TVFirstLook
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| Trapper Felides |
Provided you can stomach precocious kids who sing and act (and kids who can't but whose parents force them to anyway), and you'll need a good, strong stomach, then Oxygen's The Next Big Thing is a charming, engaging show. You may find yourself longing for episode two, despite your better judgement.
The Next Big Thing is about New York performance coach Trapper Felides. He preps kids to act, sing and sorta dance on Broadway, TV and in the movies.
Felides is reality TV gold. A producer must've spotted him and thought, "Ooh, a catty queen fighting with stage moms and screaming at their crying kids. Gold!"
Maybe silver.
The Next Big Thing has a suitcase full of problems, although familiar and forgivable ones. Like, there are a few secondary storylines that go no where. Trapper has an assistant (of course he does), for instance, who's an actress. On the show, she goes on seemingly fake auditions to, I'm not sure, add tension to the show or to showcase her talent. Not sure.
And there are made-up dramas, it seems. Tonight, for instance, Trapper puts on a show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. The kids are performing, primarily, for a music producer in the audience. And the star of the show doesn't arrive until the last minute, stage mom in tow. Shwew.
But, mostly, The Next Big Thing follows Trapper as he has one tizzy after another. That's fun. And in between all that reality-TV stuff, he does seem to have a skill for finding kids with talent, and fine-tuning that talent. Those moments of real life, as it turns out, are more fun to watch than reality life.
The interactions between Baby T and Tracy are fantastic though: seriously hilarious and dead on and genuine, the things they say just come off as real, and I'm sure there was other footage but its edited well, it flows well while being concise.
ReplyDeleteThe kids are really talented; you can tell Trapper does love his kids even though he's crazy and over the top; tbh its true that the kids should be ready to face the kind of comments he makes, they chose this life/business. Part of that means being able to handle harsh reviews and its better it be their coach so they can improve than a potential casting director. They don't seem all that fazed by it TBH, they all seem pretty used to it.
I personally think the show is great, super entertaining, great singing, and I like the kids, they don't seem snotty.
You can tell Rachel is a teenage girl, she reminds me of some of my friends, Alexis is fantastic, so so funny and down to earth, Cat seems really chill and sweet even though she's beyond talented.
I think its worth following.