The leitmotif was the word "together" — and not as a sugary, banal note of meaningless unity, but rather as one of civic responsibility to the poor, the sick, the disregarded.
To put it in the most banal, notes-from-the-network sort of way, in "Veep" 's first season the stakes were too low.
Show biz has always been a magnet for misfits with a burning yearning for the spotlight, of course, so the foursome's tales of overcoming self-doubt, and longing to join the popular clique, sometimes strike banal or sentimental notes.
Most of what you hear on CB radio is either tedious (truck drivers warning one another about speed traps) or banal (schoolgirls exchanging notes on homework), but at its occasional — and illegal — worst it sinks a pipeline to the depths of the American unconscious.
It seems banal even to note this.
Now, to note Ben Kingsley's acting excellence makes for a pretty banal remark, but to note it in "A Sound of Thunder" — voilà.
In her 2001 video, "Official Welcome," taped at a private collector's house, Fraser delivered a monologue that mimicked, as one critic noted, "the banal comments and effusive words of praise uttered by presenters" during gatherings intended to introduce avant-garde artists to wealthy patrons.
It's banal, ludicrous, thuddingly one-note and — once you adjust to its narcotic rhythms — entirely mesmerizing.
This is, it should be noted, entirely too banal to be an actual evil.
The New Zealand Herald writer Lydia Jenkin deemed "Rock Me" one of "the most banal songs ever written", but noted that the group "know what teenage girls want to hear".
