I would readily believe that Drew McSweeny is doing a very good impression of the dumbest person he met while in film school. It's harder to believe that a professional film critic would make a video essay on unlikeable characters with absolutely no point, just a laundry list of unlikeable characters and a grab bag of buzzwords completely divorced from meaning. He says at one point that "drama has very little to do with what we like or what makes us comfortable, and that's part of the purpose of drama," which almost sounds like he has a point to make. He absolutely does not. The purpose of drama and the function of unlikeable characters within it is something that deserves a video essay. This episode is nothing more or less than a montage of obvious antiheroes played under a scattered collection of some of the dumbest soundbites a white man has ever patted himself on the back for saying (without ever even approaching making a point).
Reviews
4 Reviews
Best Episode, Worst Narration
16 December 2021
This best and perhaps only good episode in the Voir series is deeply marred by a narration performance that would have underserved a children's Christmas play. Although there is still some disappointingly lazy shortcutting on the episode's subject matter (we're really just boiling visual design to 'appeal' and then even further to 'harmony'? The whole point of a video essay is to make the abstract concrete, not vice versa), the topic of visual appeal in animation is given a great deal more depth than the other episodes of Voir give their subject matter (see episode 3: "unlikeable characters exist for some reason. Film Critic Drew McSweeny does not know why and, in fact, does not even think to ask the question). So it's pretty tragic that this best-written episode of the series has, easily, the worst narration of the series. Taylor Ramos has a lot of interesting things to say but is simply not capable of saying them in front of a microphone in an expressive and consistent manner. Watch on mute with subtitles.
Poor Writing, Terrible Narration
16 December 2021
What would have been an ordinary video essay with essentially nothing to say on its subject matter is elevated to a piece of remarkable performance art by merit of its narration. They could have just hired a professional narrator and been done with it. But they got a non-performer, film critic Sasha Stone. In her hands, this dull script with no points whatsoever becomes something more - something transcendent. From the first line, Sasha challenges Microsoft Sam for the crown of Least Expressive Performer of All Time. Even a computer program might struggle to deliver so many different lines all with the exact same intonation, never stumbling into imbuing a sentiment with real, human emotion. This duality makes for a potent cocktail - a woefully overdramatic script paired with a performance completely free from any genuine expression of feeling. It serves as an excellent poster for what this overall series offers: Bad writing that's hard to notice because the performances are so, so much worse.
Voir
(2021)
Poorly Written, Terribly Narrated
16 December 2021
If you've ever watched a mediocre video essay by an amateur on Youtube, you will have unrealistically high expectations for this studio-produced series of video essays written and performed by actual industry professionals. The writing would be pretty poor if it were coming from a college freshman. For example, the episode on unlikeable characters essentially argues "Sometimes characters are unlikeable" and then proceeds to give dozens of examples of unlikeable protagonists without ever making anything approaching a salient point on likeability. But in truth, the poor writing and unimaginative direction and editing are not even close to the worst parts about this series. That would be the narration. In episode 1, Sasha Stone makes a convincing argument that being a film critic does not necessarily translate to being a remotely competent performer. By episode 3, Drew McWeeny is ready to put the nail in that particular coffin. Series directors Tony Zhao and Taylor Ramos also narrate here and there. Tony Zhao is almost listenable (but not), whereas Taylor Ramos delivers perhaps the most wooden, inhumanly robotic performance that has ever been committed to audio. Think of anyone you know - friend, coworker, mail delivery person - they would have done a better job than every single narrator in this series. How the heck does that HAPPNEN?
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