Preaching to the Choir? Or for Anyone That Will Listen?

Can I just say I'm tired of being preached to by my entertainment? Entertainment is supposed to be just that, entertaining, and not a device to tell me I should be guilty for this happening here or there across the world. If I was looking for that, I'd be watching the news.

I am just so tired of it. It reached a fever pitch this season on American Idol, with their whole Idol Gives Back thing. Don't get me wrong, it's great that they helped all these children and made their lives better. That's absolutely wonderful, but at some point the line between entertainment, news, and commentary is becoming clouded. It's supposed to be a singing competition, and no one was kicked off that week, as it would have confused the issue of trying to be inspirational.

I loved the performances, and I downloaded some of them because I enjoyed them, and I wanted to do my part to help out. But I don't watch American Idol to learn about starving children or people dying of AIDS. I watch to be entertained by new entertainers previously never given a chance. I'm sure for the people involved on the show it will have a lasting effect on their lives, and I think that's really cool, and I was entertained, but I had to at some point think, "Please, stop!" I didn't want to see any more sadness, as it was confusing my entertainment value from the show. We all knew Simon Cowell had a heart hidden in there, but I like to wonder if it's there while I listen to him knocking yet another person down, instead of seeing him near tears looking at children living in dire conditions.

And now this week on American Idol's dancing counterpart, So You Think You Can Dance, we had ten solos for the same dance. Ten. The same song. The same dance. Ten. And what was the theme? Peace and how wrong the war is. We watched all the dancers paint words on their shirts that they thought they felt when they thought about war, like peace, patience, unity, honesty, etc. And each dancer came out and danced to Waiting On the World by John Mayer.

If one dance was showing feelings of war vs. peace, etc., that would be okay, but ten solos with the same dance, same song, and actually being told this is about peace because we're living through being in a war, etc.? Please stop preaching to me. I really didn't turn on this dance competition to hear and see what the dancers thought about the war. I turned it on to see some great dancing and be entertained.

I just don't want this doom and gloom in my entertainment shows. At least if you go to a Michael Moore film you're expecting to be preached at. You know what you're getting into. But you don't expect that from a dance competition or singing competition.

Read my review of last night's So You Think You Can Dance.

Idol Gives Back

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