American Idol
Yeah, I realize this post is about 4 days too late. Better late than never.
I more or less side with Simon, and I more or less side with the general voting...until this last week. David Archuleta bores me to tears now. Sure, its impressive for a 17 year old, but I don't buy albums based on age.
I'm going to have to disagree with sainthuck about David Cook. I thought Innocent was a more than decent performance, and I'd be shocked as all hell if he ended up in the bottom three anytime soon (unless, of course, he really blows something, but I ahven't seen it happen yet)
The bottom three of Carly, Brooke and Michael was interesting. Jerry and I were begging America to end Kristy Lee Cook home after her self-pitying display last week of showing up on stage with a sign saying "Kristy's seat" intended for a bottom three seat. Seriously Kristy, if the bottom three is your goal, do us a favor and just quit. But her performance deservedly won her a place on the safety couch, and at least she didn't parade the sign around for a second week in a row.
Brooke was no surprise at all. With Kristy safe, we both expected Brooke was packing her bags. The judges had not been happy with either Carly or Michael, so they weren't exactly suprises...although its interesting to see how the mighty have fallen, since they were "the people to beat" during Hoolywood auditions. Michael has wonderful vocals but just can't show us he has real performing talent other than singing Queen songs. "Dream On" was technically fine, but sounded incredibly karaoke in style. There was no Michael in it. I thought Simon unfairly harsh on Carly. I liked her rendition of "The Show Must Go On" (although I'll admit the iTunes version of it is better), but he apparently nailed it when he said she was real trouble.
What was really interesting was the reactions of people on-screen to Michael being sent home. Having never been in the bottom three, he was suddenly the guy with the fewest votes. The judges were in shock, Brooke was dumbfounded (not difficult), and Carly was in tears (perhaps feeling a sense of her own Idol morality?). Yes, it was an unimpressive performance, but was it really worse than Simon-darling Jason's performance? Michael karaoked Aerosmith, while Jason karaoked a song from 1938 on a ukelele. Is that really what passes for star performance on a pop song competition? The ukelele version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" has been widely aired on a commercial for something (I just remember the song, no recollection of what they were selling), and Jason added nothing to it.
I'm befuddled.