skittl3862

I thought there was supposed to be some plotline about Olivia working in Community Affairs with a fangirl assistant? Didn't Warren Leight hype that up in all the press? Why create an imaginary backstory about what she did this whole time when they could have just said she was on leave? The 5 different scenes of Olivia in a bar were anvilicious. We all get it. If Tucker is so concerned, as he clearly was in the final scene, why did he keep agreeing to day-drink with her all episode?

About 3-4 years ago when Derek Hough was given carte blanche to use DWTS for the sole purpose of creating weekly Emmy submissions. I don't like this new thing of sending a camera running around behind the scenes for filler. It was too much over stimulation; I felt like I was on a roller coaster.

I don't understand why anyone watches UFC/MMA/WWE, so the less we see of Paige beating people to a bloody pulp in upcoming weeks, the better. I thought her dance was unmemorable in comparison to the pictures of her blood-covered face. I can see Jodie either lasting a long time via the nostalgia factor or getting too in her head and flailing. And she's with Keo, who we haven't been able to see how he manages coaching longterm. I'm glad he finally gets a better chance of sticking around though. Marla Maples needs to go. I'm sorry, she seems sweet and I love Tony, but anything Trump-adjacent is too much for me these days. Wanya was great for Week 1. I think he could go really far- moreso than I would have thought at the initial cast announcement. I don't watch Good Morning America and had no idea who Ginger Zee was. Apparently she's a new mom. I can't remember if she was good or not because I spent the whole dance watching Val instead. If Mischa makes it past week 2, I would be surprised. I thought the judgment was a harsh. She wasn't great, but she wasn't one-point-above Geraldo bad. At least the judges' comments about Geraldo and Doug seemed light-hearted. I also wondered if there was some sort of drama with her not being in the intro with everyone else. It kind of reminded me of that season of Project Runway where the one guy was kicked out for cheating before they were able to film the promos, so they had a stand-in. Nyle was great. I think Peta has her work cut out for her to work on the communication- not just the teaching, but in keeping him on beat with the music. Especially since unlike Marlee Matlin, he can't wear hearing aides. I also wonder how he will do as the weeks go on and he doesn't have as much prep time to memorize Peta's cues. I can't see him doing as well with marathon dance, or those challenges where they have 1 minute to prep a routine. The football players are interchangeable to me and I'm sure they'll all be splitting the votes. Doug was terrible. Neither Antonio or Von's performance stuck out. I can see Antonio lasting longer than Von just because Steelers fans seem more intense.

You're right, I was thinking of first communion. I'm not Catholic. Either way, in SVU land, it's a creepy thing for a priest to say. I, er, binged all episodes featuring Robert John Burke over the weekend (judge away) and my working theory is they started seeing each other after Padre Sandunguero. They had a very friendly scenes together in Parents' Nightmare and Surrendering Noah- which definitely stand out considering his hardass "rat squad" role in the past. By Townhouse Incident, the fact that out of all of NYPD, she decides the one person who cares if she lives or dies is Tucker makes me think it was ongoing, not necessarily an on-again, off-again thing. Would you put your life in the hands of your occasional booty call? We as the audience were let in on it during Collateral Damages, but that doesn't mean it wasn't behind the scenes all along. Of course, this all probably gives the SVU writing team way too much credit for planning something an entire year in advance with a longtime recurring character instead of their usual "Oh wait remember Cassidy from 12 years ago?!" shoehorn techniques. But if I were the shipping type, I think watching their scenes together in hindsight suggests a changing relationship.

Did neither of these 2 cops nor the ADA notice the Monsignor's creepy, pervy line about how beautiful Cara Gutierrez was when she was confirmed? When she was 7? I got icky chills when he said that. How did 1PP know to contact Olivia? And what exactly is the reason given for her firing? Being involved with Tucker? I can't imagine there actually being a conflict of interest professionally. He's not her direct superior and as others have said, he can always recuse himself in an IAB investigation that involves her. I really, really, hope they don't go the route of alcoholic Olivia. Unfortunately, it appears going in that direction. That plot has been done multiple times on this show (Rollins gambling was just last season, wasn't it?). I don't know why they need to turn Olivia into the most tortured cop ever. Olivia Benson and Meredith Grey (the characters, not Taylor Swift's cats) should both be dead 10 times over by now. At least when Stabler was here, the writers switched it up, but it's just too much when it's just her. I don't know why they can't let the poor woman have a happy, successful relationship with a hot guy for once (preferably with many shirtless Tucker scenes *ahem*) and give another character the drama.

I'm torn between being sad Artem isn't a pro this season and being relieved he wasn't saddled with Paula Deen. Calling the finale now- Nick Carter, Bindi Irwin...probably Alexa Vega.

Or: "OMG Val was so desperate and selfish that he snatched the MBT from Rumer's hands and refused to let go!" "The MBT was heavy, everyone said it, he's being a gentleman!" The winners each get one of their own. Val temporarily holding it last night doesn't mean that Rumer is left in a cloud of dust with nothing. Thanks to those who gave the choreographer's name for Sia's song. I didn't hear it mentioned on the show.

I'm sad Redfoo left as early as he did. His two minutes tonight were more entertaining than the whole second half of the season. How come Michael Sams didn't dance? Peta's injury? Would have loved the pro guys' dance a lot more without the audience shots of awkward teen girls. Did Derek choreograph the Sia dance? I'd find it a lot cooler if the concept wasn't a redux of his jive for Nastia. The kids were great and more in sync than Derek and Julianne. Would have liked Patti's dance better without Charlotte hamming it up. The finale kind of reinforced how glad I am she went home early. "Is this for real?!" Two thoughts: I wonder if Val's stripped down, traditional routines will work next season, or if the show will descend into Freestyle Every Week without Len keeping them in check. I wonder if now that Val has won and that awkward elephant is out of the ballroom, Derek is allowed to win again.

Rumer's scores (out of 40) were- (32)-32-33-35-39-32-35-40-40-38 Riker's scores (out of 40 were- 31-32-34-34-(38)-37-37-39-39-40 Noah's scores (out of 40) were- 26-27-(30)-32-28-29-36-31-32-36 I parenthesized the re-do dances. Rumer's foxtrot was the highest score week one, but it was tied for her lowest scores. Noah picked an average scoring dance for himself, but it's still low. And instead of Riker redoing his 31, 32, 34 score dances to show actual improvement in a style, he went for the flashy Disney week dance that got 2 10s. That's what bugs me. Sadie did the same last year with her duck samba, which was one of her highest scoring dances. I wish they were assigned re-do from the lowest scoring style, so couples can't manipulate viewers with fan favorites. "I want a 10 instead of a 9" is a serious stretch when the purpose is to show improvement.

How come Riker got to re-do a really high scoring dance? I thought the whole point was to re-do a lower scoring dance to improve on it, like the others did. Trying to improve from a 38 to a 40 is BS. They wanted a fan favorite dance to win over voters. The female vocals on Titanium were awful. It was so bad it was distracting. I did think the routine was the best Noah has done all season, because he didn't have to meet any dance standards and they could choreograph entirely around his abilities. Which is the point of freestyle. Not really the point of the rest of the show, which is why he shouldn't be here. Riker's freestyle seemed really busy, but it didn't seem to have that much content. Not sure how that's possible. Hordes dancing about and a lot of time wasting on transitions between the platform. I kind of expected better from them. I didn't like the song or the style. I liked the idea of Rumer's freestyle. It was very them, but I could have seen this on any other week, not necessarily the finale freestyle. I think it's a toss-up. Between Noah and the conservative states, Riker and the angry Derek fans, and Rumer and apparently the Russian mafia as some believe, I don't think I'd be surprised with any outcome.

George Zimmerman, Season 21! (sorry, sorry, but the way things are going, I wouldn't put it past the producers)

Val's exact quote re: Nastia was "I think she's the whole package. She's flawless really, but the fact that they're so perfect makes them a bit uninteresting." Now, if your takeaway from this is "Val is an ass and I will ignore the 3 compliments he gave to focus only on the negative, because it confirms my pre-existing opinion of him", then I can't help you. I will admit to being off about Sharna- she said "We need a human moment from her", I thought she said human emotion. Same thing, really. But again, if people are going to write-off any constructive criticism Sharna gives simply because they have some sort of vaguely xenophobic bias and believe everyone who is friendly with Maks, Val, or Tony is part of some Cold War-esque Eastern European Mafia and can't be trusted, that's their prerogative. I did find it was interesting that Derek wasn't shown giving any criticisms. I sincerely doubt it was because he didn't give any. In retrospect, maybe since the producers knew he was going home, they wanted to ramp up the competitive spirit between the final 3. Someone else mentioned those dances and it made me wonder if the upbeat dance styles made it easier to look like she's having fun. It's easier to come across as happy to happy, upbeat dance than to the Argentine Tango or rumba. The fact that Sasha danced those dances with her may make their "chemistry" more of coincidence than an actual connection. She maybe would have come across the same with Derek. It's hard to have a stone-faced, serious frown on your face during a quickstep.

I'm sure he'll take it in stride. He came in behind Sadie last season and she was the equivalent of one arm and one leg.

I was going to post the exact same thing. Noah probably has the same voting block as Bristol did. Actually, all of the pros gave critiques of all the celebs' weaknesses, and Sharna basically called Nastia a robot without human emotion, but sure, let's just highlight Val's critique of Nastia alone as the sole takeaway of the night if it makes people feel better. I really liked Erin talking to the pros alone to hear about their effort, because even through it is about the stars, obviously they want to succeed in their role as well. The show doesn't comment on it, but making it to the finals can make the difference between coming back and having a job next season, or ending up on Dancing with the Goatherders of Turkmenistan, like some of the other former DWTS pros are doing. And hey, first time since week 1 that the someone on the show mentioning "Val's time", so congrats, grassy knollers, you're finally vindicated! Did the dancing through the eras skip the 1940s or did I miss it? I loved Allison in the female pros number. She was obviously the best dancer onstage in that routine. I just think she's out of her element as a pro on a ballroom competition show. Or at least a show that purports to be a ballroom competition show. Is Teen Beach the new High School Musical except even worse? Riker's brother is cuter than he is, why didn't he do the show? Shocked as hell Nastia is leaving. You could tell Rumer wasn't expecting that at all. I wonder if Derek getting hurt kind of shot her finale chances in the foot, because they should have been a shoe-in for the win. (Puns slightly intended. Sorry.) Did Derek's fanbase stop voting once Sasha took over?

My sister and I agreed on a policy- accept any public proposal, then quietly break-off in private. The whole baseball stadium during the 7th inning stretch doesn't care about your sincere reasons for saying no, they just know you look like a giant bitch. So even if I knew it was a douchy ploy for reality TV votes, I'd probably say yes to avoid further public embarrassment. Imagine the headlines. "Woman rejects disabled war hero's marriage proposal on live TV!" Rumer may have wealth and privilege, but I still feel for her. All the money in the world doesn't fix emotional problems and negative messages deeply ingrained since childhood. It's still an enormous amount of work to re-write the brain and all the negativity you hear (internally and externally). I've been in therapy for four years, working on some deeply seeded garbage, but if I won the lottery tomorrow that wouldn't miraculously fix what's going on in my head. It takes work. Yeah. I mean, Rumer's sister had an eating disorder and a drug addiction, despite being a millionaire. Do you (collective) only feel sorry for poor people with eating disorders and drug addictions? Where do you draw the line? I didn't connect with Rumer's bullying story, but I also didn't connect with Nastia's journey to best her dad's Olympic medal count, or whatever the heck Riker supposedly struggles from (dark roots?). I think they're all pretty silly compared to Noah's "I lost 2 limbs in war" but someone could also say well, Noah volunteered to serve, he knew the risks, at least he lived when thousands of others didn't, and the US shouldn't have invaded Iraq in the first place. I never understood the people who claim they need an emotional journey to connect with the stars. Especially since so many of the stars clearly have to reach to find something bad in their pretty privileged lives (like Charlotte "Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful" McKinney). Having a good sob story doesn't make you a good dancer, as we've witnessed with this season. If that's the direction the show wants to go, and let Noah win despite not having danced a single ballroom step accurately the entire season, then fine. Stop with the ringers and the celebrity premise, and just start rounding up every drug addict, cancer survivor and war hero to let them duke it out for the "Sadder Than You" trophy.

I still haven't come across all this mystery footage Derek fans kept referencing all season that was apparently missing from my broadcast, where the show made a big deal of how it's Val's time and Val's season. Weird. I only saw Nastia's quickstep from the first hour because I was in and out. I like the idea of the judges' choice better than the "judges help" from past seasons. It gets them a little more involved and it's nice to see their actual talents on display. Yeah, it's a freebie since obviously the judges probably weren't going to give each other crappy score, but as a viewer, I prefer seeing a new dance instead of the re-do dance or a relay. I was worried about Bruno's Swan Lake concept, since it's so overdone. I didn't love it. BTW, Val? Nothing is more masculine than Ivan Vasiliev in a pair of tights. Google that. You're welcome, ladies. I spent Noah's dance wishing I could see that concept with a good dancer. Sorry. Meh. Hated that Julianne was featured so prominently in Riker's. I thought the choreography looked sloppy, especially the transitions between the girls. All joking about Derek shoe-horning himself into dances aside, I hope he takes Len's story to heart. Pushing it every week to dance on a broken bone when you're 29 to win a reality show isn't worth it when you're 40 or 50 and can't dance anymore at all. I know people who had that happen. My cousin ruined her right foot by the time she was 30. It's not worth it to push it in the moment if you don't get to do it ever again. *cue "What I Did for Love"* I hope Noah goes home, because he's clearly out of his league, but between the Bush-esque 9/11 shout-outs, the military voting block, and the showmance fans excited about his engagement, I don't see it happening, even with the lowest score. I think Rumer is gone tomorrow.

I don't know why some think the Hough-Ballas vs. Chmerkovskiy rivalry is somehow an even match, so that it's ok to counter every Derek criticism with "But-but Val!". Julianne won twice, Mark won twice, Derek won 5 times, and they all have received Emmy nominations. In comparison, Maks won once with a ringer in the most orchestrated win of all time, and 2/3 times Val made it to the finals, it was written off as a showmance for votes. The feud is less Capulet and Montague, and more David and Goliath. And if you dare call Goliath huge, people claim that, actually David is pretty tall sometimes too. Did anyone else find the Dance Center clips of Robert and Kym in rehearsal a little much? I don't care if people hook up on the show. I don't care if they want to keep it a secret. Part of me is thinks it's gross that the show went there, complete with "I love you!" subtitles. The other part is like, obviously they know as soon as they walk into that building, they should assume they're on camera, whether the producers are in the room or not, so it's their own damn fault for getting "caught". I just could never get down with the Sharkaroo ship. Robert seemed sleazy and a little desperate. He probably would have hooked up with any female pro he was paired with.

Actually, plenty of people were, if you look back in the thread from that week. A few even implied that he routinely abuses his partners, pulled from some quote of Maks about Meryl being bruised after the switch-up week. Blame American elite gymnastics, where the ideal is now short, stocky girls who build up muscle to do big tricks. Someone linked to that video of Oksana's floor routine and she was 4'7" and 66 pounds. That's about 25-30 lbs less than the American team members in 2014. The Chinese still appreciate the grace and dance of the routines, but unfortunately their sketchy practices about ages overshadow appreciation of their team's abilities. To bring this back around to topic, Nastia's mother was a rhythmic gymnast, which is all about dance and musicality. With that background, Nastia is probably more experienced with musicality in her routines than the American gymnasts others are using as examples.

She tweeted about it. She was picked for a trio, but then the concept of the dance changed and she was replaced. http://tmi.me/1f3z8Q

Nastia has been doing PR and live interviews since she won the National Championships at 16. She has commercial sponsorships and does public speaking for fees. She's also had about a dozen acting gigs, all which I think counts as being more of an entertainer than Noah. I don't think Nastia is at a disadvantage in that regard and to bring it up as an excuse now, this far into the season, just because she had negative package this week is a little silly. Every single contestant has had a negative package where they get short-tempered. This week was Nastia. Last week was Rumer. The week before was Noah. Chris has reality show experience and still managed to have a few negative packages where he bitched at Witney. Nastia isn't anymore challenged than the rest of them.

Rumer and Val's dance was the only good one in the entire first half. I was so glad to see a rumba that wasn't contemporary-lite routine with groping and and almost-kissing, as well actual dance content with the appropriate style instead of "Oh, I thought you wouldn't notice the obvious lift!" I snorted at Len's comment about "hordes dancing". For some reason, I had the mental image of the Huns galloping across the dancing floor during a routine. Which is about all that's missing some weeks. Chris and Robert's trios were painful. They need to go. They basically stood in the center and were shamefully out-danced by the pro girls. They were way too nice to Robert. At least Noah tries. What's their excuse? Sasha out-danced Nastia in the trio. The idea was great, but it HAS been done before. It's actually a super common dance routine staple for trios. Mark, Val and Witney even did that same kind of love triangle routine- complete with doorway transitions- on the DWTS Tour. Not the same type of dance, obviously, but same concept, which is what he got compliments on. It wasn't a great jive. At moments, she was awkward and slow. I don't get the judges' overreaction. I think they were overcompensating for the negative, loser-edit package where Derek was a douche to Nastia and Nastia was a bitch to the producer in hopes voters would forget it happened. This happened last season too- Val got the first perfect 10 dance of the season and Derek got one later in the same episode. God help us if Val actually best Derek. I completely thought someone would give Rumer's trio a 9 just to drill it home, so I was surprised they got a second perfect score. It was weird how they completely dropped the America's choice theme very early. Considering the lengths they went to to film a new opening for the night, I don't think it came up at all past the half-hour mark. So now jazz means contemporary, freestyle, Broadway AND hip-hop? Can someone please take the producers to a basic entry-level dance class?

Sorry, my mistake re: Ballases in this instance, but in almost every interview Shirley gives, she mentions how they help Mark in various capacities. I remember one time on AfterBuzz, she mentioned Corky talking to Mark about getting Aly Raisman's costumes proportioned correctly. She may be overstating her own importance in the process, but Mark doesn't work in a vacuum. With Henry, I guess I just disagree. I don't understand why Derek couldn't have taken a break from all that pimping of his Radio City show and summer tour with Julianne to specifically thank Henry on air, the way pros and celebs thank the troupe, the hair and make-up people, and the guest performers (guess he didn't do that either this week...) all the time. Not even during samba week, which would have been a great segue. YMMV.

"Everyone" didn't know that Henry was helping out. Not everyone who watches the show follows all the social media and insider gossip. If it wasn't mentioned on the show specifically, that's not an accurate assumption. This week, lots of people thought Nastia deserved immunity solely because it was so tough to all of a sudden have to rehearse with a new partner and this was totally brand new and different for her. Since you made the comparison, Jenna has been shown in rehearsals with Val. A few times last season with Janel, and the season before with Danica, I remember specifically she was in the studio with Val when he got the call that Danica cracked her ribs. There's a whole internet contingent that speculates Val and Jenna are dating, so their onscreen interactions are well-documented by fangirls. Maybe if people thought Henry and Derek were getting it on and screencapped everything, it would stick out in my memory more. I don't assume everyone knows about Jenna either, or the Ballases' assistance with Mark. Corky mentioned on AfterBuzz that he was with Willow and Mark in rehearsal that morning when Willow said there was a surprise elimination. Whether audiences know that pros get outside assistance isn't the point in this case. Henry wasn't just in the room with Derek and Nastia giving tips or running the routine so Derek could see it from a different angle, he ran rehearsals while Derek wasn't there. I don't think there's been a case in the past that a troupe dancer completely took over teaching duties during the week in the absence of the pro. If anyone else has an example, I'd be curious to know. It's not outrageous to believe Henry should have gotten a specific shout-out from the show to acknowledge his contributions, instead of portraying it as Derek doing it all himself. So I don't know why Shirley (and others) had to frame it in such a negative light that he wanted credit where credit was due.

I do think Shirley's tone came across as a little, if not biased, at least judgy. I see no issue with Henry being annoyed with the situation. Unlike Sasha, he spent weeks rehearsing with Nastia and had no acknowledgment on the show. Not just not being shown in the package; they didn't even mention it in passing. I don't believe I ever heard anyone give him a shout-out. I love when Suri bitches about Maks and when people who actually know him outside the show shut her down, she still digs her heels in. She did it this week, she did it another time Shirley was on the show, and during season 18, she got into an argument with Maks's former competitive partner (she was a pro in the early seasons, I forget her name. Elena?) about how controlling she thought he was. She fell for the reality show character and refuses to admit it. I don't like Maks based on what I saw on the show, but I will totally defer to the opinions people who have known him in real life, instead of arguing based on what the show's producers edited for me to see. I have no issue with judging nepotism. I think the producers are the real problem. They call the shots and the judges just frame it for the cameras. They could have Maks, Papa, Mama, and Grandma Chmerkovskiy as the 4 judges and Derek would still make it to the finals.

So in that case, we should expect Chloe & Derek Season 22.