Sunday, May 23, 2004
SOMEBODY'S GOT A SPECIAL SUITE IN HELL WAITING FOR THEM: Do you remember how we were saying that the best episodes of American Idol were the audition shows, where we got to see the misfits that were turfed after only a few bars? The local WB affiliate has chosen Sunday afternoon to repeat Superstar, which could be termed Joe Schmoe's evil twin brother. In this bizarro Idol scenario, the good singers were hustled off, and the bad singers were fawned over.
The part that inspires the headline is in the execution of the plan: the truly good singers were disembowelled (Simon style) while the haplessly tone deaf were strung along, constantly teasing the moment when the other shoe drops and they're told it's all an elaborate joke. One of the good singers was sliced up so properly that she was driven to tears. And that's what passes for entertainment these days. Feh.
As usual, several "proper" journalists have leapt on this one as the decline of Western civilization, and as usual, I see this more as a symptom rather than the whole damn disease. The woman who took her clothes off to sing "True Colors" gets a thumbs-up, though, although not on performance grounds. Judge's comments: Too gimmicky. "I'm not saying get rid of the whole naked thing..."
The most offensive thing, though, is the news and web stories that imply this is "the show that proves we'll watch anything". Um, excuse me? They're being mighty presumptuous with that "we" bit. You know my rule: I'll watch or listen to anything once, but whether I come back for seconds is the true test. I've done my time on Superstar...no more, thank you.
The part that inspires the headline is in the execution of the plan: the truly good singers were disembowelled (Simon style) while the haplessly tone deaf were strung along, constantly teasing the moment when the other shoe drops and they're told it's all an elaborate joke. One of the good singers was sliced up so properly that she was driven to tears. And that's what passes for entertainment these days. Feh.
As usual, several "proper" journalists have leapt on this one as the decline of Western civilization, and as usual, I see this more as a symptom rather than the whole damn disease. The woman who took her clothes off to sing "True Colors" gets a thumbs-up, though, although not on performance grounds. Judge's comments: Too gimmicky. "I'm not saying get rid of the whole naked thing..."
The most offensive thing, though, is the news and web stories that imply this is "the show that proves we'll watch anything". Um, excuse me? They're being mighty presumptuous with that "we" bit. You know my rule: I'll watch or listen to anything once, but whether I come back for seconds is the true test. I've done my time on Superstar...no more, thank you.
|| Eric 5:57 PM#
