February 28, 2006

"American Idol" -- a tasteless display.

Tonight's a bit of a horror, isn't it? The judges are very hard on the "girls," and this is a relief for me, so I don't have to supply all the negativity.

Katharine McPhee starts us off, and she's bad, but she's been so good in the past, so this is not auspicious. I'm blanking out on the next few performers. If I try to call them to mind, I'm just going to feel really bad.

Well, that last one was Brenna Gethers, who does "Last Dance," the song that doomed Ryan Starr in Season 1. And compared to Brenna, we feel an intense flow of nostalgic love for Ryan.

Next up is Paris Bennett, so good in the auditions. And she's wearing a jumper -- a jumper, people -- so I'm ready to love her. But now she's saying "I got favor" and pointing toward Heaven. And then I see that it's not a jumper. It's a camisole over a white shirt. Well, so, I'll have to be a little critical. She could have warded of my criticism by wearing a jumper. She's singing "Wind Beneath My Wings" -- in a pretentious, overblown way that exasperates us. Paula implies that she's lost her youth. Randy tells her to act 16. Be "the hot young one for me," he says, which sounds a tad icky. Simon says don't turn the show into "I'm 17 and I can sound 50." Ryan asks her why she picked that song, and she says it's her great grandmother's favorite song, which is so ridiculous, so over-the-top ridiculous, given that they all just said she was overly old, that we see her as a girl again and love her.

Kellie Pickler sings "Something to Talk About," which is exactly the kind of song I abhor, but she's cute. We're supposed to like cute? Simon tells us America likes cute. And the truth is that when they show the recaps in the end, she's the one that comes across the best.

We end with the very dramatic Mandisa. Well, she went last, so she must be good. To me, it's bombastic and forgettable.

I've got to say, I absolutely hated the music on the show tonight. Was there any taste? I think not.

19 comments:

JohnF said...

I confess I've never watched before tonight, but Ann blogs so much about this show that I figured, what the hell.

Ack! I thought everything about the show other than the singing was worse than the singing, from the strange song-intgerrupting audience cheering to the relentless critiques of the three judges. If some one went to a generic human and said, ok, think of something unfavorable to say about an amateur singer without hearing her sing, you would have tonight's comments.

By contrast, I thought the singing was sort of pleasant. Unlike Ann, I am not competent to deal with the clothes (what, exactly, is a jumper?).

Anyway, I love this blog, and despite Ann's, er, unusual fixation on certain TV shows, I will keep reading.

But I hope there is no requirement to watch the shows.

Palladian said...

We watch the shows through Ann. She's our intercessor. It's like the Roman Catholic Church, and Ann is the priest, helping us communicate with a power larger and more terrible than we could endure on our own.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Palladian: And to her to whom much is given, much is required.

Paul is a Hermit said...

I have got to start remembering names. Anyway, # 3, 4 and 10 were good.

10 is the mentioned Mandisa.
4 is the tall, athletic girl who didn't know how to use makeup. She wants this award.
3 is the tiny black girl with all the curls.

I'll admit Kellie and Melinda did the best they've done in the competition so far but not as good as the above three. Since no one really cares what I think, I'll say this is the worst crop yet.

Charlie Thomas said...

"And the truth is that when they show the recaps in the end, she's the one that comes across the best."

Isn't that wierd? I didn't like the performance, but I liked the recap. And, are we supposed to believe that Kelly is REALLY that much of a hick? Calimari? Please. I'm getting a bit suspicious.

Finn Alexander Kristiansen said...
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Finn Alexander Kristiansen said...
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Finn Alexander Kristiansen said...

Hmmm, third try (darn typos). Does anyone know if that hispanic girl with the same birthday as Simon is still in the competition?

What is her name.

Pete said...

Brenna and her shark-like smile must go. Though my youngest daughter, bless her, thinks she's the best.

Can't wait for the guys.

SippicanCottage said...
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Ann Althouse said...

"Ruby." No! Frenchie!

Anyway, I liked Lisa Tucker too, though my post makes it seem as though I don't.

I too found it hard to believe Ayla had never heard of foundation.

And as to Kellie's hickitude... well, we already did that with Carrie Underwood last time around. If we go for that again, that's just wrong.

As for Mandisa being fat, well, Ruben already was fat and won, so we don't need to devote another season to fat acceptance, just to get the female version in. For a first, how about an attractive man? We haven't done that yet, amazingly enough. (Still hurting over the loss of Constantine.)

Jennifer said...

I love reading these! We don't get cable, but I love American Idol. I have to wait until my own personal Netflix comes through and the recording gets here.

So, catch me up. Kellie hadn't heard of calimari? It's probably more to do with her economic class than her hickiness. Are we so out of touch with reality that we presume even kids with Dads in jail and druggie runaway Moms are snacking on calimari? Please!

Ann - I'm with you - give us an attractive man, please! I rarely find singers/musicians attractive, though. I know this puts me in a small percentage of women. They just never seem very manly to me.

Laura Reynolds said...

I'd settle for talented and entertaining, as a popularity contest, I can't expect the "best" to always win.

Last night was not very good and it seems there was a lot of playing it safe going on, saving the big effort for later.

That Kellie didn't know about Calimari being from NC is no big deal. I'm still intriqued by Ayla although I haven't figured out why.

Lonesome Payne said...

Based purely on her audition, I think there's a chance Kellie has ten times the voice of Carrie Underwood. I don't know why she's lost it since. But it does exist.

I screwed up the taping so we ended up watching American Graffiti on TCM. What a great movie. What a lot of unbelievable songs. And I'll bet Richard Dreyfuss came across as 38 as they were cutting the umbilical cord.

Kierkegaard Lives said...

I don't know about anyone else, but at this point I just can't find myself really caring about any of the female contestants this year. I like Katherine McPhee, but she was not particularly good last night; I like Kellie, but I'm not really blown away by her; I don't mind the "young" girls' voices, but I also just don't feel compelled to hope they do well.

Jennifer said...

I don't know about anyone else, but at this point I just can't find myself really caring about any of the female contestants this year.

I find myself feeling this way at this time every year. But, then the singers develop. And their personalities start to really show through. And eventually, by the time we've gone from 24 to like 8 or 6, I find that there are a few that I really do care about after all.

knox said...

I love little Paris' voice.

Personality-wise, I really liked Mandisa, and not just because of the fat-girl underdog factor.

Brenna must die. She reminds me of that Fran-Drescher-clone from last season with the big mouth.

knox said...

Mikhala

Jennifer said...

Brenna must die. She reminds me of that Fran-Drescher-clone from last season with the big mouth.

Oh, ugh! Totally! Except at least Mikhala was young and stupid. Brenna is old and stupid, right?