I think of American Idol as an apotheosis of what is wrong with our culture. Partly because "reality" programming is real in the way professional wrestling is. Partly because even the winners are "good" at a style of singing that is just ghastly. I tuned into to a finale episode once and couldn't bear it. You could get nodes on your throat just watching. Then there's
this, from Danielle Bean regarding the early rounds:
how is this part of the show not just a total humiliation of people who are mentally disabled?
But there's always another side, and someone writes in
comments:
They are just average American young people who have been poisoned by self-esteem messages and infected by love of fame.
American Idol demonstrates to them -- and to our children -- in a powerful way that believing in yourself and dreaming of fame is not enough.
Hmm. I still couldn't listen, though. And
then.
