"Idol": Oh, Boston, you're my home

The “American Idol” season premiere was notable for three reasons. 1.) It was set in Boston, where a series of lone dreamers stood singing to both a panel of judges and the unforthcoming stare of the Custom House Tower in the background. 2.) It was the start of the first season of “American Idol” without our crazy love bucket Paula Abdul and her emotional overspill, a fact that was duly noted a few moments into the two-hour episode. 

And 3.) Not a single word was uttered about the fact that Simon Cowell, the show’s biggest asset, the one judge that everyone actually listens to, the Brit whose tart personality has almost single-handedly made “American Idol” into such a massive TV and music phenomenon, is leaving the show at the end of the season. The information was conspicuous in its absence, and you can bet it will go unmentioned once again tonight, during the two-hour Atlanta auditions. Surely “Idol” is going to continue to underplay its own impending doom throughout this season.

Otherwise, “Idol” returned to Fox with more of its brisk, familiar audition material. Even Boston turned out to be a showcase for a few stunt players and poor deluded souls who think they can sing, as the night was peppered with painful performances including one that inspired Cowell to imply he wanted to jump out the window. An anime lover from Walpole screeching Janis Joplin, a waitress from Billerica mangling Mariah Carey, a bouncy accountant from Somerville twisting up Natasha Bedingfield -- they all got tossed out of the room with a little less self-esteem.

But there were success stories, as always, with Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi, and elfin guest judge Victoria Beckham continually reaching for new language to express just how wowed they were. (Ellen DeGeneres will begin her stint as a regular judge next month.) And many of the good singers who got through to Hollywood came equipped with the kind of poignant backstories that “Idol” so loves to tell in order to counteract the repetitiveness of the competition.

Maddy Curtis from Virginia, a 16-year-old with major dimples and a major voice, is the devoted sister of brothers with Down syndrome. Katie Stevens from Connecticut, another knockout 16-year-old singer, shared her tears about her grandmother’s Alzheimer’s disease. And Justin Williams, 27, from Utah, described his journey through cancer before blowing away the judges with “Feeling Good” and the lyrics, “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life.” Ryan Seacrest walked us through these dramas with his usual, seemingly endless enthusiasm.

Ultimately, though, as last night once again proved, the unsung heroes of the many, many weeks of “Idol” auditions are the editors. Until the show moves to Hollywood and live segments begin to dominate, these episodes are pieced together with remarkable and tireless invention. They are filled with perky little sequences that mesh together different auditions, and they deliver all kinds of comic and tragic miniatures. The editing, like the judges panel, has an abundance of personality.

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