majormama

Can you imagine WWWA-ing any other sport? "While we were away, someone hit a grand slam we won't bother to show you other than the guy crossing home plate. But here's a feature about the back up second baseman's sick grandma!" Who would watch that? I get that they want to appeal to as many people as possible. They need a mix of triumphs, defeats, amazing acts, spectacular fails, and backstories. And they can't fit that all in while showing every second of every qualifier's run. But I wish they would do more joining in progress instead of just a montage of buzzer pushes. Sure, skip the floating steps we've seen a million times if you must, but could we at least see a few minutes of the final few obstacles?

They did a feature on him last season with his past as a used car salesman. He was doing some cheesy local commercial. The tagline was "Real Life Deals for your Real Life Needs", or something like that, and I was like Ohhhhh, I guess that's where it's from.

With Drew it could just be maturity. Some of these athletes start out when they're still in the young-and-stupid phase of life, but a little maturity and some life experience settle them down into decent people. Jamie Rahn and Flip Rodriguez would also seem to fit this category (at least for me). And some never seem to outgrow the college frat boy douchiness. Not that I actually know any of these people. A few minutes on my TV each year isn't much to go by, really.

Right, a part of the whole that shouldn't be hidden. But I guess I didn't feel like it was hidden with Adam, just not a primary focus. YMMV, of course, and you definitely have a perspective I can't pretend to really understand, even though I hope I try. :)

As a white, middle age, middle class, cis woman, I don't pretend to know what it's like to need representation. But I do think it's good when minorities of any type are portrayed as whole people and not just "the token gay guy" or "the token black chick". I do like that Adam wasn't portrayed as just his sexuality. I think it's a step in the right direction when you can say not just that, hey there's someone like me on TV, but that, hey there's someone like me on TV who is a whole person and not just a token.

Probably my favorite moment in this ridiculous, craptastic season so far was Angus telling the racist patient, "I got this job because my dad's on the board, I'm a C student who only learned stitches last week." And then telling Dr. Campbell, who objected to this, "Resident, still learning." Sassy Angus FTW!

Whether the song was worthy of being uncomfortable over is irrelevant. I am 100% in favor of women being able to express their discomfort and have their wishes respected. We shouldn't have to suck it up and sacrifice our comfort for others' convenience or pleasure or anything.

Random thoughts: Me: I wonder who got stuck in the bear suit. Kids: It's Sasha. Me: But Sasha's the pro in this dance. Kids: ...But it's always Sasha... He does usually get stuck in the crab suit and whatnot. Tanya certainly got over her first week nerves. I don't think I've ever seen someone that nervous on week 1 be that un-nervous on week 2. She looked like the pre-scandal Tanya I was a fan of way back when. I was very impressed with Chris, and wish I could see what he could do in a full season. Tanya is so short she barely comes up to Kareem's belly button! And that's about it.

Leaving aside any speculation on what she knew and when she knew it, Tonya Harding is a freaking goldmine of examples for my high school psych class! She doesn't just put responsibility and blame outside herself, she puts everything--happiness, sadness, love, acceptance, respect, it all comes from outside herself. She wants so desperately to be loved and accepted, and she just knew she was going to be rejected yet again. She totally had that abused-puppy-coming-for-more look on her face during the elimination and really the whole evening, and it was so awkward and painful to watch. And then she was accepted and just collapsed! Woman needs some serious therapy to learn to love and accept herself and stop giving a crap what others think. But the other issue she raises is identity. Must she forever be known as That Girl from That Thing? Can she ever move past it? It's like Deadshot from Suicide Squad who doesn't want to be The Hitman Criminal anymore but wants to be The Guy His Daughter Looks Up To. And he even saves the freaking world, but everyone still sees him as a Really Bad Guy who must be locked up. Deserved or not, it can be hard to never be allowed to move past one mistake made in foolish youth and never be more than that. And how many people would accept her even if she did confess, take responsibility, and show regret for more than just her own suffering?

I wonder how much of their commentary is from the live filmings and how much is cleaned up or added later. I'm sure a lot of it is live.

Several DWTS alums will be on the celebrity/charity edition of American Ninja Warrior for Red Nose Day. Derek Hough is back for a second year (he did really well last year) along with Nikki Bella and Nastia Liukin. https://www.americanninjawarriornation.com/2018/4/2/17188724/american-ninja-warrior-red-nose-day-2018-celebrities

Johnny Weir would be a polarizing, love-him-or-hate-him contestant. I like him, majorpapa does not! Thinks he's trying too hard.

When I heard Joshua Sasse would only be available to film one potential episode for season 3 (and this totally shows my ignorance of TV filming schedules, no idea if this is even possible), I had this idea that Madelena could kidnap Galavant in the first episode using D'DEW. Izzy and Richard could head out to rescue Galavant from Madalena, jester in tow. Sid and Gareth are already on the way to rescue Madalena from herself. There could be all kinds of madcap adventures and near misses where their paths almost cross and Madalena slows but doesn't stop them. And then they rescue him at the end. During his one episode's worth of filming, they could have filmed a kidnap scene, a rescue/reunion scene, and a series of an increasingly vexed Madalena bursting into his prison to say variations of, "Your friends will never rescue you! Never!" And him responding with cheesy, "Then why is there fear in your eyes?" "You'll never stop true love/friendship" stuff. And Galavant is still in every episode, still the driver of the (rescue) plot, but Sasse is free to go do his whatever it was for the CW. Hey, it could work, right?

I missed it too. My DVR skipped a couple times. I wondered if it had been edited out for some reason or if it was a tech issue on my side. All I heard was that he doesn't like marriage.

My problem with Witney's choreo has always been that she likes to throw in a dash of hip hop in almost everything. It worked well for Alfonso, who was a dash-of-hip-hop kind of guy. It hasn't worked well for any of her other partners. Frankie has coped the best, but it just doesn't suit him. The salsa last week was way too much hip hop, and was IMO their worst dance (aside from the technical issues in the Jazz), especially since it was supposed to be a "chosen just for him" dance. I don't object to them taking their freestyle in a more dramatic direction. But every time they used the troupe in the triangle formation, it made me think of every hip hop troupe I've ever seen on America's Got Talent. I liked the paso-tango parts much better.

And I'm adding a dance to my "DWTS Top 10" playlist. (My kids want to know why I have 23 dances in my top 10.) And it's Lindsey and Mark's freestyle. That was just wow! I thought all the freestyles were good, but that one blew me away.

Are they contractually obligated to include Pitbull in every season finale?

It always surprises me to see that Maks is a year younger than me. I don't know if it's his swarthy look or his paternalistic attitudes, but I always assumed he was quite a bit older. And when he shows up, like Monday night, in his '80s denim jacket with his hat on backwards, he just looks like such a tool.

Corky did compete twice, in Season 7 with Cloris Leachman and in Season 11 with Florence Henderson. I do seem to remember Shirley on, not as a pro but maybe a guest judge? I think she's come in to help Mark teach some of his celebs, too. ETA: Oops, looks like lovethepros beat me to it. Sorry for the repeat!

Love him or hate him (and I do love him), you can't say Mark's dances aren't memorable. I immediately knew each dance you mentioned just on the two or three word description.

Ok, I'm confused. When they say "recreate" an iconic dance, how close is it supposed to be to the original? Like actually recreating it, or just taking the song and style and reinventing it? Because I'm watching the originals on YouTube (to try to remember what the heck they even were), and Corbin's Jazz was a trio. It would be weird to have to closely copy a trio when it's not trio week.

I wasn't watching back in season 4, but Proud Mary is the only one I can even vaguely remember without having to look them up on YouTube. None of these crack my top 10 favorites.

I did not notice this, and I didn't save the ep on my DVR to go back and watch for myself. But as described, I would totally be on Kristi's side. She is under no obligation to let a man touch her just because he leaned in for a hug. Not necessarily a dig on Sasha, because he seems to be a nice guy who is liked by most everyone. But this idea that women have to just accept male touch bothers me. Didn't John Travolta get into trouble at the Oscars or something a few years ago? He'd walk up to a young starlet and lean in for a kiss, and she'd either feel obligated to let him kiss her or be criticized for being unfriendly. It's not okay to just hug someone if they don't want it, nice guy or not.

I'm sure my kids will want to watch it, and will likely be heavily invested. They always are with the younger contestants on the regular version. (We had four full blown sobbing breakdowns when Willow Shields was eliminated.)

First of all, I'm not AT ALL suggesting that Tom intended it this way, because he doesn't seem like the type. But there are people out there who think the natural order of things is for men to be in control of "their" women. But if a man loses control of his woman, he shouldn't feel bad; it's not because he's a bad man who is bad at controlling, it's because she's a bad woman who can't be controlled. Again, I don't think Tom meant it this way, but there are people out there nodding their heads thinking, "Yeah, Frankie, you're not a bad man, she's just a bad woman." It's accidental sexism that makes the real sexists think everyone else is also sexist, so there's nothing wrong with what they believe. I'm not upset at Tom, per se, but I did cringe when he said it for this very reason.