femslashedtires
usa
Skip to Ep. 7
I started watching The Hidden Character when it was first airing, but quickly dropped the show after Ep. 3 because I strongly disagreed with premise of the first segment (that actors need to share vulnerable, personal information with the world in order to act authentically). I did not like the gamification of these boys personal stories nor the way Pond chose to offer life advice at the end of each episode. It was fairly sloppily edited with a lot of dragging run time and lack of any kind of story arc that made it difficult to keep track of the cast.
After starting Dead Friend Forever, I came back to give it another try. The second segment (Ep. 4-6) was marginally better. With a focus on team/partner building games and cameos from most of the cast of Kinnporsche, it was lighter and more fun than the first. Still, most of this segment seemed like filler, with very poor attempts to create interesting arcs between the contestants. Where I found the show really got interesting (for me), was in Ep. 7 when the boys actually got the opportunity to start acting and receiving feedback.
From Ep. 7 to the end, The Hidden Character switches from a generic reality show to an interesting opportunity to watch young actors really start to sink their teeth into their craft and form connections with those who will become the cast of the next production by performing scenes (from Kinnporsche) together. That said, wasting 6 episodes on stupid reality shows means that the performances are crammed into a few short episodes with little time to expand on the feedback and rehearsal process. Some of the commentary is cut so short, I fear that viewers with little formal experience in acting won't even truly understand what is being said.
Finally, others have already stated it but the voting system was pretty disappointing. Given a group with such diverse existing fanbases and popularity, it would have been better to include, for example, a percentage of the final score coming from the judges. That said, it has little impact when watching this show retroactively--and especially when you already know how many of them make it into Dead Friend Forever.
After starting Dead Friend Forever, I came back to give it another try. The second segment (Ep. 4-6) was marginally better. With a focus on team/partner building games and cameos from most of the cast of Kinnporsche, it was lighter and more fun than the first. Still, most of this segment seemed like filler, with very poor attempts to create interesting arcs between the contestants. Where I found the show really got interesting (for me), was in Ep. 7 when the boys actually got the opportunity to start acting and receiving feedback.
From Ep. 7 to the end, The Hidden Character switches from a generic reality show to an interesting opportunity to watch young actors really start to sink their teeth into their craft and form connections with those who will become the cast of the next production by performing scenes (from Kinnporsche) together. That said, wasting 6 episodes on stupid reality shows means that the performances are crammed into a few short episodes with little time to expand on the feedback and rehearsal process. Some of the commentary is cut so short, I fear that viewers with little formal experience in acting won't even truly understand what is being said.
Finally, others have already stated it but the voting system was pretty disappointing. Given a group with such diverse existing fanbases and popularity, it would have been better to include, for example, a percentage of the final score coming from the judges. That said, it has little impact when watching this show retroactively--and especially when you already know how many of them make it into Dead Friend Forever.
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