American Idol Final Three: BLAH!!!!

Well. Only one more week of the worst season of American Idol to go and this train wreck will be off the rails.

Tuesday night's sing-off between Casey James, Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze, for me, only really came alive at the end, with DeWyze's version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."

Does that song ever sound bad? And when you get it pimped with a backup chorus, it's even better.

Casey James started off the night in the dreaded first position, singing a song few had heard of, "OK, It's All Right With Me." Pretty much Casey was left on the stage with his guitar and nothing tarting up the production. No back up singers, no flashing lights, no smoke, no mirrors, no nothing, but James singing a boring song.

Casey's second song, John Mayer's "Daughters" is a song I don't care for. Again the production was barebones, compared to the big production numbers surrounding Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze. The judges did not throw Casey so heavily under the bus for his second song. Then again, I found Simon Cowell's bizarre laughing when the judges got into judging mode, of Caseys final song, to be all sorts of wrong, with no good explanation forthcoming for the laughing.

DeWyze's first song was "Simple Man." Praise was heaped. I didn't feel it. Though one of those annoying judges said he'd crushed the competition. I don't know if this was a subtle reference to DeWyze appearing to be slightly overweight or totally a comment about his singing quality.

Bowersox sang the Melissa Etheridge classic, "Come To My Window," as her first choice. I hated the harmonica and I hate her under the lip stud piercing. The judges' chose the McCartney classic, "Maybe I'm Amazed" as Crystal's second song. I liked that okay, but I didn't like her doing the cliched wandering around the stage.

Who decides how these songs are produced? Did Casey James choose not to have a production number? It somehow seems unfair to me.

And another thing, what a difference between this season and the same point last season. You never knew what Adam Lambert was going to do. Last year's final 3, Lambert, Kris Allen and Allison Iraheta, were always entertaining. None of this final 3 comes close to being that entertaining.

Anyway, I don't know if I'll bother suffering through the bloated finale. I really don't care who "wins." That and I'll be exhausted from too much television due to watching the bloated finales of LOST and 24.

American Idol: Casey James Makes Final 3 Along with Crystal Bowersox & Lee DeWyze

The American Idol judges, or whatever the proper name might be for the goonballs who make comments after one of the singers sings on American Idol, have thrown the Cool, Texas boy, Casey James, under the bus so many times, who would have ever predicted he would be one of the last 3 standing, in this, the lamest season of American Idol yet?

Actually, in my tone deaf view, Casey James is the only one of the remaining 3 who does seem, sorta, Idol-worthy.

Even my aforementioned tone-deafness can detect that sometimes Lee DeWyze goes way into wrong note mode.

I know she's been pimped from the start, but to me, Crystal Bowersox, nice girl may she be, just seems really generic. Previous seasons of American Idol I don't think she would have gone so far. And, tattoo bigot that I am, I'm really offput by that monstrosity she's got painted on her back.

I think Michael Lynche really overstayed, and should never have been saved. Seeing a song from Free Willy, a movie about a whale, seemed perfectly ironic.

The final 3 now get the American Idol cliched, contrived hometown visits. Casey James' hometown visit will be a visit to his new hometown, Fort Worth. He will be in a parade down Exchange Avenue in the Fort Worth Stockyards, at 4pm, tomorrow, Friday, afternoon.

The Fort Worth Stockyards is about 9 miles from my abode. Am I motivated to go videotape and photograph this? I don't know. Years ago, I went to Burleson, hometown of the first American Idol, Kelly Clarkson, to witness the macabre scene outside the theater that was premierring her movie. It was all so contrived and fake. But amusing to watch.

I'll see if I can motivate myself to go to the Stockyards tomorrow afternoon to see the kid from Cool, Texas.