Idolator

Most uncomfortably awesome moment of the night: ALW telling David Archuletta not once, but TWICE(!), to sing with his eyes open.

When are we going to see the 7-part prog rock portion of the competition? I want to see one of these clowns sing "Close To The Edge," or maybe something by Gentle Giant.

Thank you for mentioning that Carly T-shirt and its cringeworthy neediness. I mean, what was I just saying last week? Just when she gives her best performance in months and I think I've been too harsh on her, she goes and pulls something desperate like that and reminds me why I hate her thinly veiled I-deserve-this entitlement. Ecch.

Maura, you're letting your preferences blind you with these ratings. You may not like the Davids, but there's no way they were worse than Castro this week. In fact, I'd say Cook was better than Carly, maybe Syesha.

@bbernardini: For the grand finale, all of the Idols return for a rousing "I've Seen All Good People." I like it.

@Al Shipley: Hey, we all grade on our own curves, right? And besides, David A forgot a bunch of the words! And David C ranked lower than Jason because I fucking hate Phantom Of The Opera.

@Al Shipley: I'm going to half-agree with you. I'd put David Cook (a bit begrudgingly) in the top two. Weirdly, I thought the judges underrated him last night. Except for his closing grunge-boy note, that was a near-flawless performance of the Phantom song. I also thought he out-sang the other David, just in terms of vocal purity.

But I'm totally with Maura on Castro: the performance was far from perfect, but it was an effective rethink of a song that's been power-vocaled to death by two generations of female vocalists. And I think Maura's spot-on in saying that approach befuddled the judges. I wouldn't be surprised if Castro's fans rewarded him for it.

Syesha/Carly were the only two good ones. Castro is definitely at the bottom with Brooke. He really shit the bed.

@Al Shipley: @Maura Johnston: @Chris Molanphy: Jason's performance was not good at all. His breathing -- you could hear every breath he took -- made his otherwise mediocre performance that much worse. Professional singers know how to work around the need to breathe, and he clearly hasn't learned how to do this. Also, I'm really over this season's performers' glee about their lack of knowledge of the material they're singing. "I've never heard this song before! I'm too kool for skool y'all! LOLz!!!1!1one"

Syesha's performance was good for finally letting some of her personality into the performance. But the vocals were a little "pitchy", if you'll pardon my use of the term. Oh, but that DRESS!!!

David C. was far-and-away the best of the nite.

And am I the only one who could close my eyes and hear Joss Stone singing during Carly's performance? I thought she was awesome.

1) David C.
2) Carly
3) David A.
4) Syesha
5) Jason
6) Brooke

Midniiiiight....and the kitties are sleeeeeeping.....

/Letterman

@Rob Murphy: I'm really over this season's performers' glee about their lack of knowledge of the material they're singing. "I've never heard this song before! I'm too kool for skool y'all! LOLz!!!1!1one"

It's not a "too kool for skool" attitude in my eyes; it's indicative of a problem with the show that the producers need to remedy, i.e. realize that "pop music" isn't what it was during the Whitney/Mariah heyday--by which I mean a monolithic entity that most people were at least somewhat aware of, if not actively consuming--and adjust the show's themes accordingly. How many weeks have the singers been forced to perform songs that were popular before they were born, or even sentient? It's no accident that viewership among the younger demo has dropped off.

Also, putting David Archuleta above Syesha is crazy. Again, he forgot the words! If anyone else had been struck with that affliction they'd have been run up the flagpole.

@Maura Johnston: Despite myself I have always had mad love for the cheesiness of Phantom, so this was the first DC performance that I found tolerable.

And I've always hated Jesus Christ Superstar because it reminds me of dirty hippies and the christian Archie comics, so I hated Carly's performance.

@Maura Johnston: And I think it was hilariously inappropriate for Archie to be singing the young ingenue diva anthem from Phantom. Unless he's trying to capture Clay's old fanbase.

"America was given the chance to witness the birth of Sebastian Bach, Mach 2."

Are you trying to get me to start watching Idol again? SAVAGE ANIMAL!!!

+ Watch video

@Chris Molanphy: You should hate her. She flat-out does not deserve to be there. She has had millions dumped on her and went nowhere. I know AI isn't fair and all that, but it's just galling to me.

@bbernardini: I'd like a King Crimson night. Or someone tackling Musical Box by Genesis.

When DC took the stage I kept screaming, "Dracula Musical!" but no one heard. Because I was in my living room.

Maura, I could not agree more with your assessment of Castro and the overall problem with AI. I've been saying for the last few years that they fell ass-backwards into the success of this thing and have never figured out why it works. Hint to AI producers: we don't want another Mariah/Whitney knockoff. Its one of many reasons I think Archuletta and Carly sucked.

My ranking (for my own tastes):
1) Castro
2) David Cook
3) Syesha
4) Brooke
5) Carly
6) Archuletta

Brooke might have been technically worse than Carly or the kid, but I thought that she emotionally connected with the song and made it believable -- even if far from perfect.

I think Jason will be going home...at least Brooke was memorable, even if it wasn't in a good way. Jason's performance was pretty forgettable, even though I thought it was a lot better than the judges have him credit for.

A few things...

'AWL Night' come on what are the producers thinking. Their ratings are down this year so they throw out AWL? Unless your watching for the train-wreck-ness of the whole thing, AWL can only hurt the ratings.

During Cook's entire song all I could think of was the Cowardly Lion from Wizard of Oz. And Castro needs to stop (badly) channeling Jeff Buckley.

Carly Simon...err...I mean, Brooke false started earlier in the season and was praised for being "professional" (what ever that means). Last night she was skewered (except by Simon on rebuttal) for basically the same thing. Though she did fall apart after the restart. I think she saves Jason from going home tonight.

Hrrmm...

I just got around to checking DialIdol, and the numbers are interesting:

1) David C. (safe)
2) David A.
3) Syesha
4) Jason
5) Brooke
6) Carly

I'm not the biggest fan of musicals, but I thought last night was great. Maura, you may hate Phantom, but there is no denying that David Cook NAILED it.

I gotta give the Paula out-of-it scale a full 10 vicodins out of 10. She told Brooke to just make up lyrics when she forgot them. She said something like, "If you just sing from your heart no one will care what you're singing."

I'm thinking AWL might care, for one.

@FreedomFries: I was kind of shocked when Serious Paula made her first appearance of the season (especially after that undeserved, endless tongue bath she gave to Jason Castro...). I can't recall a recent episode where she criticized someone without at least complimenting them for their clothes, hair, makeup, or for "showing America who you are, and who you are is [insert name here]". Last night, she just scolded Brooke.

Get rid of Brooke White. If you can't vote for Jason, don't vote for White. One of the Davids may be the winner, but Jason should not leave before that horrible pathetic Brooke.

@Charles100: Don't pit the two artists that give understated and heartfelt performances against each other. Let's turn our hatred on Archuleta and Carly.

@Rory B. Bellows: Oh come on, you think Castro is heartfelt? I don't even think he really gives a shit about being there.

Brooke is a mess and clearly can't handle the pressure, but at least her freakouts and mistakes give her some kind of personality. Jason Castro is just kind of there.

Frankly, I wanted to hear Little David sing "Memories" so I could shed some man tears. That kid could make "Nothing But a G Thing" sound sad.

@tubby: Castro is too stoned to even know he's on teevee. I'm fine with dudes with the perpetual half-closed eyes, but this guy makes me want to hold a mirror under his nose to make sure he's still breathing.

Am I the only one who thought ALW totally wanted to bone Carly?

@whoneedslight:

Thank you. That made me laugh out loud.

Um,............. not Carly. Oh, where have you been? Not Carly.

On Jason Castro, he was very ill and had been for three days. He did very well interpreting very down beat lyrics that do not have an uplifting resolution. He must have had to dig very deep to be able to muster the feelings he obviously had while singing the lyric.

You say he is using MJ, I think not, you must not know much about him to think he is a stoner. Oh, I get it! You think the dreads mean he smokes up. Or possibly you think it is MJ smoke in the circulating photo of him behind a cloud of smoke. Don't you know cigar smoke when you see it? Who on earth would waste that much marijuana smoke. So the cheap shots at Jason are wasted on anyone who knows anything at all about him.

He is a talented musician that will continue to grow and learn. He has many roads he will go down and keeps himself close to Christ as he walks along.

I don't care if Jason wins AI or not, in fact I really don't want to see him in the AI system. But as long as Jason indicates he wants to progress, and he does, I will vote for him.

The AI system is more designed for David Archuletta. He has already been trained in that system of molding and manipulation. I sure hope that kid gets far far away to school and has a real job for a while so he can free himself of the pupeteers.

AI is making terrible errors in their more and more obvious manipulation of the contestants.

@candybar: ok....

David Cook makes me want to die a little bit. In the same way the new Fergie sex and the city song does. Growing up as a super queer little boy I was obsessed with all the songs they sang last night (except Syesha's I never saw Starlight Express) and the collective suckitude of the Davids, brooke, and Jason's renditions, and Brooke and Jason's complete lack of knowledge of what they were singing, completely ruined my childhood. Thanks AI!

@tubby: Jason is high on christ apparently. Don't you know [Christ] smoke when you see it?

@raihala: I'm pretty sure ALW wanted to bone Archuleta. And for Archuleta to keep his eyes open while it was all going on.

@tubby: Yeah, I tend to think that Castro is heartfelt. He's pretty much permanently high, and not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I think he tries to connect with what he's singing. Plus, anyone that does a Cohen song on AI gets my benefit of the doubt for the entirety of the season. That's a standing offer, Archuleta.

I thought ALW was notoriously straight and a total, ahem, pussy hound (?) I mean, there are a FEW straight men in musical theater. And Carly has a whiff of Sarah Brightman (ALW's second of three wives, I believe) to her.

@Rory B. Bellows:

Jason was awarded a Petroleum Engineering scholarship to Texas A & M and was a merit scholar. Thats not slow in my book.

The constant insinuation that he is high bit, is too much. You should go find out more about him you might be really surprised at his substance and humility.

As far as the smoke being smoke from dope, no. In my wild days no one I knew would ever just waste their dope like that.

My dad smoked cigars and I sure do know what a cloud of it looks like, choke choke, cough cough.

I stand corrected. ALW like chicks and Castro is a genius. Everything I thought I knew is wrong.