‘American Idol XIV’ review: Alexis Grendel’s crisis; Michael Simeon, Hunter Larsen shine

Tonight, the “dreaded” part of “American Idol XIV” began with the Group Round, which we never really love. There are typically so many singers, and typically so many pretty-good singers, it can be ultimately rather hard to keep up.

What we do know is this: David Oliver Willis is still one of our favorites, Shi Scott and Big Ron are impressing, and Sal really need to be quiet with how much he loves the ladies.

To us, the clear winner among the early groups was Double Stuff, mostly because of David and Jesse Cline. There were a few other disasters in here, though, before we got to another winning group in Team Dimples. Great performances in here from Michael Simeon and Hunter Larsen. Also, we liked the classiness that they and their group showed in thanking the band.

The big “drama” tonight came via poor Alexis Grendel of Sal’s group. First, she suffered trying to figure out if there was a team out there for her to become a part of; then, when she eventually joined Sal and company, she struggled with exhaustion and was about to pass out when she started to perform. This is our cliffhanger, folks!

Overall, there was some very good singing tonight! We’re feeling much better about the show right now than we did at this point in season 13, and it’s not just because of the singing. We also have some good personalities in here that we think that we will want to keep rooting for.

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