NBC
I was watching Kath & Kim last week (not sure I’ll be doing that again), when I realized just how bizarre and out of place the voice overs are. Seems like the makers may have realized this too, as they have cut way back on the voice overs from the first episode to the second. I just don’t understand how someone thinks it’s a good idea to put a voice over in the middle of an absurdist sitcom. I’m all for trying something new and pushing the envelope on expectations, but couldn’t the writers take a step back and see how much this idea doesn’t work? The voice overs are very awkward, serving as an unnecessary inner monologue for the characters. They don’t really add insight or humor to the situation.
Some voice overs in sitcoms do work. In My Name is Earl, it serves as an amusing way to narrate the story. In Scrubs, we get a look into the humorous and immature workings of JD’s mind. In Kath & Kim? It’s just nonsense.
There are some truly great voice overs on TV, and most of them are on dramas (where they really belong). If you ask me, the best use of the voice over has to go to Burn Notice. One of the most enjoyable shows on television embraces the spy genre and enhances it with Michael Westen telling you all the spy secrets while you watch him pull them off. Who knew there was so much you could do with a cell phone? Unlike Kath & Kim, the voice overs in Burn Notice fit in seamlessly with the look and feel of the show.
My fellow Clacker, Debbie, just had to get her two cents in on this topic. She maintains that the best voice over on TV is in Dexter. Here’s what she has to say: “The voice-overs are brilliant, and they add a whole new dimension to the show. First, they add humor. It may seem a little sick that a show about a brutal serial killer is tongue-in-cheek about it, but it works. They also help us understand Dexter, and how he sees himself. The inner workings of a serial killer’s mind is a fun place to be when it is fictional, and this killer has a code that he lives by. In my opinion, he’s one of the good guys, and the voice-overs help us know that about Dexter.”
I personally think the dramatic voice overs in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are very effective. The series is dark and heavy enough that they work well as intriguing intros and outros. Similar, yet somehow less effective, are the voice overs at the start and end of Heroes. Usually spouted from a haughty Mohinder, they strike me as superfluous and vapid.
The final noteworthy voice over on TV these days is in Pushing Daisies. Jim Dale is masterful in his narration of the surreal procedural. Many of you may know him as the narrator of the Harry Potter audiobooks. His smooth British voice fits in perfectly in the fairytale world of Daisies. My only question is whether or not you can truly call it a voice over. Isn’t it just a narration?
What do you think? Did I leave one out? Any out there worse than Kath & Kim?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Oct 22, 2008 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I love the narration on Burn Notice. Sort of makes me want to try some of those things out. However I cant afford damaging my $200 cell so I won’t.
Terminator’s narration (does it even have it this season?) added nothing to the show. Mohindeer’s narration on Heroes however I always though was a good set up to each episode. In fact the narration is the only thing Mohinder is good for. They should just kill him off and have him be a dismembered narrator like the one on Desperate Housewives.
I have to agree with the above poster, Mohinder is only good for the opening voice over. The rest is just… meh. Kill him and he can just do voice overs!
I also liked the way they did it on Oz. While not technically a voice over, the narration was done very well.
Also I haven’t seen Kath & Kim, I was under the assumption that it was supposed to be a good show…?
Dexter and burn notice!!!
You forgot How i met your mother!!!
They are a bit overused now, I think. Desperate Housewives has always had one, and I’ve never watched Gossip Girl on purpose, but it was on briefly this week and they have a voiceover. Felicity had one back in the day…I’m sure there are a lot more. Today, I have to agree with Burn Notice. His delivery makes everything seem so normal. Dexter is a close second.
Heroes has always been bad…I’m not sure why they ever chose that particular character to voice over…at first I figured he would only be on briefly, but not so (dammit).
i agree on Burn Notice and Dexter, and definitly Scrubs as well.
other shows with narration:
during the first season of Sex and the City, Carrie used to break the forth-wall talking to audience, it was weird. then they change all her inner thought and the show narration to VO, much much better.
i never like Mary Alice’s VO in Desperate Housewives, she was part of the plot in season one so that was okay, but nowadays, the dead housewife, who’s been dead at least 7 years since season 1, has nothing to do with the story anymore.
it’s easy to see why they hired Kristen Bell just to do narration for Gossip Girl, she’s simply superb, I remember Veronica Mars used to have narration too. Bell’s Gossip Girl delivery is sassy and sneering that add so much kick to the unseen character and move the story along nicely.
This is going back a few years, but i always like the Magnum voice overs.
Not quite as detailed, but very similar to Burn Notice.
:o)
LOVE Kristen Bell’s narration for Gossip Girl. So perfect.
As for terrible narration–and don’t get me wrong, I loved this show–but Moonlight had the most boring voice overs, truly terribly done.
Burn Notice has the best VO. Followed by Pushing Daisies.
Mohinder’s voice on HEROES it’s the only thing he’s good at as a character. The VO on EARL is good, funyn and effective.
The best VO however, are VERONICA MARS and ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. Specially the latter. It was hilarious how Ron Howard noted things that were so obvious.
Yeah… Burn Notice has Voiceovers.
That’s the reason why I stopped watching it. The reason is pretty simple, to me it seems if there were no voiceovers at all, everything they do on screen would seem totally boring. To be honest I find it absolutely pretentious.
I don’t really hate the show but it’s just that while I am watching it it feels like pulling teeth listening to that guy going on and on and on about what he’s going to do now and how he’s going to do it. I mean honestly the “MacGuyver” voiceovers were less idiotic than that.
And about Dexter: I recently read two reviews in german Blogs (or better listened to one as it was a podcast). The one was from the german head of the X-Box department at Microsoft, Boris Schneider Johne, who translated such gems as “Secret of Monkey Island” into german and worked at two of the first computer gaming magazines here back in the 90s. He really hates Dexter because he finds it absolutely glorifying violence and portraying murder as a method of bringing criminals to justice. I guess if you’d ask him about the voiceovers you’d get a similar comment about them as I had about “Burn Notice”. The other review or short mention was by two front row bloggers from Berlin who felt pretty much the same as Johne.
I get where you are coming from but you really have to enjoy a show to like the voiceovers.