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Dancing With the Stars: Season 3


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And wasn't last night great fun and exciting?!!!

I've never seen Mario dance better! And he gets top billing from me for raving, without being prompted to do so, that his partner, Karina, is his greatest "weapon" in this dance competition.

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I've been looking at Netflix for DVDs of past seasons --- they don't seem to be out, or even in the offing. Am I missing something? (I've disabled my TV because of .......well, you can imagine.... and only use mine for dvd-watching.) Would love to see this show.
Try here: http://abc.go.com/primetime/dancing/index.html. :D

It's not a dvd, and you probably need a high-speed connection, and it's not beginning-to-end, but at least you'll have an idea of what we're talking about. :gossip:

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Week Ten -- The Finale

Miliosr's Thoughts

How fun was it to see so many members of the Dancing with the Stars "family" -- Joey, Drew, Stacy, Lisa, George -- return for finale week?

Jerry dancing with one of Emmitt's daughters at the end of the results show was very, very cute.

I haven't had much to say about Tom Bergeron this season but I want to take this opportunity to praise his work as host. He continues to impress me with his ability to host the show while functioning as a one-man Greek chorus commenting on all the insanity around him. He gets a "10" (delivered in my best, melodramatic Bruno voice!)

Scores from the Judges

What a shock -- the judges tied the two teams! Grrrrr . . .

Emmitt/Cheryl = 30 + 30 + 29 = 89

Mario/Karina = 29 + 30 + 30 = 89

Emmitt vs. Mario

Since the judges were on hiatus, I went into "Method critic" mode and pretended I was tart-tongued fourth judge "Arlene" for the finale. :)

"Sir Duke" Round

Both teams did a samba.

Round One was a bit of draw for me. I thought Mario and Karina's dance was more difficult than Emmitt and Cheryl's and I thought Mario and Karina's execution was crisper. BUT, I have to fault Mario and Karina again for not making better use of the dancefloor. They have this tendency to get stuck in one part of the dancefloor and, as a result, they look like they're dancing in place. Emmitt and Cheryl are much better about employing the entire dancefloor and this creates a propulsive quality to their dancing that makes Mario and Karina seem static in comparison.

My scores:

Emmitt/Cheryl -- 8

Mario/Karina -- 7

Performers' Choice Round

Mario and Karina did the paso doble. Emmitt and Cheryl did the mambo.

Mario and Karina were the clear winners of this round. The dance was suitably dramatic and Mario is always better when he has a "serious" character to play -- it reduces the smarm factor. And they even moved around the dancefloor more than they usually do.

Emmitt and Cheryl were adequate but I thought Emmitt looked sloppy.

My scores:

Mario/Karina -- 9

Emmitt/Cheryl -- 7

Freestyle Round

I always hate the freestyle round and this year was no exception. What bothers me is that the performers seem to think that throwing off the "shackles" of the individual dances will make their dancing "freer". Instead, it just makes them look undisciplined and unruly. They need to remember that the discipline of ballroom dancing will set them free.

Emmitt and Cheryl's "It's Hammer time!" routine was an obvious homage to the MC Hammer videos of the late-80s. Unfortunately, the routine itself looked like second-rate MC Hammer. And both lifts were awkward and unattractive.

All that being said, I hated Mario and Karina's freestyle even more and for a whole raft of reasons -- weird 80s breakdancing, standing in place, ugly lifts, etc. Worst of all was how Mario danced the freestyle as if it was a solo. It was the Super Mario Show and who cares about relating to your partner! Was Karina even there -- I can't remember given Mario's showboating!!

My scores:

Emmitt/Cheryl -- 8

Mario/Karina -- 5

My scores -- totals:

Emmitt/Cheryl = 23

Mario/Karina = 21

And the Winner Is . . .

Results night saw Emmitt and Cheryl storm to victory and claim the coveted glittery disco ball.

While I think either team winning would have been an acceptable result, I'm pleased that Emmitt and Cheryl pulled it out in the end. Mario is a cleaner dancer than Emmitt but, to me, Emmitt and Cheryl ended up presenting more of a complete package (dancing, chemistry, razzle-dazzle) than Mario and Karina did. Also, Emmitt seems to have a genuineness about him that works brilliantly on television and tends to make Mario look fake in comparison.

Once again, being the early front runner on this show does not result in victory. John O'Hurley, Stacy Keebler and now Mario Lopez have all learned that being strong out of the gate can hurt you in the end as it seems that one factor in winning it all is to show development over the course of the show.

Finally, congratulations to Cheryl Burke for successfully defending her title!

Final Thoughts

This season was somewhat of a disappointment to me as I found the casting and judging to be very flawed this time. I would still rank Season Two as the best season with Season One following at a moderate distance behind it and Season Three trailing in the rear.

Season Four will start in March. The miliosr report may or may not be back at that point. Writing these reports is a big time commitment now that the show is up to ten weeks and, when the casting is weird like it was this season, it becomes more of a chore than it should be to right the reports. I think resuming the reports in March will depend in large part on who gets cast.

In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoyed the reports!

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