Forgive me for keeping this writeup short but this was a can-miss episode of Idol with not much else to offer other than the elimination news. I personally find Daughtry and Bon Jovi pretty boring (yes, even when I was in college and it was 2 AM and "Living on a Prayer" came on at the bar), and it was disappointing that Fantasia, after her messily wonderful appearance last season that left Simon's mouth hanging open, seemed to pull herself together and deliver a boring classy and staid performance.
Even the Ford music video left me without much to say, good or bad, except that I guess I'm happy that World Party made it onto Idol: if only it were one of their songs I liked more, like "Ship of Fools" (which I think would make a great Idol song) instead of "Put the Message in a Box."
The episode featured bland filler that frankly made it hard for me to pay close attention to the show. A flashback to other idols heading to their hometowns to visit before the top 3 do so themselves. The judges and Chris Daughtry giving advice to the contestants. Ryan Seacrest asking hardhitting questions of Bon Jovi like "How do you keep doing this year after year?"
Even having the contestants' family onstage did little to increase the intensity of the episode, although it all seemed kind of moot anyway when Ryan announced that Lee would be going home to Chicago and I couldn't tell at first if that meant he was eliminated or he was in the top 3. It turned out to be the latter: your top three contestants are Lee, Casey and Crystal. Big Mike is heading home. He seemed to take the news in stride but his wife cried (that's what wives do though.) I would have liked his farewell video package a lot more if it didn't prominently feature one of the most annoying moments of the season, Kara's fake crying and subsequent "Look at me I'm crying" talk.
Next week, uh, Perez Hilton will be making an appearance? I know all AV Club readers are huge fans of his so get your Microsoft Paint ready.
—I liked that Lee wants to go home and have a conversation with his parents without cameras around.
—I'm still trying to figure out the name of the shape of Chris Daughtry's sideburns. They look like some sort of musical notation, but not from any song I'd want to dance do.
—I wonder what song Casey wanted to sing with Mike. "Eye of the Tiger" could have been hilarious.