Almost The Ones We Want

I tuned in to Grease. . . last night for what I thought was going to be the last time, but it turns out there will be an hour long results episode in which the winners are crowned next weekend. The show kicked off with another group performance, and it was mercifully short. There was no guest judge, but since America finally got its votes counted, that really didn't matter. The guest judges on seasons 2 & 3 of idol during the finals really didn't add anything, they've been much better on subsequent seasons showing up in the preliminaries. The girls elimination was first, and as I predicted, Allie got sent home. I felt really bad for her. She did start off awful, but she has grown so much and gotten so much better, that while she still isn't ready for Broadway, it really hurts to see her go while the consistently dreadful Ashley is still around. Then came the guys' elimination, and I was ready to say goodbye to Austin when we got some good news; he was safe! That meant that either Derek or Max was going to go home, and given how Derek has managed to sail through on some awful performances, I was so scared Max's time was up, but shockingly, good taste won and Derek was out. Even Billy, normally more inane than Ryan Seacrest, was shocked and mentioned that this was the first time the voting pattern for the guys has been broken, and it was quite a shock to everyone. Derek took it well and went out with more class than some of the previous contestants. While he wasn't the best singer, he's definitely more professional than a lot of the people we've seen so far. Then the bloodletting began. Ashley and Laura were up first, doing a tag team performance of "Hopelessly Devoted To You." Laura ran into some trouble early on, needing the backup singers to keep her on key during the bridge, but she got through it and gave a great performance. Ashley unfortunately got through the bridge trouble-free, but had her usual deer-in-the-headlights look throughout her performance. She just looks like she's on the verge of a spectacular meltdown and her performances make me more nervous than Julianne Moore's performance in The Hours did. The guys were up next and did a tag-team performance of "Sandy." We then got to see video clips of each of them talking about their experience on the show, and Ashley clinched her win. Laura's clip showed her fiance back home preparing for their wedding without her, and we then found out that the wedding was supposed to be next weekend, but Laura is postponing it because of the show. Ashley's clip showed her sister in Ohio wishing her well and saying how she's so proud of her and she wants to be there for her but can't afford the ticket. Cut back to the studio and Billy pulls the sister out of the wings for a "this is your life" style reunion. Laura comes across as the bitch leaving her fiance in the dust for her career, and we see how much Ashley's family loves her, she's got the better story, and in reality shows, it's all about the story. Then we got the guys. Austin was the best he's been in several weeks, but Max was right there with him. Seeing the two of them together, Austin is definitely more professional, but Max has the it factor, it's like the difference between the technically perfect Melrose and the loveable Carridee on last season's Top Model. Melrose should have won, but was punished because she was what the judges were looking for, and I have a feeling the same thing's going to happen to Austin. He deserves this more, but it's much more fun to vote for Max because he's the underdog. We then got their clips, and the first thing I noticed was that for both of them, it was them talking about their experience with the show, there was no family or, more importantly, significant other, in their clips, which was appropriate since I had the feeling that they were singing more to each other than to Sandy when they were doing their performance. However, Max's clip made me realize why my phone has not yet rung with the invitation to be a guest judge. He talked about how when he was in 5th grade, he got some disease that froze half of his face, like he'd had a stroke, and he had to undergo serious rehab for years to regain the use of that half of his face. Guess who felt like an idiot? If my foot could go any further down my throat, I could be a porn star. I do have to say that my issue with the faces he was making had nothing to do with looking like he'd had a stroke, which he didn't look like. My issue was that he needed to be aware of how he was presenting himself to the audience, and he was scrunching up his face and bugging out his eyes, exactly like Clay Aiken did on his first few weeks on Idol, and it really distracted from his singing. Obviously, he was able to get it under control and he's been totally polished and had great stage presence for about the past 3 weeks in dirrect correlation with the increase in his confidence. However, I am very sorry if anything I wrote got back to him and caused any amount of distress. I made my comments out of love and a desire to see him get better, I had no idea it could throw him back to Junior High and make him re-experience the worst thing that's ever happened to him, which is the last thing I would ever want to do to anyone. So, even though Austin is the better performer, I am throwing my support behind Max and I really hope he wins. He's worked hard for this, and, hopefully I'm not the only one that felt bad for him after seeing his clip. Talking about that experience could be the smartest thing he's ever done. Then, we got the duets, which were odd. Austin and Ashley started singing Endless Love, and again, Diana is not the diva Ashley should be copping from. Austin did great, but Ashley really dragged him down. Then, Max and Laura joined in, and while they're the couple I want to see win, I didn't feel the chemistry with them. They started weak and didn't totally recover. Then they switched partners, a good break for Austin, and did I've Had The Time Of My Life, and Austin and Laura were definitely the couple. They've both had professional stage experience, and it showed. They were right on, Max and Ashley struggled, although again, it was more Ashley than Max, but he wasn't able to cope as well as Austin did with being saddled with an inept partner. However, I still stand by him. They'll get a lot more rehearsal time before Grease opens than they get rehearsing for each week's episode, and I think Max will come through just fine. So, next week we get the results, and then we can start fantasizing about casting Carrie next season.