American Idol

I don't really know how it happened, but I somehow find myself actually watching American Idol this season.

Though I've certainly seen it before, I never really followed the show or cared about who won or whatever. To me, this show has several irritating characteristics:

1) Long running time, very little content: On competition night, each of these contestants sing for about 2 minutes, but the rest of the time is boring. Elimination night can go for an hour before anything substantial happens! Ridiculous!

2) Unnecessary drama: Do we have to treat every elimination as a huge event? I get that it's important to the contestants, but it seems a little over the top. Also, the "feuds" between the Simon, Paula, Randy, and Seacrest seem stupid.

3) It doesn't actually matter who wins: Considering that several runners-up end up with more successful careers than the winners, and most of the finalists end up with more career opportunities than they start out with, why is it so cool to be the one left standing at the end?

4) Oh yeah, most of the music sucks.

Fortunately, the magic of TiVo makes a normally interminable hour-long episode breeze by in about 15 minutes. And while most of the performances are boring--did I mention that watching people sing is horrendously unexciting?--there are 2 guys this season who make it somewhat compelling. Anyone who watches the show knows that it's a two-horse race: David Archuleta and David Cook.

Archuleta probably has the most vocal talent. Cook is more musically creative. It's no surprise that I prefer Cook; I'm more impressed with creative talent and originality than I am with a set of powerful pipes. It also helps that the Archuleta kid has terrible, TERRIBLE taste in music.

Argh, this show is so irritating...I can't believe my first post in a month is about this. How embarrassing.