Swing And A Miss
After griping yesterday about the dearth of quality series currently airing, I actually forgot to record Friday Night Lights yesterday when I went to play basketball. It hasn’t been posted online yet, so for the time being I will explain why I dislike American Idol.
Regular readers have will have noticed that I seldom post anything about the ratings juggernaut and it might seem peculiar seeing as it would conceivably draw more readers in (given its large fan base). I can certainly understand the appeal to it, the singing, the public denigration, the promise of immediate fame and the ideal venue to judge. But all of those reasons stand to explain exactly why I cannot watch the show.
The concept of humilation on a national scale is something that is relied on way too heavily by the creators of reality television. It gives the viewer someone to point and laugh at, and feel vindicated that they are not the person being embarassed by Simon Cowell. Some are offended by the mean-spiritedness on which shows such as Idol thrive, I am just turned off by the repition. Every single episode for the first few weeks is the same thing.
Some poor schmuck walks into an audition room to a bitter british man, a strung out former pop star and some other guy, nineteen times out of twenty he/she is sent his/her walking papers, with a incredibly callous explanation that we the viewer are supposed to be unprepared for. Unprepared? Cowell just did the same exact thig literally two minutes ago. This goes on several weeks with multiple episodes per week and somehow never loses its widespread appeal. Sorry, but I just don’t get it.
Towards the end of every season, it reverts from the absurd and proposterous to seriousness in which all of a sudden, one third of the country is actually approaching the show with a serious mindset. It goes from being a joke to a humorless talent competition with human interest pieces about the adversity of being a McDonald’s employee with so much “hidden talent”. And the ability to belt out predicatable 80’s vocal tracks becomes an enviable skill. At this point it is basucally Star Search with a viewer vote.
Like I said I can understand the draw, everyone picks a favorite, some send in votes, some are just casual spectators, and the country inevitably picks an attractive woman as their favorite reality lounge act. 8-10 months later, FOX repeats the process. But it is just to redundant for me. Half the season is Simon and his cronies brandishing people unworthy, the second half everything is all business like, and I don’t appreciate “great” singing enough to ever watch the show, so I never write about it.
Sorry, I had to vent my frustrations, I’ll get around to watching FNL later today.
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