Review of Popstars

Introduction

“Popstars is THE television phenomenon of the year.”

That’s what the PR sell says on the box, and for once I don’t disagree with the hype. Popstars was a ratings monster throughout all the early part of this year, following on from the massive success it had in other countries. Another in a long line of fly-on-the-wall programmes and reality TV, it had the basic promise of creating a five-piece band from thousands of young applicants from all over the country.

Popstars first made stars of the judges – Paul Adam, Nicki Chapman and – most memorably – ‘Nasty’ Nigel Lythgoe, who, by merely saying what we all thought of the poorer performers (but to their faces), gained infamy equivalent to last year’s ‘Nasty’ Nick Bateman.

Then, as the show bandwagon gained momentum and the competition grew, we got to know some of the potential Popstars – Darius, Claire, Warren, Taz, Jessica, Chapman, that guy who took off his shirt singing “Living La Vida Loca”, and all the rest.

Finally, the famous five were chosen. There can’t be a person in the country who haven’t heard of Hear’Say, who promptly went on to break all sorts of records with their debut single Pure and Simple, and their originally-titled album Popstars. So, the most manufactured band in history have their very own no.1, house, book, dolls and now DVD. Is it any good?

Video

Overall, the picture is very satisfactory, and a noticeable improvement over the broadcast and the VHS version. It is presented in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen - but this itself has its own problems. Some of the shots have very obviously been squashed from a 4:3 ratio to fit into widescreen – surely cropping would have been a better option?

Another irritating flaw is how badly some dark scenes are handled: some scenes I remember being clearly visible in the TV series are here almost pitch black. I’m not quite sure what the problem is here, as this only affects a couple of shots - this seems to be a mistake in transferring the picture onto DVD, as during broadcast it was fine. This gives the impression that VCI have been sloppy - which is a shame as for the most part the picture is clean, sharp and a lot better than I expected.

Audio

I was a little disappointed with the sound. Only a stereo mix is provided – I’m sure at least a surround soundtrack could have been put in. So, although the dialogue is clear and audible, the singing doesn’t benefit (or in some cases, get worse!) from this mix.

Features

There is very little in the way of extras. The only thing included here are some of the TV trailers from Carlton’s remarkable publicity campaign, proudly advertised on the back of the box as the solitary “special feature”. However, I’m not counting all the “exclusive” footage as bonus material, which I suppose it could be thought as.

Conclusion

Followers of the show will know that there were essentially two parts to the series – the original selection process, and afterwards when they extended the series to follow winners Myleene, Suzanne, Kym, Noel and Danny in their new life as popstars. This DVD only contains the selection of the band – so perhaps we will see a Hear’Say DVD and video soon. Unfortunately not all the footage could be included; the show obviously had to be condensed into a 2hr long disc. However, most if not all of the memorable bits are on here – Chapman’s “gorilla” dancing, Darius’s hilarious rendition of “Baby One More Time”, the last ten, and then the selection of the final five. There is also a lot of previously unseen footage, including new interviews of Hear’Say talking about what it was like before they were chosen.

I must say that I really did enjoy the series, and watched almost all the episodes. I suppose it was the idea of taking talented unknowns, giving them a break and making them into stars. As with all docu-soaps, there is plenty of drama if you get into it. Hear’Say come across as genuinely nice people, and so the best of luck to them for coming through such a competitive ordeal. And, unlike a lot of bands, they actually can sing!

The DVD is merely average, but essential to all fans who followed the show. After this, there have been rumours of a ‘Soapstars’ follow-up, which has the same premise but instead looks for actors and actresses, and those who just want their 15 minutes of fame.