Best Idol Ever

Oh happy day.

Stankjaya got the boot.

The glee on Simon's face as he realized his season-long dream coming true was priceless.

After Chris' disastrous performance I thought he'd be going home (he's been in the bottom three twice before, suggesting his fan base is weak, and he was practically as bad as lil' Stanky last night). But he didn't even hit the bottom three. Apparently America agrees with him that "nasally" is a valid form of singing...

LaKisha also seemed to be on shaky ground and was the last one standing next to He of the Demonic Grin.

But all negatives aside, now that the kid is gone I have to hope he doesn't have a life of ridicule ahead of him. The nasty side of Idol is in the way it can build people up and then toss them aside with no regard. It's not completely the show's fault, it's also Sanjaya's and his family's for deciding to enter the competition and stay in under the pressure.

Hopefully he'll just move on to a life and career outside of music. But the temptation to cash in on fame while he has it may be too much to resist. And the attempts to do so will surely be painful.

But the competition will be a lot more fun from here on. I don't think it's a coincidence Melinda and Jordin are now the only two contestants to never land in the bottom three. I think we have our final two right there (barring a Daughtry-esque elimination "shocker").

Go Doolittle!

Halle, just say "no"

I kind of wish I had thought of this to say about Perfect Stranger, the new Halle Berry trainwrec...er, thriller opening today:

Life is full of choices, and Halle Berry has made another bad one with Perfect Stranger, a perfectly off-putting thriller.

But that's from Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern, via Metacritic.

I also wish I had been gutsy enough to just call it what it is, a "crappy thriller," like Lisa Schwarzbaum in EW (unfortunately I saw that quote from her before I could even think of it).

Anyway, here's my review.

And no my mind wasn't made up just because of what I wrote about this movie close to two years ago. I'm just prescient like that. (Incredibly bizarre coincidence further tying this crap to Rich Man's Wife: character actress Clea Lewis is in both, and this is her first significant live action movie since that one.)

Also, I reviewed a not quite as bad Guy Pearce thriller, First Snow, last week. That one's just boring.

In praise of The Shield

The Sopranos' return to HBO was the TV event of the week (and probably the season) but one of its few true peers, FX's The Shield, is back on the air too.

I'm lucky enough to be the LA Times "showtracker" for the series and my first piece is up on the recently launched Showtracker blog.

Big fat spoilers if you've never seen The Shield, not to mention it won't mean much if you haven't, but I feel a little bit honored to be able to write about something so good. If it's not too lame to admit that.

First decent Idol results of the season

Finally, one of the top 12 who really deserved to be booted actually was. Goodbye Haley, no one will miss you or your botched attempts at sex appeal.

And since Stankjaya is still seemingly Untouchable (offense intended), it was appropriate to see Phil and Chris in the bottom three.

Latin week was hideous. Country week is up next...

These Idol producers really know how to pick a theme well suited to their contestants, don't they?

Idol thoughts

I’ve been silent on American Idol so far this season but it’s not because I haven’t been enjoying it. Melinda and LaKisha are terrific and Blake and Jordin help to keep the competition interesting. One exceptional, one near exceptional and two solid talents make for a more satisfying line-up than last season. With any luck they’ll be the final four…but who knows.

There is the Stankjaya problem. To give the Worst Top 12 Contestant Ever some credit: he does bring a bizarrely compelling quality of his own to the show. The producers must be watching all of this nervously. He’s pushing the limits of the any-publicity-is-good-publicity theory and his presence on the show blurs the line between the top 12 performance shows and the audition rounds like no one ever has before. All that credibility carefully cultivated by album sales, Grammy wins and even an Oscar win for former contestants could be in serious jeopardy.

Right now it’s a given that he’s going to outlast more talented people. Last week was the first time in over a month that someone significantly better wasn’t eliminated after A.J., Sabrina, Brandon and Stephanie were knocked out over the previous four weeks. And last week’s victim, Chris Sligh, didn’t start off horribly, he just fell apart under the pressure. Obviously he too should’ve outlasted Stankjaya in any normal competition.

Tonight is “standards” night and the contestants most in jeopardy have to be Phil Stacey and Haley Scarnato, who have both long outlasted their welcome (neither deserved top 12 placement). Phil did better than ever before last week but there’s no reason to think either of them have enough support to stay around much longer. Standards week could also do some damage to another mediocre contestant, Gina Glocksen, and Chris Richardson needs to avoid being boring.

I dumped even more general thoughts on the show so far into this photo gallery. And the page for the departed Chris Sligh.