That Ms. Weems succeeds in evoking an era while revealing her props and directorial cues testifies toher skills as a magician who can tip her hand and nonetheless fool us into sharing a mood of tremulous expectancy.
Even Fox was lukewarm, refusing to pay for the show, until Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, already a big Pop Idol fan, told her father he'd be a foolto pass up an American version.