Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Voices Of Fire’ On Netflix, Where Ezekiel Williams And His Nephew Pharrell Put Together The Best Gospel Choir Ever

In the reality series Voices Of Fire, Bishop Ezekiel Williams — who we first see credited as “Pharrell’s uncle” — is looking to put together the best 75-member gospel choir that the country has ever seen. That’s 25 each of sopranos, altos and tenors, all from the Hampton Roads, VA area. His aim is to not only find the best voices, but to make the choir as diverse as he possibly can, consisting of people who, as he says, might not hear one of his sermons, but might be moved by the power of music. Can he do it? Read on to find out more.

VOICES OF FIRE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of Faith World Ministries in Norfolk, VA. The voice of the church’s pastor, Bishop Ezekiel Williams, says, “I’ve always had a dream to take gospel music to another dimension, and produce something like the nation has never seen before.”

The Gist: Out of 1200 applicants, 300 are invited to the church for tryouts, to whittle things down to 75 members. Pharrell isn’t at the first tryout round, but Ezekiel is joined by Peggy Britt, a local gospel legend and vocal coach, music director Larry George, and choir master Patrick Riddick.

In the first episode, we’re introduced to some of the hopefuls, including a girl who was born with only one ear, a 42-year-old who had to endure the murder of his mother when he was ten, a woman who is back to singing after having to take care of her ill husband and father, and a man who lost his arm when he was a kid and was a successful backup singer for a number of years before stepping away from singing full-time. Another singer, who’s 33 and lives with her parents, has severe social anxiety but feels comfortable in front of a microphone.

We also get to know more about Britt, George and Riddick, and find out what exactly they’re looking for. They like vibrato, which Riddick jokes is on the extreme scale for a choir singer. Williams is looking for the “unicorn,” whose voice blows them away but whose artistry comes from an unexpected source. In some cases, the singers only have to sing a few notes for the judges to know that he or she will be in the choir.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? American Idol, except it takes place in a church. Or the post-blind rounds of The Voice, because Pharrell used to be a coach on that show.

Our Take: Even though we’re not churchgoers, we do appreciate the power of an amazing gospel choir, so we were excited to see what Ezekiel and Pharrell Williams could put together during the first season of Voices Of Fire. But we were a bit disappointed to see that the first episode was nothing more than a church-based audition round, and one that didn’t proceed much differently than the ones we see on shows like Idol or America’s Got Talent.

Here’s what we got: Out of the 300 people that auditioned that day, we got to see only a handful actually sing — many more were shown in a clip montage as Ezekiel Williams described his goals for this super choir. Surprisingly, though Williams is looking for a diverse choir, almost all of the people highlighted were African-American. Though everyone’s stories were compelling, and their voices were amazing, we wanted to see more of the diversity Williams was talking about.

In addition, we’re not sure what Pharrell — who is an executive producer of the series along with his uncle Ezekiel — is going to contribute to these proceedings. Is he going to bring in people that weren’t at the audition? Is he going to help them winnow down who they like into a tight 75? You’d think his extensive resume as a singer and producer would be put to good use here, but he didn’t even show up for the initial audition.

Another thing we didn’t see here was prospects who didn’t quite cut it and explanations as to why they didn’t. It’s a subjective thing, of course, but we always appreciate when judges/coaches on other singing shows give constructive criticism and explain why someone didn’t make the cut. Here, we got that for maybe one prospect, but that prospect may make the final 75 anyway. Maybe we’ll see more of that as we go along. Or maybe we won’t; Ezekiel Williams likely wants the show to have an inspiring vibe more than anything else.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Over a montage of the featured auditions, Ezekiel Williams says, “Now the world will know the value [of the talent] in the Hampton Roads area.”

Sleeper Star: We were blown away by the talent of Lauren Hendrick of Chesapeake, Va. Not only does she have an incredible voice (she’s the one who made it on only a few notes), but she’s a pretty damn fine artist. And she does all this while weight down by her social anxiety issues.

Most Pilot-y Line: We’re not sure the purpose of piping in video of the ongoing auditions into the waiting area. Can’t they hear it? Won’t it make them even more nervous than they already are?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Voices Of Fire isn’t quite as compelling a watch as we anticipated it to be. But, it also displays the amazing talent of a lot of great singers. Yes, the backstories can bog things down, but we’re eager to see the show get past the audition phases and see what this choir can do once they meld their voices together.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Voices Of Fire On Netflix