Dancing with the Stars, Spring 2010

Everyone except Evan and Nicole looked pretty lame last night, as usual, and Nicole’s tango looked pretty weird to me, but that’s probably because they were trying to dance to Pretty Woman. Who thought that was a good idea? It’s just not a suitable tango at all, IMHO, and the result looked …odd. Skillful, but strange. Evan’s rumba was gorgeous, I thought. His upper body lines were just beautiful.

Kate was, of course, the worst, and I liked even less how she kept first blaming her family for wearing her out and then shamelessly begging for votes on behalf of her kids. Everything about her appearances (I can’t call them dances or even performances) is passive and uninvolved. It’s as if the lights aren’t even on, let alone someone being home. She’s only truly alive when she’s whining. Poor Tony.

Pamela continues to give the best performances outside of the two ringers. Erin’s early promise seems to have petered out; Chad, who really seemed to “get” the rumba, has sunk back to his usual mediocrity. Niecy is inconsistent in her dances, and she only seems to play the one note - feisty, overweight black mama. I can’t forgive Jake for his Bachelor origins, and he’s never better than so-so anyway.

This is a really poor season.

Kate is doing the “robot” in every one of her dances.

I kind of dislike the shows where everyone dances a different style. I find it much harder to make any kind of real comparison between couples when there’s not really much to compare. I mean, a Rumba vs. a Tango vs. a Jive vs. a Quickstep vs. …

Of course, given the vast talent disparities on display, that might be intentional on the part of the producers.

ETA: Also, Kate is not only my least favorite contestant ever, she’s rapidly becoming my least favorite person ever.

Based on Kate’s package this week - I think the producers want her off the show finally.

Don’t know about that, but Tony looks like he’s contemplating killing himself, if he doesn’t do Kate in first.

I realize the packages are heavily edited, but Kate sems to have descended to a Master P level of disinterestedness. No motivation, no sign of a work ethic. I didn’t know much of anything about her before the show, but I find myself utterly despising her. Who the hell keeps voting her in, and for God’s sake, why?

Meanwhile, I quite liked the tango that Derek arranged for Nicole, although she seemed like she was overextending on some of the moves.

After saying last week that I thought rumba was one of the hardest dances to do well, Evan came out and did a pretty good job of it. Not as flashy as Nicole’s tango, though.

Although Erin remains a couple notches below those two, she carried off the Pulp Fiction thing pretty well. Are she and Maks a couple at the moment? It seems like it.

OTOH, I could do without Chad repeatedly announcing to the world how much he wants to get in Cheryl’s pants. It’s starting to get fairly creepy.

Niecy: meh.

Jake: sorry, missed it. I was fixated on watching Chelsea shake that thing.

Pam: as I think a couple of judges have mentioned, she’s been quite adept at inhabiting her characters. OK, so I have no idea who the actual Pam is, but I’d still like to see her continue.

El Kabong - I guess what I’m saying is that in previous packages, Kate has vented about the paparazzi or how difficult her life is - and Tony has been understanding - as if we are all expected to give her a break.

This time, he didn’t give her a break, and she wasn’t allowed to vent. In fact, we would have never even known that her kids were visiting her this week if it wasn’t for the after-dance interview with Brooke Barbie.

Oh, I don’t disagree with you. I’m just baffled (and not for the first time over the course of the various DWtS series) why a large segment of the audience wants to continue seeing someone who can’t be arsed to compete.

In Kate’s case, maybe they just want to punish her for being Kate by making her do more of something she obviously hates.

But her children love it! won’t somebody think of the children??

Chad doesn’t hear well. He thought his agent signed him up for Schtupping With the Stars. :cool:

Seriously.

:D:D:D:D:cool:

Kate’s fans finally got fed up. It was obvious she hadn’t prepared at all for last nights dance. She spent the week promoting her new book. It was by far her worst performance. Not caring and blowing off rehearsals is a slap in the face to the other dancers that are busting their butts. She’s gone!

I loved the pro tribute to movie dances. The Fame dance was fantastic.

Ha. Let me add a :smiley: to that.

Yeah, me again. Just general comments for now since it’s still early.

Okay, I hate to be the guy who complains all the time (no, really :slight_smile: ), but man, I have never seen a more dismal season on a reality show than this. And yes, this includes the ever-infamous Flo & Zach victory on The Amazing Race. At least I was totally pumped up to the point the world came crashing down. This season, it seems like the DWTS producers pulled names out of a hat.

Never mind dancing ability (only three or four have any going in anyway). Never mind “heroism” and completely irrelevant past achievements. Never mind work ethic. The requisites are 1. Be able to move, 2. have some fun out there, and 3. when the mic’s on you, be as warm, friendly, and unannoying as possible. I don’t care if you screw up or look completely stupid as long as you’re trying, I don’t care if you don’t have a prayer of winning as long as you entertain me for the time that you are on, and I don’t care what you really think as long as I don’t get feelings of intense loathing every time you open your mouth. Seriously, this practice room drama, plodding through the routine, berating the judges, acting like it’s a death march crap is getting seriously old.

This is the point where I’d like to say that it’s going to pick up, but I’m not sure it will. It’s a two-horse race right now, and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon. If I had to pick a third favorite it would be Pamela Anderson, but it’s a pretty big gap between 2 and 3.

I never asked this before, but why don’t the judges get any respect? I’ll be honest, one of the things I liked about this show was that professional opinion mattered and riding a blindly loyal fanbase to victory was not possible. Given that American Idol’s judges are practically worshipped despite having virtually no real power (I’ve stopped trying to figure this out long ago), it’s puzzling that DWTS’ get treated like punching bags. The fact that their scores count for so little doesn’t help (remember when it was 50%?).

Oh, the elimination:

[spoiler]Phew. Y’know, I understand the appeal of a complete train wreck of a contestant on a show like this, but I’ve NEVER been happer to see someone go. I’d rather watch a suicide bomber than Kate Gosselin. She’s completely devoid of grace or elegance and has the personality of a dump truck. I don’t see why overbreeding mothers should get any kind of free pass in the court of public opinion. It’s not even a novelty at this point anymore.

And that about does it for the hopeless cases. Should be at least passable from here on out!
[/spoiler]

And now we do the Dance of Joy!

The gods have smiled upon us and taken away the blight of our Mondays!

I’m tired of the self-deluded adamancy from Kate Gosselin. “The judges may not see it, the fans may not see it, my dance partner may not see it - but I know I improved and danced better this week. And I am having fun and working hard even though there’s nothing that anyone can point to as proof. Oh, and by the way, I am Jimmy Hoffa.”

yup.

Yahoo!!!

From now on, my votes get split between Pamela and the two ringers. I think Pamela’s dancing has been better than any of the other non-dancers, and I don’t think she should be voted off by an audience that doesn’t seem to differentiate between being “in character” and being a floozy.

Handicapping the rest of the field (after watching my first full episode this season):

Pamela Anderson: All things considered, holding up okay. She had some serious baggage coming in, never mind a pretty big physical disadvantage. (All jokes aside, top-heaviness is a major handicap to challenging maneuvers; there’s a reason you don’t see any stacked gymnasts.) She’s handled it with class and shown fluidity and, dare I say it, sexiness on the floor. Sadly, it looks like she’s on her way out. Don’t read too much into the close call (lots of contestants have had the Bice Scare and roared back), but all it takes is one little slipup and the voters are going to pounce.

Jake Pavelka: He’s been wonderfully sunny all season long, and he’s one of the very few contestants who realizes just how unimportant this whole thing is. He doesn’t fret or cry or scream, he just goes out there and does his thing. He won’t make it all the way to the final, so best enjoy the ride while it lasts.

Evan Lysacek: By far the man to beat going in. The only problem is that it doesn’t matter how good you are going in, it’s the stretch run where you need to pull out the stops. He’s done a fantastic job juggling his real job and DWTS, but how long can he keep it up? I love watching him, and yes, he looks like a lock for the final, but I can’t shake the sinking dread that the harsh no carryover, no breaks, no second chances reality of this show will be his undoing.

Erin Andrews: Looking like an also-ran. Not awful, but not great either; at some point she’s simply going to run out of worse contestants.

Nicole Scherzinger: The total package - elegance, speed, agility, precision, energy, sultriness, and beauty. If she can drum up fan support when it matters, she’s a mortal lock. But that’s a HUGE if for a show that trumpets inspirations for us all and gritty underdogs and brave heroes and worthy champions trying to make a difference, and has been absolutely wallowing in this glurge lately (sheesh, is this a reality show or the Special Olympics?). Unless something happens to make a lot of people really start liking her, it’s going to be an uphill battle.

Chad Ochocinco: The problem with football players is that they’re so BIG. It’s just not easy to do those steps and turns and lifts with such long limbs. Chad looks to be in exactly the same boat as that Dolphin that other season. He’s trying hard, but there’s a limit to how delicate an NFL wide receiver can be. He’s popular, but not massively so. Most likely will fade a bit and then get caught by the floor.

Niecy Walsh: I’m with the consensus here. Learn a new song, dammit. Aside from that, well, she’s simply not that good. Being so massive means that a lot of elements (like lifts) are completely out of the question, and she can’t ride jiggle physics forever. Could be gone as early as next week, and I won’t miss her.

In summary, it’s still way up in the air. I’m leaning ever so microscopically toward Evan, but I’m not putting a dime on it.

(I think I’m missing someone. I’ll be fully caught up next week.)

After reading this thread, I only have one thing to say…I am so glad I quit watching this show. LOL

My guess as to the final thing is, it will be Evan. Because Nicole is great–she’s a lot of fun to watch, she has the whole package. But she is also, quite clearly, a pro. Maybe she wasn’t in the “professional ballroom dancer” category, but it’s like turning a ballet dancer into a tap dancer, it can be done a lot faster than if you took a non-dancer and tried it. I mean, when I think “Pussycat Dolls” (which fortunately is very rarely) I think dancing more than singing. I’m thinking that people who recognize this will balance her unfair advantage going in with votes for others.

Pamela Anderson has really surprised me. But the whole in-character v. floozy thing would translate a lot better if she didn’t tap into the floozy nature of all her characters.