‘Building the Band’ Has the Best Reality TV Moment of the Year

I know what you’re thinking: Do we really need another reality series about competing singers?

There are so many as it is: The Masked Singer, America’s Got Talent, The Voice, and American Idol are just some of the shows that dominate airwaves, some of which have been on for decades. The singing show fatigue is at an all-time high, but Netflix has thrown its hat in the ring.

Building the Band comes with a unique angle—it’s like Love is Blind meets American Idol. It began with 50 contestants who weren’t trying to impress judges, but each other. Each of them auditions with a song that all the other singers can hear, but they can’t see who’s singing. Eventually, they make connections based on voice alone and decide to form bands. They’re not put together by producers or judges. They get to decide for themselves, and it makes a huge difference. And once the competition is on, there’s a huge prize at stake: $500,000.

With only six bands formed, the show gives audiences the space to invest in them. And the band I can’t get enough of is SZN4. I like them so much that I can get over the fact that they chose a name as bad as SZN4! The bandmates are Aaliyah, 23; Katie, 24; Cameron, 23; and Donzell, 25. It’s the only mixed group in the show, which makes them stand out, but what’s so enticing about them is how spectacular they all sound when they put their voices together.

If you need convincing, just watch this performance of “Somebody That I Used To Know.” It’s nothing short of extraordinary:

Chills, right? I was dismayed to see that in the heat of the competition, SZN4 was going to perform “Believer” by Imagine Dragons. It’s one of the most overplayed and frankly obnoxious songs of the last decade—the music video alone has nearly three billion views. It lodges itself inside your head, and getting it out is a real pain. If a band can make me love “Believer,” then anything is possible!

How could I ever doubt SZN4? Their performance of “Believer” is the standout of the entire series. It instantly elevates a song that has no business being elevated.

SZN4 feels like a band that’s ready to do a worldwide tour already. They add so much soul to the song. You truly feel like these four people are, for lack of a better word, believers. It’s so excellent that judge Kelly Rowland says in her feedback they’re probably gonna win the whole thing. That’s an amazing feat for a group in the early stages of their journey. Their rendition is so chilling that I got emotional, something that never happens to me when watching shows like this. But Building the Band finally—finally!—feels different.

I’ve become so sick of singing shows. None of them ever feel like they’re actually about the contestants. They usually feel like a platform for the judges to up their profile and sell more records, and the actual competitors are a mere afterthought. Yet Building the Band feels more about the music than any reality competition series I’ve seen before.

Over Building the Band’s 10 episodes, the competition starts 7 episodes in. That gives you so much time to see these groups connect as artists and tirelessly rehearse to protect your craft.

It loves the art of singing more than it loves competition. The judges—Nicole Scherzinger, Liam Payne, and Kelly Rowland—aren’t interested in the spotlight and seem genuinely invested in giving the bands advice they can use to make them better. There’s some drama, of course, but none of it feels manufactured, and it’s all surrounding the band’s passion for making great music.