03.26.06
Amici
Reality TV is pretty big here in Italy. Tonight is the season finale of Amici. I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to describe it. It’s kind of a cross between American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, and Big Brother. A group of young people live in a house together and during the week practice for the contest on Sunday. They all have to sing, dance, and act, no matter what specialty they have studied before they went on the show.
But where things get interesting is when they pass a microphone around after each dance or song and let people critique. There is also a panel of judges, which includes an American (everyone makes fun of his accent) and a platinum-blond transvestite named Platinette (I swear I’m not making this up). There’s a lot of yelling and emotions. All us viewers get to send in our votes at $1 a pop. Whoever doesn’t cut it goes home in a pool of tears.
Italian TV is not for the faint of heart.
Update: Tonight, for some unknown reason, Platinette’s wig is sitting on the table and he/she has a gold sparkly thing on his/her head instead. Truly bizarre.
April Houk said,
03.28.06 at 5:11 pm
Maybe I could borrow his sparkly thing for my gypsy wardrobe.