Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-28218516-20180821190426/@comment-33043619-20180822162745

So is this just an annual thing now? Each year before the second quarterfinal, the interns take over tech duty? At least this meant the judges had to step up and actually do some, y'know, JUDGING for once.

12: Quin and Misha. I guess "She's dancing like she's never danced before" stands for "Being completely motionless while some guy uses you like a scarf". Yeah, I was bored out of my mind during this too, there was a brief moment in the middle where the live feed cut out the music...THAT added a TINY bit of excitement, but I doubt that was intentional.

11: Yumbo Dump. I just watched two fat naked dudes run around pretending to have fake dolphin sex on stage. We truly live in the golden age of Television.

10: Voices of Hope Children’s Choir. But...I asked nicely..."Please no more Greatest Showman songs". This looked like one of those stripy coloured "Technical Difficulties" test screens that you get on your TV, which fit the show perfectly last night. The whole thing was pleasant and nice enough, but not exactly impactful in any way. Props to the camera man for finding the kids that weren't doing anything and broadcasting them on live TV.

9: Makayla Phillips. Perfectly servicably forgettable...Actually, I'm pretty sure that sequence of words there is as broken as the show was last night. It's hard to deny that she has a good voice and can sing, but I feel that's a given on this show at this point and I heard nothing here I haven't heard before. There is something Ariana Grande-ish about her that's at least a tiny bit interesting, but she clearly hasn't found her own style yet...

8: Da RepubliK. This was a step-up and they are a good dance group overall, I still didn't really see anything THAT special or unique that would make them stick in my mind in the end. I'm glad we have moved past the "play 5 seconds of an annoying tune, follow up with 5 seconds of an even more annoying tune" style of dance crews, but these guys were still lacking something to really make them stand out for me.

7: Duo Transcend. I think what they do is really impressive and if there's any justice in the world, they should be rewarded for all the hard work by getting through. But I can also admit when an act isn't for me and this is just one of those cases...I've seen them 3 times now and they simply fail to engage me and I'm in the clear minority right now so it's probably my own fault rather than theirs that I was wondering about what weird Sacred Riana'd version of Toxic was playing behind them rather than enjoying the act itself

6: Noah Guthrie. I woke up this morning with a bad cold and a slight fever. That might be the reason why I'm about to do this next: defend a singing act on this show. I LIKED IT! I dunno, I enjoyed the song well enough, thought his voice suited it perfectly and overall the whole thing was enjoyable to listen to. Heck, I'd rather listen to this on a loop for the next 24 hours than hear another song from The Great Showman.

5: Glennis Grace. Speaking of that, the next episode of "Who wants to be the next Greatest Showman" saw Glennis get fashion advice from a woman who consitently looks like she's been dressed by a team of lemurs. Yeah, she sang it well and all, but failed to really elevate the song or reach any new heights and I feel she's capable of doing it with a less overused song.

4: The Savitsky Cats. SIMON.exe has stopped working. And I like cats. Cats have absolutely zero motivation to do anything besides sleep and quietly hate you, so while there WERE mistakes in the act, the fact they still managed to get back on track in the end was impressive enough. I also feel like we've seen more unique tricks from these cats than we ever did from the Pompeyo dogs. Also, whoever put together that intro package about the cats needs a raise. Netflix, get on top of that.

3: Samuel J. Comroe. The screen was distracting, but I think he did a great job overall. I also liked his little opening jab regarding Yumbo Dump, just makes acts like these feel so much more natural when they can comment on the actual show they are on and not JUST use stock material from their library. He's not quite Preacher level yet, but he's getting better with his delivery each time...

2: The Sacred Riana. I'm not even sure if I should consider this a magic act at this point, Heidi was spot on when she said the tricks themselves aren't that impressive. BUT as a bit of performance art with some magic thrown into it? IT'S GREAT! She's consistently interesting and fun to watch, even when the act turns into a complete clusterfuck in the end.

Now on to what EVERYONE has been going crazy about...The cut to a commercial was clearly intentional and actually a pretty neat idea on paper that went along with the story she was telling on stage. You ramp up the tension, do a big climactic trick where you climbs up a wall and finish with a scream, only to fade to black and leave the audience in suspense/wondering if you got tickled to death by your clone army (OOOOH SPOOKY). The execution just didn't entirely work, a lot of it thanks to the entire episode beforehand being a giant mess, but just a quick glance at the OVERWHELING amount of people screaming "JUSTICE FOR RIANA, WE WANT TO SEE THE ENDING, SHAME ON YOU AGT" on youtube will let you know that a LOT of people didn't get what she was trying to do and just ended up confused. I think the timing of the actual cut to commercials was just badly done, maybe a fake glitch effect or a quick fade to black would have made the thing better, I'm not sure. I just know it didn't work the way she intended, BUT considering the amount of people who are now convinced she was "robbed" by AGT, it might all end up helping her in the end.

1: Front Pictures. I was ready for them to just do another random visualiser graphics show, but no, this was a clevel and engaging little bit with an actual story that took full advantage of their technology. It kind of reminded me of a level from Luigi's Mansion or something else from Nintendo. Artistic, clever and fun, everything I wanted it to be. Yet I'm worried about their future, because I think a lot of people will just see this as a big exoensive tech show and nothing else. Their lack of a backstory doesn't help...

Honestly, the scariest part of this episode wasn't Riana or any of the technical issues, but the amount of Greatest Showman tunes we had to endure. A mess of a show overall, with thankfully enough decent acts to keep the thing floating. PREDICTION TIME:

Yumbo Dump can safely be dumped outside, same with Quin and Misha. Like you said, Da RepubliK too. Unfortunately, I have to bite the bullet and say that the last act in the bottom 4 will be Front Pictures. Just considering the show's history with projection acts and the lack of a clear story/personalities to hang on to, I have a hard time seeing the usual AGT audience voting for this. I'm SO hoping to be wrong, but I'm prepared for the worst.

On the other end of the table, Glennis should be safe, as should Samuel due to his adorableness alone. I also think Riana will easily make it through, being the most watched and talked about act last night, coupled with a LOT of people thinking she genuinely got screwed over.

The rest of them could end up anywhere, it's damn near impossible to predict so I'll just follow my (highly wrong) gut as usual and say the results will be roughly like this:

12. Yumbo Dump 11. Quin and Misha 10. Da RepubliK 9. Front Pictures 8. Noah Guthrie (lose judge's choice) 7. Duo Transcend (win judge's choice) 6. Voices of Hope Children’s Choir (win dunkin save) 5. The Savitsky Cats 4. Makayla Phillips 3. Samuel Comroe 2. Sacred Riana 1. Glennis Grace