Idol Blogging – and then there were 20…

Watched the boys last night, and they all improved. Even poor Sanjaya, sadly he didn’t improve near enough for me to care, but he’s riding a wave of popularity the likes that would make Chicken Little blush. I hear Michael Jackson has wild popularity, so whudda thunk. He’ll make the final 12. Which means the spots are down to five that will make it. The other red-shirts might include Sundance riding the cresting wave of VFTW and a cute baby that has hit puberty a bit early. Which means there are only four slots left for boys that can sing, just like Randy said last week. Those, I think will be the two Chris’, Blake and one other, for which I really don’t have a care who is in it, so long as they outlast Sundance and Sanjaya.

The girls are starting, and Simon’s advice is to make sure that the contestants create an image for themselves. Was that Antonella that just hid behind the stanchion in the balcony, because she’s certainly made an image, but it has NOTHING to do with singing. No links from me, but google is really all you need. First up is Gina, who does a rocking rendition of Heart’s Alone. She needs to lose the red streak in her hair, but her pipes work well. I’m time-shifting live blogging, so I’ll hit the other girls as we go.
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Suite! a Heroes quiz!

But seriously… Isaac *sigh*  (tip o’ the hat to sister-I-sell-my-books-on-Amazon)

Isaac Mendez
You scored 29 Idealism, 54 Nonconformity, 66 Nerdiness
I need painting supplies
. Congratulations, you’re Isaac Mendez! You’re a talented, creative, artistic soul with a few demons you’ve been working to overcome. You are really passionate person and you are not afraid to express yourself or your emotions. Your best quality: Creativity and artistic talent. Your worst quality: A possibly addictive or indulgent personality
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

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You scored higher than 99% on Idealism
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You scored higher than 99% on Nonconformity
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You scored higher than 99% on Nerdiness

Link: The Heroes Personality Test written by freedomdegrees on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Thursday Night TV – Grey’s and farewell TheOC!

Haven’t watched Survivor yet, fear not it is still in the queue.  Busy night, had to accept the accolades of my lessers at our fantasy football celebration banquet (Pizza Joint Carmine’s on Coit & Campbell was selected as the location for the festivities).  Then made my bible study to hear about the Labor sphere in the Truth project’s worldview (kinda stuffed it into a capitalist frame, not sure that isn’t entirely eisegesis at bit on the host’s part… but it was a good session).  Made it home in time to queue up two shows to watch with Ang, two of our favorites to watch together.

Grey’s Anatomy

Great episode.  The last two were great, the first of the three-epi arc was ‘meh’, but this last one, great.  I really doubted that Mere would die, though they kept that possibility open as long as they could.  Stacy called the fact that mama-dith was the one that would die.  Which kills the drudging background stomp of mommy-issues.  If dark&twisty Meredith can overcome the death of her mother, then mer-der has a chance at summ-seth bliss.  Great cut at the end of the McSteamy/Montgomery-Shepherd-Montgomery Celibacy Challenge, McSteamy might win the 60 day no sex race, as Alec keeps edging into the center of MSM’s radar screen.  Great parts: Alec’s shoulder squeeze on Izzy when we knew Meredith was safe.  Every scene with Coach Taylor.  Denny rocked the show.  Christina’s announcement about her nuptials to Burke, seconds after she knew Mere didn’t suffer too much drain bamage.  Chief rocked his parts, and his admission to dying his hair for the ladies.

The OC

Fitting ending.  They certainly could have kept the storylines going, making a 6 month jump in the show, but this episode hit all the marks.  The Summer-Seth relationship, and the meta from ‘Briefcase/No Briefcase’ and The Valley was just the right touch.  What new show will keep us informed of the 5 new seasons that the Valley has won?  For most of the show I was waiting for a commercial plug from Fox for a new show starting next week called TheUC, set in Berkeley, California.  The boys trying valiantly to get Ma and Pa Cohen’s old house was great.  The last montage was awesome and allows us fans to cherish the show more fore giving us a nice package tied in a bow.  Seth letting Summer go follow her passion.  Julie Cooper graduating from college with her two beaus and her remaining daughter wearing ‘Team Julie’ tee-shirts.  Sandy Cohen teaching!  And the last scene with Ryan paying it forward to another misplace youth.  I’ll miss the show that gave us Chrismuhkkah, but it was a nice finale, that celebrated the good points of the show.  (and only gave us a glimpse of Marissa, and totally ignored Oliver and Theresa)

Idol Predictions

Remember DialIdol had the low down before the show last season, lets see how the dialing program will work with a full field of competitors.

But first, you have to measure the VoteForTheWorst effect, which can be strong early, and it appears their first victim will be Antonella (please say it ain’t so!). But Stacy says that there will be some announcement on the show, perhaps the producers trying to protect the vaunted Idol ratings against… well *never mind* there are now shows to compete against Idol, at least not on Wednesday night… but let’s hope the announcement is the Antonella will get the boot and we won’t have her around for freaking ever.

I say that because in my unscientific poll of blogs that wrote about last night, Antonella was universally hated, but DialIdol has her at number two, firmly ensconced between Lakisha and Melinda.

DialIdol predicts that Paul Kim and Nicholas Pedro will get the boot. (Maybe Shanjaya is getting some VFTW love?) along with Amy Krebs and that other girl who has two A-letter names. (I forget her name, because according to DI, she didn’t get one stinking vote… OUCH!)

Update: DialIdol got Amy and Paul right. Rudy and Nicole also get the boot, they were within the margin of error, but still without the VFTW effect, they should have stayed and Antonella and Sanjaya left… but *sigh* there is always next week.

Wednesday Night Wrap Up – FNL, Jericho and Lost – Oh My!

Post Idolness ensues.  DVR only recorded Friday Night Lights, so I had to watch Jericho and Lost via other means, thank goodness for Verizon FiOS and TVTorrents.com

Lets review from best to worst:

Friday Night LightsI Think We Should Have Sex

Great episode.  The main plot point being QB Matt Saracen being seduced by Coach’s daughter Julie to have sex.  Coach’s wife, Tami, sees Matt at the store buying condoms, and being the school counselor puts 1 and 1 together correctly and has a confrontation with straying daughter (who has been unduly influenced in past epis by the town sleaze with a heart of gold, Tyra, who’s status is not going to rise in the eyes of Ms. Taylor with Julie’s recent decision).  Post talk, Julie confronts Matt and they decide to press on with the unmentionables, in spite of mother/daughter bonding moment, and set the date and location (Matt has a bachelor pad).  Night of the tryst, Coach Taylor is looking for asprin in the bathroom, and runs across thong panties that Tyra induced Julie to buy, and asks his wife, wth?  Wife says, ummm, yeah, we should probably talk about this.  Coach goes ballistic, saying, “If he touches on hair on her head, she be in a nunnery…” and basically lays a big ol’ guilt trip on Tami that they should have had this conversation before their daughter goes missing.  Later, the coaches make up  by admitting that neither one of them went to parenting a teenage hormone bag school, so don’t know what the proper procedure is for hooking their offspring up with a chastity belt, but agree that dialog with said hormonal female is probably the best tack.  Back at the secluded boudoir, Matt and Julie talk it out and decide leg wrestling is a lot more fun than the exchange of bodily fluids and fore go the sex thing, but in the post-wrestling rest period, they sleep through the alarm and get Julie back waaaaaay past curfew.  Ma and Pa Coach are waiting, and Julie assures them that her virtual chastity is still intact, and mom and daughter hug, while coach sends his eye darts needling into the back of both of their heads.  One has to wonder how long a grounding will be bestowed upon young Julie.  Excellent jobs by all parties, the format of FNL is such that the candid expressions on the actors faces tell more story than pages of Shonda dialog could ever do, and Chandler and Britton play this format sooooooo good.

Other plotlines has Buddy Garrity doing a real good job of completely screwing up his life, his family life, his business and Tyra’s mother (both literally and figuratively).  Tim Riggins realizes that his daddy isn’t gonna change, and slips back inside the bottle.  Jason gets a taste of life outside of Austin, tries out for the national paralympics and gets a Sanscrit tattoo in his search for ‘peace’.

Jericho – The Day Before

Jericho comes roaring back and actually provides some back story, 36 action packed hours of back story on Jake and Hawkins.  They do a good job of answering some questions, asking more, and basically confusing just about all of the audience that live in the real world on how both Hawkins and Jake get from either coast to the middle of the country in automobiles in roughly 8-12 hours.  *waves hands* this is not the continuity you are looking for *waves hands*

At the end, we’re back where we started, out of town survivors including Emily’s estranged fiance arrive in downtown Jericho.  Also with them is Hawking girlfriend (revealed in the backstory) that will now add another love triangle into the shaky relationships of Wisteria lane.

Backstory:  Jake is an out of work pilot that did some contracting work for the government in Afghanistan and Iraq.  He’s somewhat on the line between legit and outlaw, but has a good enough heart to want to stay on the legit side.  He loses a friend to Ravenwood (the merc group that Jake has met up with since the bombs fell) and comes to Jericho to escape and get some money (the money thing fell through, but the value of a dollar at the moment is questionable)

Hawkins and his girlfriend were in on the plot to blow up the bombs in various cities.  He gets his marching orders and the Ryder truck with a thermonuclear bomb in the back, and has orders to head to Columbus, Ohio.  on his way out of D.C. he stops by the ex’s place to pick up the kids and their mother (kidnap?) and bring them safely out of D.C.  His girlfriend gets kidnapped and used for leverage to ensure that Hawkins delivers his device to the appropriate target.  It is unclear is Hawkins is working for CTU, or even if he knows who Jack Bauer is, but we do know that he’s buried his bomb in his basement, and that the terrorist group that planned the whole thing has Hawkins in their sights.

My hate-love-hate relationship with Jericho continues.

Lost – Stranger in a Strange Land

Not willing to recap, so go read Mac’s post (always more entertaining than mine).  Some comments.  This episode was less than “meh” for me.  The backstory on Jack is tapped out, and I could care less about his tattoo, or his time in Phuket.  The only good point I can say for the episode is that at least we are all off Alcatraz now, and Locke’s army won’t have to launch an amphibious assault on the south shore of Alcatraz.  They can plan for a full on siege of Othersville that is somewhere on the main Island.  Kate and Sawyer really don’t mix well.  Sawyer continues to be a non-team player, and Kate resists being restrained by anyone, I dunno, maybe the bear cage monkey sex was unsatisfying to Kate.  We have a new other to hate *yawn* the Sherrif Isabel.  We get no contact with the main body of Losties, but thankfully that means no Nikki and Paulo either.  Cindy and the kids from the tail are safe, wearing, figuratively, Izod red shirts.  Though they show signs of being fully assimilated.  Jack and Julie get closer bound in their alliance against Henry’s Rotu tribe.

A marking time episode with no real ‘reveals’, just more hints and nudges.  Hopefully this is just a bump in the road after the last two really good episodes.  Sadly, this one probably won’t do well in the ratings either, and with the last couple weeks of sagging, and now ABC’s totally looney marketing department that promised promises that the script just couldn’t pay.  We may see more viewers banking towards the hard deck, and turning off the TV after the latest Idol contestant has a bad day.

Idol Blogging – da Grrlz

Just a little shout out for Simon: I wish people would let him finish. I think he really is trying to help the contestants with constructive comments, or to help them understand how their perceived by the audience. But predictably, he gets about 10 words out of his mouth before Randy or Paula open their traps and tell him his wrong. That is my number one problem with the format, is that Randy and Paula don’t give Simon the same courtesy that he regularly grants them, the time to state their thoughts without interruption. okay, enough ranting.

Melinda, Jordin, Stephanie and Sabrina rocked, ’nuff said.

Leslie and Amy were alright, I agree with Simon’s comments: Haley was uncomfortable (and has a really low range, which is awkward for a majority of the songs they’ll cover) and Amy was forgetable.

Jersey Girl Antonella is out of her element, should have stayed at the mall. She’ll be gone.

Nicole has pipes, but needs to control it, a bit over the top, but if she tempers it she can be a top shelf competitor. (Simon’s comments are spot on)
Haley‘s lyrics felt rushed, and her timing seemed off, good voice, but eh performance.

Alaina struggled, they should strike Chrisse Hynde songs from the playlist, it wasn’t the best performance.

Gina is one that for some reason I’m rooting for, I like the people that keep banging their heads against the wall.  She takes on Celine, that usually get a frown from the judges, and I think she has the voice to do it.

Lakisha wraps the show up.  Big and I mean BIG voice.  I see a bit of Jennifer Hudson in her as she sung that, eyes wide and just letting it rip.  Top shelf.
Okay, sorta wish that four guys could go, because frankly the girls kicked their ass.  I think that Antonella and Alaina have sung their last song on American Idol.

Boys, get on the stick, or you’ll be wiped out in the final twelve.  I think debily may have called a two girl final two.