[TrueFaith77]

Episode 7 (NYC & PR) Recap

People hate Tatiana Del Toro because she works harder than any contestant in Idol history, boasting that she will win every contest until she ultimately gains her crown. And what irks them more: despite that, she's not a robot. Everything about her self-constructed image -- some would call it delusion, I'd call it body armor -- reflects back at the audience the shameful nightmare -- the exploitation -- behind our entertainment dream factory. Yet, in the face of it, she laughs. Her hysterical laugh conveys triumph and hope, but it's the triumph and hope of her humanity remaining intact. It's the part of her that can't be contained, and it provides the impact of which stars are truly made. Ironically, letting slip that humanity teases out audience's shame from under the show's condescension -- people don't like to be reminded what it takes to succeed or, more painfully, to fail trying. (Freud could explain it better than I.)

When she's under fire from the judges, she strikes a pose so photogenically right it could only be the product of years studying one's self in the mirror, the rigor it requires to be a star. If anyone doubts why she belongs in the Top 36, I'd challenge you to name another contestant this year who looks better on camera. Repeating last night's Hollywood Week teaser, Idol presents a, to some unrecognizable, Tatiana out of her make up and "Under The Sea"-prom dress -- and she's a stunning natural beauty. Attesting to her hard work -- and her essential goodness -- she lashes back at her fellow contestants and at reality television convention, with its glorification of backstabbing heartlessness: "You're trying to throw me under the bus, but this is not a game to me!" Wow! She transforms the reality game of American Idol into a moral challenge (while recalling a phrase from the recent Presidential Election -- a phrase that acts as a displacement of unseemly political ambition). Now that she's in the Top 36, that challenge is directed at the voting audience. It's needed. Democracy hasn’t tested Americans ability to confront its shame in the form of psychosexual spectacle since. . . Sarah Palin.

Ahhhhhhh, Puerto Rico (from whence Tatiana also rose from the bubbling sea). There, even a "joke" contestant like Joel Contreras displays undeniable charms -- and folk wit (singing the Lion King's "Circle of Life" with a Lion Puppet on his hand). So, not surprisingly, PR boasts the season's sole male standout, so far, in the Top 36: Jorge Nunez. He could be the first contestant to bust down the doors of the Idol closet by expanding definitions of machismo romanticism. Idol may be a game, but the struggle for compassionate pop is not.