In a perfect world, NBCUniversal might have closed upfronts week on Thursday, saving the performance from its Voice coaches to the very end of the multi-day orgy blending Hollywood storytelling and Madison Avenue money. Then we could have pointed to Adam Levine's dead-eyed dyspeptic performance and said, "Man, he's just saying what we're all feeling.
Instead, the Maroon 5 frontman put a cap on the first of the five broadcast network upfront presentations this week, looking for all the world like he'd spent the weekend at a bacchanal out of a Fellini film and like the imposition of forcing him onto the Radio City Music Hall stage shortly after noon was one to be repaid with a vengeful apathy. Levine's Voice cohort Kelly Clarkson came to play, while he came to fulfill an obligation. Or so it appeared.
