The Durham Chronicle - 2017-12-12

Entertainment chronicle.durhamcollege.ca December 12 - 18, 2017 The Chronicle 15
Performer with a personal piece
Eminem
releases his
first album
in years,
discussing
status in the
music world
Shana Fillatrau
The Chronicle
Eminem’s new song discusses
an important topic. Celebrities
shouldn’t be worshiped. In the single,
Walk on Water, the Rap God
tells his audience he is not Jesus,
and he has insecurities just like the
average person.
The song begins with Beyoncé
singing the chorus, “I walk on water,
but I ain’t no Jesus, I walk on
water, but only when it freezes”.
The chorus refers to the godlike
status some fans give their favourite
musical artist.
Eminem opens with, “Why,
are expectations so high? Is it the
bar I set?” The song seems to
talk about Eminem’s decline in
fame. Relapse, released in 2009,
was Eminem’s second-least sold
album, and his comeback since
Encore, released in 2004. Eminem
returned sober and without
his bleached hair. This new image
wasn’t as popular and he seems to
refer to this in Walk on Water.
In the post-chorus, Beyoncé
sings “I don’t think you should
believe in me the way that you
do, ‘cause I’m terrified to let you
down.” Whether musicians choose
to or not, people look up to them.
Some, are seen as role models and
as a result they face constant pressure
to not only be a good person
Eminem, the singer behind his song about fame and the challenges that face it.
but keep their audience satisfied
regarding the music they release.
In the third verse, Eminem
raps, “…but the only one who’s
looking down on me now’s Deshaun.”
This is a reference to his
late friend, Detroit rapper, Deshaun
“Proof ” Porter, who was
killed in a gunfight in 2006.
At his first live performance of
the song, Eminem looked up and
pointed to the sky, honouring his
best friend. The rapper opened
the MTV Europe Music Awards
(EMA’s) this year, and received the
Best Hip Hop reward. When given
the award, Eminem said what everyone
was thinking, “I’m not really
sure how I got this because I
haven’t had an album out in a few
years.” His last album, the Marshall
Mathers LP 2, was released
four years ago, and Walk on Water
is his first single of the year.
Photograph by Shana Fillatrau
To wrap the song up, Eminem
jumps in after Beyoncé’s chorus.
He raps about his famous song,
Stan, which has been turned into
slang – meaning a highly obsessive
fan. The instrumental is broken
up by scratching turntables and
he boasts “…but as long as I got
a mic, I’m god-like, so me and you
are not alike,” finishing with, “B-
--h, I wrote Stan."
This is used to wrap up his vulnerability
shown in this song. He
discusses his insecurities about his
“decline”, and he uses this line to
show that he still has his confidence
and deserves respect for his music.
Walk on Water is Eminem’s first
single from his upcoming album,
Revival, which is the end of a trilogy
of albums for Eminem, starting
with Recovery, then Relapse. Eminem
recently announced Revival
will be released Dec. 15.
The biggest television flop of 2017
TV show
Riverdale
falls short
Alex
Clelland
Fans of the classic 1939 Archie
Comics rejoiced when it was announced
last December The CW
was finally bringing Archie and the
gang to life in a new, live-action
adaptation of the famous books
from many people’s childhood.
However, with Riverdale well into
its second season, the show has
turned out to be a predictable and
cringe-worthy flop.
For those who have been living
under a rock for the past year,
Riverdale is a young adult TV
show aired on The CW based on
Archie Comics. However, it’s not
your grandparents’ version of the
comics you buy in the grocery
store checkout aisle. Riverdale has
been revamped to be sexy, edgy,
and mysterious. The show is presented
as a murder-mystery/teen
romance, following the adventures
of Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica.
Riverdale has turned out to
be a “whodunit” mystery, with the
season finale predictably revealing
the most obvious culprit.
Despite a surprising rating of
87 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes,
many Riverdale fans came to realize
that the show fell short of
expectations after the first season
concluded last spring. So how did
a show with so much promise and
hype turn out to be a guilty pleasure
that you can only watch while
feeling secondhand embarrassment?
It all begins with the first season.
The premise of season one focuses
on the murder of Riverdale
teenager Jason Blossom, the son
of the richest family in town. Archie
and gang begin to investigate
the murder and discover who the
culprit is at the end of the season.
In between the murder mystery is
an overrated love triangle, a creepy
teacher/student love affair, and
gang violence that isn’t very violent.
But hey, it’s an all-ages show.
After watching the first few episodes
of the show, viewers began
to have flashbacks to their preteen
years.
It was during this dark time of
2006 when young girls across the
world began obsessing over Troy
Bolton in Disney’s High School
Musical franchise. Fast-forward
ten years and enter Archie Andrews,
played by New Zealander
K.J. Apa. He’s a good-looking,
popular football player who
dreams of breaking free from the
status quo by becoming a singer.
Sound familiar? The show offers
one of the most overdone high
school tropes of all time. The “I’m
not giving up my dream, dad, I’m
giving up yours” teen stereotype
leaves a bad taste in the mouth and
sends eyes rolling.
That being said, K.J. Apa
brings charm and innocence to his
portrayal of Archie, and does his
best to make him a likeable character.
The problem with his character
isn’t the acting, but rather the
terrible dialogue written for Archie
and most of the other characters.
Many lines of dialogue leave you
pausing to think, really? How
did this script get approved and
filmed?
The disappointment falls on the
fact that Riverdale had so much
potential. A new teen drama that
doubles as an edgy murder mystery
seemed like an exciting TV
idea. But the idea was poorly executed.
Overused plotlines, embarrassing
pop culture references, and
laughable dialogue showed that it
had potential, but all hope seemed
lost after season one.
The writers need to figure out
what they want from the show.
With so many overlapping plot
lines and no single focus in any
episode, Riverdale leaves you wondering
oftentimes “what was even
the point of that episode?” before
finally unveiling the murder culprit
in a 13-episode season that could
have been cut in half. Despite the
failure of the first season (and fans
waiting to see how season two will
unveil), Riverdale producers have
signed on to reboot a Sabrina the
Teenage Witch crossover in 2018,
hoping to bring a supernatural element
into the Riverdale series.
As if there wasn’t already
enough going on in the show.
But if good-looking people,
cheesy plotlines, and random musical
numbers are your thing, feel
free to check it out on The CW or
on Netflix. Just be prepared to be
wanting more from a show that
could have been great, but ended
up feeling like High School Musical
and Scooby Doo had a baby.