I’ve never really watched Idol and I keep being reminded why (as I said before).
For example, last night’s terrible debut singles from Taylor and McPhee (a duo along the lines of Tippecanoe and Tyler Too) were one example. Then, His Dawgness says Taylor Hicks’ version of “Levon” is “pitchy” and Paula Abdul replies that it’s just Taylor being Taylor. “Pitchy” is Jackson’s perfectly appropriate way of expressing that pitch of the vocals were off — i.e., he was off-key. And your answer is that he’s just being himself?
You can read Lisa de Moraes’ recap of last night here. Only problem is that de Moraes has a really bad habit of being illogically snarky. For example:
[Jackson] does, however, say it’s a little “pitchy.” Actually, it was off-pitchy.
Duh? That’s what the expression means. On Tuesday, she wrote:
Then in May, nearsighted Ana-Lucia and Libby [of Lost] were bumped off after being arrested in Hawaii for Driving Under the Influence, which caused ratings to spike 30 percent.
(Actually, Ana-Lucia and Libby were gunned down by Michael after his attempt to free his kidnapped son; the actresses who play those two women had been arrested on the DUI charges in Hawaii in December — which, the show’s producers have insisted, had nothing to do with the decision to bump them off in May and it is a total coincidence. Right.)
Does de Moraes not understand that shows are produced in advance, not shot on a whim? So, Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros were arrested on December 1. The episode aired May 3. It was written and shot some time in the middle. Let’s assume the producers are lying when they say Rodriguez was always set to only stay for a season. That’s a big expensive change made really quickly.
Sometimes she seems to write things that she doesn’t even believe, just to get a reaction.
Anyway, back to Idol…
So, the finale is tonight, as is the one for Lost. Thank you, DVR!
For a really amusing and informed take on Idol, read Mike Doughty’s blog (such as here, here and here).
UPDATE: I found this old post from June of 2000 about de Moraes that reflects my feelings.
WRITING ABOUT THE TUBE: I have long vacillated between amusement and irritation over the writing style of Lisa de Moraes, who writes “The TV Column” for the Washington Post. While it’s certainly not a bad thing to exhibit an attitude while writing about the television industry (God knows, you’d better have a sense of humor), one also expects fairness and consistency. When a slew of female-skewing programs, such as Judging Amy, became popular earlier this season, de Moraes crowed about how women were kicking butt and stated that it made no sense for ABC to replace Once and Again with NYPD Blue in the Tuesday 10 p.m. slot. I might argue that what would have made no sense is to abandon a show that attracts the ratings NYPD Blue does. In a recent column, de Moraes argues that it is foolish for CBS to set its next Survivor series in Australia, because viewers will be “good and sick of looking at kangas, koala and the Outback” as a result of NBC’s coverage of the Summer Games. NBC’s Olympic coverage will air the last two weeks of September. Survivor 2 would air in January, four months later. Is the public’s taste for the Land Down Under that limited? If programming heads were following her advice, I would be worried.