Thursday, March 22, 2007

"American Idol" Recap

First, Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits sang. He's a real performer and knows exactly what to do with the modest voice he has left. Never much of a singer, but he works well within his limitations. I loved the shot of Simon ignoring him completely. And the audience cheered when he first came onstage, as if they actually knew and cared about him. Bless 'em.

Ford Ad -- I think the goofy ads the cast does are quite a bit better this season. Certainly this one set in a laundromat was pain free and modestly entertaining. (I did like seeing Melinda do gymnastic twirls down the row of machines, though I can't get it out of my head that some people dubbed her Shrek.) Nonetheless, after the ad we got a group shot and again they seemed way too enthusiastic about having to do a car ad. High fives over an ad? And placing Brad Garrett in among the kids was a new low, even for FOX.

The elimination round -- Phil hooted like a maniac when he was saved and certainly should have -- I thought he'd be in the bottom two. Plus, I like our nickname of Bat Boy for him, but I also saw online that people call him Nosferatu and that's pretty on-target too.

They had a nice bait-and-switch by putting Sanjaya and Haley and Gina together -- I'm sure everyone assumed they'd be the bottom three. It certainly fooled Chris Richardson. You could see him saying "Wow" when he found out they were safe and realized that meant he and Stephanie were the bottom two. I've always thought Blake and Chris Sligh were stronger than Rochardson, but bought into the hype because he was appealing. (Though I did wisely say he belonged more on a CW sitcom or drama than as a singer.) Still, I should have pegged him as vulnerable since he can't sing that well and the arrangement of the song highlighted that. Shame on me.

I loved the bizarre sign we saw quickly in the audience: "Clay Aiken Hurt Me." What could that possibly mean and why in heaven's name did FOX let it get on the air?

LULU -- "To Sir With Love" (the very first -- and noly -- single my sister Leslie ever bought). She was a much better coach than Peter Noone and she did a much more exciting job performing. Even when her voice cracked and wavered she was delivering emotion. Her vocals just have a great quality about them. And she looked pretty darn hot.

Then Chris and Stephanie were front and center (with Chris's shirt artfully semi-untucked, as always. He had the right response to being safe: relief and then properly consoling Stephanie, even getting her to laugh briefly, which looks good. I picked Stephanie to go and I'm not surprised in the least that she did. It was certainly a slap in the face for Chris, who's heard nothing but squeals for a few weeks now.

I was hoping for a comment from the judges -- did they say anything the entire night? It would have been nice to hear if any of them listened to the show again and realized they undersold how sensational Jordin was on Tuesday. Ah well, there's always next week.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just look at who was holding the Clay Aiken sign--the cast of the new show "Till Death". It seems like a publicity stunt to call attention to the new show. When people see Clay Aiken's name it immediately gets people's attention--especially on idol. However, that's also why so many people use it randomly in any way they can think of in internet articles and blogs--they know they will get hits.

priv8pete said...

And here I thought Roberta Flack was working on a sequel to "Killing Me Softly."

Michael in New York said...

I recognized Garrett but didn't realize the others were from the show too. How odd of them to do that just for attention -- make a bizarre ref to Clay Aiken. You're obviously right as to the reason Stevens, though priv8Pete's comment would have been even trippier.