American Idol and Other TV
I neglected to post about American Idol after Tuesday night’s competition, but I didn’t have a whole lot to say. Here’s a great long post, including a results update.
Did anyone notice if the blonde skater girl selling us Diet Coke is the same one employed as the lead in the latest Old Navy commercial? Or is she just that similar looking? It was odd seeing her twice relatively close together for different products, kind of like if you saw Zoe Bartlet telling you migraines are for real and of course Excedrin helps, then telling you in the same half hour that her Secret is she’s fluent in Italian and just wants to jump the hunk.
Anyway, I thought Elliot was quite good overall. On another night, Open Arms might have been enough to blow away everyone else, but sadly Katharine stepped it up when it mattered and boobs alone might not have saved her, and Taylor was going to get a pass even if he hadn’t. I didn’t care for two of his three songs as such, but he did them well, even making me like them better than I might have.
Katharine was decent in the first number, astonishing with Over The Rainbow, and decent on the last number apart from the damn smile. I have the blues… *GRIN* I’m in such a sorry state, but look at my great teeth! I have never heard that intro to Over The Rainbow before, so when she started singing, I was like “is this a different song by the same name? Weird!” I was glad she told off the judges after the first song, when they criticized song choice of a song Clive Davis picked. Duh.
Taylor showed he has a voice. I loved Dancing In The Dark, starring Paula Abdul as Courtney Cox, as I observed to Deb on the rewatch. She was out, so I saw the whole thing and part of House before she got home, then we watched Idol on tape for her benefit. She was too squicked by the revelation that a digestive system can reverse itself, just as she arrived, to watch the part of House prior to that. Plus it’s not the same once you know how it turns out. I think it’s time for them to have a parasite that’s been mutated by a virus to thrive on heavy metals and is triggered by a fungus to secrete a toxin that gets worse the more you lie. Or something.
You Are So Beautiful was good, showing he has a voice and not just a schtick. The fact that his voice cracked on the “to me” line only bothered me mildly, because it kind of fit the song. Which to me is a “meh” song, so all the better I liked it when he did it.
I hate hate hated his last song. That was what he wanted to do for love songs week? Yeesh. Hated the song. Really hated the performance. But then, I know he was supposed to be amazingly great and all, but I don’t think I have liked any Otis Reading song ever that wasn’t Dock Of The Bay.
All three made weird self-selections. Elliott gets a ton of credit for being the most consistent. I can’t necessarily say he wasn’t the worst of the night, but he was more than good enough to justify going on rather than the cumulative ugh of Toothy McPheebot. She is one lucky girl to have made it far enough to get into the finals, and I hope she remembers that.
The thing is, at least the top four were so similarly talented that it made this a tough year to pick. A lot of it ends up being other factors. I was surprised they were that close, when they showed the percentages. DialIdol made it seem like Taylor had far more of the vote than that and was nowhere close to the others.
Speaking of Taylor, I had seen people griping about his barking out of “soul patrol” but somehow I had never noticed it myself. I think it was a set of sounds so unexpected to me that I was hearing “ooh ooh!” or something like it as he pumped his hand in the air. This week I finally caught it, and boy was it annoying and overdone, the latter I think intentionally on his part.
WTF is a “soul patrol” anyway? Something of his invention that’s part of his schtick?
I find myself lacking enthusiasm for next week’s competition show, though last year the final results show was fun, seeing all the performances by people who’d been voted off and other musicians. Taylor Hicks will win unless something really weird happens. Kat will get a recording contract anyway, as will Elliott, and as will Chris. Chris will have the most staying and selling power over the decades.
At least Top Model had good results, if also close. Jade screwed up and talked back when she had a chance to go through to the final and win. Hate her or not, she was good. Joanie will do well and can really turn it on for the camera. Danielle, though, she has presence, a glow you could really see in the finale. No, I don’t watch this regularly, but we caught parts and even all of some of them. It’s a far better show than I would ever have imagined. Besides, Twiggy is one of the judges.
Since most of our traffic comes from female celebrity names, usually female (what is up with the sicko who got here with David Caruso nude?), usually with the words nude, naked, without clothes, undressed, topless, fake, photos, and so forth associated, and since have written about Idol enough to be surprisingly far up there when searching American Idol Results, I should add some of those names. You know, Kellie Pickler, or Kelly for the misspellers, Katharine “Kat” McPhee, Melissa McGhee, Lisa Tucker, Mandisa, Paris Bennett, Becky O’Donohue, Stevie Scott, Brenna Gathers, Heather Cox, Kinnik Sky, and local Idol-milking minor celebrity Ayla Brown. Of course, for the gals it’s Chris Daughtry who should be mentioned together with words like nude, naked and so forth. Perhaps these will help sustain our search traffic through the summer, until Erica Durance, Alexis Bledel, and so forth return. Or not.
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