The Masked Singer is as close to pure escapism as you’re going to see on American TV at the moment

Vulture

It makes sense that the hit Fox reality show is an import, says Matt Zoller Seitz. "It’s hard to imagine Americans coming up with a series where musical performers (some professionals, some talented amateurs) sing and dance their hearts out while clad in outfits that would look equally at home in an old Saturday-morning kids’ series, a mid-century Japanese kaiju flick, or a vaguely hellish theme park: a sparkly gold lion; an adorable unicorn; a hippo with the blocky shape of a 1980s video-game character; a white rabbit with a steampunk-gilded body suit and glowing red eyes. And if Americans were to come up with such a series on their own, the execution wouldn’t be as poker-faced as it is here. The Masked Singer is marketed as an elimination-based competition show in the mold of American Idol and The Voice, and it is that. But it also inhabits a hyperspecific game-show niche that includes Identity, To Tell the Truth, What’s My Line?, and I’ve Got a Secret, while coating the guessing-game format with a layer of psychedelic expressionism."

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