Welcome back to the American Idol chatter.
The season began last night in fine form, with more Ryan Seacrest voice overs than you could shake a stick at. If you thought his opening bit was a little melodramatic, all you had to do was wait for the self-importance that came up right after the opening theme song/credits. AMERICAN IDOL is now, it seems, a given in life. Right after the prom, there’s IDOL.
Maybe I’m just too old to get it. I mean, I still use “the” in front of “prom.” I’m a fuddy duddy.
The changes this year are mostly cosmetic. The cameras show us more of the judges after the contestants leave this year. Randy, Paula, and Simon take no prisoners, as always, but Simon’s outright dismissal of the guy in the Statue of Liberty costume took the cake. I don’t think anyone is going to get the message that dressing up in a silly costume will work, though. They just want to get on TV, so they’ll dress up like members of the opposite sex, or in their ancestor’s native garb, etc.
The judges also let many contestants sing themselves hoarse rather than stopping them. They know what makes for good TV and they’re willing to suffer more fools for that sake.
A number of contestants suffered from poor first song choices, and I was surprised that the judges didn’t ask for more second songs at the time. I realized later that it’s all in the art of editing: Half the contestants I wondered about turned up to sing that “Voulez Vous Couchez Avec Mois” (yes, I know it’s “Lady Marmalade”) song in the ending montage.
The contestants that surprised me the most were the two sisters from the corn maze town. I thought the older one sounded powerful and strong, while the younger one was far shakier, with looks ripped straight from the cookie cutter perfected by the actresses-turned-singers of the world, combined with Ashlee Simpson. Yet, Randy was more sure of the younger one than the older, and Paula wasn’t sure on either of them. Weird.
In the end, this show didn’t need to be two hours. In fact, I think the best thing they could do for Idol is to do all the audition stops in one week. Make it an event: A different city each night, one hour a night. Get it done and over with. I enjoy these shows, but there’s another hour on tonight and god only knows how many hours lined up for next week.
But who would you like to talk about? Jumping Boy? Mr. Chicago? Make-up Girl? Ukraine’s Last Hope? Goth Girl? Comments are open.
Update: I forgot to mention: Was anyone else really creeped out when Paula would accept the googly eyes and hand-holding from amorous Idol contestants? Why would they leave those in the show? Is that the Idol folk slapping back at Corey Clark? Or do they just not care? (And is Clark’s website one of the most obnoxious around, or what? Warning: Music plays at that link.)
This is the 54th DVD podcast:
OK, OK, here. Start chatting. There be spoilers for Monday night’s episode in the comments. Have at it, folks!
