Monday, February 22, 2010

Idol Thoughts - Top 24 preview

Random thoughts on American Idol so far:

- I still think the audition episodes go on about 2 weeks too long.

- Good guest judges: Kristin Chenoweth (since she can do no wrong in my book). Neil Patrick Harris (my dream pick to replace The Cowell), Shania Twain (surprisingly effective).

- Bad guest judges: Whichever Jonas Brother that was (brought absolutely nothing to the table), Katy Perry (seriously? YOU are going to tell people about singing?), that Spice girl (memo: "I like your outfit" does NOT equal "This person can sing").

- Guest judges who probably weren't good yet I am strangely attracted to them so I give them a pass, sue me: Avril Lavigne. Yeah, I know...I can't really explain it either.

- Hollywood Week continues to be the fulfillment of everything that is good and wonderful. I miss it already.

- Thoughts on Ellen? So far, so good. I still hate the idea of four judges just on principle, but so far she has been funny and constructive while still being concise. I was really worried that she would be prone to ramble, but she seems to have resisted the urge so far. However, all of these shows so far have been taped, which means edited. I am withholding final judgment until I see how she does on the live shows...as you can tell by the fact that I just used the phrase "so far" about a dozen times.

- As for the actual contestants....meh. It's weird. I seem to remember an awful lot of good singers during the audition process, but I am only really looking forward to rooting for five of the top 24, and only one guy.

My top 5:

Crystal Bowersox:
Love everything about her, except for the chiclets. Girl needs a SERIOUS Elliot Yamin-style teeth makeover.


Didi Benami:
Or, as I call her....Brooke White 2.0. Great backstory, great voice, questionable emotional makeup.


Janell Wheeler:
My Idol girlfriend for this year...lucky her. Ask Megan how that worked out for her last season.


Katie Stevens:
Just consistently good...and luckily, she is no longer 16, so we don't have to listen to Randy bellowing "SIXTEEN YEARS OLD!!!!!!" every frakking week.



Andrew Garcia:
The one guy I actually really like. The rest of them are either annoying, obvious cannon fodder, or teenybopper bait. (Here's a fun game...try and categorize the other 11 in the comments!)



OK...the plan is to have the recap of the live shows up the next day. I will not be doing recaps of the results shows, although I may chime in if something awesome (like ALISON IRAHETA performing this week! YES!) or awful (like Alexis Grace going home about 8 weeks too soon last year) happens.

Can't wait! Looking forward to hearing from you!

3 comments:

brad said...

Great list. Your blog is becoming my one stop shop on the bookmark chain.

Bowersox is strong. She probably smells of patchouli, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. She can really sing and I am partial to people that can actually play an instrument.

Andrew hands down is my favorite and at this point, may be my favorite ever on the show. I get a really good vibe from him.

I'm just looking for somebody REAL. I hate what music has become-no talent people who are style over substance. These two give me a little hope!

Great blog!

Segraves said...

Good stuff, as usual. I agree with most, especially your guest judge analysis (sans the crush on Avril).

I'm cautiously optimistic about Ellen. When she's funny, she's really funny. When she's annoying, she's really annoying.

Best singers for me right now: Andrew, Katie, Crystal, and Casey James. Not sure why you don't like Casey. I did lose some respect with the whole taking the shirt off thing, but the dude can sing IMO. Insensitive fact of the day: if Crystal were better looking, she would go much further in the competition. Phenomenal singing ability, a strain to look at.

Here's my take on your categories (with some appearing in multiple ones):

Annoying: Too soon for me to be too annoyed with anyone yet, but the following have the potential--Todrick Hall, Tyler Grady, and to a lesser extent Michael Lynch. That's one thing I like about this year; there's not the one contestant that I can't stand like most years (i.e., David Archuletta, Chicken Little, Fantasia (yes, I know she won), David Archuletta, Sanjaya, Tatiana, and David Archuletta.)

Cannon Fodder: Joe Munoz, John Park, Jermaine Sellers, Lee Dewyze, Tim Urban, Aaron Kelly, and Alex Lambert.

Teenybopper bait: Aaron Kelly, Tyler Grady, and Tim Urban.

I can't wait to see how the season unfolds. As always, there's always the potential that someone will step out of the shadows and take us all by surprise, but my waaayyy to soon predictions are:

Top 3: Andrew Garcia, Katie Stevens, and Casey James

Winner: Andrew Garcia

Scott said...

Russell - I'm starting to sense that you didn't like The Archuletta...but no mention of Danny Gokey?

Casey is overrated, in my opinion. I was not impressed at all with his initial audition (including the whole taking-the-shirt-off thing...what he SHOULD have said is "I'm not Bikini Girl...I'll keep my clothes on, thanks"). His first song in Hollywood was good, but that's the only time I've really been impressed by him.

I'll update the categories when I do my Top 12 Guys recap...but you're pretty close.