Thadeeeyus

I'm THRILLED that Paige made finals! Didn't expect that at all. I'd rather she be competing with either Antonio or Wanya, preferably both, but, oh well... Thankful for what I got. :)

I think they did everything they could do to push Paige out next week. Lower scores for no particular reason, no bad comments or put in jeopardy to get people motivated to vote, no emotional storyline.... She's toast.

Why were so many dances on fast speed last night? Jodie and Keo's dance looked like a cartoon version of a quickstep with them trying to make the steps fit the music. Very distracting. I loved Paige and Mark's jive. The only thing I enjoy about this show anymore is when I see a darned good dance with awesome choreography that is danced well, and this was one of them. Really really good choreo with a lot of detail, not just the jive steps, but arm movements, head positions and such that were so well done. Paige wasn't perfect - there were some borderline sloppy turns and the timing was a little off at times due to the speed, but that was one of the most difficult routines I've ever seen on the show, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Kudos to Mark who whoever it was who put this together.

The comments about the lifts, improper choreography, etc., are only used as justification for taking off points for an otherwise nice dance. If there is no reason to lower the score and to create doubt in the mind of the viewer, there won't be comments about lifts.

Other than the size of their family and their entertainment career, I think the Willis family is too normal to draw attention. I've tried watching the new D show a couple of times and couldn't even last 5 minutes. Could the family have decided to stop the show themselves? I like the Willises and wish them well. I'd be happy if they came back. I lived in the Irish dance world for 12 years and mainly started watching this show because of the dance, but then came to care about the family. Maybe they will. It was last on the market for $2.5 million. haha. But geez, I can't imagine the work that would be involved in maintaining that property.

Last night's ep sounded like more of a series finale than a season finale, with all of the talk about uncertainties with the future of the band. And from FB posts, there were 3 eps filmed that were not aired? I liked this episode. A lot of the stress and tension that seemed to dominate this season was missing. I loved the little down moments with Jennifer and Jackson doing their music. And Cory is very cute! That new house is awesome! The pastures and out buildings are impressive.

This has been my opinion for years, so, yeah. Don't know what happened in this case, but I think some of the scoring issues in the past have occurred when the live dance differs greatly from the dress-rehearsal dance and that causes confusion. I firmly believe the judges are told what total score a certain dancer has to get but it is left to the judges to decide who gives what. There was obviously miscommunication somewhere last night with Nile's score.

She reminds me of Kendra - not a good thing. ;) I like Paige fine, but I wonder if the show is going to going to let her succeed. Her dance experience is showing - she really is the best out there IMO, but the show definitely isn't pimping her. Maybe to give room for an improvement arc? Maks' comments/scores don't bother me at all. I don't have a favorite pro so I don't dislike him or his brother just because, but I don't think Maks or any judge, guest or regular, can give scores that aren't in the script. I liked Jodie better last night, but that dance still seemed rough. Last night was the first time I've liked Kim, but dh and I were both making negative comments on the choreo during the dance. Last night was also the first time I've paid attention to Keo's dancing. He made a very good impression in that opening number. :)

Yay for them moving to a new house. Sincerely hope they don't take any of the furniture with them. Buy new!

I actually had the feeling last night that they were struggling to fill the time. Erin just kept those questions going and going... So maybe the 4th judge was there last night partially for that reason. I loved Zendaya as a dancer - one of my favorite contestants ever, and she actually had me liking Val for the first time. I thought she was fine as a guest judge, if you have to have one, but as others said, didn't add anything.

I LOVED Mark and Paige's Toy Story dance! Fantastic choreography. I'd like to see it again without her goucho pants because they made it hard to see what her legs were doing. Ginger reminds me of an over-enthusiastic high-school theater kid. I can't take her seriously. I wanted to like the routine last night because what little dancing they did was done well, but overall, there was too much other stuff getting in the way. I'm enjoying Jodie so much more than Ginger because her vulnerability shows and I feel like we're seeing a real person. I noticed mistakes in Jodie's dance last night and might have noticed more if it weren't for the craptastic camera work in order to include the animation in the shot and that distracting background and lights. This was the first week I was really pulling for Jodie. I wouldn't have minded Marla staying longer. She made a good impression and if it weren't for the Trump thing, I could have easily been pulling for her. Kim is getting lost in the mix. Overall, there was too much extra stuff associated with these dances for me to say I enjoyed the night. I just want to see the dancing.

Good point! Plus, one of the boys said the house had been unoccupied for 18 years when they moved in. I have to wonder how much improvement work was done before they moved in. Toby said he'd been experiencing symptoms for years, whenever they came back to the house from being away. They all need to get checked out. Maybe they aren't paying for the mold remediation themselves. They were scrambling trying to get their stuff out and making calls to get containers delivered so they could store their stuff, and trying to come up with a place to live temporarily, but I don't remember if they were dealing with the mold people themselves. Since the house had been unoccupied for 18 years, this may have been a situation where someone knew someone, the place was available immediately, and an arrangement was made. This place seems to be fairly close to the property they own, where they keep animals, so that's probably a big plus. It does seem odd that they would film shows focusing on problems with the house if there was an owner who cared. Wouldn't it make the owner look bad? The grammar police side of me loved Jet correcting Jasmine's use of pronouns. :)

My takeaway from last night's episode - Jasmine is beautiful! :)

I think this was an exhibition at the world country dance championships in Nashville. It looks similar to what they are doing in their concerts. Irish doesn't require a partner but it would take a lot of time for the younger ones to become competitive in it, unless the dance competition locations are along their concert routes. A couple of older girls were southern regional champs which is a pretty big deal, and Jer was a world medalist which is awesome. What they're showing in this video is actually pretty poor technique. It's stylized.

I'd like to see more dancing, too. They're still doing the dancing bit on their tours but I wonder if they have the time now to do the intense training and competitions that they were doing before. I'm curious if the younger ones will eventually show up on the Irish and WCS circuits like their older siblings.

Thanks for reporting on this. It's too bad about the changes that seem to be for the worse. I won't bother to watch unless there's an insider guest who might provide some insight..

I liked the focus on Jennifer and Jet in the latest episode. Last year it seemed like Jessica was on camera more and I don't remember seeing much of Jet. I also enjoyed seeing the three away from the family in Raleigh. Jair is so much like his dad - the same intensity.

Haha. NOT just you! DH and I talked about that very thing, but thought it was more jarring with Mark and Paige. Is this a new fashion trend?

It provides time for the better dancers to get their feet under them and for production to work out the kinks and work on the backstories they need to get the votes where they want them. Smack away! ;) Bindi was pimped to high heaven last season on GMA and now they've got Ginger to pimp. I used to enjoy GMA with my coffee in the morning but it's gotten way too DWTS heavy. Alison??? Haha. I forgot all about her already. ;) With all the talk about Nyle I went back and revisited Season 6 with Marlee Maitlin. They had a great group of stars that season and the whole cast seemed to gel. But it also reminded me that we never saw Marlee's partner Fabian again on the show. I liked their partnership. A few seasons ago. It's almost unwatchable for me now. It's so hard to focus on the dancing. I like Len and I much prefer him over Julianne, but he did not seem happy to be there last night. I can get behind Kim if she can cut back on the screeching. ;)

The same place as Lindsey's dress. ;) Tonight made me long for the premiere episodes back in the day when they were learning simple choreography, I kind of liked Doug Flutie tonight. You could see what the basic moves were. He has a beginner's technique, and also a good attitude and will improve. I liked Von for the same reason. You could see the basic moves. Some of the "best" dances tonight seemed frantic with too much thrown in. And the extra dancers on week one? Geez. I guess they've been doing that for a while, but I don't like it. Nyle was surprisingly good, and Marla did not turn me off as expected. Kim Fields was too Atlanta Housewives (shrieking) for my taste.

Doesn't the troupe seem like a step down with this resume? At any rate, I'm going to be looking at some youtube videos of this guy. Thanks for the heads up!

This first new episode was interesting in that it put some less-than-perfect images out there. From the way the house was left in in a state of disarray when they went on tour, the vermin, mom getting upset, revisiting Jair's breakup... The show had an odd feel to it, like they weren't quite ready to start filming and threw some stuff together. Giving so much time to the Jair/Mary thing was weird. Is she going to show up again or did they just need to fill up the hour?

Really liked this episode! I enjoy the Q & A's because they end up re-showing some of my favorite scenes.

It's common where I'm from, too. Most of my kids' friends went to Chinese school on Saturdays. Still catching up so I haven't seen this ep yet, but I love next week's Bollywood preview clip that I'm seeing all the time. Zoey looks really into it!

Congrats to Rebecca and the other finalists! I thoroughly enjoyed this show and I'm going to miss it on Mondays. I hope it was a positive experience for the competitors.