‘Bits and pieces’ orientation foils ‘Sunday All Stars’

BEA Binene. FILE PHOTO

After only a few telecasts, GMA 7’s weekly musical showcase and competition for its contract talents, “Sunday All Stars,” is already evincing basic problems that should be addressed right away; if the new show, which replaced the ill-fated “Party Pilipinas” expects to do better and stay on the screen longer than its late and unlamented predecessor.

Most serious of all is the “bits and pieces” orientation that makes its four performance teams’ weekly competition showcases come off as mere compilations of generally unrelated singing, dancing, comedy and gimmicky gambits, some lasting for only a few seconds, thus giving each showcase an awkward and sometimes even ugly “stitched together” look and feel.

True, some compilations have a sort of “organizing” theme; like one of the teams’ bright idea last week to pay musical tribute to heroes—but, the sketchy and ungainly way that the theme played itself out led to the “tribute’s” negative outcome.

This “bits and pieces” approach is not the way to go, because it’s too facile. The bits are usually so badly pulled together that there’s little climactic build and rise to the whole ragtag enterprise, so when it finally ends, it just—ends.

In addition, the tilt’s competing teams should avoid “trendy” gimmicks like using harnesses and cables to make performers “fly” as they sing or gyrate. Last week, a number of the teams employed the same device, and it got old and lost its appeal very quickly.

Instead of focusing on gimmicks that have an exceedingly short shelf life in terms of novelty and fresh entertainment value, “Sunday All Stars” should focus on much more basic and yet important considerations—

like insisting that its teams’ featured “singers” sing well!

Sour notes
Last week, quite a number of really sour notes were hit (or missed!) by some “solo” musical performers, so there’s a lot of much-needed work to be done right there, without getting all literally “hung up” over silly stuff like flying harnesses, and stuff.

Incidentally, last week, the “sour singing” problem also affected the “guest” performance of the three leads of “My Husband’s Lover,” who performed a song to plug their show.

Ouch, that hurt, so actors should focus on acting, please, and leave the “singing” to entertainers who have a special aptitude for it.

Ditto for dancing and “comedy,” which were also occasionally pulled off badly last week. Since the show is supposed to showcase GMA 7’s musical talents at their best, that’s exactly what it must do—and “puwede na” is definitely  not good enough.

It would also really help if the team members were more professional about attending rehearsals, etc. Last week, some complaints were raised about talents not showing up, guest performers suddenly not being available, etc.

This is not the way to run a weekly “talent” showcase, so erring team members should be penalized for their lack of professionalism—and just plain good manners and right conduct.

Finally, the show’s “judges” and “evaluators” are still much too unhelpfully “nicey-nice” by way of the smiling, simpering comments they make. How can the network’s musical talents improve if they’re handled with kid gloves?

P.S.: And that unoriginal and inept “charades” competition portion has got to go.