These are the "2014 MuchMusic Video Awards". The year is in the title, so this is already over five years old now. This show ran for 1.5 hours and that does not include commercials, so maybe two hours with commercials. I must say I am not really familiar with the title here at all, but now I see that MuchMusic Awards is basically just a commercialized Canadian version of the Grammys or AMA Music Awards etc. Also this one her changed its title really often. Back in the day, those were the Canadian Music Video Awards, then they changed the title to MuchMusic and the commercialization began and two years after this event, they changed it to iHeartRadio MMVAs and then in 2018, they dropped the long name, but apparently things did not work out without massive sponsoring and the event got cancelled for 2019 and also no edition now in the corona year 2020. Let's hope that with the vaccinations taking place 2021 will not be called another corona year, but we will see. Back to the subject at hand: The director is John Keffer and he diredcted many editions of this event in fact. The writer is Brendan Halloran, a bit of a surprise choice because apparently he never wrote another edition of this particular awards show. Maybe a good thing because it really wasn't inspired at all. He'd better focus on acting. The hosts were two of the Kardashian girls, well Jenner girls actually. I never know who is who with this family, but also I do not really care either. Pretty bad choice there too because honestly they are not even Canadian. All they are is (social) media phenomenons and probably also relatively smart business (wo)men, so if that qualifies them to host this show, then it's not a lot. But they could not have done the job if they had not been asked, which means the ones really to blame here are the organizers once again. And the ones who are even more to blame are the Canadian Screen Awards, who nominated this mess three times and even gave it one award. At least it was not nominated for writing, that really would have been outrageous. But it shows that Canadian entertainment programs these days are not on a high level at all if there are not even alternatives to this one we have here in terms of awards recognition. What I personally found very off-putting about the Jenners (not their looks, those are alright) was really how they stayed in the middle of the stages when people came up there to accept awards. It felt so cringeworthy as if they wanted to make sure the attention is always on them and never on those who actually won some of the categories. Terrible decision. Really disrespectful. Then again, the winners rarely deserved better. Most of the honorees did nothing for me. Lorde was a bit of an exception because I quite like her big hit, but she disappointed me too with her performance there. Really over the top and packed with shenanigans, but as for the song and lyrics it did nothing for me.
There you already have the big problem with this show here. It is the same as with many, many other awards shows, namely that it hardly feels like an awards show anymore. More like a concert DVD. It was packed with music and performances, but the awards part, which should really be the center of the entire thing, became less and less impactful as the show went on. Maybe you understand the title of my review now. Early on, it was still tolerable. This also became obvious with the "next up" inclusions, I mean of course those parts where the announcers said what is soming up after the commercial break and what is coming up in general for the rest of the show. Almost everything there were references to the music numbers that night. Pretty much nothing to upcoming awards. Just take the constant talk about Ariana Grande's performance. I think at one point some girl in the audience said that is what she is looking forward the most. or they also mentioned Hedley's performance. Lorde's performance etc. But again nothing about the awards. totally against the subject. Still, I will admit that Ariana Grande's song is kinda catchy and somehow I like her. I hope she is authentic, but most of the time she comes off as really kind-hearted. I guess the next 30 years will show. One can impossible hide one's true colors when in the industry for a really long time and if she acts differently then, then she probably also was different in her young years. Imagine Dragons performed "Radioactive" and that is another very catchy tune. Problem is you have heard (and seen this) so many times in the past really, even if you are not a fan of the gang, so it adds almost nothing. And again, has nothing to do with the awards element. Hedley also won big and initially I mistook them for Halsey. I guess I would have preferred her. The band's music did almost nothing for me. seemed really generic and interchangeable. A prime example of what is wrong with music these days. Also that they were winning big awards. Probably being Canadian helped. Still, their comment about every single one of their fans counts and they could have made it without every single one or something like that felt highly fake and cringeworthy. Like sucking up. Oh yeah, Ed Sheeran was around too and man I don't think much of him as an musician, but in terms of comedic line delivery, he is even worse when he talked about his favorite video. I don't even. Okay, this is pretty much it. I cannot really find awards shows with the same title from earlier than 2014 and I assume it's good thing. Hoenstly, it would have been better if I had not found this one either. The Weeknd was also disappointing as always, even without political statements this time. The (for me) weakest performance probably came from Virginia To Vegas ft. Alyssa Reid. Skip forward there. Or don't watch the show as a whole. I think it was extremely poor and good news that apparently this one does not get continued right now. If all they reach is this low level of quality, then it's definitely the right choice, even if I am sure they would never admit it and state other reasons for the fact that there was no event in 2019 and 2020. There are enough similar shows anyway. Highly not recommended. Oh and Kiernan Shipka is still amazing, but why would she want to be a part of this? She isn't even Canadian. Loved her on Mad Men though.
There you already have the big problem with this show here. It is the same as with many, many other awards shows, namely that it hardly feels like an awards show anymore. More like a concert DVD. It was packed with music and performances, but the awards part, which should really be the center of the entire thing, became less and less impactful as the show went on. Maybe you understand the title of my review now. Early on, it was still tolerable. This also became obvious with the "next up" inclusions, I mean of course those parts where the announcers said what is soming up after the commercial break and what is coming up in general for the rest of the show. Almost everything there were references to the music numbers that night. Pretty much nothing to upcoming awards. Just take the constant talk about Ariana Grande's performance. I think at one point some girl in the audience said that is what she is looking forward the most. or they also mentioned Hedley's performance. Lorde's performance etc. But again nothing about the awards. totally against the subject. Still, I will admit that Ariana Grande's song is kinda catchy and somehow I like her. I hope she is authentic, but most of the time she comes off as really kind-hearted. I guess the next 30 years will show. One can impossible hide one's true colors when in the industry for a really long time and if she acts differently then, then she probably also was different in her young years. Imagine Dragons performed "Radioactive" and that is another very catchy tune. Problem is you have heard (and seen this) so many times in the past really, even if you are not a fan of the gang, so it adds almost nothing. And again, has nothing to do with the awards element. Hedley also won big and initially I mistook them for Halsey. I guess I would have preferred her. The band's music did almost nothing for me. seemed really generic and interchangeable. A prime example of what is wrong with music these days. Also that they were winning big awards. Probably being Canadian helped. Still, their comment about every single one of their fans counts and they could have made it without every single one or something like that felt highly fake and cringeworthy. Like sucking up. Oh yeah, Ed Sheeran was around too and man I don't think much of him as an musician, but in terms of comedic line delivery, he is even worse when he talked about his favorite video. I don't even. Okay, this is pretty much it. I cannot really find awards shows with the same title from earlier than 2014 and I assume it's good thing. Hoenstly, it would have been better if I had not found this one either. The Weeknd was also disappointing as always, even without political statements this time. The (for me) weakest performance probably came from Virginia To Vegas ft. Alyssa Reid. Skip forward there. Or don't watch the show as a whole. I think it was extremely poor and good news that apparently this one does not get continued right now. If all they reach is this low level of quality, then it's definitely the right choice, even if I am sure they would never admit it and state other reasons for the fact that there was no event in 2019 and 2020. There are enough similar shows anyway. Highly not recommended. Oh and Kiernan Shipka is still amazing, but why would she want to be a part of this? She isn't even Canadian. Loved her on Mad Men though.