The Fox show said goodbye with a finale that reminded you of how wonderful — and WTF — this pop juggernaut once was
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American Idol has a lot in common with the country it’s named after — a swift rise, fueled by lofty populist ideals and naked aggression, world conquest, such giddy heights, then the tragic skid into despair and and it’s all somehow Fox’s fault. The end of the Idol empire should have been a much bigger deal. It should have been an event. But instead, last night’s farewell episode just kind of dribbled away, like the final season overall. “Let’s do a Bowie tribute, except instead of Adam Lambert or Fantasia, we’ll have five folkie bros with matching acoustic guitars bore the living fucklights out of us all” — yeah, that’s the kind of brainstorm that might help explain why Idol was finished. It was as dreary as everything “Starman” was rebel-rebelling against in the first place.