American Idol: Now and Then

I think I’ve reached the end of my American Idol rope because the show is getting a little boring for me and I’m more than ready for the finale. Blame it on the lack of proper judging which has turned a semi-competition show into something less than a popularity contest, or blame it on all the commercials and fillers, I don’t know, but I’m ready for the finale.

Was that Sara Ramirez I saw in the front row at the beginning of the show?

James Durbin: I like James a lot, but that “Let me hear you scream” to the crowd was pretty cheesy. I’d also like to see him stay out of the crowd and remain on stage because he doesn’t sound as good when he’s bouncing around. I’m not sure that I could ever sit through a full James Durbin concert unless he toned it down some, but I thought this was very good. My only suggestion would be to maybe shave his armpits if he’s going to keep on wearing sleeveless shirts and raising his arm.

Note: If I have to hear Randy say that someone is, “In it to win it” one more time I’ll… I don’t know what I’ll do but it won’t be pretty!

Jacob Lusk: I’ve fallen off the Jacob bandwagon. This one just sounded like a lot of really loud shouting to me. The type of shouting the drunk guy sitting behind you at a football game might make, and no amount of stage smoke or crotch-grabbing or rock posturing can make this one good for me.

Lauren Aliana: One of the keys to a successful American Idol performance for me is that the backup musicians shouldn’t upstage the singer. So, about the song – I thought the violin player – or I guess it’s the fiddle player since this was a Country song – was pretty good but I don’t know what that bandana thing was around his thigh. I haven’t seen guys wearing that since the 60’s. As to Alaina, yeah, she was good.

Scotty McCreery: I’m not really sure what to say other than I loved it. I thought the beginning was a little rough but when he jumped off the stage I was hooked. If this is Country then I’m missing out on some good music! And thanks, Randy, for letting us know, for the bazillionth time, that someone is in it to win it.

Haley Reinhart: I’ve been a harsh critic of Haley all season but I liked this performance a lot and I don’t know why the judges were so negative. That whole business about it being a bad idea to do an unreleased song was nonsense, in my opinion, and the panel illustrated in their critiques of Haley why the American Idol judging is so absolutely meaningless. If they were really judges then they’d forget about the song and be critiquing her singing and her performance. But they didn’t do that last night, they just criticized her and her decision and her motivation and as far as I’m concerned, they have no right to judge or criticize either of those. And the three of them are horribly inconsistent, too. Singers do a song too close to the original and it’s karaoke or they didn’t do enough to make it their own or they weren’t original. So Haley does a song that no one knows – in effect a brand new song, a song that couldn’t be more original – and no one likes the performance and no one judges the song or her singing. Cut her some slack for being gutsy and having the courage to do something different and for being the only singer this season who does something different every week.

James Durbin: I didn’t really like James’ second performance. It was impossible not to be swayed by his emotional investment in the song, but I didn’t think it was the greatest thing he’s ever done. And I hated the close-up of his eyes at the end of the song. Yeah, we get that he’s crying and we feel for him. We don’t need to give him a retinal exam.

Jacob Lusk: What’s that saying about if you can’t say something good about someone then you shouldn’t say anything? OK, with that in mind, I’ll say that on the plus side, this performance made me appreciate his first performance a little more. A little.

Lauren Alaina: I guess I would call this a serviceable vocal. There was nothing wrong with the singing or the arrangement, but there was also nothing there to grasp on to and I didn’t “feel” the song and this is a song a person should feel.

Scotty McCreery: Willie Nelson. Blech. Thank you Scotty for making me forget Willie Nelson. Except for the cord to that ear plug thingee sticking out at a funny angle and giving him what looked like a cartoon ear, I thought this was, again, great.

Haley Reinhart: To use a baseball analogy, Haley hit a homerun with this one. A bases loaded homerun with two runners standing on every base! A stunning performance, in my opinion, and since my TV memory is limited to about one week, I’ll say this was the best performance of the entire season. Take that judges! Haley’s in it to… oh, no, darn you, Randy!

Best of the night:
Haley
Scotty

Worst of the night:
Jacob

Going home:
I see James and Scotty in the finals so they’re safe. Of the other three, it should be Jacob going home, and I hope it is, but – and not because of last night, but because she’s in the bottom three every week – it’ll probably be Haley.