AI: Season 10?!

Sigh... I can't believe I actually watched the season premiere of American Idol. Especially since the early audition episodes are ridiculously painful to sit through. But I wanted to see how Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez changed the show...

Contestants aren't worth mentioning this early. Only 1 out of every 20 or so singers are even worth listening to... So I'll focus on the judges. :)

J. Lo and her inability to say "No" was amusing, and surprisingly. I thought that when push came to shove, she would be the one who could say it straight. I had assumed she would have a good dose of inner bitch to draw on but she could barely make eye contact with even the horrible singers she had to say no to! Best line, though: (After a particularly horrible singer, to Randy) "How did you do this for ten years?"

Steven Tyler was amusing. When he got into the singing, he really got into it; he was like a little boy, bopping his head up and down, huge goofy grin on his face, clapping along. It was cute! Except his hitting on all the 20 year old girls was a bit creepy...

Randy Jackson, wait, why is he still here?! Haha, just kidding. But it is odd that he's the only of the original judges left now. A lot of the contestants that came in were all starstruck by J. Lo or Steven Tyler. So it was pretty funny how Randy would wave his head and be like "Hello! I'm still here, too!" But he does maintain the tone of the show and being the only veteran judge, he is good at keeping everything on track and well, "keeping it real."

I'm not sure how much more of the show I will watch this season. It'll come down to how much space there is on the DVR and how promising the top 20 look/sound. :)

Thursday Talk Week 3

J: Which shows have you given up on watching recently, and why?

Jennifer: I stopped watching Ugly Betty this season. There wasn't really any one thing or moment that made me stop, I just realized one week that I just wasn't enjoying the show very much anymore. The show has a lot of great characters, but somehow I just stopped caring about them, especially Betty, which is problematic since she's the main character. I've also stopped watching Scrubs (I tried a few episodes of the new incarnation but I think I'd really just rather leave it at last season's written-as-a-series-finale) and 24 (I didn't finish last season and I don't think I'll be bothering to start this season). Also this might not count but I also never really got enough into Flashforward and V and won't be watching when they return.

Mira: I gave up American Idol because I realized that I spent more time complaining about it than enjoying it. Except I cheated a little today and watched for 20 minutes to see Kristen Chenoworth (sp?). I've also unofficially given up 90210 and Melrose Place. The fake reason is because the shows are so stupid beyond description and I can spend my time watching better stuff. The real reason is because I fell behind and the episodes I missed aren't available on hulu/cwtv anymore. They're a very, very guilty pleasure but I'm sure with more time away from the shows I'll learn not to miss it anymore. (Kind of like when I gave up The OC.)

Jennifer's frustration-minimizing American Idol viewing strategy

I've expressed the many, many issues I have with American Idol multiple times. But as a self-professed TV/media/entertainment fan, it's a FORCE that's just hard to ignore. Of course, now that Simon Cowell is leaving the show, who knows what's going to happen? But last season I hit on a formula for keeping up with the show that requires a minimal amount of my time and frustration, so as season 9 begins, here's the plan:

1. Skip the audition rounds. It just takes up too much time and there's too much of the judges and Ryan Seacrest and well, cringing. Unlike on So You Think You Can Dance, where there are talented people that "aren't right for the show" that are worth watching, on Idol bad singing is just bad singing.
2. Once performance rounds start, either start watching late from DVR in order to fast forward through filler, bad performances, and judging; or better yet, just watch clips on the Internet the following morning of people/songs that interest me or that I read were good.
3. Skip the results show entirely. In my experience, there's absolutely nothing interesting that happens on them. Wikipedia gets updated with who gets eliminated pretty much instantly.
4. Watch Idolatry on EW.com. This is actually my favorite part. It fills in the holes (from things missed during all the stuff I didn't watch above) and it's just hilarious. I love Michael Slezak and the editing is genius.

I actually thought last season was an improvement in terms of the actual contestants. Kris, Adam, and Allison were closer than ever to the kind of music I listen to in real life (though I doubt it'll ever really get there...) Will this trend continue?

Rewind: American Idol

Given my personal taste in music, I really shouldn't care about American Idol at all. I'm more into the indie/alternative kind of music that doesn't play on the radio, or appear in celebrity gossip, or well, get covered on Idol. Plus, it's the kind of music where vocals aren't necessarily the most important thing. And when Idol first started, it definitely was primarily a purely vocal performance talent competition.

But now, with song choice and song arrangement starting to take precedence, and especially with the contestants allowed to play instruments...the show's been attracting some different kinds of talent. Ones that I might actually listen to in my normal life! I mean, I still detested David Cook last season and think Daughtry is horribly unoriginal, but they're definitely closer to what I like than past Idols like Jordin Sparks or Carrie Underwood or Taylor Hicks.

And this year, three of the top four were on the rock side of things. Kris and Adam especially made me like them just because of their song choices, namely "Mad World" from Adam, and "Falling Slowly" and "Heartless" from Kris. So I'm actually looking forward to what kind of albums they're all going to put out. Allison I think could possibly go the Kelly Clarkson route, maybe a little less pop, Adam I see doing a My Chemical Romance/Muse type of thing (or be the frontman for Queen?), and Kris is definitely the Jason Mraz/John Mayer singer-songwriter type. But we'll just have to wait and see!

So while the talent and performances this year were actually more enjoyable for me, the show itself was even more of a hot mess. First of all, there was Kara. I guess she was supposed to bring a songwriter's perspective or something, but that's just laughable, considering that piece of steaming crap that she co-wrote for the finale, "No Boundaries." And I thought that most weeks she didn't have anything different to say at all, strangely agreeing with "for you, for me...but you can SING" Randy Jackson most of the time, amidst all sorts of erroneous pop culture references (Studio 57? Saturday Night Live disco? Early Aerosmith?). Plus, a fourth judge, good or not, just means more time devoted to the critiques.

Which brings me to the next problem: the show running over. It's ridiculous how much time was wasted on things that were NOT SINGING. There was one week where Adam's entire performance aired after 9PM. That's ridiculous. Back in seasons 2 and 3, they managed to have time for the top 5 to perform two songs each. But this year, in the top 4, we only got one each, and those stupid duets. What is going wrong here?

I also thought the judges were being too obvious with their desire for an Adam-Danny finale. I didn't get the Danny pimping at all -- while the judges were constantly ragging on the others for not knowing what kind of music they were about, Danny was never questioned at all. I felt it was so obvious that he was the least current and the least marketable of everyone. Then when it came down to Adam and Kris, Kris was sort of being treated like "Nice try, thanks for showing up," and the finale was so obviously structured around Adam, with Kiss and Queen and everything. Don't get me wrong, I liked Adam and would have been happy to see him win too but I liked that the Kris win was kind of a slap in the face for the judges/producers.

Finally, this isn't new, but Ryan Seacrest sucks. I can only imagine what the show would be like if it had a host like, say, Cat Deeley...

Oh, and the stupid judges' save isn't even worth discussing.

What does make Idol so much more fun to watch though, is the Idolatry videos on EW.com. I highly recommend watching the Kris, Adam, and Allison exit interview segments because they're just awesome. (You can watch Danny's too, if, you know, awkward babbling and colossal cluelessness are your thing.) Also check out Anoop's and Matt's...I wasn't really fans of them on the show but they both came off as just really cool guys.

Until next season...

Jennifer's season mega-wrap-up: Banished from the DVR

The Hills: Not so long ago, I stated that I loved the Hills. But when the second part of this season rolled around I found myself just not being able to take it anymore. I think it's because Lauren and Heidi and Audrina now get as much, if not more, celebrity coverage than actual actors and in turn, the show has just become almost unnecessary. I mean, to an extent the show has always been fake, but in the past I've been able to kind of enjoy the storytelling. But now with their constant presence in the news and the show being a couple of months behind...to me it all seems even more fake. So I decided to stop watching. And you know, I am definitely not missing watching Heidi and Spencer's totally ridiculous drama.

American Idol: Not completely banished as I did watch it every so often, but this season just really cemented why I don't like the show anymore. David Cook, while a better singer and performer than most of the population, just wasn't interesting to me at all. He proved to be good at rearranging songs into his style, but with his own music that novelty's not going to be there. I have no doubt that he'll sell a ton of albums but I think I'm done with the show, at least until they stop with all the dated themes and/or make the contestant sing their own original songs. Yeah, it's not likely.

Hell's Kitchen: Strangely enough, I didn't give up this show because I'd had enough of Gordon Ramsay. I actually still find him really amusing. The reason I gave it up was the shameless, terrible casting that the show does. It's just all so...FOX, if you know what I mean. I'm ok over here with Top Chef, thanks.