Bee Gees week didn't give viewers Tuesday Night Fever, even as the competition heated up among the final four. What should have been one of the best weeks turned into one of the worst, pointing out one of the show's weaknesses. The theme is everything. The broader the category the better the singing. Even a city slicker can find something to sing during Country Week, but not everyone can find a suitable Bee Gees song, as this week proved. (And really, the Bee Gees? Is this a good test for a singer who's supposed supply today's hits? When's the last time you heard disco on the radio?)
As expected, it was goodbye to LaKiska. The first week of the final 24, she had the whole thing as good as won. But that's the danger of peaking in the first week; she had a couple of good performances after that, but everything paled in comparison to "And I'm Telling You I am Not Going. " She went.
On the other hand, Jordin has the timing right. After a couple mediocre weeks, she made a big comeback with "To Love Somebody," a pre-disco Bee Gees hit. (She wisely avoided the disco era.) Her second number was actually sung by a woman, Barbra Streisand: "A Woman in Love." Not as good, but still a smart choice.
Blake put his own beat-boxing spin on "You Should Be Dancing." Hate to agree with Randy, but you don' t have to beat box in every song and I don't know if he's outwearing his welcome. For his second number he chose the obscure "This Is Where I Came In." The song was interesting and he's definitely worth watching.
Melinda was competent with her two songs, " Love You Inside and Out" and "How Can you Mend a Broken Heart." That summed up the week, competent. Really the most interesting thing was that Barry Gibb's voice; if you closed your eyes, you could think you were listening to Darryl Hammond's playing Sean Connery on SNL's "Celebrity Jeopardy."
The buzz about this year is that it lacks the excitement of previous years, especially last year. It's still the No. 1 show by a mile, but the ratings are down. No one seems all that excited about the contestants. The jjudges are fairly well behaved by Idol judge standards. Paula seems coherent by Paula standards, and Simon seems softer by Simon standards. The "fighting" between Ryan and Simon seems even more manufactured than usual. The show hasn't been plagued by the usual scandal of the week, other than the dramas surrounding Antonella's pictures (how soon we forget) and Sanjaya's strange survival.
Episode grade: C
Next week The final three.
No comments:
Post a Comment