Country music is known for storytelling, much more than other genres of music. And over the years, there have actually been some pretty good short tales in those ditties. So when the news broke a few days ago that Clint Black is looking to produce an anthology series with the stories of country music adapted into hour-long dramatic presentations, I was actually too stunned with how obvious it was to react at first.

As someone who grew up on rock, hip-hop and pop music primarily, it took me several years to open up to country music. When I was exposed to it, the first thing that stood out was that there was more than just booty-shaking and sex going on. Long before Ty Pennington was manipulating the heartstrings on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, country music was doing it every four minutes or so.

I don't have the country music background or expertise to immediately list off all the songs that would make great short stories, but I know enough to say that this might be the best shot at succeeding an anthology series has had in a long time.

(S32E13) I'm not very familiar with Forest Whitaker's work, but I'm well aware of his new-found status as one of the biggest actors in Hollywood. He recently won multiple awards for his performance in The Last King of Scotland, so I knew that he could act. Whitaker didn't do such a spectacular job on SNL. He was good, yeah, but not spectacular.

However, the writing this week was really something else. It was a lot weirder than usual, I thought. For the most part, I liked it. I see that they've cut down on a lot of the more formulaic recurring character sketches, which is a massive improvement. Plus, none of the those recurring sketches are accompanied shitty little theme songs! Remember the days of "Debbie Downer" and "Carol"? Thank goodness those are over.

This week's American Idol competition is going to feature country performances from our nine remaining contestants. While this seems like a choice assignment for Bucky, Kellie and probably even Taylor and Chris, how are others such as Mandisa and Ace, who's just barely escaped being voted off twice now, going to fare? Is this going to be their shining moment, or perhaps their swan song?

Join me tonight for TV Squad's live American Idol chat to talk about the show as it happens. Check back here to this very post at 8pm ET, when I'll unveil the location for our super secret chat room. As with all of our chats, you must have AIM (AOL's Instant Messenger) or a compatible program (GAIM or Trillian) to access the room. I'll be in there under the id of TVSRyan and some of your other favorite TV Squadders will probably be stopping by as well. I'll see you at 8!


Update:
Come one, come all;  here is the super secret location for our American Idol Chat! Look for me (TVSRyan) in the chat room. See you inside.

Disclaimer: All or parts of the discussion in this chatroom may be posted in a later column on this site.