By John Keegan and Paul Pearson

This is the way the season ends: not with a tiny whimper, yet lacking the kind of epic bang that "Lost Girl" has been promising for some time. Viewers have been waiting patiently (or not-so-patiently) for a showdown between the heroes and the Big Bad, but what this episode ultimately amounted to was lots and lots of characters explaining things, with the occasional burst of good writing, action or performance.

By John Keegan and Edmund Boys

The first season of “The Newsroom” was in the can before the first episode aired, and the extremely divisive critical reception began. There was much speculation about whether Aaron Sorkin was oblivious to the reactions the show would provoke, or just didn’t care. The finale makes it clear that the former is false, and the latter is largely true. He is happy to play the television world equivalent of the “The Greater Fool,” and those of us enjoying the ride are just as glad to tag along.

By Karen Moul


This week Julio Cesar Castillo became the first contestant in The Voice to sing his audition number in Spanish. He chose “La Bamba,” the Mexican folk song popularized Richie Valens back in the 1950s. Although the song is well known to American ears, it was still a risky move.

“You have to take a risk to stand out,” explained Castillo in an interview the day after the show. “I just went for it. So I'm glad I got the results I did and I'm glad I did it.”

The risk paid off, as Blake Shelton spun his chair almost immediately and was followed later by Cee Lo. Before choosing a coach, Castillo told them of his love for mariachi, a form of Mexican folk music, and Cee Lo invited him to sing a bit.

He fell in love with mariachi around the age of six. “I started listening to music because of my parents and my grandparents,” he explained, “and it’s part of my roots. “And ever since I was young, I had a feeling that that type of music was something I wanted to get into, which I did and I'm still into.”

Is it something he'd like to try on The Voice?

“I’d definitely like to try it on the show. I'm not sure what America’s reaction would be,” mused Castillo, “but like I said before, it’s good to take risks sometimes. And sometimes, the outcome’s even better than you imagined.”

Before the night was over, Castillo and country singer Casey Meussigmann signed up for Team Blake while Adriana Louise got all four judges to turn and joined the one-named Aquile on Team Christina. Mackenzie Bourg chose Cee Lo as his coach and Adam Levine went home empty handed.

Scifi Vision caught up with the contestants the day after their auditions.

By Karen Moul

The Voice’s second night of blind auditions brought another group of impressive performers and winning personalities, none more engaging than Nelson “Nelly’s Echo” Emokpae. A native of Nigeria, Nelly was the highlight of the evening, impressing the judges with his rendition of Bill Withers’ "Ain't No Sunshine" and with his personal story.

Sixteen years ago, when Nelly was just 15, his family fled political persecution in Nigeria but were forced to leave his imprisoned father behind. They settled in Baltimore, where thankfully the father eventually joined them. Although it was in Baltimore that Nelly developed his musical talent, his African roots have been a great influence.

“I’m a product of different cultures and geographies,” he explained, “so it allows me to sound like everything you’ve heard but nothing [you’ve heard]. And also coming from where I came from in Nigeria, it allows me to draw from that and gives me strength to go through the tough times you go through as a musician in this business.”

While fans compare Nelly’s Echo to Seal or Sting, he credits a number of Nigerian influences including the legendary Fela as well as newer artists such as P-Square and 2Face.