172: The Voice

I don't usually watch a lot of reality TV, but summer television is an utter wasteland, so I usually end up catching most of the America's Got Talent auditions.  This summer, though, I've made an effort to see The Voice.  The blind auditions were the best part, but the performances have been consistently good, and we've gotten to see the lovely Dia Frampton come into her own.  If you haven't seen or heard it yet, check out Dia's rendition of Kanye West's "Heartless":

And the awesome Beverly McClellan:

And Vicci Martinez (who expects that huge voice coming out of that tiny woman?).  She did "The Dog Days Are Over" tonight and it was kickass, but until that video goes up tomorrow, here's her last performance, Dolly Parton's "Jolene":

Not to mention the fact that it gives some prominent music stars the chance to prove they know what their stuff; during the blind auditions, Christina Aguilera made some surprisingly astute and fairly technical observations about the singers' voices.  She doesn't sound nearly as intelligent during the live shows, when they can't edit out all of her excess chatter, but all four celebrity coaches (Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera, and Blake Shelton) seem like they're giving their artists helpful pointers and pushing them to move out of their comfort zones.

All things considered, it's good, clean summer entertainment.  The finals are next week, so I'll probably be browsing the full run of episodes on Hulu beforehand, just to make my picks for the top four.