough song to do, mostly because nobody really understands what most of the lyrics of the song mean. He’s got a voice that is a little similar to Phillip Phillips, a good tone, and the production behind him with the band was really strong. We don’t think he necessarily challenged himself vocally, but he performed at the end of the show and he’s a good-looking young guy who’ll get votes. Strategically, it may have been wise to leave himself somewhere to build.

3. Dan Naturman – We were very worried about Dan going into tonight’s episode, mostly because comedy is impossible in this format. But he reminded us almost immediately of Jerry Seinfeld and Jon Lovitz somehow rolled into home. He was just awkward enough to be relatable, but also confident enough really roll off some jokes.

2. Valo & Bobby – Loved it. There is seriously an element of danger here, and also creativity, a good story, and an act that you could make into a much larger show with the right components. This, to us, is what we watch “America’s Got Talent” for.

1. Emily West – Trust us: If we rank a singer this high, they really better deserve it. Emily completely blew us away. We felt going into tonight that she’d be forgotten, or pigeon-holed as yet another Nashville singer with a familiar story. But her performance of Sia’s “Chandelier” was current, emotional, and went beyond our expectations of her genre. A beautiful take on the song.

Who was your favorite on “America’s Got Talent” tonight? Let us know in the comments, and click here to see where we ranked the contestants going into tonight. Also, you can sign up to get further talented TV updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: NBC