Film and TV

Idol Beat: Seven And The Ragged Tyler

Nothing like a medley from this season's losers (Pink's "So What") to make us all feel better about voting them off in the first place. The most notable thing about the performance by *deep breath* AshthonKarenThiaNaimaPia and Paul was trying to figure out who looked the least comfortable in rock attire. Karen, come on down.

Does anybody else think those placards the audience holds up every week are placed in the theater in advance, like at a political rally? This is the third week running that someone's been holding up a "Walk This Way" sign. Aerosmith had other songs, people.

Last night, the remaining seven served up "Music from the 21st Century." I was holding out for an all-Coldplay show. Alas, it was not to be.

I suspect the Idol producers are going the Justin Guarini route with Scotty McCreery, i.e. posing him with adoring female fans in order to drum up some sort of teen heartthrob deal. Judging by his Alfred E. Newman channeling George W. Bush performance of Leann Rimes' "Swingin'," he's certainly got the whole of South and North Carolina in his back pocket.

J-Lo and Randy are getting sick of the shtick, though and two-plus months in are finally telling him to mix it up. Randy even suggests Scotty (gasp) may not be "in it to win it."

This was also apparently the week where everyone made fun of everyone else (Scotty's microphone hold, James' scarves, Jacob's diva-ness). It was cute for about 30 seconds, but failed to conceal the fact they're reeeealy trying to flesh things out to the requisite hour and a half.

James Durbin contemporized with a sort of Gothic drum-major take on Muse's "Uprising." He was...shriekier than usual, which is saying something. Steven thinks he's going "in a T Rex direction," which confused me until I realized he was talking about Marc Bolan's band and not suggesting James was about to become extinct.

I admit, I don't really know who Adele is, so I couldn't say if Haley Reinhart's take on "Rolling In the Deep" did the original justice, but it sounded okay. She's continuing to improve, but I wanted to ask, John Bender-style, if Minnie Mouse knew she raided her wardrobe.

Whoa. Did Jacob Lusk just screw up? By Luther, he did. It took him half of "Dance With My Father" to recover, a slip-up voters are unlikely to forgive. The judges (minus Steven) aren't pleased with it, and Randy even goes so far as to say, "If you're here this week." He might as well have been wearing a toga and giving a thumbs-down.

Casey Abrams takes a page from James' playbook and attempts to rawk to Maroon 5's "Harder to Breathe." Who's ready for some adequately supervised rocking? Not J-Lo, I reckon. That peck on the cheek must have been a bet. Steven's so excited he curses. What an angry young man. A 63-year-old angry young man.

I'm not sure which is going to put off Stefano Langone's fans more, his vanilla performance of Ne-Yo's "Closer" or his ensemble, which can best be described as Romper Stomper 2: The Leather Bar Years. My opinion counts for nothing against the judges, however. Or the shrieking masses.

Lauren Alaina's final performance (Sara Evans' "Born to Fly") is workmanlike, but the judges would prefer more. She may be in jeopardy, and why would Steven put Alison Krauss, Faith Hill and Shania Twain in the same sentence? Krauss would disembowel those other two and take their pelts... musically speaking.

Jacob, Stefano, and...probably Haley, given the trend of the last couple weeks, are my picks to be in the bottom three tonight.


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Peter Vonder Haar writes movie reviews for the Houston Press and the occasional book. The first three novels in the "Clarke & Clarke Mysteries" - Lucky Town, Point Blank, and Empty Sky - are out now.
Contact: Pete Vonder Haar