The late One Direction singer is a judge in later episodes of Netflix’s singing competition – but for now, it’s frothy fun
The singers in Building the Band, Netflix’s new reality show, must surely now be panicking about what the future holds. Not in case they’re unsuccessful, but in case they are. One of the judges is the late Liam Payne, the former One Direction star who died falling from a balcony in October shortly after filming ended, and following the kind of stories of drug abuse that are sadly all too common in the lives of young superstars.
It’s all above board, since Payne’s family have approved the release, and host AJ McLean, former Backstreet Boy, opens with a dedication to Payne and his “deep love for music”. Still, it’s now impossible to watch without noticing the sorry stench of suffering that hangs over celebrity, especially the kind accelerated by reality TV.
Lucky for Netflix then that it is such an enormously enjoyable, optimistic set-up that viewers may well overlook the arguable wrongness of resurrecting this kind of musical launchpad. The first four episodes, released as one batch today with more to come across the next few weeks, don’t actually feature Payne at all.
It’s Love is Blind meets The X Factor, as 50 hopeful singers are placed in individual pods to listen to each other perform “sight unseen”, then vote on their favourites; anyone with fewer than five votes goes home. The successful contestants then chat from pod to pod in the hope of finding people whose voices and musical values align.
It’s a race against time, as only the first six bands to form progress to the next round, where they meet for the first time performing, then work on choreography and harmony in person, with periodic eliminations. The Pussycat Dolls’s Nicole Scherzinger is a mentor and judge, and (from episode five onwards) Payne is a guest judge alongside Destiny’s Child’s Kelly Rowland.
These early episodes are deliciously frothy and fun. The singing standards are very high, featuring a mix of tones and styles from pop to rap to R’n’B, and if there’s a disappointing shortage of diversity in terms of appearance (everyone is good-looking and there is only one plus-size singer) it is made up for by the novelty of watching the singers chat so animatedly.
There is no Simon Cowell or Louis Walsh (the latter of whom laid bare his own cruel manipulations in the recent documentary Boyzone: No Matter What), delivering acerbic put-downs. There is only delight over each other’s talent, girly giggles about being “besties” and the earnest first date-style nerves of people desperate to make a good first impression.
Scherzinger seems genuinely invested in this premise and repeatedly tells us that this is an experiment in assembling people that a label wouldn’t necessarily put together. Can they better ascertain their own chemistry? Can harmony improve when looks are taken out of the equation? After decades of bands being so patently manufactured, the excitement feels contagious and the set-up fresh.
There is a villain (hey, there are still producers intent on a narrative here): Alison, a fame-hungry, self-interested diva openly seeking fame, who calls McLean rude and brazenly admits to not caring about anyone else before gleefully finding herself the deciding factor between two different girlbands. “I know I said I wanted a girlband but girls sometimes make me nervous,” worries possible bandmate and former opera singer, the doll-like Elise, after getting off a call with Alison. Here comes the drama – and with it the kind of irresponsible characterisations that make people worry about this type of show.
Alison is a good contrast, though, to the glut of sentimentality elsewhere, from the adorable Labrador enthusiasm and 90s good looks of Landon, who hails from Utah and really does look like he’s walked off the set of The Book of Mormon (“I 100 per cent wanna be in a boyband because… it’s dope!”), to the soulful connection of grounded, raspy powerhouses Aliyah and Donzell.
Building the Band takes a while to get going – we don’t even see most bands sing until episode four – but when it’s good, it’s akin to the best kind of karaoke night (minus the awful vocals). Everyone is just having so much fun. Whether the self-constructed nature of the bands lead to a more harmonious future remains to be seen, but until then, it’s a riot.
‘Building the Band’ is streaming on Netflix
