American Idol-So Long Pia

I don’t usually get bummed about an American Idol contestant getting voted out, but it did bug me a little bit when Pia was voted out this week.  I think she had the best voice of all the Idol contestants…James Durban being a close second, but her lack of confidence really is what did her in.  She came across as stiff, even in her interviews and it just seemed like there was this emotional wall there that kept her from connecting to the audience.  Watching some of the clips from her earlier moments on the show, she seemed so much more relaxed and emotional while talking about her grandpa…what happened to that??

I can just hope we get another upset next week and Scotty McCreary will go home!

American Idol-Cut To Ten…or not

This week on American Idol, the judges decided to use their one “save” on Casey Abrams.  This move is always controversial by American Idol standards.  Little girls everywhere contemplate how life can possibly go on, or on the flip side burst into tears of joy screaming endlessly.  At first I was quite happy that the judges used their save, but it was something that was very expected.  Casey is really talented.  He isn’t an American Idol, and won’t win the contest, but he is a talented musician and entertainer.  I’ve told friends that I could see him having a career like John C. Riley, which is great…just not an American Idol.  There is absolutely no way this guy will make music that people will buy.  He doesn’t have the looks.  He comes across like he is joking when he sings. His musical choices just aren’t mainstream enough.   All that being said, I really like watching the guy and look forward to seeing what he will do next, just like I felt about Adam Lambert two years ago.

In other American Idol news, this week’s show was leaps and bounds better than the previous week.  Who’d a thunk that Motown week would bring out the best in so many people.  The lone cringe worthy performance came from the utterly creepy Scotty McCreery.  He tried to expand his range a bit this week, but completely failed.  He missed so many notes and you could just see the wheels falling off, but what really surprised me is that the judges seemed to like it.  Not their favorite performance, but good anyway…HUH?!  It was awful!

Pia has such a great voice, range, and pureness, but she is boring.  She has to do something other than ballads.  Listen to the audience response and you get lots of applause, but it isn’t really enthusiastic.  Probably because she doesn’t mix it up and she has not personality.  She seems really shy and unsure of herself for some reason and it really comes across that way.  The judges are right…it is time to go uptempo.  I’d love to see her do Celine Dion’s I Drove All Night, or something in that vein.

I honestly CAN NOT understand anything Paul MacDonald sings.  I think he said “masturbate” during his song this week, but I’m not sure.  It doesn’t matter though, I love him anyway.

Those are some of my thoughts from this week.  Let’s hope Thia Megia goes home this week, or Scotty!

Mad Love vs. Mike and Molly

I’ve had a bout of insomnia over the weekend.  Friday night it took me forever to get to sleep and then when I did I was tossing and turning the whole time.  Last night, due to my lack of sleep the previous night, I went to bed early.  The problem is I woke up at 3 AM.  What do you do at 3 in the morning?  Catch up on some TV!  I watched 2 recorded episodes of Mike and Molly, and 3 recorded episodes of Mad Love two shows going in opposite directions in my book.

Mike and Molly started out as a sweet romantic comedy, but lately has gotten more and more vulgar, and less funny with each episode.  It seems that Mike is just a fat, lazy slob that is really taking his new relationship for granted.  Quite frankly I’ve seen relationships like this in real life and they never last.  This being TV, it will last for some incomprehensible reason.  What they need to do is give the audience a reason to think they are meant for each other…like the Dunphys on Modern Family.  The Dunphys are equal misfits and you can see why they ended up with each other and why they will stay together.  Mike and Molly consist of the lazy, fat, slob Mike, and the “can do no wrong” Molly.  It doesn’t work.

Mad Love on the other hand started strong and has stayed strong, the biggest reason has to do with the strong cash.  I’ve loved Sarah Chalke since her days on Roseanne, but especially on Scrubs.  She plays a very similar character on this new show, but she plays it so well.  Her chemistry with Jason Biggs is great…not forced at all.  Plus, they are both pretty funny.  So many times in sitcoms it is the supporting players that get the laughs and the main stars drive the stories.  In this case they get plenty of laughs and so do the supporting players.  My only fear is that the antagonizing of the obviously in love best friends will get old pretty quickly.  If that happens the show is doomed because there are really only four main characters.  If two become annoying…oops.   I’m keeping my fingers crossed that doesn’t happen.  I’m also keeping my fingers crossed that Mad Love isn’t cancelled, while Mike and Molly continues on.

American Idol-The Cut to Eleven

It was brought to my attention that I have not been blogging as I should lately, and that has to do with the fact that I’ve had some personal things on my mind recently.  Despite that, I HAVE been keeping up with American Idol very diligently and have a few thoughts below.

The March 16th episode was overall a disappointment to me.  Even the really good performers didn’t stand out this week, and I’m thinking that may be because so many of them were fighting off colds.  Let’s hope that is resolved for this coming week.

There are a couple contestants that I really like because they have great voices, or unique voices namely Jacob Lusk and Paul MacDonald, but I have serious issues with both of them.  They are consistently off pitch!  I think in Jacob’s case his vibrato and excessive runs will eventually get him to the right note or pitch, but he is way off pitch quite often.  My other issue with Jacob is he could never be a pop star.  He wants to go the R&B route, but he can’t pull it off in my opinion, but gospel is another story.  He could really shine in that niche.  Paul’s pitch problems are covered up by his cool sounding voice, which I really like a lot.  It reminds me of a James Blunt in some ways, but he hast to get on pitch and stay there.  I think he could really be a star…he has the looks, and the uniqueness that can help him get there.

On to Scotty McCreery.  I think we can all agree he has an amazing sounding voice.  This week he stretched his range a bit which was a long time coming.  He needs to keep pushing that, and also push it with the music he selects.  Keep it country, but rock it out…maybe T-R-O-U-B-L-E by Travis Tritt.  Move around the stage and really get into it.  The number one thing he needs to do though is get rid of that annoying raised lip Elvis thing.  The grin and the cocked head when he sings is so distracting.

Thia Megia is very boring and cookie cutter.  Whenever I see her and think about the fact that she was also on America’s Got Talent, I have to wonder if she wants this, or her parents want this for her.  Like one of those child beauty pageant kids.  She is so stiff and boring, I can’t think she REALLY has the desire to be a star.  Contrast that with Lauren Alaina who has a great voice, but who also is also dripping with personality.  She WANTS to be a star.  It is in her blood and I really think she can be, whether she wins American Idol or not.  She is goofy, to the point where it is a bit annoying, but she is 15 and acts it so you can’t really blame her.  I Really hope she goes a long way in this competition.

Those are my comments for this posts.  Yeah, there were some great performances and some bad ones too, but these were the big thoughts that I had in my head regarding this week.  Let’s hope for a better showing next week!

Will Ferrell Joins The Office

It was announced this week that Will Ferrell will be joining The Office for at least a four episode arc.  I think Will Ferrell will be absolutely perfect on this show.  I actually think he would have been a better Michael Scott than Steve Carell, so my question:  is there any chance he could replace Steve Carell next year?

The main question is: why would he go to television when he is a bona fide movie star?  Well he makes about 20 million per movie, so if he shoots 2 or 3 films that would be 40-60 million a year.  For television I would guess he would make more than Charlie Sheen’s 1.25 million per episode right?  At 1.5 per that would come to 36 million for a 24 episode season.  He’d still have time to shoot a movie…Steve Carell did, so let’s add 20 million and we get 56 million.  Money shouldn’t be a factor.

How about television being “beneath him”.  It seems there are more and more movie stars going back to television these days.  Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Gary Sinise, Keifer Sutherland, Rob Lowe, Charlie Sheen, Sally Field, Kathy Bates, the list goes on and on.  Granted, none of them are anywhere close to the celebrity that Will Farrell is, but it shows that there must be benefits to working television as opposed to movies.  Steady, predictable work schedules.  Filming in one location for the most part.  More time with family.  Being able to flesh out a character over years as opposed to fleshing out a character in a two hour movie.  Television sounds pretty appealing.

Do I think Ferrell will join the show permanently…no.  I do think he would be perfect and would be worth whatever payday the producers would give him.  The Office has been going downhill pretty quickly over the last couple seasons, and with Carell leaving this could either put a nail in the show’s coffin, or breathe life into it that it wouldn’t have had.  The producers have many, many directions they can go, so it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds, but I don’t think there is any reason they shouldn’t aim high and possibly get a Will Ferrell, or another well know star.

American Idol Thoughts

Well, I’ve been putting off this post for some time now.

The auditions are my least favorite part of the American Idol season so I won’t go very in depth, but I do have some quick hit points to make.

Jennifer Lopez is beautiful.  I may be gay, but I sure can appreciate beauty and she is absolutely beautiful.

Steven Tyler is quite possibly one of the ugliest people.  Did you ever see the movie Mask with Cher?  Well, just imagine the kid signing and that is what I think of him.  He has been surprisingly tender and emotional though.  Also, a bit creepy.  His flirting with some of the girls is kind of uncomfortable and gross.  He also needs to stop his random loud singing outbursts.  It has only been three episodes and it is getting old.

Randy is still Randy, but you can tell he is trying to put a tiny bit of nastiness in his critiques.  JLo got over her “I can’t say no” issue in today’s episode in Milwaukee.  Thank goodness.

I hate the melodramatic stories.  Partly because the producers are so obviously manipulating the audience, and partly because I’m easily susceptible to bawling at every single one of the stories and that ticks me off.

I have a few issues with people they’ve let through, but at this point I have no idea what their names are so I couldn’t tell you which ones I’m referring to.

and lastly I’m very happy that there is less focus on the idiot attention monsters.  I just fast forward over them anyway, they aren’t funny…just annoying.  But, there was one funny moment in tonights episode…the wife/sister/friend of a guy that got a golden ticket.  He came out celebrating and she immediately got a cramp in her leg.  She is calling out “I’ve got a cramp,  ahhhh, I’ve got a cramp”.  They all stop celebrating, look at her, and then go back to cheering.  That was pretty funny.

The Cape, Lights Out, and Other Mid-Season TV Thoughts

A week or two ago I wrote a post about a couple of TV shows that were premiering this winter season.  One was The Cape and the other was Lights Out.  I have to admit that I ended up never watching The Cape.  Leading up to the premier the commercials for it were NON STOP, and the more I saw the commercials the worse it looked to me.  Then I found out it was a two hour premier episode so I kind of put it off until a friend of mine told me that he watched it and thought it was stupid.  So, that coupled with those bad commercials really took away my desire to watch it.  Now I see the ratings are heading south so I’m glad I didn’t waste time on a show that probably won’t be around next year.

Lights Out I did watch.  At this point two episodes have aired and I watched both of them.  The first episode had a couple things that occurred toward the end which I wasn’t expecting.  The beginning was good, the end was intriguing, but the middle was pretty blah.  Episode two really didn’t do anything for me.  It is hard to explain, but the main character has so many things going wrong for him and for some inexplicable reason he decides to keep ALL of them to himself without telling his wife.  I’m not sure if he thinks she is too fragile to take the news or what his reasoning is, but it is getting annoying to me.  I think I’ll give the show some more time because it does have some promise, but right now it just isn’t going anywhere.  Jury is still out on this one.

Several existing shows returned for the first time since last May.  American Idol, and Parks and Recreation are two that I was really looking forward to.  American Idol I write about in its own post, but I’ll touch on Parks and Rec right now.  I’m sure there are a lot of people out there that watched this show when it first came on the air a couple years ago, but let me tell you the show is actually really good now.  The characters weren’t developed back then, and the interaction between characters was pretty disjointed.  Now the whole cast is cranking on all cylinders.  It isn’t Modern Family good, but I think I get more laughs out of Parks and Rec than the rest of the comedies that I watch.  That list includes The Office, Big Bang Theory, and The Middle, all of which I really enjoy.  Also, the addition of Rob Lowe and Adam Scott is nice dimension the show didn’t have previously.  It has only been one episode, but Rob Lowe’s character is definitely funnier than last season.  Below is a promo for Parks and Recreation where Rob Lowe goes on a bit of a tirade.

Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m a huge Top Chef fan and one of the things that makes the show so much fun is reading different blogs from people involved with the show.  There are hours and hours of footage for each show that has to be whittled down to about 42 minutes that will be shown on TV each week.  Tom Colicchio’s blog is great for a behind the scenes look at the show, Anthony Bourdain’s blog is filled with Bourdain’s humor and scathing critiques of the cheftestants, and then there is TV Squad which follows up each episode with an interview of the eliminated cheftestant.

 

This week Marcel Vigneron was eliminated so I was looking forward to reading his TV Squad interview since he was such a cocky and delusional guy.  Maybe I’m living under a rock, but I was blown away by the news that he will have his own show on SyFy starting March 7th called Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen.  What is even more shocking to me is his description of the show, “the show is all about teamwork, creativity and imagination”.  What was the downfall of Marcel and his pop-up restaurant Etch in this week’s episode?  Teamwork.  Marcel was the captain of his team for the challenge and he did nothing but create an environment filled with angst that even filtered out onto the floor of the restaurant.  The planning was bad, the food was bad, and the service was bad all because Marcel couldn’t lead his team.

I’ll probably give the show a watch out of curiosity but I can’t imagine I’ll like it at all.  Marcel is like that annoying, obnoxious guy that you just can’t wait to get away from.  I was happy this week when he was eliminated and I just can’t imagine that anyone will want to watch his new show out of their own desire.

American Idol Eve

It is about that time of year when the years of hard work, tears, and strife all become worth it for one lucky person who’s dreams are about to come true.  Excuse me while I vomit a little bit.

I really am a big fan of American Idol, but it isn’t my favorite show by any means.  I like watching the performances, pausing the DVR, and then seeing how my comments match up to what the judges say.  I also like blogging about my thoughts on that particular night’s performances, so be ready for that.  I don’t like the auditions which are about to start.  I’ll watch, but I won’t blog much about them at all.  There are a few that are good performances, but it is mainly a bunch of immature attention monsters.  You know the people on the train that decide they are going to talk really loud on the cell phone, or randomly sing in public so everyone turns their attention toward them.  You notice them, but you hate them.

Obviously, this season is going to have a lot of focus on Jennifer Lopez, and Steven Tyler who looks more and more like a woman every time I see him.  I’m more interested in some of the changes to the show.  My unnamed sources (TV Squad and EW) tell me that there will be less focus on the auditions (yay!), and more focus on the music.  The good music.  I’m pretty happy about the addition of Jimmy Iovine as the lone mentor to the contestants.  I hated the celebrity mentors which were all so pointless.  Some celebrity flies in for a half hour with the contestants, tells them each so bit of garbage and then flies back home.  Iovine is a very successful music producers who apparently knows his stuff.  It will be interesting to see how the contestants improve with real mentoring.

These are just a couple of the things I’m excited about.  Can’t wait until tomorrow night!