AMERICAN IDOL 11 SPOTLIGHT: Hollywood Week #2

AMERICAN IDOL 11 SPOTLIGHT: Hollywood Week #2

With the not so suspenseful cliffhanger of Symone Black blacking out and falling off the stage coming to a quick and predictably positive outcome (along with advancing), I couldn't help but wonder after the end of the rest of the episode if the show itself was even necessary. (I'm not sure Symone's dad embarrassing her in front of her new group upon returning to the competition did her any favors either. She probably wished she was still at the hospital at that point.) Where was the actual singing?

They seemed to be focusing on a few groups and the fact that Amy Brumfield was spreading a vicious stomach bug around the Idol camp. (No pun intended there for Tent Girl. Or Patient Zero as she is now called. Ouch.) I didn't feel like I needed to know that Heejun Han and Richie Law apparently do not like each other all that much or that the other two members of M.I.T. (Phillip Phillips and Jairon Jackson) seemed to have no strong opinions of their own on that matter (or anything else for that matter), or that Brielle Von Hugel's mother is a total stage mom, or that The Bettys were overly emotional about finishing their routine in time to get at least a little sleep.

Everything about this episode just seemed to be blah. Even Heejun Han, who I really liked going into Hollywood Week, really grained on me tonight with his constant complaining about the socially clueless Richie Law. Han seemed far more preoccupied with how his group would come off to his friends back home and he was not shy about driving his point home with complaints about the four different harmonizations, dances, and facial expressions his group seemed to be incorporating into its act.

The episode lamely, or epically lamely I should say, left us with a far less interesting cliffhanger with The Bettys taking stage and group member Jennifer Malsch opening her mouth to sing. And American Idol wonders why its ratings are starting to tank this year.

Follow Jamie Cole of Himay Co. on Twitter. To hire him for PR write-ups and other marketing and creative services, send a tweet on Twitter for further contact info.