B-Movie Central Cheese Blog

I know I haven’t posted here in a while, so I thought it was time I did.

As a fan of this season’s American Idol, I’ve watched a lot of talented young men and women take the stage and do their best to become the next American Idol. What’s impressed me about this group of idols is the friendship, support and comeraderie they’ve shown each other throughout the competition. Many genuine tears have been shed week after week as one of their fellow idols after another is voted off the show. These people really care about and support each other.

Now, that said, I’m super pissed off about a lot of the childish crap I’ve been hearing from people both inside and outside the show. I’ll start with the one I just heard on the news. When Elliot Yamin was voted off the show last week, it was a super close vote. The fact is he lost and I feel really bad for him, but I know he’s going to have an awesome career, so I’m not too awful worried about that. What really pisses me off is how people are jumping on Katherine McPhee’s reaction when she heard the news. She kinda smiled and clapped a little. Now they’re making her out to be some kind of a witch or something because she was happy about Elliot getting booted off the show.

Ok, now let’s think about how assanine that is. It’s down to three people. You’re one of the two that people generally think could go, and it’s a toss up. Suddenly, you find out you made it to the finals. Now what would YOUR reaction be? Relief, surprise, happiness…and yet sadness at the same time. I saw all of that in Katherine’s reaction. Week after week she’s shown herself to genuinely care about her fellow idols, and was even visibly shocked when she beat out Chris Daughtry. She shows her reactions…like most normal human beings. She’s a genuinely sweet, beautiful, talented girl who earned her way into the final two by making it through all the votes. So people who would now condemn her for being happy about her accomplishments all need a good smack up the back of the head. You people are jerks and you should be ashamed of yourself. Be happy for her that she made it instead of being petty because the person you wanted to win didn’t. In the end, there can be only one, and no matter who you wanted to win, that one will be the one who comes out on top, because that’s the one person who was able to pull the most votes from the American people.

Now, the next thing I want to bitch about is the reaction over Chris Daughtry being voted off the show. First off, anyone who doubts he’s going to have an amazing career is just flat wrong, and I’m sure he’s already got stuff in the works. That said, just like Elliot Yamin and everyone else people wanted to win, he got voted off. It is a competition and people need to vote if they want their favorite to win. How many of these people who are all pissed off about him getting voted off the show actually voted? Probably a lot of you didn’t. Then there’s people who say they tried to vote for Chris and heard Katherine’s voice instead and accidentally cast a vote for her. I got news for you people. If you heard Katherine’s voice, it’s because you dialed the wrong number. Place the blame where it belongs people, squarely on your own heads. Holding a grudge against Katherine just because she’s more popular with the voters who bothered to vote is just wrong and totally unfair to her.

Now, another bitch I have is about the judges, and this goes for all three of them. In fact, I’ll just give each one their own section, but first I’ll bitch about something that all three of them are guilty of, and that’s comparing the idols and their performances to the people who originally did the song. This is just flat out wrong and not something they should be doing.

The problem here is, they tell the idols to put their own take on the songs, but when they do, they’re invariably compared to the original artist who did the song, and just as invariably told they’re not as good as that artist. This is just wrong on so many levels. These people are NOT those artists, they are individuals with their own styles and talents. They’re singing a song that someone else wrote, and that performance should be taken and analyzed ON ITS OWN, not compared to the original artist and or version of the song. And frankly you guys, I’ve enjoyed many of the idol’s versions more than the originals, so where do you people get off telling them they’re not as good as the original artists? You know what? They’re as good as themselves and as good as the song allows them to be. The original artist and their performance has nothing to do with the idol and their performance. You judges should be offering these people constructive criticisms and praise rather than just telling them how much they suck compared to someone else.

Now, here’s my problems with each individual judge:

Randy: Greg Gumble said that no adult human being should start a sentence with the word “Yo”. He’s right. Randy jackson sounds like he’s stuck in “80′s ghetto rap” mode and never managed to break out of that mold. Grow up and speak like an adult Randy, people will respect what you have to say a whole lot more. You’re not hip, you’re just sad. Also, you seem to have a problem with white people singing songs from classic black performers. Katherine has done several of these songs and has done an awesome job with each of them and all you do is make a face and tell her that it wasn’t that good. Well you know what? Maybe you just don’t think a white girl can sing as well or entertain as well as a black one. Doesn’t that sound a little racist to you? Maybe you should think about that Randy before you sign on to keep judging these competitons for the next several years. You need to open your mind up and take performances on their own merit rather than getting all uppity about them, like you think some great black artist is being insulted because someone who was white dared to sing their song.

Paula: Paula’s problem is that she seems to get a few favorites on the show and generally goes really easy on them. From what I’ve seen, these are usually the guys. Again, coming back to Katherine, she’s been overly hard on Katherine even though she’s turned in some great performances. Is it cattiness or jealousy? Who knows, but Paula was crying when Elliot got voted off. Would the tears have come so easily for Katherine?

Simon: Telling people they sound like karaoki or like a bad wedding singer after they’ve just turned in a great performance just shows the level of arrogance and closed mindedness that Simon possesses. You can tell someone what was wrong with their performances without insulting them, and when you think about it, every time anyone sings a cover of someone else’s song, it is karaoki. What the hell do you expect from these people Simon? If you don’t want karaoki then get the producers of the show to make them perform all original songs. Then you won’t have to worry about comparing the idols to anyone else and you can take them on their own merits.  When you compared Katherine to Whitney Houston and told her she wasn’t as good…again that was just wrong, and you rightfully had to apologize for it. She’s not trying to be Whitney Houston (who never impressed me all that much anyway), she’s trying to be herself, and that’s all she needs to be.

What really saddens me is that the idols have to deal with all this crap. They’ve all been just a hugely wonderful group of people and they don’t deserve this kind of treatment by the show, the judges or the fans. I hope that all of idols that made it to the final ten have incredible careers, because each and every one of them deserve it.