TV Shows Watched: American Idol: S24E14 (Disney Plus) no audio description, Beef: S2E5 (Netflix) with audio description, Imperfect Women: S1E4 (Apple) with audio description, Invincible: S4E2 (Amazon) with audio description, The Daily show: Monday (Paramount) no audio description

American Idol- The Top 7 sang two songs. One from Taylor Swift’s catalog, and another from artists from California, as part of their partnership with Visit California. Nicki Glazer joined the judges panel because she has a comedy special to promote. Going into this episode, I thought maybe Braden and Chris, at least one, would bite the dust. I’ve been worried about Daniel and jordan, feeling like one had to give here also. Keila and Hannah are so different stylistically, and Brooks is basically his own thing. Round 1, I would have given it to Braden, whose Taylor Swift cover was by far the best, fit him, and didn’t feel entirely like karaoke. Daniel and Chris would have been my next two, with Brooks and Jordan being my least favorite of the Taylor covers. Then in round two, oddly, Braden soared again, this time along with Jordan and Keila, with Brooks and Daniel being on the bottom. Brooks’s cover of Love Story wasn’t good, then he butchered a Maroon 5 cover, made more evident when Braden also chose Maroon 5, and owned the shit out of it. Daniel being on the bottom is tough, because he can sing the shit out of anything, but his California cover was so forgettable. He took something I didn’t know well, and made it into a B-side track I’d never listen to. Jordan’s Tim McGraw was also decidedly his worst performance yet. However, Braden came out on top both rounds, Jordan’s I Can’t Make you love Me, and keila’s I’d Rather go blind were standouts. Going in to next week, when the contestants are getting a heavy does of nostalgia, with coaching from Randy and Paula (neither of whom will bring anything meaningful to the table), and do duets from contestants from Season 5, the cuts should be brutal. Now, Season 5 is a deep roster to pull from as several alumni had successful careers. I’d bet on Katherine McPhee, Taylor Hicks, Chris Daughtry, and Elliot Yamin for sure, as they were the top five. They will likely skip Paris, who really went nowhere, and either call on Kellie Pickler (who had a solid career), Bucky Covington (who did record for a hot minute), or Ace young (who did an album and Broadway). McPhee has gone country, and with two guys who are both rock/country, and a girl who is very country, I’m betting the pairings will be: Jordan and Taylor, Keila and Elliot, Hannah and Katherine, Chris and Chris, and Braden being the wildcard will get Ace Young.

beef- This episode centered mostly on Josh and Lindsay, and if you like dogs, skip this episode. This episode really is Carey mulligan’s episode, who dominates screentime as she searches for her lost pet. DVW has done excellent work all season on this.

Imperfect Women- One of the better described Apple shows, this is Kate Mara’s time to shine as the flashback episode puts her story front and center. What really happened in the past? What was she really like?

Invincible- A Nolan/Alan centric episode. I don’t even think they went to earth here. The odd duo traverses the galaxy looking for something strong enough to stop what’s coming, without Nolan having to go get his kids. Decent audio description. Lots of alien races to describe, and a bit of mixed results. it also dodged what Nolan could see every time he heard the couple having sex, so I will assume nothing, but I also don’t know for sure.

The Daily Show- Jon had a tough weekend to come back off of, and relied on Triumph to lighten the mood a bit. He managed to make fun of the situation a lot tangentially, going after people like Wolf Blitzer for his coverage of being there. The interview after was super interesting, in terms of learning more about the Supreme Court, and their history with shadow dockets, and why we should be more worried.