87 replies to this topic

[miliosr]

Last night's episode was the first one this season that I actually enjoyed.  The contestants/dancing didn't move me a bit but, as this episode was the show's 200th, I was delighted to see so many former contestants in the audience for the celebration. Interesting how some seasons were better represented than others -- Season 2 had a strong showing while, from Season 6, I think only Kristi showed.  (But then, Season 6 was the 'Kristi Show' so that was fitting in its own way.)

Probably the best bit was seeing the all-time fan favorites -- Mel B, Emmitt, Kelly Osbourne, Gilles and Drew -- as guest judges.  (I cannot bring myself to put Helio in this category -- I am STILL bitter that he beat Mel B in Season 5.)  Seeing some of the greatest contestants from seasons past was unintentionally telling as their presence put into sharp relief the  general dreariness of the show and the current contestants.  Drew, in particular, harkened back to a better time when, as another poster wrote on a different board, the show was full of, "charm, innocent fun, spontaneity and unpredictability."

For the life of me, I cannot figure out what is going on with Jennifer Grey.  She is SO emotional -- is this real or is she just being "actressy"?  Honestly, I don't know if she will make it to the end even if she survives tonight.

We will see who goes tonight.  I don't have a clue whose number is up . . .

[Marga]

Jennifer Grey has problems with her neck. This quote from Wikipedia explains what happened to her prior to DWTS. Also, she's 50, so stamina is becoming a problem. Naturally, this frustrates her since she is in it to win it. It's easy to become emotional when your body is betraying you.

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"Prior to her stint on Dancing with the Stars, Grey had a physical examination to ensure that she was fit enough to compete. In addition, Grey saw a doctor to address chronic neck problems caused by a serious car accident years before. Her spinal cord was compressed and her surgeon said "If you fell or got rear-ended, you'd be paralyzed". Surgeon Robert S. Bray placed a titanium plate in her neck to stabilize her spinal cord but also told her to see another doctor about a suspicious white spot on her thyroid that he'd seen on her MRI. Grey had believed the spot to be a benign nodule but it was cancerous and was removed. Grey told ABC's "Good Morning America" she believes the cancer was caught before it metastasized and that she is now cancer-free."

[perky]

I'm starting to get a little worried here. Bristal might actually make to the finals.
1. She forgets steps in her routines too many times.
2. Although she has lovely legs and works them correctly, her upper body is always stiff and disengaged.
3. She doesn't really show much enthusiasm about being a contestant on the show. In fact if you put up a screencap of Bristal's face as she was about to get a root canal next to a screencap of her learning routines or actually dancing them on the show it would be the same darn face!
4. Based on confessional footage, she clearly does not want to be there. She's not having fun, she misses her kid and her family. She didn't come right out and say "Hey, stop voting for me. I WANT to go home!", but it was pretty darn close.

She seems like a sweet girl in over her head and uncomfortable as a contestant on the show. I think people should not vote for her next week and put her out of her obvious misery. Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen.


I love Maks but I just can't get behind Brandy. Girl seems too desperate. Jennifer Grey is a fighter but I think she's just breaking down little by little. It's a shame, she's a lovely dancer. Kurt has Anna,which is a big plus in my book! Nice guy, just not a good enough dancer to be in the semi-finals.
So that leaves Kyle. Not the best dancer out there by any means, but I'm actually rooting for him to win. He works hard, he's improving, he's charming and when he's on the dance floor magic happens. I know he's a long shot to even make the semi-finals, but he's the only one left I actually care about enough to vote for.

[miliosr]

Week Seven - Elimination Seven

Rick Fox and Cheryl Burke

Rick has a nice personality and a good work ethic but he had reached the limit of what he was going to achieve.  (The extreme height differential between Rick and Cheryl wasn't helping matters, either.)  It wasn't his time -- Bristol for sure needed to go -- but, as he wasn't going to win in any event, his wasn't an unfair boot.

I still think Kurt and Bristol are headed to the Final 3 but I'm not so sure about Jennifer any more.  She is so high strung at the moment -- people may not vote for her out of fear that continuing in the competition will cause some kind of nervous collapse!

[Natalia]

I honestly cannot explain how Bristol has held on unless all of Alaska &/or every "Tea Party-er" in the America is dialing in, non-stop. If that's the case, she might win. Does anyone know if the final-final selection of DWTS is up to the public or will it be up to the expert judges once the Final 3 or 2 are known?

[sidwich]

miliosr, on 03 November 2010 - 04:17 PM, said:

Rick has a nice personality and a good work ethic but he had reached the limit of what he was going to achieve.  (The extreme height differential between Rick and Cheryl wasn't helping matters, either.)  It wasn't his time -- Bristol for sure needed to go -- but, as he wasn't going to win in any event, his wasn't an unfair boot.

Rick really got sunk with the show's gimmick of the week.  The quickstep was always going to be difficult for him with the closed hold and the extreme height difference, but having to use Julianne and Helio's choreography really made it an almost impossible task.  The choreography was really put together for relatively short, but well-matched dancers with uber-perky personalities and Rick and Cheryl are really the complete opposite.  Without Cheryl being able to put something together more suited to Rick's strengths and weaknesses (and really her own strengths and weaknesses since Cheryl's not even close to as good a Standard dancer as Julianne), I thought there was a good possibility he might be going home.

As an aside, I was really amused by the apple boxes the producers must have been putting Cheryl on for the backstage interviews.  It was fascinating seeing how Cheryl grew to be the same height as Derek Hough!  

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I honestly cannot explain how Bristol has held on unless all of Alaska &/or every "Tea Party-er" in the America is dialing in, non-stop. If that's the case, she might win. Does anyone know if the final-final selection of DWTS is up to the public or will it be up to the expert judges once the Final 3 or 2 are known?

I can't remember if there is any judges vote in the final, but even if there is, the votes will be so close that the public vote will determine the winner.  The judges are always pretty generous to whoever is in the final no matter how terrible they are.  Actually, you can pretty much tell who is getting major public support because no matter how bad they are and how little they are improving, their judges comments become much more positive about halfway through the season.  The producers don't like to come across as telling America that their favorites are not very good.

[Helene]

sidwich, on 04 November 2010 - 03:25 PM, said:

Actually, you can pretty much tell who is getting major public support because no matter how bad they are and how little they are improving, their judges comments become much more positive about halfway through the season.  The producers don't like to come across as telling America that their favorites are not very good.

Yesterday a friend of mine, who took tango for a number of years, and I were talking about the show.  He didn't understand why the judges were so harsh with dancers who he thought were stronger in their frame, more precise in their footwork, and who were dancing in the character of the dance, while dancers he felt were stompy and elementary would get gushes from the judges.  I guessed that it was a matter of expectations, and that big guys, especially big athletes, got credit for not falling over, but your explanation makes a lot more sense.

[miliosr]

Week Eight - Elimination Eight

Kurt Warner and Anna Trubinskaya

Much like Rick Fox, Kurt was a hard worker and had a nice personality.  But, he had reached the end of the line with what he was going to achieve (at least within the context of this show.)  So, his was not an outrageous boot.

We (and the show) now face an interesting prospect -- Bristol Palin could win the mirrorball trophy.  Based on what we have seen so far, she would be the least deserving contestant of the four who remain (and the least deserving winner ever.)  In the past, the show has always managed to dodge the bullet of a clearly undeserving contestant winning it all on the back of a motivated voting bloc.  Probably the closest the show has ever come to the nightmare scenario happening was when Sara Evans kept advancing despite being the worst dancer on the dancefloor.  Mercifully, she quit before we found out how deep she would have gone.

If Bristol wins, I will be interested to see if it provokes a backlash from the casual viewer along the lines of "clearly, this show is just a popularity contest and has nothing to do with who is the best dancer."  (In truth, the audience vote has never been entirely about dancing but the "best" dancer usually prevailed in the end -- except Season 5 when Helio STOLE the mirrorball trophy from Mel B!!!)  In trying to bump up ratings by courting controversy through Bristol (because of her love-her-or-hate-her mother) the show may end up achieving a short-term gain at its own long-term expense.  We'll see.

[Natalia]

miliosr, on 11 November 2010 - 04:26 PM, said:

......If Bristol wins, I will be interested to see if it provokes a backlash from the casual viewer .....

It shouldn't, as it's the "casual viewers" that keep voting for Bristol. Yeah, I keep forgetting that too.  

[miliosr]

Natalia, on 12 November 2010 - 08:01 AM, said:

miliosr, on 11 November 2010 - 04:26 PM, said:

......If Bristol wins, I will be interested to see if it provokes a backlash from the casual viewer .....

It shouldn't, as it's the "casual viewers" that keep voting for Bristol. Yeah, I keep forgetting that too.  

I should qualify that, when I'm referring to casual viewers, I'm referring to people who either watch live but don't vote or people who watch on other media (i.e YouTube) and don't vote.

[Treefrog]

Some of the people voting for Bristol aren't viewers at all.  There are websites dedicated to Sarah Palin that are publishing the phone numbers and website links for voting for Bristol, and giving specific instructions for how to vote several times using different methods.  I think anyone who follows DWTS at all will be ticked off if they think the system can be (and is) manipulated.

[sidwich]

Quote

If Bristol wins, I will be interested to see if it provokes a backlash from the casual viewer along the lines of "clearly, this show is just a popularity contest and has nothing to do with who is the best dancer." (In truth, the audience vote has never been entirely about dancing but the "best" dancer usually prevailed in the end -- except Season 5 when Helio STOLE the mirrorball trophy from Mel B!!!) In trying to bump up ratings by courting controversy through Bristol (because of her love-her-or-hate-her mother) the show may end up achieving a short-term gain at its own long-term expense. We'll see.

I doubt it.  This show has never been about the best dancer, and it's been quite obvious since the beginning when Kelly Monaco won on the back of a huge General Hospital fanbase.  Actually, I think the "best" dancer has won a few times, but mediocre dancers have won just as often, and more than a few downright poor dancers have made it to the finals.

What I find interesting about Bristol is that as much as she is getting significant support for reasons other than her dancing, she seems to inspire a hostile reactions for non-dancing reasons as well.  Bristol's not a very good dancer, but I think she's nowhere near the worst dancer ever on the show.  Even if she won, I don't think she'd be the worst ever winner.  Kelly Monaco really was very, very bad.

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I think anyone who follows DWTS at all will be ticked off if they think the system can be (and is) manipulated.

DWTS is actually quite studious about avoiding being characterized as a game-show.  If you'll notice, the only thing the winners receive is the (worthless) mirrorball trophy; there is never anything that can be characterized as a prize of any real value.  By staying on the "reality show," side of the FCC's dotted line, the producers are able to play fast and loose with the rules of the show (what are they?) and the judges don't have to maintain any consistency (my commentary on this is long and involved).  This also gives them a lot of leeway on the issue of robo-calling and vote manipulation which has come up more than once on this show, and I'll be interested in seeing how this comes out if really is as big of an issue as some have alleged this year.

[papeetepatrick]

http://tv.nytimes.co...&ref=television

If Bristol wins, just think how it can be integrated into that OTHER reality TV show.  Maybe Ms. Palin can ask her daughter if she feels differently now that she won the mirrorball trophy, and Bristol can say 'In what respect, Charley?'

[miliosr]

Week Nine - Elimination Nine

Brandy and Maks Chermkovsky

Well, my prediction for the Final Three was two-thirds correct -- Jennifer and Bristol made it w/ Kyle filling Kurt's spot.  I see Kyle placing third w/ the Dirty Dancing and Sarah Palin fanbases duking it out for first place.  Poor Bristol -- she may be praying that she doesn't win!

[Treefrog]

miliosr, on 16 November 2010 - 07:08 PM, said:

  Poor Bristol -- she may be praying that she doesn't win!

Why?