Episode Report Card Joe R: B- | 25 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Don't Cry Out Loud
By Joe R | Season 6 | Episode 3 | Aired on 01.22.2007
Ryan then lays out a scenario for us: all the pressure of an Idol audition, compounded by the teenage drama of running away from home because your parents forbid you to try out for the show. Sarah Burgess is nineteen years old, which makes the "running away from home" bit sound a lot less dramatic than she and the show would probably like you to. College-aged kids may be living at home with domineering parents, but it's not like she's got a truant officer hunting her down. But Sarah's parents don't know how much this means to her, as her eyes mist over and she sits with her big blue hoop earrings, looking like Lana Lang took a time machine to the '80s. Which is probably where Sarah was when she heard "Parents Just Don't Understand" and started this whole mess. Inside, she starts crying even before she begins, and maybe Matt Sato can teach her some things about waiting to cry about your unsupportive parents until after you've taken care of business. Oh, okay: Sarah's dad said if she went to audition, he'd cut off her college funding. And I guess I could get all "it's called student loans, honey" about it, but that's a severe card for a parent to play when your kid just wants to take a flier on an audition in the summertime. "Prove the parents wrong," commands Randy, and Sarah sings "Call Me," which is apparently the show-sponsored token cool song of '07 that will be ruined for the rest of us by next week. Simon says she's "not the best singer" they've seen -- I thought she did pretty well, myself -- but she's a "try-er," which essentially means he thinks she's got a good hook with her "Daddy never cared" thing. Randy says a lot of words that mean nothing and says he likes her. Carole wants to see the look on Daddy's face when Sarah gets on TV and makes it to Hollywood. Because she did!
As expected, Sarah is a quivering mess of tears outside the audition room. She can barely talk. Then we cut to someone's office somewhere, where Ryan has Sarah make her call to Dad away from the crazy audition people, which is one of those nice touches that make you like Ryan, however temporarily. He asks her all these leading questions like, "Don't you think your dad will be happy? Or maybe mad?" and Sarah's like, "I don't know, I'd just like to be able to talk without hyperventilating." That proves unsuccessful, as she makes a call that would scare the shit out of any parents of a 19-year-old: "Please don't be mad at me, Dad..." Yikes. Dad goes, "Who is this?" which is hilarious. Oh, it's just Sarah, your super-dramatic daughter who made it to Hollywood on Idol and hopes the fact that she's famous offsets her sneaking off across state lines, and just in case she doesn't win, would you mind not cutting her off financially just yet? Then Ryan gives her a hug and is very sweet and genuine, and probably the only person on earth I'd trust to be in an isolated room with my emotionally vulnerable 19-year-old daughter and a video camera, to be honest.
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