Hell hath no fury...

Why hath the Idol voters done this to me? How can you eliminate themost talented singer in Idol history to keep Blake Lewis on the show? I actually kinda understand why she didn't win. she didn;t really have that factor that makes people vote for her in this competition. She doesn;t have that feel of an undiscovered talent. She's almost like a ringer who was already singing professionally but just needed this competition for the publicity. All that being said, she was miles ahead of the competition here. Maybe someday Jordin Sparks will be able to hold a candle to her and even evebntually surpass her talent-wise, but for right now Melinda was the obvious class of the competition. And I'll admit that it drove me a little crazy the way she seemed surprised everytime the judges complimented her. In the interest of full disclosure, about half way through the season I theorized that these reactions were indicitive of some sort of mental deficiency, but that turned out to be wrong, Paula is still the only mentally disabled person involved with the show. I know it's silly to get even the least bit upset over her getting the boot from the show, the losers on the show have gone on to at least equal the success of the winners, and finishing third will probably allow Melinda to have more control over the music she puts out and hopefully that will result in better music. As for the two remaining contestants, well somewhere Ruben and Justin and Fantasia are all a little happier today. Justin will no longer have to be thought of as the runaway worst finalist ever. Blake Lewis can join him in the heirarchy of awful finalists and Fntasia and Ruben will probably stop having to worry about being the worst contestants to ever win, especially if Blake somehow wins this whole thing. I'm just gonna root for Jordin and hope that her debut album sounds better than the crap by Katherine McPhee that is on the radio these days. If Blake wins, well then we'll probably have to hear lots of crappy music from him, it's really inevitable either way. He'll put out a generic album that is completely derivitive of JT, Maroon 5, and 311, plus he'll throw in a few raps/beatbox moments that only Aaron Carter will be able to appreciate. I'm still gonna watch the finale, maybe I'll DVR it if it's on at the same time as Lost. I just can't pass up the opportunity to watch Paula get that giddy smile while she claps like a seal and a little drool comes out of the side of her mouth, I just wish she was giddy over Melinda.

Some other entertainment news I picked up this week, NBC announced its fall schedule. The great news is that Friday Night Lights was renewed. Of all the dramas on TV, this is the best one that keeps itself in the realm of reality. That is to say it's my third favorite behind Lost and Heroes. I really appreciated the drama on this show, maybe some of the plots were too fantastic, that is to say there were too many things going on in one town or two many games that would qualify as the greatest high school football game ever played, but I was sucked in from the first episode, and I would have been a little sad if they didn;t give it a second season despite the fact that it didn't get great ratings. The other big news out of there was a mixed bag. Studio 60 on the sunset strip was cancelled. I was as excited as anyone when they first announced this show going on the air, it would show the inner workings of a Satruday Night Live type show. To me it sounded like a can't miss idea, but then when I started to watch the show I could feel that something wasn;t right. The things they were writing for the fictitious SNL type show just weren't funny. I understood why they had the central romance between Matthew Perry and that Blonde, every drama needs a central romance I guess, it didn't really interest me but I could live with it. I guess the other thing that put me off about the show was the way all of the characters seemed to take their craft so damn seriously. My worst nightmare is to think that somewhere Will Ferrell is thinking of himself as an artist and social commentator as opposed to just being a great comedian, and most of the characters on this show thought of themselves as the former. I could have done without the episode where Nathan Corddry's character tried to validate himself to his parents, and he ranted about how they did comedic sketches not "skits." There were some good episodes of course, the one where Mark McKinney came in and showed the two young writers how to write for the show was a personal favorite of mine, but in the end I'm just gonna remember this as a show that could've been great but instead missed the boat. I don;t blame NBC for cancelling it, my guess was that the show was very expensive to put on and unless you have a great show to build your network around you have to cancel it, you can;t just keep on "good" shows that lose you a lot of money.

On a final note, it seems that Jenna Fischer, Pam from The Office, gopt hurt pretty badly at a party celebrating their season finale. She had a little too much to drink and fell down some stairs fracturing her back in four places. It apparently sounds a lot worse than it is, when you hear someone fractuared their back you worry about them not being able to walk or things like that. She's gonna be fine to shoot the show next season which will apparently be an etended 30 episode run next year, so I just wanted to wish her a speedy recovery. It wouldn't be The Office without some nice roast Pam and a side of Pams.

Anyway, that's all for now.

-Bender Out

Brief Hiatus

I'm back to do a little recap of the last week. I've been in mourning since Eddie Murphy was snubbed at the Oscars last week. That whole best supporting actor category was full of great candidates, I would've been somewhat happy with any decision so long as Mark Walberg didn't get the nod. I always end up rooting for the person who is least likely to be back for a second chance, such as Bill Murray a couple years ago in Lost in Translation. This year both Eddie Murphy and Jackie Earle Haley fit the bill, I don;t think anyone could've imagined Murphy or Haley ever getting a nomination, in fact most people didn't even know that the former Kelly Leak was still acting. Anyway, seeing Alan Arkin win the Oscar was a little disappointing even though I like him and he seemingly got the edge because he's been pretty great for a long time and this was in some ways a lifetime achievement award. I enjoyed Little Miss Sunshine and I enjoy the idea of a comedy getting a nomination, but Little Miss Sunshine didn't seem best picture worthy to me, and it somehow became one of the more overrated comedies in recent history.

I just have to comment on American Idol, in case you were worried I'm still completely hung up on the show even though the shows came and went without a comment so far. Well there's so much still on my mind three full days later. First off, Kelly Pickler still looks phenomenal, she may look a little different, switching to a more traditional country look and filling out in some areas, but she was filling out that blue dress better than the designer had ever imagined. On to the eliminations. I was pissed to see Leslie Hunt sent packing, she sang well enough and she had a quiet unassuming nature, I'm just thinking that her lack of self promotion and ego in addition to that awful song did her in. I had never heard that song before, but from now on I'm going to remember it as the stupid song that eliminated two contestants in one week. Poor AJ Tabaldo was done in by that song, and perhaps the whole, "is he gay?" thing. As for Nick and Alaina, they didn't really impress me, despite the fact that Nick was a local kid, he was still my least favorite, and alaina was probably going to go only as far as her looks could take her. My last note on the show was that Sanjaya completely over-acted the shocked reaction that he wasn;t going home. He probably really did think he deserved to go home, but he wanted to make sure that even the least perceptive viewers could tell that was his thinking. It was the level of acting you might see in one of those awful Skinemax movies, not the great ones that featured Shannon Tweed or Lisa Boyle/Cassandra Leigh, I'm talking about the really low budget ones like the new one with Tanya from the Real World. But I digress, I'll give Sanjaya a pass because he's young, my predictions for next weeks eliminations are Sanjaya, Jared Cotter, (both of which will have Paula near tears) for the men, and Haley and Jordin for the women, proving that people will continue to vote for Antonella for all the wrong reasons. By the way, Paula won't shed a tear for any woman eliminated.

A few quick TV notes, the season finales of both Monk and Psych aired on Friday. Do yourself a favor and add both of these shows to your Tivo, they are similar quirky mystery/comedy shows which I enjoy greatly. On Psych there's great chemistry within the cast and Dule Hill seems a lot more suited to this comedic sidekick role than being a bit player in a vastly overrated White house drama. And if you don;t know about Monk by now, you really should, it was always a good show but it really kicked it up to the next level when Traylor Howard joined the cast, she really should be this generation's Meg Ryan, I don;t understand why she hasn't done more movies.

Speaking of that overrated White House drama, I completely gave up on Studio 60. It was a great idea for a show, but the execution hasn't quite done it for me. They should have spent more time figuring out how to write funny jokes, and less time on the "who cares" romance between Matthew Perry and that blonde Christian character. The Black Donnellys, which is currently airing in Studio 60's spot was surprisingly good, to the point where I'll be watching the next few episodes in hopes of it being the next great show.

Thats all I'm gonna get into for now, I'll be back soon to update all my sports thoughts, there's been a lot going on especially in College Basketball. but for now...

-Bender Out