I can’t stand Brooke. Her voice makes my skin crawl - she’s got this dull look in her eyes - and it’s obvious all her questions are pre-formed and she doesn’t adjust to what’s already been said live by the judges/Tom.
And a lot of her questions are real downers.
I agree; she doesn’t seem like she has much of a personality to me, and it seems like there are a lot of awkward pauses when she’s talking to the dancers.
It always feels to me like the pauses are because they are thinking, “Umm - Brooke - did you not just hear Tom ask the exact same thing down there?” or “Were you not even paying attention to the package??”
I liked Samantha Harris a lot better too.
And do you remember a few weeks back when Brooke was talking to Eric and Nicole after they’d danced and Brooke asked Eric which of the two (Brooke or Nicole) he liked better as a partner? How appalling was that?
I was pretty sure that question was pre-planned, rather than off-the-cuff.
ahem.
I agree, Brooke hasn’t been that great. But I do think she’s improved over the season - hopefully she’ll be better next time around.
Speaking of packages. 
Derek and Nicole did a dance in the final that was smoking hot. I don’t know how Derek walked across the stage afterward. There’s no way that much contact with Nicole didn’t stir up a fire. I never have figured out how those guys keep from embarrassing themselves after the dance.
Strangely enough, I didn’t find Erin and Maks freestyle hot at all. Way too much phony theatrics and bad acting. Maks gets Erin in bed and nearly got a broke nose for his trouble.
Evan and Anna did well with their waltz. Their freestyle was a mess. Two dancers that couldn’t agree and it showed. Each one was doing their own stuff on stage. I hope it doesn’t cost them the win.
Erin & Maks: I liked their samba, but their freestyle or “we’re sleeping together, in case you didn’t know” didn’t work for me. I thought the emotional connection worked, and the style suited Erin, but it seemed frantic in the wrong way
Evan & Anna: She should hunt down the person who put her in that piano man costume. And I’ve learned that horizontal stripes don’t look good on anyone. But the dance was lovely. Their freestyle was messy and the 50’s nerd character needs to die a horrible death.
Nicole & Derek: I still didn’t see the connection on the rumba. She played to the audience a lot, but I didn’t see any longing - Derek didn’t even need to be there. She connected to him more during their freestyle, which was great until that unfortunate final lift.
I did love how Bergeron made the point that his show doesn’t end late (unlike another highly watched competition show).
I’m still calling it for Evan. I’ve seen nothing tonight that makes me believe he’s not going to win this. Two points is nothing.
As if he didn’t have enough help, Chad, the only contestant that posed any risk of splitting votes from him, went last week. Erin is going to pull votes for all that “hard working” and “likable underdog” jazz without having any realistic shot at winning.
That leaves Nicole, who I actually thought was the best tonight. But we’ve all seen that this means very little, especially against the image problems she had to overcome. In addition, she showed a little vulnerability, especially in that (slightly) botched lift, and that’s going to hurt her. Had she stormed through with 60 points, maybe she could’ve convinced the country, okay, I’m the real deal, I’m the best there is, it’d be a lousy thing if I didn’t win. As it was, close but no cigar.
That, plus I want her to win. Always the kiss of death. Always.
I don’t see how Evan can win – that freestyle was a red hot mess, and I think it really does come down to that, usually.
Unfortunately, the finale is up against my favorite night of TV (non-reality): Glee and The Good Wife, so I’ll only be catches glimpses during commercials.
I didn’t see a single dance I especially liked last night, and am frankly getting fed up with the entire show.
Evan was stupid, stupid, stupid! Here he has this lovely, balletic line that comes naturally to him, and what does he do? A stupid, frantic mess of a dance that not only didn’t play to his strengths, but didn’t play to anyone’s strengths. Even the direction Anna wanted to go, which looked in the package closer to what Donny Osmond did last season, wouldn’t have highlighted what Evan does so beautifully. Remember the samba he did earlier in the season? It was utterly beautiful, but got fairly low marks because it wasn’t sufficiently samba-like. That would have been ideal for a freestyle, but no, heaven forbid he should use the assets he’s got, those lovely extensions, beautiful posture and magnificent grace.
Nicole as usual did difficult and intricate choreography nearly perfectly, and, as usual, I just didn’t like it. I appreciate that she didn’t go hip-hop, which I fully expected, but what she did do left me cold (unlike the hip-hop, which I would have actively hated).
Im not sure what Erin and Maks were doing on that sofa and bed, but it was frequently jerky and awkward, and did nothing for me.
I didn’t vote. I don’t care who wins, because I don’t like any of them, even though they are undoubtedly the best dancers of the season (possible exception of Pamela Anderson). Nicole is the most skilled, as she was going in. Erin is the most improved. But none of them has the ability to make me like them enough to vote for them. The rest of the season I’ve been voting against someone. But now that we’re here, I don’t like any of them or their dancing enough to want to see them win.
I have to admit - I stopped watching a few weeks ago. I just am not rooting for anyone - I don’t feel invested, y’know? I hope next season is better.
The funny thing is that it’s been scheduled to and has run a minute or two over the usual two or one and a half hour schedule the entire season (in the competition shows - I don’t think that’s been true of the results shows) (I know this because of the DVR and guide feature). Only this episode was scheduled to run just one hour. For the Bachelorette, yet!
I really did think all of those free styles were a hot mess.
Erin & Max’s was like bad lyrical – there wasn’t any ballroom in it, really, and very little dancing.
Anna and Evan’s was all over the place, badly choreographed, badly coordinated and just bad.
Nicole and Derek’s was also excessively frantic, though at least they had the skills to keep up with their own choreography (other than that one lift at the end). I usually enjoy Derrick’s choreography, and there were some brilliantly tricky bits of footwork in that routine, but it just felt kind of all over the place.
If I voted, I’d have voted for Nicole and Derek. But mainly because I have a totally age-inappropriate crush on Derek, and for the fact that their first dance was spectacular.
Crap.
Quit bringing in professional dancers to compete in this amateur dance competition.
I don’t have much to say about the foregone conclusion, but I have to say, I hope the working title of Shannon Doherty’s dance was “Really? You eliminated this before Kate Gosselin? Really?”
Heh.
Well, a boring end to a boring season. Congrats to the winners, “bummer” to the also-rans.
Hope they find some non-dancers for next season, plus a few more likable contestants.
I couldn’t believe my ears when the judges announced that Nicole deserved to win before Evan performed his final dance. Why even perform if they had already decided? There’s been a Nicole fan club at the judges table all season.
I couldn’t help but laugh every time they said this was the most talented season ever. Really? When you only have 2 celebrities at the top? The rest were entertaining, but honestly they had no real chance.
I have enjoyed the season. Niecy, Pam, Erin, and Chad were fun. I enjoyed watching them improve and learn how to dance. But, the top two were known since week 1.
I found myself drawn more to Evan and Anna. I can’t imagine how Evan traveled every week, practiced his skating, performed on stars on ice, and practiced for DWTS. Donny Osmond performed his Vegas show and did DWTS. But, Donny didn’t have to travel and perform in different cities every week.
It was a good season. Hope next Fall is even better.
Was that Gladys Knight in the audience? She would be good in the “older woman” role. Oh, and Kate may be the most clueless woman on the planet.
As much as I loved the jive, I didn’t like that they seemingly made up their minds before Evan’s dance. That was not well done. Evan & Anna needn’t have even bothered, though I really liked their quickstep.
I have absolutely no problem with Len speaking his mind. Bully for him.