I enjoy watching a spectacle on TV with Alicia and since we had COVID, a four plus hour fever-dream of an Olympics opening ceremony with Gojira, Gaga and Celiene Dion sounded like a good idea. This event was a lot. Most opening ceremonies are a little parade into the ceremony and then some music and dancing.
This one they were like, let’s use the whole fucking city! Well do a boat parade & throw the Mona Lisa in the river! Put 100 dancers onto the roof! Put lasers & Celine Dion on The Eiffel Tower! Put the caldron on a balloon & shoot it into space!
And you know what? It basically worked. Except we never really got to the see the athlete’s outfits.
It felt like a mess on TV, partially because the cameras were wet. Not sure how much was due to NBC being real uncomfortable with some of the content. Like they didn’t even show much of the drag fashion show on American TV. I want to see the whole thing, looked cool AF. But they were like “OK this next part appears to be a fashion show, France is famous for fashion, is that a … OK let’s go to the Team US boat.”
Gojira Went So Fucking Hard, I Loved It
Most people when they think should I book Gaga or Gojira? Don’t realize the right answer is – fuck it both. But whoever put this one together gets it.
First time I’ve ever been watching an Olympic opening ceremony and was like “how come when I saw that metal band last summer, there was less decapitated heads and blood raining from the sky during the performance?”
When I saw Gojira was playing, I didn’t know what to expect, was not expecting a talking decapitated Marie Antoinette, them to be tied to a building or the raining blood! SO FUCKING COOL! The way they traded off with the opera singer and then it faded into that beautiful Habanera from Carmen? Beautiful!
When the Assassin’s Creed guy ran through Les Mis, I thought it was kinda silly, but the talking decapitated head really did it for me.
I loved the beheaded choir. Reminded me of the time saw Alicia perform in an opera chorus where they guiatineed the chorus at the end one at a time.
Olympic opening ceremony is such a wild type of performance. Like, why is the torch bearer doing an Assassin’s Creed bit?
I zero percent regret spending my afternoon watching this mess of an Olympic opening ceremony.