Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25150955-20180617170212/@comment-25150955-20180619204438

Have some more of my Hot Takes:
 * Season 4 was quite honestly the worst season. Season 3 kinda sucked but there were a handful of really good acts (Queen Emily, Nuttin But Stringz, Neal E. Boyd, Jonathan Burkin, and a few others). Season 4 really only had Hairo and Barbara. There was literally nothing special about Season 4. And it was almost entirely run by music and dance.
 * Aurora Light Painters was a really cool act and I thought they got a bad rep just because they had an out of the box style and thematics.
 * Season 7’s YouTube Round was by far the worst, but not for the same reason that everyone else says. For me, because all of the actually interesting acts were buzzed and thrown aside for being rude. Eric Buss, Rudy Coby, and Cast in Bronze all got really bad reps imo. Meanwhile, the Top 3 included a magician with birthday party tricks and a singer who wouldn’t blossom until 2 years later. And the acts that didn’t get buzzed were BORING AS FUCK. I don’t remember jackshit about Melinda Hill or Reverse Order or Drew Edwin (there were all names I had to look up because they were that unmemorable). Academy of Villains pretty much saved the entire night. If they ever do bring back the YT act, the judges need to be less harsh towards the weirder acts.
 * While on the topic, Academy of Villains were one of my favorites on S7, and they definitely deserved to be in the Finals. Apparently they’re coming back this season, and I’m absolutely stoked.
 * Another robbed act in S7 was Jarrett and Raja. They had a phenomenal wildcard routine that should’ve sent them through, but they got shafted in favor of All That and Sebastian the Churro? What?
 * Moving on from S7...Season 9 had a lot of really interesting and good one-off acts. Like, you never saw them after the auditions. Examples? Jodi Miller, Laura Dasi, Ray Jessel, Josh Wright, Robert Channing, Rogue, Rachel Butera, Kamikaze Firelies...the list goes on.
 * S9 was a really bad year for comedy. My two favorite comedians, Joe Materese and Jodi Miller, were both shafted before the Lives (though Joe kind of blew it in Judgement Week, he had a great audition) and they also let Darik through, which...no. Absolutely not. Dan Naturman and Wendy Liebman were okay, but nothing super memorable.
 * Sal Valentinetti was pretty good. That said, he placed too high. I swear I thought Tape Face would’ve placed higher than him when the two were paired up.