Wednesday 22 August 2012

The Awful-ness of The [US] Inbetweeners


Did MTV learn nothing from 'Skins'? The American adaptation of 'The Inbetweeners' aired for the first time on MTV overseas on Monday night, stripped of any of the originality, charm and humour that the earlier version had when it debuted in the UK in 2008. I can assure you now, this is no “the first one is the best” or “Brits do it better” debate, it is merely a fact of the matter that the first episode was undoubtedly sub-par. 

Joey Pollari plays Will, an ex-private school numpty that is forced into normal education after his parent’s divorce.  He meets and is stuck with three of the most gormless teenagers you’ve ever witnessed: Simon (Bubba Lewis), Jay (Zack Pearlman), and Neil (Mark L. Young), who are all somewhere ‘in between’ the nerds forced to stand up against a wall during lunch, and actually standing a chance of losing their virginity by the time school finishes.

MTV needs to make scripted comedy take a backseat instead of shoving it to the forefront as it has done for too long. The ‘M’ currently stands for ‘miscellaneous’. Maybe even ‘mediocre’ in a sea of bland teen oriented shows. Even the great 'Awkward' has slipped into generic territory, with the current season revolving almost entirely around a love triangle...which seems like a pretty lazy route to take.

Although it seems like a tough critique of a show that has only aired one episode, 'The Inbetweeners' already shows signs of slipping into standard teenage nothingness. While there will be those that find the show hilarious, it is doubtful that the proposed 12-episode series will run smoothly without criticism and without comparison to MTV’s version of 'Skins', a show that received mass amounts of flack for being the same as the British version- only much worse. 

Finally the bleeped language was killing me. Either do it properly, or don't do it at all.

Thursday 2 August 2012

Iggy Azalea- Glory (EP)


Iggy Azalea dropped her slightly delayed EP, titled 'Glory' earlier this week- a six track lick of what’s to come on her debut album 'The New Classic' out later this year. After having relatively low expectations after a string of mediocre leaks featuring the Australian rapper I have to say that 'Glory' is much better than previously expected.

The EP is anchored by the T.I assisted; finger snappin’ “Murda Bizness”, which is incredibly listenable yet in no way incredible. Iggy adorns the standard “thugstress” dialect, spitting how lesser bitches "divide their legs, I divide the pie", along with how she’s “the first of [her] kind” while Azalea’s label boss breezily pops in, only to briefly reiterate everything she’s already stated.

4 out of 6 of the songs feature guest spots by various artists. Mike Posner sings the chorus on the sensual and borderline filthy bedroom anthem “Flash” ("you make me wanna fuck white girls again"), B.O.B on the organised synth-mess “Millionaire Misfits”, Pusha T. and of course T.I on the lead single. It begs the question as to whether Azalea feels the need to lean on the support of others to make her music listenable. We all know that rap is a genre that usually features multiple guest artists on a tracklist, occasionally 3, 4 or even 5 on the same song. However this EP is supposed to be a chance for those to get acquainted with the sticky Iggy as she attempts to set herself up for a huge official debut later on in 2012.

Glory ranges from the good, to the the generic, to the downright dirty. Showing that the artist in question is almost straddling the fence, trying to make a name for herself among the array of current rap mistresses, while almost slipping into bland territory in the process.

B-

Key Tracks: Murda Bizness, Flash