Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Fox’s ‘Alter Ego’ Is Weird—But Not Weird Enough
The Atlantic: The aspiring pop star Seven has blue skin, finned forearms, and a mohawk of writhing tentacles. Amber eyes and feline bone structure make her strikingly beautiful. What otherworldly wisdom does this being have to share? Standing before a panel of human celebrities in the first episode of the Fox reality series Alter Ego, Seven sheds a big, glistening tear and says, “I am who I think I am. And I don’t have to be afraid.”
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In reading this article about the somewhat-lackluster Fox reality singing competition Alter Ego, I found Spencer Kornhaber’s points about identity to be the most standout. He observes that this new series is disappointingly similar to the likes of The Masked Singer and even the Wizard of Oz; the performer and their true identity are hidden away while they do their magic, the perfect examples of “the magic trick of reinvention”. This repetitive modern trope of omission of identity in the entertainment industry falls short in Alter Ego, despite the extraordinarily bizarre characters and format it boasts. It just goes to demonstrate the lack of understanding for the fragility and malleability of one’s identity; it is not just a tool for dramatic effect, and its impact can be maximized if incorporated with identity’s core concepts of individualism and change in mind. Why is the detachment of identity from oneself in a moment of judgement so valued?
I think that the competition show this article describes is extremely indicative of the way the entertainment industry is headed, both in its high highs and in its low lows. The advancement of technology has always gone along with the entertainment industry, since to conceive of things as simple as steps or acoustics. As we enter an era of near science Fiction, the entertainment industry is going to get extremely weird. A VR popstar will soon be the least of our worries. Soon enough, all of us designers are going to have to be able to work virtually to design that pop star's costumes and sets and lights, which will be both limiting and liberating. However, as was made clear in the article, we are years away from this technology being seamless which means a slow, rough transition in which we struggle through a rough patch not unlike the rise of modern pop stars that we look back on now in slight embarrassment.
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