Sanjaya, Buehrle, 'Gilmore Girls' and More

Sure, I'm shocked that the unsinkable Sanjaya Malakar has been sunk, but at this exact second I'm even more surprised that Mark Buehrle just pitched a no-hitter for the White Sox.

How strange is that? Well, Buehrle has lead the American League in hits allowed for the past two consecutive seasons and finished second the two years before that. I'll let the Elias Sports Bureau tell me how impressive an achievement that was. It's here that I'd quickly like to salute MLB for selling the Extra Innings baseball package to OnDemand and allowing me to watch both my Red Sox games as well as the last three or four innings of no-hitters by Mark Buehrle when I happen to notice such things are in progress.

But anyway, Sanjaya... Sepinwall put it best with his e-mail subject line reading "Time to put the VFTW people on suicide watch, methinks." All season long the "Idol" producers have been telling reporters that VoteFortheWorst adherents don't amount to a hill of beans, nor do those pathetic Howard Stern fans doing his bidding. Sanjaya Malakar did basically exactly as well as John Stevens and Scott Savol. He worse than Jasmine Trias and Nikki McKibbin and R.J. Helton, but better than a bit better than Kevin Covais. Bad people make it through every single year and they make it a certain distance every single year and anybody implying that Sanjaya was any different or more damning to the show's credibility than previous untalented people is just lazy.

[This post is getting long, so follow the click through link, because after the bump, I talk about why I'm gonna miss Sanjaya, why "Gilmore Girls" should end and why I'm seem to responsible for everything going wrong with America.]



Not enough people are going to stand up for Sanjaya, so I will. As a singer, he was laughable. As an entertainer, he was embarrassing. But as a laughable and embarrassing performer, he was entertaining. That's more than I can say for Phil Stacey and, since I'm pretty much sick of his shtick at this point, that's more than I can say for Chris Richardson. It's almost more than I can say for LaKisha Jones, who at this point would be better served by being semi-shockingly eliminated this week, rather than delivering two or three more subpar performances and no longer being lamented. Thus, as I said over on my Zap2it recap, I'd have almost preferred to keep Sanjaya around for two or three more weeks, though only if I were given a contractual obligation that he wouldn't actually win. I wanted to hear him do an inspirational song next week. I wanted to see him work with guest mentor Grand Wizard Theodore on Old Skool Hip Hop Night. Phil won't be nearly as funny and nor with Chris or LaKisha.

But I guess there's something to getting out while you're ahead (this is a bad transition, because Sanjaya was never really ahead)... That's something I urge Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel to think about before they commit to another season of "Gilmore Girls."

I was watching Tuesday night's episode and it felt like a Stepford version of the show I used to love. The dialogue was fast and the pop culture references flew, but it was never even vaguely clever. It relied heavily on life-in-transition symbolism (I GET WHAT THE MAZE STOOD FOR, DO YOU THINK WE'RE ALL BRAIN DAMAGED?!?!?), but it never had a second of heart. At a Zap2it lunch yesterday, though, we all agreed that as long as the "Gilmore Girls" is on the air, we aren't going to quit on it. We're going to keep watching until the bitter end. But why must we get bitter? Yes, I feel bad for Alexis and Lauren, because neither one will ever get a part this good again. That's not an insult to either of their skills, but it's the truth. The problem is that what they're currently working with isn't the same material they were working with two or three seasons ago. It isn't any good at all. If Lauren Graham has the choice between "Gilmore Girls" of this caliber and collecting a paycheck as the sassy hot wife or girlfriend, I can understand why she'd want to go for the money. I wouldn't blame her for a second.

Anyway, I know that was a weirdly grafted on post-script, but what's the point of blogging if you can't make weird transitions.

Want another? House and Cuddy? I don't know if I want that to happen. Cameron and Chase? I don't need that to happen either. Maybe I'm not a good "House" 'shipper, but I'm content with simmering House/Cameron tension any and all consummated passions between anybody on the show move us into "Grey's Anatomy" territory and I already watch that once a week. Don't need it twice. Oh and last night's case? Bad idea. I'm not in favor of spending an episode watching children in pain and torment if the only payoff is a cheap joke about penis enhancement.

Do I have anything else? Well, if Felix Hernandez is actually seriously injured, several of my fantasy baseball teams are going to have a fire sale this weekend, because I'm done.

Oh and the "highlight" of my day: A commenter on my Zap2it "Idol" recap from Tuesday accused me of being partially responsible for the Virginia Tech shootings, saying that I'm part of a culture that values snark and mean-spiritedness over peace, love and understanding.

Ouch.

With that...

Good night and good luck...

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