AMERICAN IDOL: Can it be? No jive? Brooke's gone? Yes!
Sorry, Brooke White fans. Little Miss Sunshine is gone, and I'm feeling no pain. In fact, as the immortal James Brown put it with gusto, I feel good.
In this wacky-bordering-on-dull season of "American Idol," voters Wednesday finally brought some fleeting sanity back to the proceedings. I don't know what happened to Brooke's fan base. Maybe Neil Diamond theme week turned them off. Maybe they thought she was safe and didn't dial in or text in as much as normal. But when Ryan Seacrest said 45 million votes were punched in, compared to 38 million last week, that provided an ample margin to send someone home who deserved to go home.
Both Donald Munro and I have been flabbergasted at Brooke's longevity. Her admirers saw a sunny, charming, vulnerable singer. I can let Donald speak for himself, but I found her vocals weak and her increasingly shaky demeanor a bit unsettling. And, after watching her so emotionally overwhelmed by her dismissal, I doubt she could handle the rough-and-nasty rigors of show business.
So this leaves us with the two Davids -- which is the final that AI producers obviously hunger for -- plus Jason Castro and Syesha Mercado, who again fell into the Bottom 2. I had picked her to go home this week, but I'm so happy to be wrong.
UPDATE: Donald weighs in on Wednesday's results show:
Donald says: First off, it was fitting that the opening ensemble number of Neil Diamond songs was among the most wretched in "AI" history: underprepared, desultory, downright embarrassing. (Oh-so-heinous was the mental picture of two pairs of doo-wopping contestants flanking a stiff-as-a-board David Archuleta trying to rock out.) Memo to the producers: Either give the contestants enough time to rehearse the number so it's smooth and polished, or kill the concept. It doesn't do the show any favors to have the finalists stumbling around like an ad-hoc group from the Lido Deck at a cruise-ship talent show.
I guess the show redeemed itself by finally, mercifully, letting Brooke go off softly into the night. (Not without some heaving sobs, alas.) Not to get too deep here, but as I watched Brooke emote all over the stage during her farewell song, and finally turn her back to the audience in one final empathetic flourish, I contemplated how she became a symbol of sorts for the ways that "American Idol" can go terribly wrong: She made it as far as she did in the competition not because she was a good singer or even a good entertainer, but because she burned so emotionally hot on camera. One of the major flaws of the show, which seems particularly acute this year, is that the telephone voting process isn't a very good substitute for the real-world barometer of album sales. Folks are willing to vote by phone like crazy for someone they feel sorry for or who has a sunny TV disposition, but they probably wouldn't PAY for the privilege to listen to them. Brooke exploited that flaw -- perhaps not deliberately, but she played the personality card for a lot longer than I would have guessed.
Back to Felicia: We now have to brace for next week's show. Unfortunately for Syesha, the theme is Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame songs. That will fall right into David Cook's wheelhouse and may inspire Jason to wake up from his abysmal sleepwalking performances in recent weeks. And, David Archuleta? He just needs to stay steady to secure his place in the finals. Syesha has her work cut out for her.
One side note: Seacrest made a point of addressing Paula "What Planet Am I On?" Abdul's strange behavior Tuesday. If you recall, she started critiquing Jason on his second song when he had only sung one. Seacrest said there had been a lot of rumors Wednesday about Paula and why it happened -- without saying exactly what the rumors were, thereby guaranteeing that the Internet searches will rev up -- and that they were "not true" and that "we love her."
He said the producers had thrown the judges a curve ball in changing the time when their comments would come in during Tuesday's show. Hmm. Randy Jackson, who spoke before Paula, didn't have a problem with directions. And I'm sure Simon Cowell would have aced it.
Comments:
Well of course, voting Babbling Brooke off the show was the best decision America could have made. She should have gone long ago. But I still think Syesha is getting a bum rap. I like her. I think she's talented, pretty, stylish and is a good performer. It's been said she doesn't seem to have a large fan base, but obviously large numbers are voting for her or she would have been gone long ago. The one thing I do think she did wrong was to get rid of her original hairdo. That wild head of hair gave her a unique identity.
As for the others, Jason "I'm so floppy, I could be a rabbit" Castro, should be amazed he's still on the show. Every song sounds the same and he doesn't seem to put in any emotion into his singing. It's almost like he doesn't understand what he's singing.I guess his eyes are just too pretty to give the boot.
I'm still not ready to admit that David Cook is pretty good, so I put it this way--he's growing on me. But I do think he gets an advantage every week with better arrangements and light shows that you don't necessarily see with the others.
As for David A., I still like him, although he does need to energize his performance a bit. It seems like he's holding back, like he's just concentrating on making sure he hits the notes. But he does have a nice voice and I like listening to him. My only other criticism of David A. is that he needs to dress better, more like an adult, a little more sophisticated. He looks like a little boy in those striped shirts, like maybe he's wearing Garanimals.
At least with Brooke gone now, my head won't explode.
Posted by: katbon at April 30, 2008 10:48 PM
Oh, alright, I'll comment. I'm still watching, but I'm ONLY commenting cuz Brooke is finally gone.
I'm going to go ahead and lay the blame for this season in Nigel Lythgoe's wealthy lap. He has just strained too far as producer of the show. He allowed the hype 'Best talent EVER!' and he's made horrendous choices for mentors. Even the great Diva Sir Lord Webber wasn't the best choice. These 'idols' are kids, and they really haven't heard the song stylings of Neal Diamond, Sir Lloyd W, and even Dolly Parton.
They had to ravage TWO weeks of Beatles' tunes, and Nigel's idea of great filler is planned phone calls from Simon's 9-year old girl-crush (to prove he and Ryan don't have anything on the side, I'm guessing).
These idols are kids, for the most part. They're being forced to listen to music day and night just to learn 'I Am I Said' or something obscure from Starlight Express. Who is helping them to make these picks? Are they really forced to look at a song-list of titles they've never heard of and they have to choose based on how pretty the song title sounds? How was poor Pretty-Eyes Jason s'posed to know 'Memory' was about Cats?
Mariah Carey wasn't a bad choice, at least they'd heard most of her songs. But I think the themes should be 'Songs of the 90's' with Gwen Stefani as mentor, or 'Top 40 Hits of Country Music' with Trish Yearwood and Garth Brooks.
Nigel looked quite smarmy when Ryan showed him, and I think his success has got to him. Bring me the fun and drama of last year's British version where that cel-phone salesman singing Opera took it all.
As for this year, there isn't an album I'd listen to in the entire bunch (tho I'd go see Amanda perform live). :::sigh::: I miss Jordin Sparks.
Posted by: Stephen at May 2, 2008 1:34 PM
Stephen, I hope you keep commenting for the rest of this sorry run. I enjoy your rants. Besides, if Donald and I have to endure this overwhelmingly disapppointing AI season, why not keep posting right along with us? Misery loves company.
You raise a good question about who is helping these contestants pick these songs. I know there's a voice coach, but I don't know how much influence that person wields. And, except for Lord Webber, the mentors act like they can't get out of there fast enough so, to them, every AI singer is great or has potential or will do just fine the night of the performance. They might as well just e-mail them. Oh, but that wouldn't justify plugging their upcoming CDs.
I still like the idea of theme weeks but -- given the drop in ratings -- they need to be more judicious in what themes they choose. I liked Lord Webber more than you, but I also wondered how many people, outside of Broadway musical fans, really know his stuff?
At this point, they may have to beg U2, Sting or Bruce Springsteen to appear as mentors. Of course, I've just listed folks approaching elder statesmanship. They probably skew too old for the AI target audience ... heck, why doesn't AI just partner up with Disney and bring in Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and the High School Musical squad?
Posted by: felicia matlosz at May 2, 2008 5:49 PM
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