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The X Factor

What?!! What were you people thinking?! Leon for goodness’ sake?!  For the love of all that’s good and pure in the world, have you heard him sing? Absolutely terrible, I mean really awful everyone. I hope you’ve learnt your lesson.

Wow. The X Factor used to be good back in the day, a source of trashy and eminently watchable TV from way back when. The most recent series of X Factor has been reduced to nothing more than a series of oneupmanship bouts centred solely around the judges. So uncomfortable now is the experience, it ceases to be about the contestants at all. This is a damn shame as it’s allowed genuinely talented acts like The Rhyd and Niki to fall by the wayside.

It has to be said, Leon can’t sing. He’s a pale imitation of snot-nosed family-charmer Ray from last year. This man is absolutely nothing on anyone who has gone before,  it mystifies me how the British voting public were so blind (and deaf) to this guy. Awful.

Rated: 0 out of 7

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Steve Carell- Star of The Office and 40 Year Old Virgin

Steve Carell is simply one of the finest comic performers around. His body of work is already impressive having featured on The Daily Show; stolen scenes from Will Ferrell in Anchorman and had a starring in one of the greatest comedies of recent years with The 40 Year Old Virgin. But I don’t want to talk about those, as the role which I think defines Carell’s career is in the US version of The Office.

In a show which shouldn’t have worked due to the stigma of trying to remake a classic British comedy show in America (check out the US Red Dwarf for an example of when this scheme goes horribly wrong) it somehow works brilliantly. While the supporting cast are incredibly good (Ed Helms, John Krasinski and Jenna Fisher to name but a few of the talent), I think it’s Carell’s performance as the socially awkward boss Michael Scott that shines through. It’s a role which could have easily failed in anyone else’s hands, but here the character works perfectly. He’s a complete idiot who does and says things which seem obscenely offensive (on occassion he is a borderline racist, homophobe and sexist), but somehow Carell manages to allow us to forgive all of Scott’s misgivings. For every bad/stupid thing Michael Scott does, you can’t help but feel sorry for him and this is all because of the performance. It’s just like James Gandolfini making Tony Soprano a likeable character…Carell also succeeds in making a jackass rather sweet and that’s no easy feat.

Of course if I’m to assess Steve’s entire career, I could find fault with many things including the huge misstep that is Evan Almighty, and I do worry that he’s going to pick a few more predictably bad comedies down the line. But as long as he continues to star in The Office and keeps his current momentum going, I predict this guy is destined for even greater things!

Eyebrows: 6 out of 7

Ability to choose projects: 5 out of 7

Rated: 6 out of 7