To Quote Fantasia: "Finally, I Believe..."

After a season so boring that i couldn't even be bothered to post most nights...

After a Tuesday night finale so dull that I hit pause and went to bed because I didn't care if I missed it live...

After a year of heart ache and anger and rants and raves about WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY FAVORITE SHOW...

...the finale was spectacular.

Yes, y'all. I'm a believer once again. Never thought it would happen. But I'm in. I'm back. I could not stay away after that.

Look. Carrie was good. Bo was good. Whoever won, it was all good. But I felt no passion. Had no favorites. Frankly, did not give a crap who won. Whatever. But tonight...

...tonight...

...tonight, after about an hour and thirty-two minutes of some of the lamest time-filling skits and montages and bad Ryan Seacrest banter I've ever seen (and I've seen a'plenty)...

...tonight...

...they gave us a series of musical numbers so good that I rewound to watch not one, not two, not three, but FOUR times in a row.

Babyface?

Vonzell on a piano?

GEORGE BENSON?

Lynnrd Freakin' Skynnrd?

Did you SEE that?

It was good. It was GREAT. It was FLAWLESS in its TV-perfection. It was pure Idol.

(I'd like to take a moment to give a shout out to Jessica's belly bulge hanging over her pants -- the one dark spot in the evening. Y'all know I have nothing against a girl with meat on her bones. As long as that meat ain't served up in my face.)

But back to the beauty. That musical medley ALMOST made up for an entire top 12 season of some of the worst and dullest performances I've ever witnessed. It ALMOST made up for the fact that there were no makeovers this year. It ALMOST covered up my pain at the lack of "Real World"-style footage of our contestants living in a giant but blandly decorated mansion in the hills.

ALMOST.

Not quite.

ALMOST.

You know what FULLY made up for all of AI's crimes in 2005?

Carrie.

Yep. I said it.

Carrie.

JonBenet Barbie herself.

In about five seconds -- the time it took Ryan to rip open that envelope and announce the winner --- she went from freaky boring singing automaton back to that cute milkmaid from Oklahoma who sang to her cows. She went from icky to sweet. I hate Carrie. Y'all know I do. But in the end, Carrie did the thing.

She did what every Idol winner in the history of AI does.

She got the magic.

They called her name. Her face lit up. She cried. And she turned into the American Dream.

It's corny. It's so downright cheese-y that it makes me want to hurl. It's lame. It's naive. It's stupid. It's a corny, cheese-y, lame, naive, stupid modern day Miss America pageant complete with confetti and a closing song.

And I love every minute of it. Every year. Every time.

Damn that Idol show for making me cry.

That's the genuis of Idol. It's why the show works. No matter how cynical you are feeling going into the final night, by the end, you are wiping away tears, swaying to the freakin' music and thinking to yourself, "God, I love this show."

I hope that next year, I am more glass half full about the show. I hope they bring back the makeovers. I hope they have contestants I can get behind with a crazed passion. I hope Idol 2006 is the season of my dreams.

But even if it isn't, I will get suckered into watching. Because I love that last five minutes. Because I am a fool in love for the confetti and the tears and the song. Because Idol is always Idol no matter how much they try to mess it up.

And until next season...

...is it just me or can you NOT WAIT to watch the dueling Dance Competition shows on Fox and ABC?

Dancing. To votes. It's like...Dirty Dancing with Baby out of the corner. It's Footloose without the barns. It's EVERY SINGLE MADONNA VIDEO EVER MADE.

Joy.

Oh, happy joy.



This is Shonda, reporting alive once again from my sofa.