DISNEY VILLAINESSES BY WAY OF ‘CHICAGO’
August 31 is the premiere of Todrick (10 p.m. ET), a new MTV series in which former American Idol contestant Todrick Hall, now going only by his first name, takes viewers behind the scenes of the makings of his notably popular YouTube music video mini-epics. It’s another example of “traditional” TV trying to cash in on the momentum generated by web videos, and that’s not necessarily a bad move. Take, for example, this Todrick video from 2013: Spell Block Tango, a takeoff on a song from the musical Chicago, in which a group of behind-bars lady killers – that is, killers who also are ladies – plead their cases in verse. Hall’s inspired idea was to use the same tune and staging, but with Disney villainesses as the women behind bars. It’s a great conceit (beating ABC’s own Once Upon a Time, which last season introduced several more Disney villainesses to its mix, to the punch by several years), and it’s staged and performed admirably and infectiously. Skip past the ad that precedes the music video, then sit back and enjoy one of Todrick’s greatest bits. – David Bianculli