Beautiful, showy costumes. Silly banter from the judges. Entertaining performances. Clues to the secret performer so the audience watching live at home can outsmart the judges and post their thoughts on social media.
What makes The Masked Dancer fail is what makes The Masked Singer great.
First time’s a charm. The second time is just a stale reproduction.
While it’s true that Fox’s new Masked Dancer debuted last week as the top show in the adults 18-49 demographic for the entire TV season, popularity typically doesn’t mean quality.
What’s really missing from the show is the singing voice. It’s somewhat easy to guess singers’ voices when they perform. It’s what makes watching The Masked Singer so fun. But dancers? You can see if someone is great or horrible–or if they may be a young or old dancer based on their ability to actually move or bend–but no one really has any chance to guess a dancer by simply watching a costumed character dance.
This show will have to rely on the montage “clues” they give the audience and judges, rather than any additional charactieristics. They also promise to use “real voices” in interviews (because otherwise the judges would be totally clueless).
As for the judges themselves, well, they are entertaining. Yes, I’ll grudgingly admit it: I miss Jenny McCarthy, who brings a bizarre wildness and excitement to The Masked Singer that makes the judging at least interesting.
This is a more competent–but less interesting–set of judges, with Ken Jeong, Paula Abdul, Brian Austin Green, and Ashley Tisdale, whose job of course is to banter away and typically be totally wrong. In the first episode, Abdul was strangely quiet, Green was still feeling out his judge’s persona, and Tisdale was excited but not exciting. As always, that allowed Jeong to steal the show, but it isn’t nearly enough.
And Craig Robinson (The Office) as host is a total misfit for the role. Yes, he’s funny. But he lacks any moves of his own, leaving him with no choice but to banter with the contestants in a less than meaningful way. Nick Cannon can act and sing, so he’s a perfect fit for The Masked Singer. But you have to wonder why Fox couldn’t cast someone who could host and talk dancing like Bruno Mars or Usher or Justin Timberlake. After all, it’s only scheduled to have nine episodes and they probably filmed this entire season over a one or two week period.
Yes, it’s mindless fun. But the impossibility of really guessing a dancer takes much of the audience interaction (via live Twitter) away. If Fox was counting on “here’s one real voice clip” to try to save the show it really isn’t enough. And can anyone really dance well in a big clumsy costume?
Many years ago–when several Law & Orders were on the air simultaneously in the same TV season– at least each show had a separate, unique formula. They seemed to be different shows. This show isn’t different enough. And that will damage the public’s appetite for the original Masked Singer. What’s next: The Masked Chef? The Masked Bachelor? Sadly, even those might be more interesting.
But if I had to judge The Masked Dancer, I fear the show seems to have two left feet.
The Masked Dancer airs Wednesdays at 8:00 pm ET/7:00 pm CT on Fox. It can also be streamed online.
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