Down to 44

Sort of a strange episode of American Idol last night--we didn't see a lot of the people they've focused on for the past couple weeks. Only a brief glimpse of Kellie Pickler, a couple brief shots of gray-haired guy (although I'm wondering if Simon's comment during the cutdowns about someone whom he doesn't know why they're in the competition but he's curious to see what he'll do if he gets there was about him), nothing about Katherine McPhee (although I'm told she was in one of the groups messing up the words to that Four Tops song). And we only saw enough of "fit model" to know that she's unfortunately been sent home. On the other hand, we saw more than we ever could have wanted about the Brittenum twins. The only saving grace is that we know they don't make it to the final 24.

It's no mystery why the Brittenums got arrested for the identity theft crime they allegedly committed--they're obviously too dumb to be successful criminals. One guy quits the show because he thinks his brother got axed, but his brother really didn't get axed--sharp move, Derrell, or is it Terrell? Terrell (or is it Darrell?) ripping on the group member who got canned, even though that was the only guy that would practice with him was pretty classless--although I did enjoy one of the other group members standing behind him during the interview just shaking his head at Terrell's (or is Derrell's?) idiocy. And I'm not sure why the judges let them back in the competition--although I guess they felt that hey, they're kids who don't quite have their head on straight and let's give them a break and maybe they can get their act together. Or they just figured they're entertaining TV. Of course, after building us up to hate those guys, then American Idol goes and gives us Terrell (or is it Darrell? I really don't care enough to even try to tell them apart) getting all sad that his brother might not have made it, and we get a happy reunion. And I'm a sucker, so it kind of worked on me--but I'll still enjoy watching them go home tonight.

As for the rest of the show, when does the statute of limitations run out on "Brokeback Mountain" parodies? That thing about the cowboys was painful. As for their performance, Simon said it seemed like they wanted to do a comedy routine, but I didn't really find it all that funny. In fact, poor Garet looked like he wanted to crawl in a hold during the whole thing--like he either was terrified or embarrassed. Sad to see him go, but his singing really wasn't up to par.

And I wonder about the people on this show--every year there's someone who wants to practice but "can't find her group" or something, there's someone else who just goes to sleep instead of practicing--do they do this just so they'll be featured on the Hollywood show? Why do they repeat the same mistakes? (Although one of the guys who went to sleep in the Terrell Brittenum group was declared the best singer by Randy, so I guess it did work for him.)

So we're down to 44, and for the second year in a row, we're going to have this bizarre show where they call everyone back to Hollywood just to tell close to half of them they need to go back home. Apparently, the judges are going to look at tape of the performances to make the cutdowns--what are they, football coaches? And then they'll bring them into that big room, empty except for the table they're sitting at--kind of like the last scene in Flashdance--and get rid of a bunch of them. Cruel and heartless, but they're the number one show on TV, so I guess they can do whatever they want. At least, though, we'll finally be into the sing-off rounds next week.