by Ruth Anne Boulet
American Idol gets the ‘surprise rule’ right out of the way. The judges will get to give a contestant a second chance. But they only get to do it once before the Top 5. Get to the Top 5 and you’re screwed, kid. No one’s saving you then.
We get treated to seeing the sweet mansion the Top 13 get to call home during their time in the competition. What recession? This place has an indoor AND an outdoor pool among seas of marble & chandeliers. And a bowling alley. Please tell me this house was seized in a drug raid & not a foreclosure. Unless it’s Bernie Madoff’s foreclosure. That would be sweet. If it were a drug raid house, maybe we could do a cross-show tie in with COPS & show the house being raided. That would be triple-sweet.
Group number! The Brady 13 sure are wholesome. Danny Gokey dances without singing. Scott is assisted by various other contestants. There are times when all of them look like they’re lip-syncing.
Jasmine is the first person pulled to the center of the stage. Megan is the second. They get to stand & listen to Ryan blather on & on. He doesn’t blather too long. Jasmine is going home, unless the judges whip out their save card. Right. Like they’ll use it on the first person voted off the show. They only get one save & they’re using it on a Gokey or a Lambert. They do not use the power of the save for Jasmine. She gets the Carrie Underwood send-off.
Next up, Kanye West performs Heartless. He spends a lot of time in between the panels of the stage so we can’t see him for the first few minutes of the song. His female backup singer has huge shoulder wings on her black jumpsuit. The guy backup singer looks like he just came off SWAT team duty. Kanye jumps up on the judges table. I don’t know how certain kids scored standing behind the judges desk, but one of them is a white guy who does the pointy finger dance move. You know, just pointing his finger at various times, none of which are actually on the beat. It’s classic.
And we’re back to the couch, working on the bottom row. The top row is safe, including Megan Joy, who claps almost as spastically as Paula. Pulled to the center of the stage is Anoop and Jorge. It’s during this long, drawn-out segment that I notice Paula is less puffy, but she’s got her chest hanging out all over the place.
Before we reveal the second elimination, we get to hear Kelly Clarkson sing. I heart her, especially My December. I want to hear the gay dance version of this song.
So back to crushing someone’s dream. It’s Jorge. Yay Anoop! Poor Jorge. I liked Jorge, I just found Anoop a lot more personable. Could it have been his additional screen time? Possible. His song selection didn’t endear him to me either, though. Somewhere Marc Anthony is pissed off. As Jorge sings again, I’m hearing a bit more Spanish accent in his voice. Will the judges save him? Simon’s answer is simple: no.
What I’m finding sad about this week’s elimination is that the contestants of color were just decimated. I know American Idol gets dinged for being too white. This doesn’t really help. We’ll see how the rest of the season shakes out.
