glum

Still missing LOST, I surfed the channels last night and ended on Glee. I've tried to watch this show quite a few times before. I love that Broadway divas like Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth stop by. I was excited to see how they would do Gaga last night. But the damn show is so affected. If only the kids would shut the hell up and just sing. The plotting and camera-work is horrific and the characters are frankly, pretty annoying. That excludes Jane Lynch, who can do no wrong. But so far she is not enough to make me get over the queasiness I feel every time I watch this show.

The two examples which stand out the most from last night are:

1. The speech by the dad of the young gay kid. I'm sorry, although I like this actor and his characterization, I cannot remember the names of any of these people. They just don't make an impact. Anyway, the dad made a wonderful speech to the dumb jock about how he loves his gay son and that anyone who can't deal with him and the way he is better hit the highway. A great sentiment. I can overlook that most folks don't speak so eloquently. What left a sightly uncomfortable feeling after his dad/love speech was the fact that even though the show may have its heart in the right place, by making such a big (preachy) deal about the fact that the kid is gay, they may also be making him more of a stereotype. I'm not sure. But I loved the room he decorated and the enthusiasm with how he presented it. I just felt that the actor and the character are more comfortable with who they are supposed to be than the scriptwriters.

2. The main girl (Rachel?) discovers that her mother is Idina Menzel and they do a duet to Lady Gaga's Pokerface. They can both sing and the song is great. The arrangement was a little weird, but I went with it. But to have the mother and daughter crooning to each other about their "muffin" and "glue-gunning" - give me a break already. This show is trying too damn hard. Trying too hard to be hip or quirky. It's one thing for Lady Gaga to sing those lines, but it just made the song and the show seem silly to have these two gals do it. Something that could have been easily fixed with repeating the chorus.

I'm sure I may flip past this show again if they are covering some songs by an artist that I like, but I doubt I will become a regular viewer, and certainly not devoted. And by the way, the KISS costumed number was the pits. They should have called in Glambert.

he can't believe it

The video on this Gawker post pretty much sums it up (more than the post, actually.) It was a completely insane show, with Queen, Kiss, Steve Martin, Fergie and the Black-eyed Peas, Cyndi Lauper and all sorts of horrible singing by the almost-made-its. My favorite high/low light was definitely Norman, who sort of set the tone for the season. How else to explain the "awards" other than an excuse for an ask-back for Norman? But we didn't turn it off, either. I can't feel bad for Adam, because at least now he's not contractually obligated to sing that aaawwwfffuuulll Idol song...

danny boy

I haven't been a fan of Danny Gokey since the start of this season's AI. There's always been something too smug about his demeanor and dorky guy dancing for me. Whenever he was on it really was just a karaoke show. And as much as he had the tragic back-story, there was always something a little too calculated about how that was presented.

Gokey and Adam Lambert are definitely two of the most intelligent contestants ever on this win-yourself-a-singing-career game show. In Gokey's case, he very smartly chose a narrative arc - the tragic demise of his young and lovely wife - and played that theme to the (his) bitter end. I don't doubt that he deeply loved her. But I also watched him carefully choose, week after week, a song to sing to her, to constantly remind us of his story.

Adam Lambert - "Mad World" (American Idol Studio Version)

I don't think anyone was more surprised than Gokey when his name wasn't called last night. No, not even Kris. But he proved himself a consummate professional by not letting his frustrations show as he did an even better performance than the previous night's of the Joe Cocker classic, You Are So Beautiful. He still kept to his theme of course, but it was a great performance.

Kris remained sweet and baffled. My five-year-old daughter summed up his appeal: "Don't yell girls, he belongs to me!"

Provaca-tease Katy Perry showed up with her latest naughty song. I'm still on the fence as to whether I find her totally annoying or want to download her stuff. But I have to applaud a gal who wears her heart on her mini Vegas Elvis-meets-Evel Kneivel-meets-drum majorette cape.

Adam should sail through next week's final. I know some find him odd, or too over-the-top, but I just love the guy, because aside from the fact that he can sing like hell, he's also very, very smart. Just when you think he can only do rock 'n' roll screeching, he softens it up with a Tears for Fears classic. He can also Disney-fy his "do" and channel Zac Effron from Hairspray. I think Simon's choice of U2's One was as inspired as Adam's rendition, and can see him doing a lot of music in this vein. No appearing in the latest casting shuffle of Grease for him. Not that there's anything wrong with that. And Gokey might just do the perfect rendition of Sandy.