Alter Ego

Alter Ego is silly, sure, but on a network that airs The Masked Singer, it feels downright dignified. And the contestants’ stories are worth watching.

This Fox effort at least gets points for its novel, wackadoodle premise.

A wacky premise and judging panel (will.i.am, Alanis Morissette, Nick Lachey, and the “musician, innovator” Grimes) just disguise the same schmaltz and strained belting that have been common on network TV ever since American Idol premiered in 2002.

Generally, the judges are a problem for this show: Morissette, Lachey, and host Rocsi Diaz seem benevolently disengaged, while will.i.am and Grimes are enthusiastic in a flailing, exaggerated way. ... “Alter Ego” tries to have it both ways — introducing us on intimate terms to people who insist that they’re best understood through their music, and, in sharing that personal backstory, making it impossible for us to see them the way they want to be seen.

A show so inane that the pendulum swings the other way and forces you to think anthropologically about how we got here.