'American Idol': Attack of the Piano Man
It was Billy Joel night at the song factory.
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It's over. After all of that pain and struggle, all that we have endured, it's done. Randy Jackson has left the show. Ha, mean. I'm just kidding, Randy. But yes, the twelfth American Idol competition came to a close last night, a surprisingly rousing and spirited finale to a season that's been anything but.
It was Billy Joel night at the song factory.
Another night, another one gone. After Wednesday's CRIME ELIMINATION and all that, last night's just regular old elimination felt a bit staid and boring. It was just what it was, ho hum, oh well. Even if, yeah, it was a little vindicating.
Ah, our first elimination episode here in the finals, and it was a satisfying one. It wasn't terribly surprising, perhaps, but it still needed to happen. Well done, Idol jerks. But before we get to all that! There's a whole episode to be discussed.
The top 13! How did we get here already? It seems like just yesterday the judges were sitting on an aircraft carrier listening to that girl in the bikini or whatever she was wearing wail away.
Finally, American Idol is real! Gone are the hideous pre-taped auditions and Hollywood Week hysterics. We have arrived at the live shows that we, America, get to vote on.
Last night was the intermediary, the strange middleman, the thing hanging between here and there. And what better place to host such an event than Las Vegas, American purgatory, desert ruin not yet ruined. So, yeah, they went to Las Vegas.
We will all eventually come to dread the two-hour-long episodes of American Idol, but last night's Double Stuf episode, early-ish along in the season, was entirely welcome. We got to see a lot — a lot of singing, a lot of satisfying judging — that we just could not have seen in an hour. So, oddly, thank you for that, Idol dreammakers!
Last night the hell of Group Night began.
Last night began Hollywood Week, sending some people tumbling down.
Last night's Portland auditions failed to inspire.
Last night on Idol we met a man born without ears, a girl who likes hunting, and an old contestant came back from the dead.
Last night's American Idol took us away from the busy, bleating cities, out of the smog and smoke to a crisp and clean and, most importantly of all, monied place that the locals call Aspen.
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