Last night, while most folks with a real passion for music and all the things that go along with being passionate about music were shaking and sweating out a Memorial Day Weekend's worth of booze and music, Bravo debuted Platinum Hit, its new songwriting-focused reality competition. The purpose of Platinum Hit is apparently twofold: to teach a dozen modestly talented young people that "songwriter" and "performer" are not synonyms and to show the world once and for all that there is no solitary creative activity so boring that Bravo can't make it watchable with a little forced collaboration and a lot of editing.
The program's premiere episode accomplished neither of these goals, but it did aggressively imply that a small handful of the contestants just might be arrogant, crazy or combative enough to warrant further viewing.
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 1, 2011.