When the “Star Ac” landed on our small screens in 2001, we expected nothing: neither a vocal program with great effects, nor a well-rehearsed reality show. At the time, the viewer was not yet stunned by this television genre: “Loft Story” had just paved the way for all those, anonymous, who hoped for their 15 minutes of fame.
20 years later, reality TV has invaded the channels and distorted all television reality. No one is now unaware of the codes of a “good” (it is of course left to the appreciation of each) entertainment, certainly not this generation riveted to its smartphone… And what we feared with this return of the ” Star Academy” has therefore arrived. TF1 may well have kept the mythical credits of its show, refreshed the paintings of the castle of Dammarie-les-Lys: times have changed (and we still haven’t invented the time machine) and this return sounds like a terrible anachronism. The freshness, the candor of the first seasons gave way to the assurance of a youth fed with selfies, stories on a background of “The Voice” and “Marseillais”. We were just waiting for Nikos to reveal one of the candidate’s secrets (reference to “Secret Story”). Humility turned into something garish, like the colors of the show (and the clothes of the “students”).
And for this generation of candidates who love to claim their freedom of expression and to be whoever they want so much, what must have been the (bad) surprise than to hear flat, well-meaning and without depth comments (“you move well”, “you touched me a lot”) of a faculty as smooth as Nikos (but him, it’s his job). But where are Armande, Kamel or the shoulders of Alexia Laroche-Joubert who were gesticulating up and down? We even come to regret Raphi Ricci’s tackles, that is to say… We may be called a “reaction”, no matter: we know what we have seen for almost 10 years, live… and we were far from it this Saturday evening. It’s the “Star Aca-demi”, a sort of bad mix of all the codes used and worn out by all the entertainment shows of the genre that we’ve seen. And not heard. This is where the most saddening. (But there must still be an excellent singer in there, like little Anisha who also denotes by her humility).
The final word will still go to the dinosaur Nikos who will let go at the start of the program something that is not very reassuring: “it’s a generation that knows what to do in front of the camera”. Finally a sensible word! But not so quickly, the cold show returns at a gallop: “we do not seek perfection at the Star Academy”. What the new director of the “school” (Michael Goldman, the son of JJG) will answer that we seek above all authenticity. Well there, there is going to be work, a lot of work…
