American Idol prelims are over. Thank ye gods. But what about some of those choices, huh? Why are they making the weirdos and duds so easy to spot this time around? We need more mystery!

It's not an insightful critique to say "oh, that show's rigged" anymore. Everyone knows that. The show knows you know that. But at least it didn't seem as mean-spirited in the past. But last night the producers basically said "Ha ha, fuck you audience. There's nothing you can do about it."

crazy awful Tatiana and Norman, a "comedic" character invented by an actually somewhat talented singer, made it through the last round where "we" don't decide. It's not surprising that the producers (and, I suppose, judges) made a decision to send through a few bad apples. What's Dream Date without the Poindexter? But in seasons past it's been at least a liiittle bit more of a surprise when that dud is revealed.

Usually the plants are people like Sanjaya who can't sing but appeal to people in other weirdo ways. Though typically they're not immediately apparent. It takes a couple of shows to play Guess Who?. And that's half the fun of the show's middle stages. You know the trainwrecks are there, you just have to smoke 'em out. But now? Well we've seen most of our duds and they're hugely obvious, totally contrived ones.

So what's going to happen? Well, Tatiana's crazy and will kill people. That little pierced gay wisp of a thing with the guitar? He'll be deemed too pierced and too gay by the viewers at home and will be Danny Noriega'd almost immediately. And that character guy Norman? Who the fuck knows. Whatever happens though, it'll seem like we always knew it would. Because the show has become that lazy, and that meta.

I'll still keep watching, sadly. I'm excited about a few of the others and I just love the whole process from here until about the top 5 or so. But c'mon, guys. It's no fun if the Poindexter card is already turned over in the deck. Where's the surprise?