Idol Watch: Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light

If Norman had advanced I would have stopped watching American Idol. I’m angry they even put him in the top 36.
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I liked Kris. His singing was technically very good and his “dullness” was refreshing on a show dominated by Norman and Adam. The result that disappointed me was Mishavonna Henson’s failure to advance. I thought her style was similar to Megan Corkrey’s (cool for AI and not about the power ballad) and her singing was better, but for some reason the judges inexplicably didn’t like her. I hope she’s a wild card. I loved the idea of Megan and I wanted to like her but about half way through the song I found myself saying, “She’s just not that good a singer.”
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And Alison was my favorite. She seemed genuine and unafraid to commit to her performance. A little like Fantasia.

[...] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptPhoto: Michael Becker / FOX Spoilers* for last night’s semifinals week-two elimination of American Idol coming up after the break. Well, it was fun while it lasted. The combination of the judges’ otherwise-inexplicable praise for Kris Allen and their practically begging America to reject Nick/Norman/Normund was enough to stop the juggernaut of Mr. Gentle, season eight’s brief-lived camp star. (On Wednesday, even Ryan said he didn’t believe Nick Mitchell should survive, which may be [...]

I have to admit I’m going to miss “The Curious Case of Norman Gentle.” My wife thought that while he was funny he would have been more appropriate on some Vegas cabaret stage. I don’t agree with that and here’s why: I don’t think Nick/Norman/Normund ever intended to get past the opening audition round. I think he knew that he didn’t have the looks and his voice wasn’t strong enough to win but he wanted to get on t.v. while sticking it to Simon with his act (which he did). Once he got through it was like, “Okay, let’s see how far I can take this act.” That was why he always kept coming out as Norman and never as Nick. I think he was in just as much shock week to week that he was getting put through to the next round. The other judges found him to be funny and they like tend to like anyone with a marginal amount of talent who isn’t afraid to get in Simon’s face. Which leads to my second point about Norman: His act would not have been funny on any other stage. Think about it…what made him so funny was that he was this geeky-looking, split personality caricature who came out and mocked the whole AI/pop star system and got the judges to buy into the crazy. I agree with the idea that the schtick would have gotten old quickly. Which is why I feel that there is no other venue where this would be thought of as funny (just look at the short shelf-life of William Hung who admittedly milked his 15 minutes for every bit of value). I don’t know where Norman would have gone from here after lampooning the whole American Idol craze by singing Jennifer Hudson’s signature song while violating the AI logo but it was definitely funny while it lasted.

Idol has it’s certain entertainment value, but has “run it’s course” as must see TV. Several years ago, we planned our activities to make sure we didn’t miss the program; now, “OK, we’ll watch because nothing better is on.” The run-up to the top 36..and the top 12 is genuinely boring…we didn’t even tune in for the earlier shows. Of course certain contestants are very talented, but I certainly can wait another 6 weeks before seeing the program again.

yes, i think Norman ran an appropriate course… it’s always a bummer to see previuosly strong folks not make it, but its hard to argue that they should go through if they don’t bring it on wild card night… as for frontrunners, as i recall justin guarini was the front runner in kelly’s year and no one really knew who she was until a couple weeks into finals… though as i remember those first weeks of finals where a few people really still stink is still tough….

all the folks I remotely liked have all been eliminated already, and I haven’t watched in a while. Maybe when it gets to the top 12 I’ll tune back in.

Everything played out pretty much as expected (and desired). Although, I still think Adam is INCREDIBLY annoying, though talented, and that Man in the Mirror rendition was boooring and average.

[...] Idol Watch: Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light Spoilers* for last night’s semifinals week-two elimination of American Idol coming up after the break.  [...] [...]