Is your greatest strength your biggest weakness? Is your confidence sometimes arrogance? Is your passionate nature sometimes a temper tantrum? Could your easy going nature become laziness in its extreme? To be fair, all that does is show you are human. But is it so endearing in a television programme?
The Masked Singer is a global phenomenon. It is completely cheesy entertainment that is not taken one bit seriously, on the surface at least. Most Saturday night entertainment programmes have over recent years at least put on a veneer of deeper meaning. But not this one. It goes no further than c-list celeb in a costume singing pop hits.
That is its charm. But also, it is at times a grating flaw. There seems to be a competition between the host, Joel Dommett, and the panel of judges as to who is the loudest. The script is deliberately awful, which isn’t a major problem for the target audience perhaps but wearies anyone seeking any form of rigour.
And then there is the filler. If we just had clues and the singing, followed by a brief judging, we could be done in 45 minutes. Yet somehow we end up with double the run time as the space is filled with gimmicks. By the end it isn’t so much ‘take it off’ as ‘get on with it’
This all makes it sound like I hate it. Yet I don’t. I’m hooked by the guessing game and, when it isn’t descending into a shout off, the judging panel is actually fine. They are certainly more life affirming than many of their rivals. And for all the silliness, it never feels like it tips over into cruel.
Maybe I’m wrong audience. Perhaps everything negative I’ve said misses the point. And yes, it might just be the case that what I see as this show’s biggest weaknesses are really it’s greatest strengths.