The first show of the new season was last night – two hours of auditions. Pretty entertaining.
Last year I watched the first few weeks, then lost interest – I think it ended up being on against Dancing with the Stars? I wonder how long I’ll stick it out this year. Guess it depends on what other “reality” shows they throw at me this summer.
It’s pretty entertaining, but I almost couldn’t watch “Sex.” Especially when his mom gave the little speech thing at the end… that was painful.
Some of the people were pretty amazing though. Musa, I think? As the guy said, “That was the most ridiculous 25 seconds I’ve ever seen.” The popper was pretty incredible too.
I watched a few episodes last year as well - I suppose I got distracted with summer fun…
I enjoyed last night’s show - I wish I could watch “Sex” watching himself last night. His mom was just annoying.
I’m going through AI withdrawals and need to hold on to something.
Yeah, “Sex” and his mom – was that the squickiest thing you’ve seen on prime-time TV in the last year or what?
I agree that “Sex” was just painful to watch. I mean, you don’t have to be a psychiatrist to connect the Freudian dots when you nickname yourself Sex and bring your mom to the audition. And speaking of mom, I’m sure Sex has won dance awards. I can imagine him showing up at a club and winning some dance contest without realizing that the other patrons are voting for him as a huge joke. Thank goodness Triumph the Insult Dog wasn’t there.
I also didn’t think it was necessary for the judges to be so cruel to some contestants. The clogger, the chick who taught dance, and the little person (who, incidentally, was quite good) come to mind. Just say, “You’re not right for the show.” and let them leave with their dignity.
The popper, the Russians, and those black dudes who could contort their body into poses that defied gravity were very good.
I think Nigel nailed it on the head when he accused the gay guy with 'tude and a mink of coming on just to get his two minutes of fame. He got it. Goodbye.
There’s something vaguely creepy about Nigel Lythgoe. Mia Michaels - I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of her dance style. But I was glad she was lobbying for the little person. Dan was okay until he told that chick that it should be illegal for people like her to teach dance class. That was so uncool.
My roommate decided to watch this last night, and I found myself trapped on the couch beneath my laptop, unable to look away. This is not my type of show. But “Sex” and his mom (not to mention the guy who faceplanted on the stage) made it impossible to get up and leave. I just couldn’t do it. I’ve never seen an episode of American Idol in my life, and that’s on purpose. But I don’t think I’ll be able to stop watching this, and I curse Fox for that. 
And I loved the Gender Chameleon, if only for his choice in songs. :eek: S/He was awesome.
I esp. loved that s/he wasn’t actually there to audition, per se, just to perform. “Sorry, you’re not right for the show…” “Well, DUH!”
Add me to the list of folks who watched several weeks of the last season, but drifted away and can’t remember why. I am not an American Idol fan (except for the audition episodes), but I loved this show!
I watched bits of the second hour last night – I missed Sex, but I saw the phenomenal popper and the Gender Chameleon. I didn’t know the show was coming back and had no idea it was going to be on last night until about an hour before it started, so I missed a lot of it, but I won’t have that problem next week.
I agree with PunditLisa that the judges were a little meaner than they had to be. It’s like they had it out for the mediocre dancers – like they were annoyed that people weren’t sucking badly enough, or something.
I was a little disappointed. The show didn’t really give us a glimpse of anyone who could be a great dancer. But between the tap dancing clogger, Sex’s accent, the dwarf and the transgendered guy there sure were lots of laughs tonight.
I was pretty impressed by the young guy with the mohawk (and what seemed to be a slight lisp/speech impediment).
I watched last year’s series, all the way. For those who wandered away part way through, I think the problem is that there is simply too much background training needed to be viable as an ‘all around’ dancer. The contestants sorted out quickly into those with those years and years of dance classes in lyrical and jazz and ballet (not just one of these, but ALL of them) vs. the specialists who fell in love with one type of dance and learned to do only that. The latter group, which included most of the ‘quirky’ ‘unique’ ‘interesting’ people got weeded out fast.
Having the techniques and body condition to do jazz AND hiphop AND ballroom is a much bigger challenge (IMO) than being asked to sing blues vs. pop vs. country.
Just a reminder, for those who are interested – it’s on tonight.
Heaven help me–we’ve got it set to Tivo. :rolleyes:
I’m sorry, but did you just use the word “dignity” in connection with a Fox reality show?
I’m the other way. I don’t much like the cattle-call episodes of shows like this. I didn’t really watch it until late in the competition last year. I did see the end of one (the 1st?) ep this time, & it was good dancers, so it was okay.
I like the show, but I wish there’d be less breakdancing and hiphop. I mean, I can go to a club and see people on the same level all the time, but I can’t exactly always go out on a Saturday night and see a marvelous ballet dancer for a $5 cover fee.
No really good badness last night – though that ballet dancer who dances professionally – :dubious: Seriously, wtf, dude. And wasn’t he the one who Simon liked and was ready to send to Vegas? :dubious: :dubious:
O-kay!
:dubious: :dubious: :dubious:
I was almost disappointed with the lack of complete disaster (except maybe that poor subtitled Asian girl–who kinda deserved to be ridiculed). I felt bad for the blonde tapper–her feet were pretty good, but her face definitely needed a little work. I liked the Swing Prince, too. Of course, all my own dance training is twenty years behind me, so I don’t really know what I’m talking about, but that’s the beauty of reality tv. 
He was obviously bad, shaky on arabesques, etc, BUT didn’t he say his dance was about an injured dancer and how he’d had to recover and come back? As in, the badness might have been an intentional thing and they didn’t allow him to dance long enough to get to the ‘all recoved’ part.
Which makes it a really bad choice for an audition piece, I guess. Never dance less than your best when you only have about a minute to make your impression.