Admit it, you watched last night. For those who have been hiding in your cellar for the past few weeks, FOX’s mega-hit American Idol premiered season eight (!) last night. Seemingly shoving all the shows on Fox’s regular schedule aside to an “EXCITING NEW NIGHT!”
This year’s go ’round, coming to us from lovely Arizona, featured all the usual elements we’ve come to expect from these Idol audition episodes; It was way too long, we got to see dozens of shots of the teeming masses of hopefuls screaming, shots of the judges arriving, lots of crazies (not including Paula Abdul), Simon being mean, tears, screams, and all the rest.
It all seemed really stale and staged. The judges tried to freshen things up by adding a new judge, Kara DioGuardi ( whom I’ve never heard of, but seems to have impressive credits), but that did little to bring any freshness to the proceedings. In fact all the usual Idol bits started to annoy me: the reverent references to past references to former winners (Kelly Clarkson is spoken about most often, Carrie Underwood is getting close, but she didn’t win), Simon’s obviously scripted bon mots (which as one contestant retorted to a comment he made, didn’t make sense!), Randy saying “Dawg” every five minutes; even those red Coca Cola glasses they have are beginning to annoy me!
Ryan Seacrest, as always, did not disappoint. He is the perfect host for this kind of thing, with his manufactured cool dude wardrobe, laid back attitude, and false sense of compassion. He is always good for unintentional laughs, too. He topped himself last night by attempting to “high-five” a blind guy!
The contestants didn’t impress much. The good singers were unremarkable for the most part, though there were standouts. There were only three singers that really stood out. The first was of course, bikini girl, but I’m not going to talk about her because if you haven’t heard all about her, you really have been living in a cellar. Some of the worst moments on the show, is all I’ll say. I really liked the black guy with the super-deep voice. To me, he’s entertainment! It was also kind of Paula, after he was rejected, to kindly suggest he should do voices in monster movies.
However, the most memorable contestant, was of course, the aforementioned blind guy. His story was moving and he had a nice voice, I suppose. The thing I was really surprised at was that it took the show’s producers this long to capitalize on a handicapped person to win audience sympathy?! I’ll bet you that if he isn’t in the top two, I’ll eat a bug. (I can’t wait to see how they put him in those ghastly Ford music videos they produce each year. Will he be careening down the street in a Ford Explorer, while the other performers run for their lives?)
Yes American Idol is back, so fire up the chat rooms and start gathering around the water cooler.
I’ll be joining you.
Did you vote on CliqueClack’s poll of the week yet? It’s all about Idol….
Clacked by Bill White
on Jan 14, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
I have to believe that people try out just so they can be on TV and get their 15 minutes of fame. I mean.. come on! The horribly out-of-tune, no personality/crazy people can’t possibly think they are good? Don’t they have friends and family to tell them the truth? The powers that be at Fox know what they’re doing putting them on for the entertainment factor though. At least four times during the show I say out loud.. “Oh, my God!” or “No Way” and make a squeamish face.
Okay, I admit…I’m the target audience.. :-(
Carrie Underwood won season 4. Unless you mean she didn’t win the battle of most reverent references.
I yawned through last night. The show has a very stale feeling for me.
Bob, I confused her with someone else. My bad. I guess I can’t watch anymore.
I was just trying to clarify, I wasn’t sure what you meant. Admittedly, I’m a fan of her and I don’t know for sure which were winners vs. runner-ups in most of the other seasons.
It’s your call to watch or not.
Nope NOpe and NOPE. i avoided it so hard its not even funny. 90210 and Scrubs is what i watched because im going to ignore this show becuz i dont want to get dragged into something i wont want to watch.
If your going to discuss what you don’t like, please get Jason Hughes to review again this year. He did a superb job of the reviews last season.
I think Bill is doing a great job. I miss his drawings though.
Hooray! Someone who finally calls Idol for what it is!!! How can someone possible have a “serious” review of these initial episodes. I personally think that the “judges” comments on these poor hopefuls are downright cruel. Count me in as a viewer when they actually have the final group selected. The rest of it is like watching a trainwreck and cheering for more casualties.