American Idol: Happy Daves

Ok, so I can finally (sort of) understand what all the hype is about.

After scoring the plum slot as the last singer of the night, David Archuleta (pictured, right) made the producers proud with a lovely-slowed down "Imagine". I hadn't really been super-duper impressed with his vocal chops until last night. On top of that, his demeanor (especially for such a young contestant) appears to be genuinely genial and awestruck that he's doing so well (though I still suspect he HAS to know that he's pretty good).

Then again, maybe his "I can't believe I'm doing his well" demeanor is spot on, because, assuming he's genuine, I kind of agree with him. I mean, sure he's got the adorable puppy dog thing going, and, as I said, he proved to me that he can deliver a great vocal, but I still can't really believe he's doing this well. The judges and the audience seemed ready to hand him the "Idol" crown and cancel the rest of the season (Fox would have a heart attack). I also don't think it's a good thing at all that he's peaking so early in the competition as he's about two to three weeks away from the inevitable backlash.

At least Archuleta is delivering in his role as producers' pet — happened to Michael Johns last night. He was given the other plum slot (albeit the one no one really wants) last night, as he opened the show with "Go Your Own Way." His vocal was all over the place, and the entire performance was kind of a hot mess (a lukewarm mess?). Still, as Simon pointed out, he'll cruise to the next round, though I expect him to perform in some anonymous slot in the middle of the show after this week's performance.

In fact, have him switch with David Hernandez, who came from almost out of nowhere, when the show was starting to drag, to deliver the first standout performance with "Papa was a Rolling Stone." He looked completely comfortable on stage again (as he did during Hollywood Week), and was really the only performance that felt "70's" (I loved his strong finish). Archuleta may have outsung him, but Hernandez turned in my favorite performance. I'm pulling for him to put together two solid weeks in a row, and I'd actually love to see him close out the show next week.

He wasn't the only one showing improvement over the men's lackluster first week. Chikizie (not Eze) and David Cook did well enough to place themselves in the upper echelon of Tuesday night's performance. I didn't hate Chikizie as much as everyone else seemed to during 60's week, but he seemed incredibly comfortable on stage (again), connected very well with the song and the audience, and he sounded pretty good in "I Believe to My Soul" and, this week, when he talked back to Simon, it was all in good fun.

I can't say the same for word nerd David Cook's uncomfortable exchange with the British judge, which is a shame, because his guitar-driven performance of "All Right Now" was a vast improvement over last week. Although Paula basically suggested a seventh grader could've done the same thing, David looked a LOT more comfortable on stage with his guitar. As a fellow word nerd, I don't agree with Simon that Cook's interview package hurt him because it demonstrated a lack of charisma — I think Cook's lack of charisma is responsible for his lack of charisma, not the fact that he likes grammar.

In other guitar-related news, last week's big surprise Jason Castro went back to the well one too many times. The only problem is that his "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" wasn't a surprise like his Lovin' Spoonful cover last week, nor was it as good. It was basically a crappier remake of his performance from last week. Fortunately, his endearing interview package about how he hates to do interview packages probably offset any votes he may have lost due to his mediocre performance, but I wonder how well he'd do without hiding behind his guitar.

He should be joined there next week by Danny Noriega, who, we learned, was in a one-performance wonder punk band and looked even more like a woman when he was in said punk band than he does now. He tried tackling a slower number with "Superstar", and while it was a wise choice after last week's distraous-ish "Jailhouse Rock", I wasn't really too impressed with his vocals. It was smart to slow things down for a week, but I'd like to see a bit more "wow", next time he takes on a song that isn't in his up-tempo wheelhouse.

That leaves a group of three guys who I suppose I HAVE to talk about and from where Thursday's eliminations will more than likely come from.

Normally, when trying to handicap an "Idol" elimination, you don't want to pick the two most awful performers — Luke Menard and Jason Yaeger — to go home. You want to pick one awful person, and one who wasn't THAT bad, but mostly forgettable (Robbie Carrico.)

Still, Menard and Yeager were SO bad, I just have to pick them to go home. It's cool that Menard was in an acapella group, but his vocal during "Killer Queen" was painfully blah. I don't really understand why you would pick a Queen song and then almost completely play it straight (and boring). If that wasn't enough, Ryan called him "Dawson's Creek" at the end of their interview, and I'm pretty sure he didn't mean it as a compliment.

Meanwhile, the less said about Yeager's "Long Train(wreck) Running" the better. I mean, he sounded bad, the dancing was painfully dorky and he inappropriately had a goofy smile plasted on his face the entire time — other than that, I liked it.

As for Robbie Carrico, I think he'll squeak by one more week. He continued his crusade to convince us he's hardcore by telling us he likes to drag race, and I thought, even though he didn't have enough energy, he actually sounded pretty good during "Hot Blooded." The problem is that his "identity crisis" about being a rocker or pop singer is more interesting than anything he's ever done on stage. Also, he looked visibly pissed at all the flack his alleged rocker cred was taking.

So what you think of last night's episode? Who do you think is going home? Finally, is David Archuleta really THAT good?