'American Idol' Recap: It's girls' night out, and it is disappointing

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a wreck to watch the Top 12 female contestants on American Idol last night as they lack the ability to “WOW” the judges. It is actually difficult to believe that they were the Top 12 because all of them lacked that star quality that could make them entertainers. The judges were only partially impressed as most of them said, at one point or another, “That is not the right song for you,” or, “I wouldn’t have picked that song for you.” Worst of all, not one of them failed to notice when all of them were a bit “pitchy” and sometimes just undeniably out of tune.

The Beatles made an appearance of sorts by being sung three times by the girls. Unfortunately, not one of those three times managed to capture the judges’ attention. Ellen, Kara, Randy, and Simon all appeared to be underwhelmed by the performances and it did not get better after the first hour. Some of the girls had a great moment but dropped it when they went into a pitch, bordering on screeching, frenzy. Even the show had technical difficulties with the end of the show half-muting the performances when they tried to remind us of what numbers to call or text and who to vote for.

The direst thought is thinking that the entire group failed to truly shine on stage. Overall the songs could have been meshed into an amorphous mellow concert that became quite insipid simply because the interpretations of each song all wanted to sound like the original and none of them succeeded. The judges did point out the fact and remind the girls to try and come out of their shells and be original. Some made attempts at it but did not truly embrace their own voices, instead they settled for sounding “like” somebody else.

The most entertaining part of the show was when Ellen stated the reason for moving away from Simon is because, “Simon wants me. And it’s just not going to happen.” Followed by a video clip of someone’s hand reaching to someone else’s legs. The rest could have been during auditions because the singers all picked somewhat dark songs or cheery songs that they couldn’t deliver unto the stage.

Most of the show is no longer dedicated to the judging or the singing but to the background stories of these people. One of them being Didi Binami, she declared that she would do her best “not to cry” but that did not help during her routine. Instead, she seemed to just blend into the rest of the group as another girl with a pretty voice. There was nothing definitive about any of them and these same people will have their story re-told every week from now until May. Ryan Seacrest said that Simon had declared this, “The Year of the Girls,” but after last night he must reconsider making that statement.

The truth is that Thursday night may see some of those girls go home. Hopefully tonight’s group can pick up their pace and voices and improve as opposed to Simon’s declaration to one of the contestants, “I think you’re going backwards then from when we first met you.” Otherwise, the show will become quite a lackluster event three nights a week.