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.

Labels: American Idol, TV, TV Diary

1. American Idol
As I mentioned a few weeks back, this is the first season of A.I. that I've committed to watching pretty regularly, and I've only missed one or two episodes since then. I always figured if I ever got really into it I'd get pissed about decisions or be really vehement about my favorites, but that hasn't really happened yet, although it started to creep in with this week's eliminations. For the most part, I've been pretty good at predicting who's going home, although it got a little harder as it got narrowed down to the 12 finalists tonight. Out of the 24 contestants that went to Hollywood, I don't really have any problems with who went home, although I felt like Brenna could've hung in there a little longer.

People I was glad to see go: David Radford, the boring teenaged crooner who clearly got a lot of encouragement performing in his living room but clearly was petrified of the thought of singing anything not Sinatra and hung in there way longer than he had a right to. No versatility or range of selections = people are gonna get sick of you fast. Also Patrick, who had a pretty good audition and seemed promising, but totally destroyed his chances when he sang "Come To My Window" and came off like the biggest male lesbian since Clay. I was also glad that Ayla got voted off tonight, since she never really impressed me with her singing, and had that really awkward body language of tall teenagers that makes for bad bad stage presence. Plus it was between her and Melissa, who I really like with her whole trashy hot chick look and husky vocal tone, even though she's clearly kinda hanging by a thread with the voters and people have been predicting she'd be gone every week so far. I hope she stays in for at least a little while longer.

I was a little mad that Kevin stayed in once again this week, even though he's even less versatile than the crooner kid. But I think everyone is overestimating his granny/pre-teen fangirl voting bloc, considering that he was in the bottom 3 a week or two ago and narrowly escaped elimination. So all he needs is another week or two of boring performances to get outta there. Also surprised that Bucky is still there, considering his singing never really impressed me, and his difficulty speaking seems to go way beyond just being Southern. Plus, Chris (J.G.'s favorite, along with Taylor) is holding down the token rocker dude position much more successfully. Gedeon wasn't great but probably deserved to stay longer than Kevin or Bucky.

Kelly Pickler is alright but I think also hanging onto her cutesy backstory/accent appeal and is one bad song choice away from elimination. Lisa Tucker had a lot of hype early on but she's faded into the background with some pretty boring performances, so time will tell with her. Katharine McPhee is definitely still the one to beat, and if the Kelly/Carrie tradition of cute white girls winning continues this season, it'll be her. I hope the Scientology rumors aren't true and she's not too psycho because she is really good and seems normal enough. Paris or Mandisa or pretty boy Ace might give her tough competition, though, and I'm rooting for the talented but ugly dude set (Elliott, Taylor and arguably Chris) to stick around and do well.

2. Project Runway
I don't really like this show but J.G.'s into it hardcore so I ended up kind of paying attention to it this season. But I have absolutely no ideas or opinions about fashion or clothing so I only really followed the people element and never really knew who was doing good work or not until they got the boot. Santino's antics and the token nutjob of the series were entertaining enough, though, and I was kind of surprised he got to the final three, although I'm kind of glad he lost because hey, he's probably going to remain more famous than the actual winner no matter what. I'm a little shocked that since the finale the other night I've found no discussion anywhere of the fact that Santino made his own music to go with his fashion show, which I thought was funnier than any of his other antics the entire seasno. Especially the "and the boys all blow you kisses" line that he seemed to repeat over and over. I was dying. Maybe he'll start selling CDs off his website, considering that he seems to be shilling everything else possible -- and by the way, is anyone else bothered by the fact that a professional clothing designer is selling an official line of Cafe Press shirts? That just seems wrong.

Labels: American Idol, TV, TV Diary

1. Puppy Bowl II
We caught this while channel surfing last night, and, oh my god. Apparently Animal Planet airs this opposite the Super Bowl, which consists of a bunch of little puppies cavorting around a room made up to look like a footbal field. For 3 hours. I kind of admire what a ridiculous, amazingly simple idea it is. It's not even like a competitive tournament where the dogs race or show off weird skills. They just play around with no human inolvement. For 3 hours. And it's bizarrely watchable. And I won't even get into the Kitty Halftime Show. Oh my god. You can even buy it on DVD.

2. American Idol
Every season, I try to get into watching this regularly, but end up only catching a couple of episodes. So far this season I've been better about it, though, mainly because I watch a lot more network prime time lately, and now live with someone who'll watch it with me. But I'm glad that this week is the end of the auditions phase, because it's easily my least favorite part of the show and I kind of fail to see why it's so popular. I like seeing the people who can actually sing and the excitement of them getting to go to Hollywood, but for every one of those, there's 10 that suck and don't know it, or worse, suck and know it and audition anyway. And that's just the ones they show. It makes me feel kind of bad for the judges to comprehend how many people they have to listen to. I don't know if the early seasons were much different, but it makes me wonder if the William Hung phenomenon turned the auditions into a Gong Show atmosphere with people with weird non-singing talents or no talent just trying to get on TV for a minute. And it amazes me that they did some 2-hour episodes of that shit. I couldn't get through it all, it was greuling. I don't know if I'm rooting for anyone yet, but I'm looking forward to moving onto the finalist phase.

3. The War At Home
Has this been cancelled yet? I was kind of enthused about Michael Rapaport starring in his own series, because he's awesome, but this is pretty lame. Not only does it follow in a long line of foul-mouthed/transgressive FOX shows about trailer trash trying to recapture the lightening in a bottle that was Married With Children, but it's almost exactly like one of those previous shows, Titus, right down to the father/husband lead character addressing the camera in weird little scenes of him standing alone in a room somewhere that are spliced between shots of him interacting with other characters.

Labels: American Idol, TV, TV Diary