Wow, so it’s pretty much been ages since my last entry.  Work has been keeping me pretty exhausted and busy as usual, so I haven’t had the time to write anything for a while.  I actually haven’t really had the energy to watch too much of anything recently either, but I made a special exception last night for the Super Bowl.  The New York Giants won, but just barely.  How awesome was that?  I really like Eli Manning and the Giants, so I was pretty happy that they won.  What a nail-biting game that was though.  I hope the Ravens and 49ers, coached by the Harbaugh brothers, make it to the Super Bowl next year.  Now that’s another game I’d totally love to see.

Anyway, since I’ve been so busy with life, I haven’t really kept up with all my favorite programs.  So imagine my surprise upon finding out that NBC’s The Voice‘s second season premiered last night right after the Super Bowl?  I had the biggest smile on my face.

For those of you who don’t know what The Voice is, it’s a reality singing contest, but in my opinion it’s ten times better than shows like American Idol or The X Factor.  The only other reality contest show I’ve enjoyed as much as this one would be America’s Best Dance Crew (ABDC).

There’s a lot of things to enjoy about The Voice in comparison to other shows like it.  For one thing, the members of the panel all have fairly good chemistry.  There’s a lot of playful banter between the panelists and the atmosphere is like a bunch of friendly competition between friends.  My favorite panelists are Adam Levine and Blake Shelton.  Not only are they hilarious, Blake Shelton in particular comes off as a “papa bear,” and I know I’m not the only one that thinks so.  (Not to mention I am a huge fan of his wife, Miranda Lambert.)

And that’s not all there is to love about this show.  Here’s all the other aspects that I think really make this show work:

1. The panelists are all current artists that are still making music—something I think a lot of these other similar shows just kind of lack.

2. The judging system is unique—the judges base their opinions solely on the person’s voice and not on superficial qualities like how they look.  Panelists have their backs turned to the contestants and they have until the person stops singing to press the button in front of them to turn around.  If more than one person turns around, the aspiring artist gets to choose whose team they would like to be on.  If no one turns around, then the participant gets sent home, simple as that.  (Last season there was a second-chance round because I think Adam and Blake still needed one or two more people on their team, but I’m not sure if that will happen again this season.)

3. The elimination rounds are also unique.  I believe each team consists of 12 contestants initially.  There’s different flavors of elimination rounds.  There’s a round where each panelist pits their own team members against each other.  The surviving four of each team then compete against each other, and with audience participation it is decided who the final eight acts are going to be.  This number then gets shucked down to four, and then finally the last four contestants compete for the win.  The final winner is determined solely by public vote, and in my opinion the way the show goes about that bit really makes the audience feel like their participation counts.

4. The show is pretty darn engaging.  From the occasional “moving story” that I’m sure the producers somewhat force the candidates to bring to light (in order to bring the show a little drama), to the raw talent some of these artists have, all the way to how they manage to suck the audience in—I find this to be a show that’s really tough not to love.

The first episode for this season wasn’t as strong as last season’s, but there were definitely still a few gems in there.  I have no doubt it will get better though.  The one contestant that stuck out the most for me so far was the young rocker.  I have no idea how old she is, I can’t remember, but she’s definitely got a nice voice.  I believe she’s also one of the few artists that popped up last night that has some prior experience under her belt—I think she’s gone on a couple small tours already or something, but I think she’s come on the show in hopes that she’ll become even bigger than small town.

If you haven’t watched this show before, I highly recommend it, and I also recommend going back and watching the first season too if you haven’t seen that already.  It’s one of those shows where you don’t really mind the occasional rerun because it was pretty good.  (And by the way, poor Adam last night!  He got rejected so many times!  Hahaha.  He took it pretty well though, I think.  I’m sure I wasn’t the only girl that enjoyed his pouty face anyway.)

For those interested in learning more about the show, here’s the 411:

Airs: Mondays 8/7c
Official Website: http://www.nbc.com/the-voice/
Show’s Twitter Account: @NBCTheVoice
Twitter Accounts of the Panelists: Adam Levine | Cee Lo Green | Christina Aguilera | Blake Shelton

Well, I’ve got to go for now, but hopefully it won’t be too long until my next entry!  See you all again!