Wow, Monique’s was even better. Honest to god, I spontaneously clapped when she and Louis finished.
What in the world is up with Shannon’s music choice (Criss Cross!)?
:rolleyes:
OK, well, every so often TV presents you with something you’ve never seen before and probably never will again, and tonight that would be Harry Hamlin dancing the quickstep to an Iggy Pop tune. I would just love to hear what the Stooges frontman thought of the DWtS band’s treatment of “Lust for Life”. I’m sure his comments would be colorful.
I’m thinking the overall level of skill is somewhat higher than last year, but also more even. Best from a sheer athletic standpoint has to be Mario, but he was rightly smacked down, IMO, for going way overboard with his routine. Judge Len is pretty much a stickler for specific dance moves being represented in the routines, and he’s hammered contestants for this sort of thing before in both the UK and American series.
My personal faves were Monique and Joey (the latter despite my being a bit freaked out by his prominent forehead veins), but neither, IMO, had anywhere near perfect execution. Also liked Viveca, and Emmitt, who for me did much better than last week. That guy really does have good footwork, and one has to give him credit for style despite a body shape that’s simply not all that well suited for this kind of thing.
Aren’t Willa and Maxsim just made for each other? If they were gonna do something based on a punk classic, it would have to be “Pretty Vacant”. Seriously, though, I’ve gotta give her credit for being able to shake that thing. Give her a brass pole to lean against and I’d be tempted to start throwing twenties at her.
Hard to handicap this week, in part because I’m not really sure what makes for a good quickstep. Springer is clearly outclassed by the whole group, but he entertained and he’s got too much of a following. I’m guessing Hamlin, Shonna or Sarah go home, despite fairly creditable performances from the latter two.
I missed the first hour - what happened to Mario’s performance? He did so well last time.
StG
It was a spectacular performance, if the required dance had happened to be freestyle, but apparently there was little in the way of actual quickstep moves, particularly those skipping steps taken in unison while the partners hold onto each other.
I thought the judges were very generous in their scoring tonight.
Loved Joey!
Loved Monique.
The country singer lady looks uptight. Tony’s gotta loosen her up if she sticks around.
I’d vote Harry Hamlin out. He was awful.
What Joey did was a great quickstep. Relaxed and light in the top, a nice balance of hopping steps and swinging steps, real live lead-follow. Reminded me of John O’Hurley, but I think Joey is better now than John was at the end of season 1.
I can’t believe that the judges gave Mario such nasty comments and then turned around and handed him a 21. I thought he was going to get 5’s and 6’s, and my husband thought he was going to get 4’s, based on the comments. They were right, that was not any kind of quickstep. It was some kind of weird moving jive. You can really tell that Karina’s not a standard person.
I was equally surprised at Mario’s scores – if you’re gonna slam someone for not doing the required dance, do not then turn around and reward them with good scores.
And he’s had a hell of a lot more dance training than he’s letting on.
Most of my votes went to Monique, with a few to Willa and a few to Joey.
I was expecting 5s and 6s for Mario, too. Maybe the judges are being influenced by the audience? After his comments on Mario’s performance, Len Goodman is really starting to remind me of some of my British relatives, and not in a good way!
I’m afraid I don’t like Willa. Both last week and this week, she seemed to be doing odd things with her face while she was dancing. It even looked like she was sticking out her tongue a few times. I heard her described as “the bad girl of rock” (I hadn’t heard of her before the show), but what works in punk rock isn’t necessarily appropriate for ballroom dancing.
It’s going to be a tough call in the middle of the season. Everyone seems to be operating on a similar, pretty high level.
And I **still ** have this song stuck in my head, dammit! After Barry Manilow’s Mandy being used last week and Jump, Jump this week, I wouldn’t be suprized if next week someone used the Chicken Song (clap-clap-clap-clap)!
Loving Monique!
Despite not knowing who she is (nor do I find her particularly charming), I thought Willa got ripped a little. I thought she should have been toward the top of the pack.
And I agree with all of the above that Mario (or Karina, I guess, if she’s responsible for the choreography) should have been penalized for not doing the requirements of the dance. I don’t know anything about this stuff, and even I said “where’s the quickstep?” to my wife while they were cutting it.
I predict Shanna, Vivica, and maybe Jerry at the bottom this week. Shanna’s a goner.
BTW did we have a new director last night? What was with the sloppy camera work? We had awkward shots of people all over the place. Ever hear of pointing the camera at the person who’s talking?
Oh, and…
They showed us last season that their music is assigned to them, not selected by the dancers themselves. Blame ABC for the horror. At least their outfits were on the right way.
Nah, sloppy camera work is a tradition at DWtS by now. At least I didn’t notice them shooting other cameramen too much this time.
Hey! It’s a live show. Cut 'em a break.
lol 
It was worse than usual last night though. Maybe they felt bad for the singers getting all the bad comments on the internets and are trying to take the heat off of them for a week. If that’s the plan, I’m afraid they’re wasting their time. That Criss Cross number was a disaster. The song itself is a horrible choice, of course, but at least the band could nail the music. Instead it was weak and twinkly, and all you could hear was the singer who probably got laughed off stage at the American Idol tryouts. Sounded like Attack Of The A Capella Bird Woman.
Just wanted to pop in and say that, although I haven’t seen last night’s show yet, I have every confidence that Emmitt Smith will be around for a while. And why is that, you ask? Because, as last season proved, Cheryl is one hell of a choreographer. The routines she puts together are just amazing. Big props to her. Can’t wait to see how she and Emmitt did last night.
I haven’t gotten too into this yet, part of it is too big a field and it competing with House for the first hour. Maybe once I can figure out how to tape one and watch the other.
However, I did flip over for a few minutes in time to catch Harry Hamlin and I thought he did better. Being a little stiff seems to help with the quick step and he looked pretty snazzy in that suit. Ashley’s so cute, I hope she gets to stick around longer than she did with her run with the horrid Master P.
Re: Mario’s unfairly high scores.
I wonder if the producers didn’t quickly tell the judges “Mario is good for ratings. He’d better make it to next week. I don’t care if he was doing the Hokey Pokey out there!” Maybe I’m just a conspiracy nut or something.
Anyone notice the annoying blonde and her friend who kept watching themselves on TV whenever the flamboyant judge was shown? Looked like the director finally caught on and would switch off of him whenever they started their “lookit me, I’m on tv!” thing.
Well, all of the scores last night seemed a bit elevated - no one below 19? please.
So for the women:
Monique and Willa had fun, exciting dances. Watching them made me want to get up and mambo. And I don’t know how to mambo. Monique especially was awesome, doing the twists at the barre obviously paid off.
Sara, Vivica, and Shanna were dull and boring and awkward. It didn’t even look like they were doing the same type of dance that the other two were. Vivica’s score doesn’t make sense at all, she was odd looking for half of it.
For the men:
I was also expecting Mario to get 4s and 5s, 6s at the highest. The comments should somewhat match the scores. Harry Hamlin loosened up quite a bit. Emmitt wasn’t as good as last week, but you could tell he was trying to keep his shoulders right. (BTW, Cheryl is an amazing choreographer. She knows how to show off her partners’ best work - you can especially see it v. Ashly who didn’t play to her partner’s strengths). Jerry Springer was Jerry Springer. And then Joey was lovely… but why, oh why does Edyta wear those weird blousy, low waist, poofy outfits? They don’t look good on her. And given she’s got her body and custom made clothing, she shouldn’t be in things that don’t look good on her.
Luckily, someone did – Jerry.
I hate to say it, but none of these dancers have x factor that both Drew Lachey and Stacy Keebler brought to the show.
I don’t think Mario should have been penalized for the choreographer. He’s not responsible for it; she was. I think he was the most charismatic dancer even though the end pose was way too schmaltzy for me.