MiniCap: The X Factor

Who the hell was THIS guy?!?

We’re down to the final five on The X Factor, folks – the cream of the crop, the top of the heap, the one box of leftover Chinese food in your fridge that’s still relatively safe to eat – and so, fittingly, the producers chose a theme for this week that would really allow the contestants to show off their vocal skillz…electronica.

Uh. Hold up. Did you just say ‘electronica?’

Yes. Yes I did.

Um…and are you having a conversation with yourself?

Yes. Yes I am.

Last night’s performance episode began with heavy coverage of the drama that resulted from last week’s (totally unrighteous) elimination of Drew and Astro – but mostly Drew. It was sort of like everyone forgot that Astro ever existed…but Nicole and Paula have been getting death threats for sending Drew home, so I guess that’s where the good TV is.

When they announced it was electronica week, I nearly fell off my couch laughing. What a lame theme choice. And what a way to try to screw Josh Krajcik two weeks in a row.

But not to worry…I thought every contestant did a fairly good job, considering the theme, and everyone managed to avoid doing a Black Eyed Peas song, so I was able to watch the entire episode without vomiting. Most of the contestants succeeded by following one simple rule: just pretend like it’s NOT electronica week, sing a song that you would any other week and the producers will just work the dance beats in around your voice. Easy-peasy.

This also happened to be the first week that the contestants each had to sing two songs – the second song was supposed to be an audience-chosen number, voted for online via the Pepsi Challenge, but apparently there was some sort of voting snafu and they had to push those songs to next week – instead, the contestants sang the song they had prepared as their survival number.

A lot of drama was drummed up around the fact that the contestants found out this information the night before and therefore didn’t have much time to prepare, but they weren’t fooling us – these were their SURVIVAL SONGS. Which they’ve had prepared for the past TWO MONTHS. The only drama happening was the producers figuring out how many extra show choirs they had to bring in to back up Melanie Amaro on that song from Prince of Fucking Egypt aka the Ridiculous Cartoon Musical About Moses.

Thank goodness for that voting snafu, because the second half of the show was far stronger than the first, allowing Josh Krajcik and Chris Rene to really shine. And speaking of Chris Rene – WTF?!? I think aliens abducted the real Chris and replaced him with this super-talented guitar-playing musician…I really dug Chris Rene early on in the show, but ever since we got to the live shows I felt like he kinda fell apart – always off-key, never really connecting to the material – but this week it was like we were watching an entirely different person. Way to go, Chris – you’ve made me a believer again.

All right…more to come in the full recap, so check back soon! In the meantime, if ya wanna read up on last week’s dramatic elimination episode, click here! Peace out, yo.

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