[Feb 2004]

On why I like American Idol as opposed to watching drama shows these days

* There will not be a sudden change in the show's basis.
* There will be no cloning of any kind on American Idol.
* There will not be a villain that shifts his objectives 15 times.
* There will be no vampires.
* No one will suddenly come down with an inoperable brain tumor that allows them mystical gifts that are never explained.
* As far as i know, none of the American Idols have ever met Milo Rambaldi.
* Simon Cowell will not be replaced by Intern Bob, who has only been with the American Idol company for a year. In fact, Intern Bob didn't even know about the existence of American Idol until his partner finally told him. Therefore, he will not suddenly take over as the head of American Idol.
* There will be no 2 year jumps. None I tell you!
* The American Idols will not be overshadowed by guest monkeys that are there to gain ratings. There will be no guest monkeys.
* You will not have to decipher any of the songs sung on American Idol. You will not need to go to a website to find clues about a song, only to find out the solution barely makes sense and is boring as hell.
* There will be no alien babies. God help you, American Idol, if I see any alien babies!
* American Idol will not suddenly introduce a new singer in the middle of the contest who we're told to love despite the fact she can't sing and, worse, she's turning our favorite singer into a whipping boy.
* There will be no not-clever and lame codenames, nicknames and/or undercover aliases for the singers.
* There will be no double lives.
* There will be no dream sequences that make no sense.
* There will be no supersoldiers, covenants, wiccan incantations, ancient tribal burial grounds (where almost positively something has been buried that will come back to life and kill you), butt genies, demons, portals to other dimensions or Peter Burg.
* There will be no revelations while under hypnotism.
* There will be no medical rape, thank you.
* On American Idol, no one takes a plane to another country only to end up in the place they left in the first place.
* And finally, I know that, one day, there will actually BE an American Idol. The American Idol will be decided on in a matter of 3 months, not dragged out for years, constantly getting close only to find out that they are now changing the show's objectives and they have to start all over again.

[Jan 2004]

I guess a better way to say it would be that I care about the storylines if they affect the characters, whether that be adversly or positively. I loved the storylines 1st and 2nd year because it was a part of Sydney, a part of who she was and a part of why we cared about her. And that affected all the people around her, making them interesting. Then TPTB determined that this was too complicated for us Mall People to understand.

This year, the storyline is floating around in so many places that it's not a matter of keeping up ... it's a matter of keeping interested. There has yet to be a single storyline (out of the whole throng of them) that's been interesting enough to affect the characters in a way that makes THEM interesting enough for *me* to enjoy the show. Where the characters were once the focus of the show now sits the storylines themselves... which have taken over like an out-of-control blender, spewing a bunch of mixed up plotpoints all over the place without any one of them making sense.

That's what JJ has been preaching over and over: how interesting the characters are as a result of these "brilliant" storylines. He's wrong; they've taken over the show. They should change the show's title to The Mole 3: If you find the hidden plot that makes sense, and you make it through the season, you win a million dollars. If a *character*-driven show loses its characters, well, what's left? Some scenery and Syd in bikini-of-the-week for no reason. Honestly, i'm half expecting the CIA to order that everyone wears leather and lace to the office from now on, on order of the NSC of course. I just wouldn't put it past them for the ratings. It's like that news show in the UK where everyone strips naked. Which is sad. I wish I could just tell JJ that it's okay to do a 180 in this case, even if it doesn't make sense, and go back to what they we doing. The entire season doesn't make sense, so i'd be willing to hold the suspension of belief in order to get our old show back. I wonder if he's now trying to inch his way back to that, now that he sees such a negative reaction?

Don't inch, man. Run.

[Nov. 2003]

We could just stop watching.

That seems to be the first thing people suggest when they hear how disappointed we are with the new season. You know, I'm a busy gal myself - there are a lot of things I could be doing rather than running this website. I think I can speak for the rest of the Hos when I say this site takes up a lot of our very valuable time. Contrary to some opinions, not every person who's a fan of the show is some backwater hick living in a Mall, just waiting with bated breath for a bad actress to come and 'make our lives' by gracing us with her presence ::rollseyes::. We also don't live for this show or the fictional characters that are a part of it. We do this because we really like Michael Vartan, and Alias is a part of his life. We do it because we love the show, or what it used to be... could still be... and we do it because of the fantastic people we've met through our association with the site. It would just be sad to let it go; we've put a lot of work into this website.

I can't help being disappointed. I'm a Sydney-Vaughn shipper. Everything that's happened this season is the complete antithesis of what a Syd-Vaughn shipper wants to see. I should say that I only critique this show so much because I love it so much. J. J. Abrams has created this amazing television show that is so different, or was so different, from anything else on television. Finally a writer/creater who wasn't afraid to actually give the audience what they wanted to see. But suddenly this season has become one big episode of Melrose Place where the writing seems to just be floating around with no real purpose. Regurgitated storylines, constant character shifts and dragging out the SVR are making us heave. J.J. is a great writer and producer when he wants to be, but having to listen to how much we're 'going to love the storylines' from someone who has obviously never watched the show from our point of view is frustrating. When you watch the show for the SVR and suddenly Vaughn is married... yeah, that kind of puts a downer on the enjoyment. What's funny (or tragic, depending on how you look at it) is that everything we loved about the show - the fact the writers listened to the fans, the shocking plot twists, the creator went to a lot of trouble to keep the show fun, which helped to make the show what it is - has suddenly stopped in favor of the exact opposite of what made this show great: overdramatic characters, so many plots that even hard-core fans can't keep up and a triangle that makes me want to shoot myself in the face.

I'm still hopeful that the series will turn around. No one here wants to think that they've worked so hard doing something that will just end up disappointing us. Until then, I'll be snarking my way through each show. If I can't enjoy the SVR, I'll at least laugh at it. But I'm keeping the faith!

-by Kate, Vartan Ho #1


  Back to the New VSR