TV Diary
1. American Idol
I'd been psyched about this week ever since I heard that the theme was the music of Queen, possibly my favorite singles band of all time. In fact, I'd said to J.G. while watching Idol maybe a month ago before knowing about it that a Queen week would be great for all of the non-R&B singers in the competition that sometimes seem to be struggling for good vocal showcases. I've been mostly OK with the last few weeks of eliminations, Mandisa was kind of a surprise but she never really stood out to me all that much, big voice but always predictable. Katherine being in the bottom 3 a couple weeks was pretty much the only time I've been really outraged so far. Right now my favorite is Elliott, just in terms of seeming like a really nice, dorky dude who happens to have a good voice, and I loved him doing "Somebody To Love." I don't see him going the distance but I want to keep him around a while longer, so I was pretty relieved when Bucky got eliminated this week when it was him and Elliott and Ace in the bottom 3 (although Ace's "We Will Rock You" was so terrible that I would've been pretty mad that he got to stay if anyone but goddamn Bucky had gone instead). Pickler's abbreviated "Bohemian Rhapsody" was a pleasant surprise, maybe her only impressive performance the whole season. Noone else seemed to point out when she sang the "stop me and spit in my eye" line directly to Simon, I thought that was a nice touch. I was kinda glad that noone tackled the unassailable "Under Pressure," but Chris sounded so good singing a couple lines of that in the medley on Wednesday that I almost wish he'd picked it instead of "Innuendo." I'm still kind of on the fence about how much I like Taylor, but he pulled off "Crazy Little Thing" well and his flubbed mic stand kick was hilarious.
2. Unan1mous
I've been pretty good about not getting sucked into the super-trashy reality shows in the past, but the Idol lead-in for this got me hooked. The whole thing just looks sleazy as hell, from the low low production values to the weird redheaded geeky host, who doesn't fit the tone of the show at all (apparently he used to host a show on Animal Planet, which makes way more sense). But the way they keep changing the rules and throwing curveballs at the contestants is great, there's no systematic, predetermined formula for how each episode is going to go. It kind of annoys me that the original prize money, $1.5 million, isn't really that impressive a figure to begin with for a big TV show, and the amount keeps shrinking (the dollars ticking away every second that they don't come to a unanimous decision), and was already chopped in half once because someone decided to leave without being eliminated. At this point I don't know if I'd really bother fighting tooth and nail for little more than half a mil. But then, with the way they keep changing the rules, I wouldn't be surprised if the big shock at the end is that the winner gets the original amount. At this point I'm sick of Steve, the trucker who almost convinced everybody to give him the money early on for reasons I still don't understand (he has 4 kids? is that all it was?), and is now acting all pissed and entitled now that the prize is slipping out of his fingers.
I'd been psyched about this week ever since I heard that the theme was the music of Queen, possibly my favorite singles band of all time. In fact, I'd said to J.G. while watching Idol maybe a month ago before knowing about it that a Queen week would be great for all of the non-R&B singers in the competition that sometimes seem to be struggling for good vocal showcases. I've been mostly OK with the last few weeks of eliminations, Mandisa was kind of a surprise but she never really stood out to me all that much, big voice but always predictable. Katherine being in the bottom 3 a couple weeks was pretty much the only time I've been really outraged so far. Right now my favorite is Elliott, just in terms of seeming like a really nice, dorky dude who happens to have a good voice, and I loved him doing "Somebody To Love." I don't see him going the distance but I want to keep him around a while longer, so I was pretty relieved when Bucky got eliminated this week when it was him and Elliott and Ace in the bottom 3 (although Ace's "We Will Rock You" was so terrible that I would've been pretty mad that he got to stay if anyone but goddamn Bucky had gone instead). Pickler's abbreviated "Bohemian Rhapsody" was a pleasant surprise, maybe her only impressive performance the whole season. Noone else seemed to point out when she sang the "stop me and spit in my eye" line directly to Simon, I thought that was a nice touch. I was kinda glad that noone tackled the unassailable "Under Pressure," but Chris sounded so good singing a couple lines of that in the medley on Wednesday that I almost wish he'd picked it instead of "Innuendo." I'm still kind of on the fence about how much I like Taylor, but he pulled off "Crazy Little Thing" well and his flubbed mic stand kick was hilarious.
2. Unan1mous
I've been pretty good about not getting sucked into the super-trashy reality shows in the past, but the Idol lead-in for this got me hooked. The whole thing just looks sleazy as hell, from the low low production values to the weird redheaded geeky host, who doesn't fit the tone of the show at all (apparently he used to host a show on Animal Planet, which makes way more sense). But the way they keep changing the rules and throwing curveballs at the contestants is great, there's no systematic, predetermined formula for how each episode is going to go. It kind of annoys me that the original prize money, $1.5 million, isn't really that impressive a figure to begin with for a big TV show, and the amount keeps shrinking (the dollars ticking away every second that they don't come to a unanimous decision), and was already chopped in half once because someone decided to leave without being eliminated. At this point I don't know if I'd really bother fighting tooth and nail for little more than half a mil. But then, with the way they keep changing the rules, I wouldn't be surprised if the big shock at the end is that the winner gets the original amount. At this point I'm sick of Steve, the trucker who almost convinced everybody to give him the money early on for reasons I still don't understand (he has 4 kids? is that all it was?), and is now acting all pissed and entitled now that the prize is slipping out of his fingers.
Labels: American Idol, TV, TV Diary
This entry was posted
on Thursday, April 13, 2006 at 6:51 PM.
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hillary : 9:11 AM