American Idol - Teh Suck?

Winter of 2006 is here, and that means another season of American Idol. If you scan through my posts, you'll notice I've posted about Idol before - for some weird reason this show appeals to me, even though I love to complain about it.

This year I have some new beefs. First off is that they're really focusing on the people that suck this year. I think for the preliminary auditions they show twenty bad people for every one good person. It's getting old, and the insults that Simon throws out are even more evil than usual. If it's bothering me, then you know it has to be bad.

The worst, however, is that this whole attention to lousy performances seems to very contrived. It's pretty apparent to me that the people that are pegged as bad are asked to sing multiple songs, so they have plenty of fodder to choose from as the show progresses. Yes, I know "reality television" is contrived by nature, but try to keep some shred of the illusion intact, please?

I'm also pretty unimpressed with the final twenty-four that were revealed last night. The only person who currently intrigues me is Taylor Hicks, who's so unique and multi-talented that he will come out of this with some kind of music contract. I already despise Ace, who will be put through countless more rounds due to his looks and name (Hey Ace: Kiss called, and they want their guitarist's name back). And the 16 year old boy Kevin will probably meet the same fate as the Mel Torme crooner from last year who's such old news that I've forgotten his name. In other words, he'll be kept in for eons because people feel sorry for him, regardless of how lame he is.

But I'm a sucker, and I know I'll continue to watch it just to see and hear how badly they do the next couple of weeks.