Stage Boom (2021)

Girls are great but the programme was not.

Man, where do I even begin?

Let's start with the pros:
The 10 girls were great! Loved seeing their friendship develop although they were in a competitive environment and the girls did very well for their assessment despite having barely any time to prepare.

The stages were also insanely good. The girls are incredibly talented in their own right. Zhuoxuan's vocals and all-roundedness, Yichun's vocals, Jieqiong's pipa skills, Xuanyi's creativity and dancing etc also made their own stages incredibly brilliant. I want to say more but please do yourself a favour and watch their stages!

Now the cons. Although I watched the programme knowing it was going to be a competition, the producers definitely made it a lot more competing than ideal. The girls were constantly pit against each other: they had to vote for who was the worst, who should not get to perform on the big stage, who did the best etc. Thankfully this ended before the 2nd half of the show and producers focused more on cute moments between the girls.

Han Hong the host. Not only was she incredibly biased to the contestants she liked, she was super cringey and made the atmosphere incredibly awkward. She would also mess up on who the girls were. Like. you're a host and there are only 10 of them. I dont know if she was trying to be quirky but it was annoying to viewers. You'll understand how annoying she was only when you watch the show. Best if you just skip her parts entirely. Also, when she threw her cue cards in the first elimination I was just like. What? She also straight up told a contestant that she couldnt help them and told them to work on it on their own. (as if she isnt yknow, PAID to help them?)

Lastly, the show leaves viewers with a feeling of it being unfair. Somehow Yichun made it to the finals despite lacking severely in dance, having a poor attitude throughout the show (insisted on her way despite being the weak link of the Yamy-Yichun duo, messing up the VVS music video and in turn voting out Xuanyi who helped her etc). For their musical assessment, for example, some of them were just given more difficult parts although it was a competition. Their stages also had a clear disparity in the standard of their guests. Some people got well-respected seniors of the industry (Zhou Bichang etc), while some contestants got paired with juniors. Although nothing is wrong with that, it should have been more equal since this is a competition in my opinion.

Also the royalty pick of iQiyi series winning is no surprise but as a viewer, I think there were many more deserving girls. The producers also did not try hiding their favouritism.

Overall, despite my seemingly mostly negative feelings about the show, I would still have to give it a 10. Having stages in China for idols is rare and I'm glad this show was a good platform for them to showcase their skills. Their stages alone are already deserving of the 10/10 stars.

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