The X Factor Finals: Week 5

It was ‘Movies Week’ on the X Factor this week, but this was essentially just free rein for them to pick whichever songs they wanted (virtually every popular song has appeared in one film or other).  On a personal note, my post might be a bit shorter\rubbisher this week due to blogging fatigue and a technical failure.

Saturday

Running Time (including the Xtra Factor): 155 minutes
Time I watched it in: 61 minutes

X Factor Ratio: 39.4%

Stacey – ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ from Pulp Fiction –  Stacey had a few ‘sexy’ dance moves to perform this week but it looked a bit like she’d had a stroke.  I usually quite like Stacey, but, although the vocal was technically pretty good, the performance felt really flat.  Simon got his digs in early this week with ‘it was a lazy song choice’ and ‘you could be vulnerable’.   To be fair, she could have been vulnerable as it wasn’t great.

Olly – ‘Twist and Shout’ from ???? –  I’m never really blown away by Olly and I’m starting to think it’s because he seems to give the same performance every week.  Plus, he always sings old fashioned songs.  Simon went ‘woo’ after the performance, so I guess he liked it.  Louis said:  ‘Why the silly song?’ and Dannii also had a go at him.  The judges were really on top form.  Cheryl said that he always sings retro songs; great minds think alike.

Lloyd – ‘Stand by Me’ from the film…Stand by Me? – I don’t really know what I thought of it, but if I had to guess I’d say pretty bad.  The judges are being really harsh tonight, I wonder if something was said before the show.  Lloyd, deservedly, got really bad comments so the screaming young girl vote might need to kick back in to save him.

Jamie – ‘Crying’ from ???? –  Simon pulled a funny face at the beginning of the song and it made me wonder if the rumours are true that him and Jamie don’t get along.  I thought the song was really bad, but I’m struggling to explain exactly why.  I seem to feel the same about a lot of the acts.

Apparently the song was from the film was Gummo.  Louis then claimed that Simon was cheating because he’d never heard of it.  Cheryl and Simon then had another lovers’ tiff.

Lucie – I’ve no idea what the song was, never mind the film –  While not being completely convinced, Lucie was certainly one of the better acts this week.  For the first time, I could actually imagine her being a pop star and she made the song her own, whatever it was.  She also had the best judges comments up to that point.

Danyl – ‘Purple Rain’ from Purple Rain – In a shock move, to silence his critics, Danyl had a new hair cut.  He still didn’t seem back to 100% but he was a welcome relief because he gave a good performance that left me with no mixed feelings.  Let’s hope that all the bullshit around him is done and dusted and he can just get on with him singing.  It seemed pretty obvious that Simon’s glowing praise was intended to boost his confidence.

John and Edward – ‘Ghostbusters’ from Ghostbusters – There were plenty of boos in the studio, which seemed totally unfair until they started.

Fuck.  Me.

It was perhaps the most horrific thing that I’ve ever seen as they did a panto recreation of Ghostbusters.  They even had the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man show up.   It was jaw-droppingly bad and there were plenty more boos for the twins when they had finished.  To be honest, it’s all getting a bit awkward.  Incredibly, Simon said it was ‘sort of good’ – you can take this as a sign that the end of the world is nigh.  I couldn’t decide whether he was being nice to make sure they got voted off, or if he was hedging his bets in case they win.

Joe – ‘Circle of Life’ from some Disney shite – Joe should very clearly be working in musicals, but, as much as it pains me to say so, he’s still miles better than lots of the others.

Over on The Xtra Factor I was pleased to see the judges were upstairs again.  Simon gamely picked ‘Simon’s unfair’ and the caller questioned Simon’s commitment to Jamie with Paxmanesqe determination.  Not to be outdone, Cheryl picked ‘Cheryl can’t pick songs’, which was just an excuse for someone to have a go at her.  It’s all so refreshingly honest.

I usually give my predictions for the bottom two, but I hadn’t written my notes up before the results show and so I’d feel like I was cheating if I were to do it now.

Sunday

Running Time: 120 minutes
Time I watched it in: 33 minutes

X Factor Ratio: 27.5%

Well, inexplicably, there was no sound on my recording of the results show.  Some people might consider that to be a blessing, but it does mean that I can’t give any details other than what I could guess.  Jedward were finally in the bottom two but, somewhat surprisingly, so was Lucie, who was one of the best acts this week.

I’ve no idea what the sing-off was like, or what they sang, but I’ll take a wild guess that Lucie sang better.

Bizarrely, Simon took the vote to deadlock and Lucie went home.  I can only assume that Simon must be playing some tactical game to take it to deadlock.  On the Xtra Factor everyone seemed a bit gutted.  The feeling was summed up best by Maz from Fife as she asked Simon what on earth he was playing at.

In Conclusion

Well, just as I was getting to like Lucie she went home.  I might keep my trap shut from now on.

I’ve realised that I don’t seem to like any of the acts, so I’m going to force myself to pick my top three.  These are just my personal picks and not who I think will win.  I would have included Lucie if she hadn’t gone.

1. Danyl – It doesn’t really matter if he has the ‘likeability factor’ or not, he’s easily the best singer.

2. Stacey – Incredibly, I’m really struggling to pick someone other than Danyl.  I’ve plumped for Stacey because I liked her in the early weeks.  I think she’s been pretty bad for the last two weeks.

3.  Joe – There is no rational explanation for me to pick Joe because I’ve consistently given him a slating.  In my head, I know I should pick Olly, but I just found myself picking Joe.  It’s not a good sign for the series as a whole that it was such a struggle for me to pick.

And that’s the end of this week’s rather lacklustre report.  You can tell that I wasn’t really in the mood because I’ve sworn at least 3 times during the course of the post and I’m such a good boy that I don’t usually use naughty words.  I’ll see you next week for whatever bogus theme they think up.

Total Duration:  275 minutes

Total time I spent watching it: 94  minutes

Overall X Factor Ratio: 34.2%