Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
THIS is the best of American Idol!!!, November 23, 2005
For me the best part of American Idol is watching the horrible audtions at the start of each season. These poor souls actually believe they have what it takes to make it to the big time. The sad part is they REALLY believe they can make it, sometimes they have family members who encourage them. Some say that these have to be fakes, people can't be this bad. Well they can be, they can't be that good of actors!!
This DVD has some of the best worst performances from the first four seasons. You get William Hung, you get that guy singing "Like A Virgin", you get my personal favorite, Mary Roach. You've got to credit these people for at least having the guts to get up there and try.
Now for the part that's not so great about this set. Many of the songs have been cut, I would guess because they couldn't get the rights to them. By cutting out the songs, you don't really get to see why they are being so harshly judged. So the judges come off as being rude for no real reason.
Aside from that, this DVD is great fun. But again how many of us would have the guts to get up there ourselves??
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
More Like 3 1/2 Stars --- Annoying DVD Problems Bog Down Content, January 17, 2006
This is the "Worst of American Idol" and they've certainly put it together. If you just can't help looking at those crazy, wacky people who come on to this show (and yes, I can't help), then you'll love this DVD.
This DVD has everything you could want as far as that goes. You get the full auditions or arguments of such people as Tamika (It's TA-MEE-KA! TA-*MEE*-KA!) Bush, Adam and Dirk, William Hung and more. Oh yes, there's William Hung. You'll get his entire audition, never shown before as well as full-on performance with accompanying music and girl dancers. You'll also get crazy medlies of Christmas songs, America the Beautiful, fashion faux pas and more.
A lot of the content is presented in an approximately hour long highlight reel, with some commentary by Paula Abdul. But the really "good" stuff, as described above, is in separate Special Features.
The main problem with this DVD is that the "Worst of American Idol" seems to be packaged with the worst of DVD problems. There is no scene selection on the highlights reel, so you're stuck trying to find your spot. There are no close-captions or subtitles either. I mean --- I can't say I entirely blame them, a lot of this stuff really is indecipherable, but even trying could have helped. There are some bad audio problems on a couple of the earlier segments also. The worst thing is that every time you pop in the DVD, you have to sit through three copyright / logo displays, followed by an intro that's about a minute long from Paula. I couldn't get this to either skip or fast forward.
P.S. --- I don't know why so many people are saying that you just get some padded show or whatever. Yes, there *is* a clips show with this, but there's a whole bunch of special feature segments with unedited and complete auditions and/or arguments.
So overall --- I like this DVD, but I really have to mark down because of the described problems, which don't have *anything* to do with the content.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Star review from the Washington Post, November 20, 2005
The following is a review from the Washington Post that someone posted on the Fox American Idol site. I am posting it for people that want to know more about what's on the DVD's.
High and low notes of `Idol'
New DVD set explores popular show's first four seasons
By Curt Fields
Washington Post
Fans of TV's insanely popular "American Idol" fall into one of two camps. They watch because they enjoy rooting for the occasional discovery of genuinely talented performers, or they enjoy the train wreck of seeing people who have no business being near a microphone destroying a song and acting amazed when they're told they stink.
Whatever your motivation for watching, Tuesday's upcoming DVD releases should tide you over until the show returns in January as "The Best of American Idol: Seasons 1-4" ($19.98), "The Worst of American Idol: Seasons 1-4" ($19.98) and, combining the two and tossing in a bonus disc, "The Best & Worst of American Idol: Seasons 1-4" ($34.98) hit the market.
"The Best Of" disc contains some of the show's more memorable moments, including Fantasia Barrino's "Summertime," Kelly Clarkson's "Respect" and Bo Bice's a cappella "In a Dream." It focuses primarily on the top two finalists from each season, so there's lots of Clarkson (the most successful post-"Idol" performer so far), Justin Guarini, Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken, Fantasia (she's dropped the Barrino since winning in Season 3), Diana DeGarmo, Bice and Carrie Underwood.
A few other contestants are represented. Season 1's Tamyra Gray sings "Feel the Fire" and reminds you what a joke it was that Guarini made it to the final two that year.
A collection of season recaps is a fun bit of nostalgia for fans, as is seeing the full-length auditions of the winners and runners-up and watching them evolve musically and stylistically. (Watching Aiken's look steadily transform from geek to pop singer in the photo album feature is a testament to the power of stylists everywhere.) Even the most devoted fans will learn new tidbits. For example, Underwood was flirty and animated at her audition, much more so than during the rest of the season. Who knew she had a personality?
There is a certain amount of filler. I, for one, need never see the skit of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul on a "romantic date" ever again. The photo gallery is a bit boring because there's no sound with it, but it is fun to see how many contestants you can still name.
"The Worst Of" features all the note-cracking, tuneless delusional favorites from the audition shows. The guy who did "Like a Virgin"? Yep, he's on it. The crazy blonde chick? Yep. The guy who needed subtitles? Yep. And many more abysmally bad singers, a large number of whom felt compelled to argue with the judges about their abilities. And, of course, breakout success William "She Bangs" Hung is featured.
If you get the combined package, there's a bonus disc with lots of interviews of various Season 4 contestants, extended footage of Underwood and Bice on their "hometown trips" and an "exclusive" Abdul interview.
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