American Idol Final 5, Songs From The Rat Pack

Tonight’s American Idol on Fox focused on songs from The Rat Pack and the Big Band Era. This theme always bugs me a little because they always keep the songs in the original genre. The problem with this is that the big band sound most definitely isn’t going to be the kind of music they’ll perform once their career starts, so it’s not a very good gauge of what they will record once they are released into the wild. Besides, I like hearing covers that twist songs into other genres.

The Mentor for tonight’s American idol was Jamie Foxx and since he’s not a regular in the music industry, so I wasn’t sure what kind of advice he was going to be giving. After all was said an done, I thought that his advice was pretty productive and was a good addition.

Kris Allen sang, “The Way You Look Tonight” to open the show. I really like Kris’ simply sincere vocal and this song was a good showcase for him. While listening to it I wasn’t a big fan of the way the tempo picked up toward the end of the song, but given the mellowness of the next two ballads, it was the fastest the songs got for quite a while.

Newly 17-year-old Allison Iraheta was up next and took on the song, “Someone To Watch Over Me.” This can tend to be a rather boring song if it’s not done right. I think it was a good choice for her to go into the bridge of the song early on because that is the more interesting part of the song. This was a good showcase of her vocal talents, but I didn’t find it overly thrilling.

Matt Giraud chose to sing yet another ballad, “My Funny Valentine.” I was thinking that he’d be singing “Georgia On My Mind” again which was one of his breakout performances in the preliminary auditions. I think he did a good job with the song, but with this being the third ballad in a row I thought that no matter who ended up being the first to sing a fast song, either Danny or Adam, they would bring the house down.

I think that Danny Gokey’s voice sounded really good for this genre, and although he sang another ballad with “Come Rain and Come Shine,” by the end of the song he had picked it up into a very big jazz song that made full use of the big band and, just as I thought, brought the house down. I really enjoyed him tonight.

Last one up tonight is Adam Lambert who sang “New Dawn, New Day.” I was hoping that Adam was going to change it into more of a rocking song, but instead it was a very energetic big band song. I liked his performance and think he’s in a league of his own. He definitely has the confidence that it takes to make it big in the music industry and I feel a little sorry for the other contestants.

After the three ballads, it’s no surprise that the powerful performances Danny and Adam brought the house down. In my opinion, it’s a competition for third place because I think that Adam already has first place locked up and Danny Gokey a virtual shoe-in for second.

Even thought Matt’s performance was very good, I’m thinking that out of the 5 finalists, he’s generally the weakest. Of the other two, I think that Allison will go after Matt and then Kris will be the third.

American Idol Final 7, Double Elimination

Thanks to Matt Giraud’s save last week, tonight’s American Idol on Fox came complete with two eliminations and David Archuleta. After over 45 million votes, here’s how it played out.

Tonight’s filler material started out with a video that showed Paula Abdul choreographing the contestants for their group song. I actually found this a little more interesting that I thought I would. It was nice to see Paula actually do something other than stutter and stammer through a critique. Anyone who’s familiar with her work in the 80s probably saw many of the same moves she’d use in her own music videos and work she did with other artists like Janet Jackson as they danced to their version of Michael Jackson’s “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground).” I say “danced” because I’m pretty sure they were just lip-synching to a previously recorded track.

The first batch of results revealed to us quickly that Lil Rounds is not only in the bottom three, but is actually one of the two being eliminated tonight. Big surprise that they revealed it so soon and I’m actually surprised that she really was eliminated. I really thought it would be Matt Giraud and Anoop Desai tonight. I think she used the emotion and energy from her elimination to do a really good version of her song from last night, “I’m Every Woman,” by Chaka Kahn.

Next up was a medley of Disco songs sung by the original artists which included “Band of Gold” sung by Freda Payne, “Don't Leave Me This Way” by Thelma Houston and “Get Down Tonight” sung by K.C of K.C. and the Sunshine Band. Of these three performances, I enjoyed Thelma Houston the most. K.C. and Freda seemed a little out of breath during their songs.

Back in voting results-ville, we learned that Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, and Danny Gokey were all safe from elimination tonight. Anoop Desai and Allison Iraheta however were in the bottom three as Matt Giraud was declared safe for one more week. I’m disappointed that Allison is in the bottom, but at this point after Anoop goes home, it really could be just about anyone who goes home at any time, really.

To break up what we really want to see we got to watch David Archuleta come out and sing his new song, “Touch My Hand.” It never fails that no matter how exciting these contestants’ performances are while they're contestants on American Idol, I’ve never heard a song from one of their follow-up albums that are as interesting as anything they sang while they were on the show. This song was OK, but nothing special.

Down to the second person being eliminated tonight was, no surprise to me, Anoop Desai. Generally, I like him but I don’t think he measures up to the other powerhouses left in the competition.

I’m thinking that the final three contestants are going to be Adam, Danny and Kris. I’d like to see Allison in there somewhere, but with her being in the bottom three so much, it’s probably not meant to be. Next week will probably be a toss-up between Matt and Allison for elimination, but we’ll see… Adam, Danny or Kris might slip on some soap, or something.

American Idol Final 7: Take Two

Tonight’s American Idol on Fox had a traditional theme that is usually quite a challenge for vocal and dance competitions alike, and that is Disco. The missing element of tonight’s show was that there was no mentor to coach the contestants in their song choices. Either someone had a head cold or the producers are trying to keep the masses from revolting by ensuring that they don’t go overtime like they have the last couple of weeks. With how many people sang from the Donna Summer songbook, she could have been the coach, though.

Lil Rounds started out singing a predictable song, Chaka Kahn’s “I’m Every Woman,” for Disco night in a traditional way that didn’t show much originality. I think the problem is that there have been so many R&B/Soul performers that there isn’t much that someone with the singing style of Lil has that can be much different from Latoya London or Fantasia.

Kris Allen picked what seemed like an odd song, Donna Summer’s “She Works Hard for the Money,” and did one of my favorite things with it, which is to take it into a totally different genre in a way that transforms it into something entirely different. I absolutely loved it. This just goes to show that “Disco Night” doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be able to dance The Hustle to it.

Bringing the Disco beat back into the show was Danny Gokey singing Earth Wind and Fire’s “September.” After Kris’ performance I couldn’t help but be disappointed by how close to the original Danny’s version of this song was. Yes, he had very good vocals, but he might as well have been singing with the original band. I actually don’t think he did much better than Lil.

Allison Iraheta rocked it up with Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff,” which I loved as well. I can see a real division forming between contestants who will be content to perform other people’s music and those who will make their own unique mark in the music industry.

Adam Lambert was up next with another transformed song with his version of “If I Can’t Have You” by the Bee Gees. I liked the way it was going for the most part, but I wasn’t crazy with the chorus—I wanted it to speed up a little. But all in all, I thought it was good and justified his continued presence in the competition. I love the unique takes on these well known songs!

Hoping to stay alive, Matt Giraud chose to sing the Bee Gee’s “Stayin’ Alive.” For his version he chose to do a funkier version of the song that I liked quite a lot, but I doubt if it was earth-shattering enough for him to shake the cloud that’s over him from his near-elimination last week.

Finishing up the night was Anoop Desai singing Donna Summer’s “Dim All the Lights.” At first I thought he was going to sing it as an altered version like Kris, Allison and Adam—which might have been good because then it wouldn’t have been so similar to the original, but by the time it was over I was feeling pretty bored.

I think that tomorrow we’re going to see a rerun of last week’s show with Lil, Matt and Anoop being in the bottom three. This time I think Matt Giraud will finish what was started last week and will go home, and I think he’ll take Anoop Desai with him.

In the end I think that the three who will finish out the competition will be Kris, Adam and Allison with the possibility of Danny and Kris swapping places. My favorite tonight was Kris. What did you think?

PS, if you’re inclined to buy the performances from iTunes, please support Groundlings Review by clicking on the iTunes links before you make your purchases. Thanks!

TV Review: Lost, "Some Like It Hoth"

"Let's face it... the Ewoks suck, dude."

Ok, I have a confession to make. When it was revealed that the main characters on ABC’s Lost were sent back in time to 1977, one of the first thoughts that came to my mind was, “Hey! That’s the year Star Wars came out in the theaters!” So tonight's scenes that featured Hurley (Jorge Garcia) scribbling in his Dharma Initiative composition notebook his own script for George Lucas’ next cinematic epic, The Empire Strikes Back, were some of best fun I’ve had watching TV for a while. I figured out what he was doing when he asked Miles (Ken Leung) how to spell Bounty Hunter in the beginning of a van ride they were taking together. Since the title of tonight’s episode was, “Some Like It Hoth,” it probably wasn’t much of an investigative feat on my part.


In tonight’s episode we got to learn a lot about Miles who is one of my favorite minor characters. I’m really interested in his ability to speak with dead people and I’ve wished for a long time that they’d do more with him. I like the actor who plays him too. Ken Leung has had minor parts in a few movies that I’ve really enjoyed—mostly the Brett Ratner productions Rush Hour, The Family Man, and X-Men: The Last Stand.


We learned from the flashbacks that Miles discovered that he had the ability to speak to dead people at a very young age as his mother was trying to make a life for herself and him in the absence of his father whom he never knew. With all of his emotional baggage being left unresolved by his mother who wasn’t forthcoming about his father and their past, he attempted to fill the empty spaces in his life with money that he could earn by hiring out his services as someone who speaks to dead people for profit… whether or not he actually makes contact with the deceased.

By the end of the flashback, we see Naomi Dorritt (Marsha Thomason), recruiting him to be part of the freighter team being put together by Charles Widmore in an attempt to find the island and remove Benjamin Linus from power. You’ll remember Naomi as the first member of the freighter who was found by the Losties who fooled them into thinking that she was there to rescue them.


Before embarking on his journey to the island on the freighter, Miles was kidnapped whilst eating a fish taco by a group of guys offering him an alternative to working for Charles Widmore. I can only assume that these guys were actually working for Benjamin Linus, but who knows what Ben's motives would have been for trying to recruit Miles other than to keep him from helping Widmore. It could be that the information that Miles can get from the dead bodies on the island will actually be very important in the grand scheme of things.

Back to the main timeline in 1977, Miles is asked to fill in for Sawyer (Josh Holloway) who is busy trying to cover up what he and Kate (Evangeline Lily) did with the recently shot, young Benjamin Linus. As we see Miles and Hurley on a top secret mission to transport a mysteriously killed person, we discover that Dr. Pierre Chang (François Chau) is none other than Miles’ long lost father who is the leading scientist on the island and is living there with his wife and 3-year-old son who is, of course, Miles. Miles now has the opportunity to get to know his long lost father who appears to be very different from someone who would abandon his wife and child the way his mother had depicted him. It’ll be interesting to see where this storyline takes us.


I realized tonight what a genius move it is to have the main characters go back in time like they have in this season. What better way to show a large amount of the history of the island than to have the main characters travel back to that period and live when that history happened? It’s interesting to see the main characters involves as the history of Dharma unfolds and it’s making me wonder if they’ll even travel farther back in time to see the history of the island during the period when the four-toed statue was in its prime. I'm guessing probably not as much as what they're doing with Dharma, but it was interesting that one of the guys who abducted Miles in his flashback asked the question, “do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue?” as a test of whether or not he was prepared to make the journey to the island. Perhaps the history of the statue will turn out to be an important element in the grand scheme of things.


One final note, I'm very intrigued by the reappearance of Daniel Faraday at the end of tonight's episode. They were never very clear about what happened to him, only that he wasn't with them anymore, so we'll see!

American Idol Final 7, Results Show

It’s results night on American Idol and even though they could just come out and tell us who’s going home, they have to stretch it out into an hour long show with tons of hype and made-up drama with a couple of guest performers thrown into the mix.

The show opened with the group singing Michael Sembello’s “Maniac” from the 1983 movie, Flashdance. Of all the music from movies, I wouldn’t have thought that particular song would be high on the list to be featured on results night, but what do I know?

After a little cross-promotion of the new movie, 17 Again, starring Zac Efron we got right into revealing the results where we were quickly informed that Allison Iraheta and Adam Lambert were declared safe, but Anoop Desai was the first shuffled into the bottom three.

Following the bad news for Anoop, we were presented with a quick bio of Jennifer Hudson followed by her singing “If This Isn't Love” from her self-titled album. She’s definitely a great vocalist, and while it’s not the kind of music I get excited about, I can see why she’s had so much success.

It seemed a little silly for Ryan Seacrest to try to get the judges to say whether or not Anoop “deserved” to be in the bottom three. Really, at this point they’re all really good and the only one left who has a history of being consistently bad is Anoop, so it only makes sense that he’s there.

After dragging it out a while longer it was revealed that Kris Allen was safe but Lil Rounds was in the bottom three as well. Immediately after that, they revealed the last member of the bottom three is Matt Giraud and Danny Gokey was safe.

As we were watching, my wife observed that they could wipe out this bottom three of Anoop, Matt and Lil and it we could just happily go on with the competition. None of these three really have a chance of winning, ultimately.

The first member of this three declared safe was, surprisingly for me, Anoop Desai. I suppose it’s because he got high marks for his song choice last night, but I thought it was time for him to go.

Miley Cyrus came out next to fill in some of the extra time by singing her song, “The Climb.” I was hoping that this was going to be a cover of No Doubt’s song by the same name, but no dice. That's fine, it probably would have been terrible anyway. I guess I’ve never really heard a song of Miley's—does she normally not enunciate her words? There were some phrases that just sounded like she was slurring. Oh well, I guess her music isn’t really my cup-o-tea either.

After all the delays, they finally revealed that Lil Rounds was safe and Matt Giraud had to “sing for his life” in hopes that he’d receive the judge’s save. From how giddy Kara and Paula were being during his performance it was clear that he had earned the judge’s save and so he’ll be in the competition for another week. The twist with the save is that next week two people are going home no matter what—and it’s Disco Week!

I’m pretty happy with this result. I really like Matt Giraud and I’m hoping he can improve on some of the things that are holding him back. While I do think Matt will have a successful post-Idol music career, I agree with Simon that his chances of winning the competition are pretty slim. Still, I’m happy to have him around for a while longer.

American Idol Final 7

Contestants Perform Songs of the Cinema

On tonight’s American Idol on Fox, the contestants consulted with Quentin Tarantino to pick out songs from the big screen to perform.


Allison Iraheta started off the night singing Aerosmith’s “I Don't Want to Miss a Thing” which was featured in the Bruce Willis movie, Armageddon. With a very subdued beginning she took her time really getting into the mood that the story of the song sets and then towards the end she built up into a very big ending. I liked her version of the song and I think she’s going to be in the final two of the competition.


Next up was Anoop Desai singing Bryan Adam’s song “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” from the Kevin Costner movie, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Once again he took the safe route by singing this ballad because that’s where he’s received the best feedback from the judges. There were a couple of sour notes, but for the most part he did a fine job, although he wasn’t as bold as Quentin Tarantino had coached him to be, I thought. Sure enough, he got the praise from the judges that he normally gets from ballads but I wasn’t as impressed. I thought it was kind of boring.


Adam Lambert came up next and sang a rocking electronic version of Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” from the Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda movie, Easy Rider. There was plenty of energy in his performance and I liked his spin on the song, although I usually don’t care much for his screeching vocals. If he’s in the final two, I wouldn’t be surprised if the glam band Scissor Sisters performs with him that night because it seems like that will be the kind of music he's going to release. I’m not sure if I’ll be buying this performance this week. I prefer the original version of this song.


Usually when Matt Giraud picks his own songs, they end up not going over well with the judges. In this case, his choice of singing the Bryan Adams song, “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” from the Johnny Depp movie, Don Juan DeMarco. I’ve always really liked this song with it’s Spanish-style guitar, but I also really enjoyed Matt’s version that featured piano as the lead instrument. Towards the end I thought his vocals got a little shaky, but all-in-all I thought it was a good choice for a song and a good interpretation of it.


Danny Gokey was next in line to sing a song from the cinema, sans glasses. He chose to sing Lionel Richie’s song “Endless Love” from the Brook Shields movie Endless Love. I was relieved to see him sing a song that didn’t erupt into a peppy pop song like he has done in recent weeks. There’s something that does not impress me with his vocals as much as during the audition weeks. In singing this song so much like the original I couldn’t help comparing his vocals to Lionel Richie and I have to say that I prefer Richie’s version. The harp was a nice touch, but I don’t think he’s the sure-thing to win anymore.


Kris Allen chose to sing a song that I wasn’t familiar with from a movie that I’d never heard of—Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova’s “Falling Slowly” from the movie Once. Without anything to compare it to I really liked the song as if it had been a Kris Allen original. I really like it when they pick obscure songs because then we get the chance to judge the performance for what they’re doing rather than comparing versions. This will probably be a song that I’ll buy this week.


Lil Rounds chose to sing Bette Midler’s song, “The Rose” from the movie, The Rose, which Bette Midler also starred in. For me, this was Lil’s best performance and will most likely justify her continued place in the competition. Finally, she sang a song in a style that wasn’t just a knock off of the original. I really liked it.

With the group winding down, it’s getting harder and harder to predict who will be in the final two and who will be eliminated next so I’ll just say who my favorites and least favorites are and just take it as it comes.

Personally, my favorites in this competition are Allison Iraheta, Matt Giraud and Kris Allen. All of them are singers that I would buy music from. My least favorite tonight was Anoop Desai and I think that he, Matt and Lil will most likely be in the bottom three tomorrow with Anoop being the one we say goodbye to.

TV Review: Heroes, "1961"

NOTE: Watch out for spoilers with a bad mood.

In tonight’s episode of Heroes on NBC, “1961,” Angela Petrelli takes her family on a trip down memory lane, and in the process, reveals to us how the idea for the original “Company” came to be. 

During Angela’s flashbacks, we see how she and her sister Alice were taken to an internment camp where Monhinder’s father, Chandra Suresh was researching people with special abilities, presumably with the intent of learning more about them and possibly finding a cure. In the process we see how Angela became acquainted with Charles Deveraux, Daniel Linderman, and Bob Bishop—the founding members of The Company. We also see that Angela had a younger sister named Alice that she never spoke of who had a newly emerging ability to control the weather.


While the young Angela sneaks off with her new friends to try to figure out how to escape the camp (which is weird because they left the camp to try to figure out how to leave the camp?), Alice was taken to be questioned by Chandra Suresh, and ends up starting a chain of events that ends in the massacre of everyone there except Suresh and Alice.


Back in the present day, Angela is trying to find out why she is dreaming about her sister who she presumed was killed with everyone else. Ultimately she finds Alice living as a hermit nearby because Angela had lied to her and told her that if she stayed there she’d be safe. Upon learning that Angela had lied to her, Alice causes a storm that nearly kills Peter and Mohinder and then disappears before Angela can apologize.

Now that I’ve described what the episode was about, can I now tell you how utterly bored I was by it? Throughout much of it I felt like I was watching a stage play put on by a high school drama department. The dramatic moments were so forced and all they seemed to do was sit around and talk about how they felt about themselves and each other!

Lately there's beginning to be so many holes in this series that it makes it look like they can’t make up their minds on what they want this series to be. In the first episodes of Heroes, Chandra Suresh was a geneticist who was seeking out people with special abilities in order to prove a theory he’d been researching, but we were led to believe that he’d never found anyone except for Sylar. Now, according to tonight’s episode, he was involved in this whole government operation back in the early 60s? 

I know someone will probably say that Charles Deveraux most likely erased his memory that he’d ever seen any of them, but I’d say if that’s true, why didn’t they show it? I’ve often heard, and I believe that it’s true, that in storytelling it’s much better to show than it is to tell. Why save a fact for a later episode for someone like Angela to tell Mohinder, “Oh, by the way, your father didn’t remember any of that because Charles erased his memory.” It would have been much more interesting for that to be shown in tonight’s episode. In my opinion, that's where many recent episodes are falling flat. There has been just too much talking about everything when really they need to be out doing things!

It seems to me that the point of tonight’s episode was to show all of the heroes united and ready to begin a new company but I get so frustrated with all of the starting and stopping that this show is doing. I thought the old company was fine, but they destroyed it. Ok, so now we get Danko hunting down the heroes with Mr. Bennet working on the inside as a double agent as they hunt down the fugitives—good, I’m ok with that… that looks interesting. No wait… now we’re changing it again and now the heroes and Mr. Bennet are uniting against Danko? I really wish they’d make up their minds and give us a while to roll with the plotlines they’re giving us before changing things up again.


I’m having such a love/hate relationship with this show that I don’t know how much longer I’ll stick with it. I really love the premise and I want it to do well and be good but there are just some recurring things that keep driving me nuts. Also, the main reasons to stick with an ongoing story like this are because of spectacle and character drama. Well, the shows lately haven’t been very spectacular and all of the characters are so wishy-washy, whiney, pouty and annoying that I’m having a hard time caring whether or not Peter forgives Nathan, if Claire can trust Mr. Bennet, or if Mohinder can forgive or trust himself. I think I just need a really good dose of Hiro and Ando to lift my spirits.

TV Review: Parks and Recreation

When NBC decided to take a British show called The Office and make an American version of it, they took the script from the British pilot and almost remade it word for word. For every character, there was an American counterpart. For every joke, it was either retold verbatim or it was rewritten for American sensibilities. The success or failure of the pilot for the American version of The Office owed more to the creative power of Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant, who created the British version than it did Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, who interpreted it for American audiences.

What could be credited to Greg Daniels and Michael Schur is the subsequent episodes of The Office that took those British version-inspired characters and relationships and put them into very familiar American workplace situations—making it a show that we Yankees could grow to love and appreciate on it’s own merits.


Now NBC brings us “from the team that brought us The Office” a new show starring Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live) called Parks and Recreation. This show, entirely created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, attempts to take the Documentary/Comedy format of The Office and transplant it into a city’s government agency with an entirely new cast of characters.

As with any new show, it’s hard to get a real sense of how good this one is going to be by the half-hour pilot, alone, but there’s one thing I noticed as they sandwiched it between two new episodes of The Office in an attempt to gain an audience: there wasn’t much laughter happening in my house caused by Parks and Recreation.

Now, what makes The Office work for me are the familiar situations the characters find themselves in as part of an office. For example, when my friend Derek and I worked in the same office space, we had great fun playing pranks on our co-worker, Shirley. One favorite prank of mine was taking a screenshot of all the windows open on her computer and making that her desktop so when she came back to her desk and tried to click on a window or a folder, nothing would happen because it was just an image and not an actual file. This would make her think her computer was frozen and would then have to restart. She did this a couple of times before we broke it to her that we were playing a joke on her. And so I always get a kick out of the pranks Jim plays on Dwight and secretly wish that I would have thought of that, myself.

Part of my problem identifying with Parks and Recreation was that I’ve never attended a public meeting for city planning before so I just had to assume that the meetings portrayed in last night’s pilot episode would ironically ring true and would be funny if I connected with it.


I must admit, though, that it’s not a total loss. Amy Poehler’s character, Leslie Knope, is in some ways similar to Michael Scott in The Office, but without the crude and brash behavior. She is someone who hasn’t let the city government system suck all the enthusiasm and optimism out of her—much to the chagrin of her co-workers. She is the main subject of a fictional documentary that’s being filmed and she is very aware of being on camera and loves sharing her story with the world. Unfortunately, the camera also see’s everyone else’s lack of enthusiasm and their desire just to put in their time so they can go home.


In the pilot, Leslie Knope conducts a public meeting where community members have the opportunity to air their grievances. During this meeting Ann Perkins (played by Rashida Jones who portrayed Karen, the other woman, in The Office season 3,) who has come to complain about a pit next to her home that was dug by a construction company that promptly went out of business. Ann complains that her worthless (my opinion, not hers) boyfriend accidently fell in the pit and broke both of his legs. Leslie decides that this is her opportunity to make a difference in the world and promptly “pinky promises” to take care of the problem and transform the pit into a park, somehow.

It’s clear that the rest of the 6 episodes that have been produced are going to center around her efforts to get this accomplished. I was amused by the fact that they all celebrated so strongly the permission she got to form a “committee.” Well, isn’t a committee just a body of people that sits around and talks about something but doesn’t actually get anything done? I think she has a long way to go in getting her promise fulfilled.

A slight disconnect with the subject of tonight’s episode, though, is that many of Leslie’s character establishing moments were formed in a very nice park. Doesn’t that go against the idea that this town needs another one? I don’t know, maybe that was the point and it was supposed to be funny, but to me it just seemed a bit clumsy.

I’m not the type of person to bail on a show after the first episode, especially one made by the same people partially responsible for my favorite comedy on television, but I sure hope that Parks and Recreation can find its groove soon or I predict it won’t be around for long.

In case you missed it, you can download the pilot for FREE in HD at iTunes.

TV Review: Lost, "Dead is Dead"

“As long as the dead guy says there’s a reason, then I guess everything’s gonna be just peachy.”

In last night’s episode of ABC’s Lost, “Dead is Dead,” we abandoned the story of the Oceanic survivor’s escapades in the Dharma of the past, and focused on Ben’s story where he professed to be on a mission to pay the Smoke Monster a visit to atone for his sins. I say “professed” because I never had the impression that he was sincere about what he was telling John Locke regarding his intensions on the main island.


As Ben and Locke were interacting, I really enjoyed watching how Locke treated Ben. It was like a parent asking a child if they took a cookie when the parent already knows the answer to the question, but is testing the child to see if he’s going to tell the truth or not. Obviously Ben is a huge liar who is very much interested in preserving his own self-interests, so there were many opportunities for Locke to test him like that.


It was interesting to see a little into Ben’s history from the flashbacks in tonight’s episode, which actually make me feel a little more sympathetic towards him and his ability to have compassion on helpless babies and children. This, of course, informed his actions when they showed him confronting Penny Widmore in his effort to take out his revenge on his nemesis Charles Widmore for killing Ben’s daughter. Upon seeing Desmond and Penny’s son, Charlie come on deck of the ship Ben had a change of heart and couldn’t kill Penny like he intended to. But since he had already non-fatally shot Desmond, Desmond proceeded to beat the living snot out of him. Good boy!


Later in the episode we got to see Ben’s final confrontation with the Smoke Monster who showed Ben his history with his daughter Alex and the reasons he sought revenge on Charles Widmore. I’ve heard the producers of the Lost, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, say that each time they show the monster, they want to reveal a little more about it. Well, I’m not sure that I learned anything more about it this time, but it was interesting to see more and to wonder if the manifestation of Alex immediately afterward was a form that the monster was taking or if it was actually a re-embodied Alex who had come back to warn him not to follow through with his intentions to kill John Locke again.


I am believing more and more that the island definitely does have mystical qualities about it and isn't just some scientific magnetic phenomenon. It'll be interesting to see how satisfying the final explanations about the island are when all is said and done.


So now we see that Benjamin Linus is fated (or doomed) to play second fiddle to the seemingly well-intentioned John Locke, whom it seems that the island has chosen as its new human leader. So, will Ben go against the wishes of Alex and try to kill Locke and regain his leadership position over the others? I guess only time will tell.

American Idol Final 8, Results Show

Well, two out of three isn’t bad. With yesterday’s review I estimated that it would be Scott, Lil, and Kris in the bottom 3, but America surprised me by sending Anoop to the bottom. With Seacrest’s usual cruel shenanigans, he led Matt Giraud on and then mercilessly let him sit back down. With the few that were left, it was obvious that the bottom 3 would be rounded out with Lil and the new piano man, Scott MacIntyre.

I usually don’t care for results nights because it so painfully obvious that the producers are trying to stretch out the full hour. Perhaps I am alone in that, but tonight was no exception. Extended behind the scenes Ford commercial anyone? Although I must say that this was the first one of their commercials that I didn’t just fast forward though. I even had a big grin when Scott tried to get reassurance that they weren’t trying to put him in pink.

With a quick release of Lil, we were left with Anoop and Scott to sweat it out during the interlude. I will probably get a lot of comments about this, (like the guy who roasted me for not being a Lambert fan), but I never enjoy the group performances. My opinion is that all the contestants are trying to stand out, and therefore, they never blend in well together.

We also had an appearance from Flo Rida. Not my usual type of music, but not bad. Although, was I alone in only being able to understand about 5% of his lyrics. I didn’t care much for the Kesha features; great voice, but it didn’t seem to fit. (By the way, have you ever surfed on a Flow Rider? Too cool! I did last weekend, but I’ll have to save that for another review.) I guess I was lucky I didn’t understand the lyrics, as they are pretty suggestive (Bill Clinton’s theme song, perhaps). Frankie Avalon was a fun addition and I thought Kellie Pickler did a pretty good job, until she started wandering around the stage and it seemed like she struggled a little.

Finally we got back to Scott and Anoop. I was at least right in one thing, that Anoop did well enough to save himself from elimination and was sent back to the couch. Scott delivered an encore performance of Survivor's ''The Search Is Over,'' and arguably did better than the previous night, until he reached the falsetto portion, which once again proved not to be his forte. Simon tells Scott that only two of the judges are in favor of saving him, which ultimately prompts a final plea to the judges, that he would show them that he could be better.

I hate that they string people along so much. When we were first introduced to the Judges’ Save, we were told that the decision had to be unanimous. If the judges were split, then why were they pretending that they were deliberating on saving Scott? It seems cruel. Also, it seems to deprive the contestant of their dignity. Just lower the boom and let them get on with it. Scott had a great run, but I don’t think he could have lasted much longer. I do hope he is able to find an audience though, perhaps as the new Piano Man.

American Idol Final 8

Arg, why can't American Idol ever end on time. I finally had to set my Tivo to record a few minutes longer. Tonight I totally missed the last singer, Adam, which I wouldn't have been sad about, if I wasn't going to review the show. I finally found it on the computer and watched though.

The theme for the night was songs from the year the contestants were born. Wow, another fat topic giving the contestants tons of songs to choose from.

First up was Danny Gokey, who sang "Stand by Me." Some people seem like indulgent posers when they try to riff on a lick. I never get that from Danny. His performances are always true to himself and he puts his soul into every note. Danny had 3 transitions to his song and every phase of the song was great. Like the judges, I wasn't too thrilled about the opening segment of his song, but he so put himself into it, that it worked out great. He brought it home with a fabulous ending. For the first time this season, here was a song I would consider buying. Well not totally true. I really want Matt Giraud's version of Georgia, but sadly it is not on iTunes.

Next was Kris Allen with "All She Wants To Do Is Dance." The very beginning seemed a little rough with the microphone and perhaps a little of the nerves. The horn section was a great addition to the arrangement. It reminded me of a little Tower of Power-esque arrangement. While I don’t think it was one of his greatest performances, it was still probably enough to skate him through. I really don’t see the point of his guitar either, it really didn’t add much. I also don’t like when the singers stand in the middle of a crowd either, like Randy said with the band, I think the singer gets lost when they get to into the crowd.

One of my problems with Lil Rounds who sang "What’s Love Got To Do with It," is that in the last few performances she has come out and basically been somewhat of an imitator. While she didn’t come off as a Tina Turner imitator, the performance was not stellar. It was highlighted by unsupported notes and not much different from the original version. While I think she has a great voice, I fear she may find herself toward the bottom. I had high hopes for her. Kudos for her hair and outfit though, she finally got that part of her stage presence down.

Every year there are one or two contestants that just creep me out. Anoop Desai is one of those for me. So, from the start of his song, "True Colors," Anoop had one strike against him. Then he sang a song from a female artist, difficult to pull off. Strike two. But despite that, Anoop went back to his strength this week, ballads. Usually Anoop tries to pretend to be something he is not, a tough guy. That always ends horribly. But other than a couple of notes that he blooped on, it was a solid performance.

Scott MacIntyre sang "The Search Is Over." Somebody finally got Scott’s hair under control. So much of a better look for him. Usually I don’t care too much for Scott’s performances, but tonight he wowed me. This is the first time I could see him as a contemporary artist rather than a Billy Joel copy cat. While I was totally fine with his look and movements with the guitar, I really think his rhythm detracted. I agreed with Paula though, that the high notes should have been left behind. I thought it was a decent rendition.

Great job Allison Iraheta, with her rendition of "I Can’t Make You Love Me." I usually don’t like her harder gravely voice. Tonight though she laid a out a heart-felt ballad that totally suited both her personality and her voice. I finally heard the creamy notes from her. Speaking of suits though, if you look at her from the waist up, she looked fabulous, but the lower half with the skirt was horrendous. All in all, I could see myself making some memories with that song at a high school dance. Oh wait, I think maybe I did 20 years ago.

When they announced Matt Giraud's song, "Part Time Lover," I thought "Oh no." There are some artists you don’t touch. Stevie Wonder is usually one of them. Matt was one of my favorites from the beginning, but this performance was not one of my favorites. I thought he threw in too many licks, runs, and embellishments and tended not to support the lower notes very well. But what did I miss? Everyone around me plus the judges loved it. Ok, I will admit I started to like it a lot better toward the end.

The final competitor, Adam Lambert sang "Mad World." I hadn’t heard this song from Tears for Fears before, but I don’t think I would have liked their version either. While you can tell that Adam has skills, I just don’t enjoy his performances at all. I will say though that most of the time he had a pretty solid performance, with the exception of the final note and that is the one that sticks in my mind. Annoying falsetto, punctuated with an unsupported final note. To me, he just seems like such a Glamor Rock poser that I have a hard time getting into any of his songs. But at least he didn't scream this week.

So the bottom three is tough for me to pick. I think I am going to have to put Lil Rounds in there with Scott MacIntyre, and Chris Allen. While I just don't think any of them really did too horribly, I think those three performances were forgettable enough to get theses contestants into trouble. Until tomorrow, when we see the results.

TV Review: Lost, "Whatever Happened, Happened"

Being a fan of Science Fiction, you’d think that I’d love stories about time travel, when actually the opposite is true. I’m frequently frustrated when I’m brought through a series challenges and triumphs that the characters are experiencing and something happens to the timeline and everything they had experienced is suddenly wiped away and nobody’s the wiser.

You often see stories like that in Star Trek. I remember one particularly painful episode of Star Trek: Voyager where the ship goes through what was called, “The Year of Hell.” In this year they go through a challenging series of battles and struggles and right up to the brink of destruction when the timeline is changed and everything is reset back to normal and nobody remembers anything about it.

Why this is so frustrating is because one of the reasons to watch a continuing story is to share by proxy the experiences the characters are having. It’s nice to see them grow and change from the beginning of their challenges into different people who become almost like family to us.

This may all seem like a long detour around a short point, but this is one of the reasons I’m loving this season of Lost on ABC. I was initially leery of the introduction of time travel into the story, but I’m a big fan of the theory that they seem to be following that whatever might have happened in the past, actually happened—whether or not they knew they were involved in it—that’s how their present became to be the way it was. Which, by the way, is where this episode got its name, “Whatever Happened, Happened.”


In tonight’s episode we see the immediate after affects of Sayid's shooting of young Ben at the end of last week’s episode. Apparently Sayid had also watched too much Star Trek and thought that he’d be able to kill Ben and erase all of the terrible things that Ben had him do. Not so.

We see too that Jack had also subscribed to the belief that he could allow young Ben to die and that would have prevented his problems as well. It seems to me that in reality, Jack’s refusal to help Ben is exactly what turned him into the heartless person that they all grew to hate. If Jack had done his surgical magic and saved Ben’s life, then Kate and Sawyer never would have taken him to the others for their special brand of voodoo help. Interesting.


Also in this episode’s flashbacks, we see what happened to Kate and what caused her sudden change of heart from refusing to consider returning to the island into another happy passenger on flight 316. It all revolved around Aaron and her decision that he needed to return so she could try to save Claire. That her relationship with Aaron could never be long lasting since there was so much unfinished business left on the island.

I was especially moved during her farewell scene with Aaron. During that scene I grew to respect the writers even more, not just for her character’s growth, bur for the growth of all the characters. It would have been so easy for them to have Sawyer bounce back into pining over Kate and leave Juliet and it would have been easy for Juliet to go back to being the other woman with either Sawyer or Jack, but instead the writers are allowing those 3 years that they spent apart from each other to actually mean something to the characters and to the storyline. It’s a brave thing to do, especially because it’s not looking like we’re going to be liking Jack very much after a while.

This episode left me asking the question, “why had they come back?” According to Kate, she came back to try and save Claire. Sayid thinks that the reason he was there was to kill Ben—which backfired pretty spectacularly—but is there a different reason that we’ll learn soon? I’m sure there is. What about Hurley? I'm sure these are all questions that will be answered in the weeks to come, and as always, there will be more questions presented in the process. I’m confident that this show is only going to continue to get better.

American Idol Final 9, Results Show

Let me start by sharing my opinion about something that I’ve heard people say over the years about American Idol and how more people vote for this show than people vote for the President. Well, let me just throw my 2¢ in the ring by saying that you can only vote for President of the United States once, but I know there are many people who gang up and vote multiple times for their favorites.

Well, tonight there were 36 million votes for contestants I think that Ryan Seacrest was looking for new and creative ways to reveal the results by breaking the 9 contestants into groups of three. The groups were Scott MacIntyre, Danny Gokey and Anoop Desai; Kris Allen, Megan Joy Corkrey and Matt Giraud; and Adam Lambert, Allison Iraheta and Lil Rounds. Right off the bat I would have guessed that the group that was in the bottom three would be Kris, Megan and Matt, but whenever Ryan does something like this it’s because the results go against what would be usual reasonable instinct. At the beginning of the show when Ryan referenced the Judge’s Save and said, “based on last night’s show, the judges might have a tough task ahead of them.” I know Ryan knows who is being eliminated so it made me think that we would be surprised at tonight’s result.

Before we got any further with the results last year’s winner, David Cook, visited the show and sang his new song, “Come Back to Me.” Of all the years of American Idol, last year was my favorite so far and hearing David Cook tonight reminded me why I liked him last year. I may just have to pick up his new album. Good song!

Back to the contestants, it turns out that they weren’t going to eliminate them by the groups that they were divided into and the first contestant declared safe was Kris. Next up was Matt who was not in the bottom three either. But confirming that they weren’t going to eliminate by group, they put Megan in the bottom three.

In the next group they visited, Lil and Adam were safe, but Allison was in the bottom three.

The most obvious safe contestant in the next group was Danny Gokey. I honestly think that either Scott or Anoop could have been in jeopardy, because I don’t think either of them were outstanding last night. And sure enough, Anoop Desai was in the bottom three. I got two of the three of them right.

In order to keep us in suspense a little longer, they brought out Lady Gaga to sing her song, “Poker Face.” I must admit, I’ve never heard of her or this song before. I guess I’m probably the wrong person to be reviewing American Idol if I’m not up to speed on our current idols. All of these piano-playing women like Alicia Keys, Nellie McKay and Norah Jones are really interesting to me, but Lady Gaga was truly a sight to behold—kind of a cross between the Eurythmics, Cyndi Lauper and Joni Mitchell.

Back from the break, they quickly revealed that Megan Joy Corkrey was the bottom contestant and was ultimately eliminated. From the beginning she was one of my favorites, but she was also terribly unpolished and seemed like she was just winging it most of the time. In some ways that might not have been bad, but she was consistently going down in quality. I’m hoping that we can see more of her in the future but I’m sure it’ll be in smaller more cultish venues.

American Idol Final 9

Ok, so this is a belated review of American Idol, but I had a big project to work on so I didn’t get to watch it until tonight. Thank goodness for Tivo. Anyway, on with the show!

If it wasn’t obvious that American Idol is heavily sponsored by iTunes, it was made sure by last night’s theme of anything that can be downloaded from iTunes, which is virtually anything. So what would you pick if you could choose anything from iTunes? Well, personally my favorite band is Crowded House, so I’d probably look at them first but it probably would be a little too obscure for Idol

Anoop Desai decided to draw from the catalog of Usher for his performance last night of the song, “Caught Up.” For some reason it seemed like he mumbled a lot of the song. Was it just me? I’m not familiar enough with the song to know how much he personalized it, I just had a hard time understanding him.

Megan Joy Corkery picked the great song by Bob Marley, “Turn Your Lights Down Low.” I really love this song but her warbling vocals are starting to wear on me. I don’t know if any song by Marley would be a good choice for the show because even his fast songs are terrifically mellow—not great venues to show vocal prowess.

Danny Gokey decided to sing the Country song, “What Hurts the Most” by Rascal Flatts. As I’ve said before, I’m not a huge fan of Country (at all) but I did like his version of this song. It really suited his style. By the way, he must have a bajillion pairs of glasses and tonight’s pair that he wore look a lot like mine. Nice.

Allison Iraheta sang a song that I thought would be a really good choice for her when she sang “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt. The problem was that she added playing the guitar and it sounded to me like she was distracted with trying to concentrate on the guitar so much that she couldn’t keep a consistent rhythm. Once the music picked up and she was singing only with the band I thought it was much better. Not her best performance, but I think that there were enough stinkers last night that she’ll stick around for a while longer.

I really like the singer/songwriter feel that Scott MacIntyre has, and although I really like Billy Joel for the same reasons I think that his song, “Just the Way You Are” is terribly cliché and has been way overplayed over the years. I’m sure he too will be around for a while, but this wasn’t one of my favorite performances. And honestly, I don’t think his vocals are as strong as his piano playing and I don’t think he’s be around if it was just him.

Matt Giraud sang a fairly new song by The Fray called “You Found Me.” I like The Fray and I like the song, but Matt’s vocals seemed too lazy and mumbled. Once the intensity of the song picked up it got much better, but for some reason tonight’s performances seem like the people just don’t really care—like it’s a competition to get us to vote for the worst.

Lil Rounds gave another somewhat mumbling performance. Was there something wrong with my TV? Usually these people are much better than this, I was quite surprised. But signing Celine Dion’s song “I Surrender” seemed like a good fit for her, but I doubt if that will be the style of music she’ll sing when she gets a recording contract so I think she’s doing herself and her fans a disservice by not showing us who she really is.

Adam Lambert knocked last week’s song out of the park when he sang his toned-down version of “Tracks of My Tears. However I was disappointed, as well as some of my friends, that he didn’t do a studio version of that for purchase on iTunes. I see that he decided to keep channeling Elvis with his looks as he screamed Wild Cherry’s “Play that Funky Music.” The crowd sure seemed to enjoy it but, as always, it left me a little cold. I guess it’s just a personal preference thing.

The last performer of the evening was Kris Allen who I think is one of the most under hyped talents on the show, but I think he’s one of the best. I really enjoyed his version of Bill Wither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine” because he really put his own style on it. I hope that he stays in the competition for quite a while and I hope that he starts getting the attention that he deserves.

Well, that’s it. It’s just mere moments away from learning who will go home tonight, but I’ll go ahead and make my predictions now. I think that the three who are in the greatest danger tonight are Anoop Desai, Megan Joy Corkery, and Matt Giraud. I think Matt Giraud will be declared “safe” first and between the last two I think Anoop Desai will be eliminated. I think he was better than Megan, but I think she shows a little more personality than he does and that might keep her around one more week… but just one.