...with sprinkles on top. Tomorrow I'll leave around 8 am and drive 4 hours to my neice's preschool. She's sharing birthday cupcakes with her class, and I'm invited. I can't wait! I'm so excited to be with my sister's family, and I'm even more excited that Pauline's flight arrives Saturday. Lord, please let her arrive safely.
Speaking of exciting news, tonight we'll find out who made it into the top 3 on AI, and it's a new installment of LOST. Which one will you watch? Both? Neither?
I've been collecting my thoughts on AI lately, specifically about the judges and producers. There's been a lot of speculation on the net about how the show's rigged and that the judges aren't fair with their criticisms and endorsements. I've especially heard a lot of rude comments about one judge in particular. Guess who!
All the snarky comments made about Simon remind me of old-fashioned melodramas. Taylor is the hero in white. Simon is the guy in the black cape with the fake mustache. I'd argue that Simon as we see him on TV is not even a real person. He’s a caricature: the villain who ties the damsel to the buzzsaw. So his part in the show only adds to the fun. The worse his behavior, the more justified our hatred of him becomes. Booing and hissing Simon is a crucial factor in the successful formula worked out by AI’s producers in previous seasons. Simon knows his part in the AI machine and plays it with overacted gusto and copyrighted catch-phrases.
I don’t mind Simon being the villian. I expect it. It’s part of the price of admission. Imagine a reality show with no conflict; it would be…well, in the words of Simon “boring, indeed.”What I do mind is the sneaking suspicion I keep fighting that Simon is not the only villian lurking behind the curtains at America’s favorite reality music show. It seems like the producers want to steal Simon’s part by sabotaging some contestants and promoting others. Rumors of back-stage foul play were once the domain of late night idol message boards, but the accusations are spreading and getting more and more mainstream. So I'm left asking, is it a fair fight or not?
And if the producers are favoring some contestants over others, aren't they missing the point?American audiences want escapism. We want to cheer the hero and hate the villian. We want to see good triumph over evil. If they can't provide that, I predict that AI will belly-up in one or two seasons.
