Gilles looked fabulous to me - I can’t understand how anyone could call that shambling. The music was weird, but the dancing was exceptional. Crisp, clean, together - super tight. He drops his elbows sometimes, but his core and feet are great.
I want Belinda off my screen.
What do you think the judges have against David Allan Grier? With most of the other contestants the judges tried to be nice and had good and bad things to say. But with David they ripped him a new one right from the start. I thought David’s salsa really wasn’t bad for the beginning of the competition, and he should have gotten 6s or 7s. Certainly not a 5 compared to the others. His professional partner did too much of the dancing, but David showed that he can move and has some musicality.
I thought Belinda was way worse than the judges stated. During much of her dance she was standing still watching her partner and she never got the Latin rhythm.
Yeah, I agree. I totally see him making it at least to the second half of the season. Maybe they’re not taking him seriously because he’s a comedian? (Has a comedian ever done well in this? leaving aside the Cloris Leachman fluke.)
I’ve got to give props to Li’l Kim. She’s adorable in this, and a great dancer. She makes you forget that she’s only four feet tall.
He actually looked like he’s had some training in dance (a lot of stage actors spent some time in dance class (yes, he’s been a stage actor - not just a comedian)). On the first night the judges comments actually seemed OK to me, they were giving him feedback that seemed to recognize that he knew what he was doing and could make the adjustments they suggested.
BUT they’re not loving him, that’s for sure.
Ty, the rodeo guy, is going to be adequate at ballroom, but hopeless at Latin, or so I guess. Edyta has to have the strangest taste in clothing of anyone I’ve ever seen. That fantastic body, and she always wants those balloony drapy things. And last night she just looked strange - not nearly as beautiful as she actually is.
I predict that Chuck and Julianne will break up either during or immediately after the season. ISTM that he is acutely uncomfortable, and resenting the heck out of Julianne for putting him in this situation. But apparently the judges like him; I was astonished after the scolding they gave him for standing there while Julianne danced around him that they ended up giving them such a comparatively good score last night.
Wozniak is sweet and I hope he lasts a little longer. The Jack-ass can leave, since his back is grass anyway. Of course, Wozniak has no business dancing on that foot.
Li’l Kim is either Betty Boop, or a Barbie-doll with her legs shortened. Either way, she’s cute as a button, but I wasn’t particularly impressed by her attitude toward her imprisonment. Still, judging on the dancing, she’s one of the better contestants. Has anyone else noticed that the first score of the season is always a triple seven?
One good thing I’ve noticed about this show is that the voting audience does not like vapid young women (usually blonde, but the reality show star last season qualifies too). They usually get dumped quite quickly. So I would assume that both Holly and Denise will be gone quite quickly.
Is it me, or does Belinda look like Priscilla Presley twenty years ago? Anyway, I think she goes down early - she’s not very good.
You guys are right; the judges really don’t seem to care for Grier, and it’s not clear why. They do seem to like Taylor, but I’m not especially impressed. He doesn’t seem to have a lot of charm, and he certainly doesn’t have the innate dance ability that Emmit Smith or Jason Taylor had. I suspect offensive players would tend to be better than guards and tackles on the whole.
Who’da thought that an Olympic gold medalist could be that chunky? This one’s even sturdier than Mary Lou Retton was! Her ability is excellent, but what the heck are they doing with such a young contestant? Audiences for children doing ballroom, and especially Latin, IMO should be limited to families of the contestants - I find it distasteful when children are encouraged to act like they’re passionate or sexy. Admittedly, Shawn is at least pubescent, but I hated like crazy the children’s competitions last season, and I’m really not very comfortable with their telling this sixteen-year-old to be more flirty. That said, she’s probably the likeliest winner.
What the heck were they playing for the pretty guy’s quick-step? Boy, they’ve made some weird music choices, but that one was one of the worst I’ve seen! I’ve got to give Cheryl some credit for managing to choreograph it at all.
But thus far, I’d have to choose Melissa as the best. But since she’s a former ballet dancer and professional cheerleader, so it’s hardly surprising. On top of that, she’s not only extremely pretty, but comes across as quite charming as well.
Twickster, I think you nailed the seaon on the first page, post #39.
She’s at least trying, even if she’s not good.
I want Julianne’s boyfriend gone. Did he dance at all? Or did he just stand and pose while she danced around him. That was…overscored.
carlb, I like how you put it. Holly and Denise “dance dumb.”
I clapped in my living room for Rodeo Guy last night. I wouldn’t have thought he had it in him.
Shawn reminds me of Sabrina. Just younger.
L’il Kim’s plastic surgeon needs to be shot, but she’s dancing rather well.
Not that specifically, but it sounds about right. They start every show with a very-good-but-not-great performance, then blow off the bad performances, then finish with two of the very best.
Aw, shucks.
Doesn’t mean I won’t keep watching – and commented at length – for the rest of the season, though! 
Lil Kim and Gilles have the best partners, IMHO. I am guessing it will come down to them as finalists. I have a girl crush on Edyta, and I want her clothes to just fall off one of these nights.
Speaking of partners, how nice for that sweetie-pie Tony that he finally has a shot at making the finals, due to the bait-and-switch on the old lady assignment.
The results show has aired on the east coast.
[spoiler]Wow, proven wrong on my predictions already! but –
Woo hoo! I single-handedly saved the Woz with my 13 votes![/spoiler]
Let’s hope he doesn’t fuck it up like he did with Stacy.
She went to prison for conspiracy and perjury for denying knowing that two men were on the scene of a deadly shooting incident. There was security video footage of her walking out of the building with the men and the case against her was that she was trying to help them cover up their involvement in the shootout. However, there is a question if she was actually protecting herself from associates who were clearly violent, gun-toting men. She served her time with her head up, spent the time productively (she wrote a bunch of music) and came out with a different perspective on life. Nothing wrong with that.
She’s not chunky. She’s probably got a bodyfat percentage that’s barely in the double digits. She’s got a thick frame, but watch how she moves. That’s pure muscle, and purely from work. If she did a lot of weight training rather than gymnastic training, she’d be more cut than any of the guys on the show.
She’s seventeen. And I’m pretty sure most seventeen year old girls flirt often and flirt well.
Kryptonite, by 3 Doors Down. Here it is on YouTube with the lyrics. Hence the green in his costume, Cheryl’s green dress, his Clark Kent eyeglasses that were shed and the Superman logo on the undershirt when he ripped his shirt open at the end. It was a theme. I thought it was a very interesting choice, and I liked the choreography a lot, especially with the unexpected tempo change.
Was he Stacy’s partner? I’d totally forgotten about that. Still, he made it to final four with her …
I suspect Woz will be the Cloris Leachman of this season – he’s enthusiastic if terrible, and I wouldn’t underestimate the power of nerds to fix an online vote. He could conceivably stay around awhile if that foot doesn’t do him in.
On another note, do they ever release the percentages or totals on the votes? I’m guessing not, or they’d be on the ridiculously comprehensive wikipedia pages, but I’d be really interested to know how big the gaps are between the voting totals for various contestants.
Yes - remember that awful Hustle that they did from Saturday Night Fever? That sealed Stacy’s loss, as far as I was concerned.
There are times when a wonky memory is an advantage. This, apparently, is one of them.
How often has American Idol ever released percentages? (I remember ONE instance, the round of 3 where Eliot Yamin was voted off. That’s it.) No, of course they’re not going to destroy the mystique of heroic underdogs and tragically unsupported front-runners by showing the truth. If anything, there’s even less incentive to do so now, now that the actual percentages are weighed instead of just determining order.
(And just to drive home the significance of that, the absolutely brilliant post that proved that once Stacy Keibler finished 3rd, Drew Lachey was guaranteed to win. Man, if there were a Cafe Society Post of the Year competition, that would’ve won it hands down. I love this place too, twickster. 
)
I hate it when there are two obvious no-hopes. Not only does this subject us to an absolutely ridiciulous amount of drama about two participants who don’t have a prayer, it guarantees that we’ll have to suffer through at least one of them next week. I’ve called for some kind of last-resort face-saving disqualification before and am renewing that call now. Some people can dance and be entertaining and some can’t. There’s nothing wrong with facing that reality.
And just in case someone accuses me of being overly negative in yet another thread…guys, I’m not supposed to be the one who bumps this!
Yeah, that’s usually my job. I was ensconced with my knitting and a cat or two watching the show, and couldn’t be arsed to turn on the computer again after.
Woz: You clearly were not enjoying yourself last night. You may go home now.
Playboy bunny: You’re next.
Then we dump Steve-O and Denise, and we’ve got a rather interesting competition for a few weeks.
I am truly impressed with how much Ty has improved. He’s never going to be a great dancer, but damn, that was a really nice foxtrot last night. When Lacey slipped and he calmly pulled her back up and got right back to the routine – damn, that got a said-it-out-loud “well done!” from me. (Loved his comment after, “We’d never practiced it that way…”)
Didn’t think David had improved so much as the judges had decided not to give him a hard time – he continues to be a solid middle-of-the-pack competitor.
And the top of the field looks amazing, esp. considering it’s only week 3. I think this is going to be a season with some seriously entertaining dancing.