mstar1125

Yawn. That was the most underwhelming finale that I can remember. I just don't "get" contemporary, I think, because I was not moved to tears (except tears of boredom) by any of it. Ginger's contemporary redemption was interesting in that it wasn't really a contemporary so much as a redux of many of her dances, which I thought was really clever of Val. Her freestyle was sloppy. The costuming didn't help matters, those were some fug pants she was wearing. Nyle was out of sync through some of his freestyle, if there is such a thing as out of sync during a contemporary. It was obvious that his movement did not mirror Peta's during some of the floor parts. His redemption quickstep was no better than his original quickstep. Paige's salsa was deserving of the scores it received, but all her fast/Latin dances have started to blur together for me. She's really good at them, and Mark's choreography is great, but there's still something missing from it. They are fun to watch but not memorable. Her contemporary was good, she had really clean lines throughout. I wish Mark had done something far more creative, because Paige could have handled it. I literally don't care who wins at this point. Meanwhile, on my wish list for next season: Jean Claude Van Damme and Britney Spears (after seeing how stiff she was through the first few minutes of her Billboard performance, I think she needs this show and this show needs her. It'll never happen, she's too big of a name, but a girl can dream).

At this point, Ginger seems like distant 3rd place material, because what kind of choreography can Val give her that isn't going to come across as completely bland and generic? Her Beauty and the Beast dance was probably her most interesting dance to watch, and that had everything to do with Val's choreography and the production value. You could insert any pretty brunette dancer in there, and it would have had the same wow factor, she didn't bring anything special to the dance. When she has been called upon to bring a particular personality or flair to a dance (like Janet Jackson's Nasty), it has come across as lackluster. I can't think of a particular dance that she has shined in. Paige is interesting to watch, both because of Mark's excellent choreography and sometimes in spite of it. Her freestyle is the one that I am looking forward to the most, because I know the two of them will pull out all the stops and just go for it. Whoever said upthread that Peta pulls out the gimmicks on weeks when she knows Nyle is going to struggle nailed it. Peta knows how to play this game, and she is playing it well. Nyle's freestyle should be interesting, but I predict that he will struggle a bit.

If she was a meterorologist on any other network, she wouldn't even be IN the competition. Ginger is safe, generic, and pretty, which the people that vote for this show seem to like. Viewers also seem to like Val/Val's open shirt, plus there's no Derek Hough around to automatically vote into the finals.

Count me among those who thought Beverly was a hilarious addition to TBBT up until recent episodes, where she has been a shrew. I think the last episode I liked her in was the one where Penny was taking a class and Beverly's book was on the assigned reading list. I thought the episode was funny, but the only "season finale" feel it had to it was because of the way the episode ended so abruptly. There were so many commercials to fast forward to that I almost thought it might be an hour-long finale where we got to see the aftermath of Mary-Alfred's hookup, closure to Howard's military storyline, and maybe even the wedding itself. So I was surprised when the episode ended on Penny laughing at Sheldon and Leonard not being able to get a hold of their parents, without even a "To be continued" to indicate that there will be some closure to these storylines eventually. Meanwhile, I've been enjoying the series story arc in which Howard has become the most successful of the group. First to get married and have a child (please don't let there be an upcoming storyline where they lose the baby), has become an astronaut, and now has developed what appears to be a breakthrough in guidance systems. Not bad for Mr. Howard Wolowitz.

Ah, see, but I was never saying that women cannot be Steelers fans, only that women who are Steelers fans may not also be women who are fans of DWTS. Of course, there will be some women who are fans of both, just as there are probably (fewer) male Steelers fans who have a soft spot for DWTS, but I'm not sure that the intersection of the two fan bases is enough to get Antonio to the finals. Because he's just not that good. He also hasn't been getting a great edit, which means he probably isn't getting too many non-Steeler fan DWTS watchers voting for him. Hines Ward, in contrast, ended up being a decent dancer and was charismatic. He also benefited from his partnership with Kym, who knows how to bring out the talent in her partners (if you look at her numbers, she got really far with a lot of people who probably should have been eliminated within the first few weeks). I doubt the Steelers fan base had much to do with his win.

I agree that the VW as a dance style does not leave a big impression, and so the stars that get saddled with it later in the season are at a significant disadvantage. Am I remembering correctly, that in early seasons, every star was learning the same 1 or 2 dances each week? It seems like that format has been dropped, which I think is unfortunate for the stars. It would make more sense to me to be evaluating everyone on the same dance rather than evaluating one star's waltz (boring dance style IMO) to another star's salsa or paso doble (my favorites, and more exciting dances to watch). It also seems like the producers could easily stack the deck in favor of or against certain stars based on the order in which they are assigned dances from week to week versus others' assignments. I agree with those who have said that Wanya has plateaued. I don't think he has plateaued in terms of his ability, I think he could push himself to do much better. It seems like he isn't putting the time in. He probably needs to put in more time than the remaining stars (he's older and less fit than everyone else), but seems to have a more demanding schedule than the remaining finalists. Which I don't get - if you agree to come on this show, why wouldn't you clear your calendar as much as possible? Or ask if you can defer to a later season when you aren't on tour? I suppose there is only interest in Wanya because he IS on tour and the producers want to strike while his fame is "hot" (I mean, is it really?). The only thing I have to say about the trio lists is that we can expect a lot of shirtless beefcake from Val and Artem during the Paso. I'm in. My predictions for final 3 are: Nyle, Paige, and Ginger. No way Wanya is making it with his fumble this week, and I don't think Antonio's Steeler Nation fan base is the same demographic as this show.

All the dances were completely underwhelming this week, save for Bruno's team dance, which I thought was interesting and well-choreographed. I expected more from both Len and Carrie Ann, and thought it was really odd/narcissistic that Len inserted himself into the dance. I was rooting for Jodie, but could tell from week one that she wasn't going to make it to the finals. I think she has the dancing chops and could have shined with another partner, but Keo wasn't a great fit for her. His choreography is just so boring and uninspired. Their jive deserved nines at best - not because Jodie didn't do a great job, because she pretty much nailed the whole routine. But when you compare that jive to Mark and Paige's jive last week? I think having the whole troupe dancing with Jodie was also a mistake. Ginger seems to be filling the token pretty brunette role quite nicely. They probably didn't expect her to do quite so well. We haven't heard much about her baby in a few weeks, I wonder if she's still breaking out the breast pump every couple of hours. As a fellow working mom, it'd actually be nice if they addressed that more because it's a real issue for us to find time to do that, but I'm sadly guessing that she wasn't able to keep it up with the other demands of her schedule. They might as well get it over with and give the win to Nyle now, since it's obvious this is the direction they are heading. Since he won ANTM recently, shouldn't he be busy with his modeling contract by now? Seems like he has a lot more free time than the other dancers.

Raj never got great storylines, but they've become virtually non-existent since he started being able to talk to women. I always saw Raj and Howard to be secondary characters to the central storyline of Sheldon and Leonard (and Penny), but over the seasons they've given Howard quite a bit to work with, between the marriage, the death of his mother, and the astronaut plots. Raj got a storyline about his parents divorcing, but they never went anywhere significant with that. They need to give Raj a breakthrough in his career like they did with Howard or a viable relationship with a likable female character to bring him back into the story.

I think 25% is pretty standard for academia. My institution has a similar breakdown. 75% goes to the institution, but that gets divvied up further so that some of it ends up back in the department of the researchers who developed the product. It doesn't surprise me that Leonard and Sheldon didn't understand the patent process, as their work doesn't necessarily lend itself to direct commercialization, but I agree that Howard should have gone through this several times by now. Although if he was designing anything under a NASA-sponsored project or other industry-sponsored funding, he may not have the rights to patent despite it being his IP and design. This is why many of us in academia don't bother with patents or commercializing our products - it's a lot of work (and a lot of expense, although the institution picks that up) for not a lot of profit, and then it limits you to what type of work you can do in the future due to strict conflict of interest policies. I also wondered if the writers got Howard's position with NASA correct. It doesn't make sense to me that he's a federal employee of NASA but still allowed to work at the university. It seems that it would be the other way around - an employee of the university but a contractor to NASA. My understanding is that the majority of NASA "employees" are actually contractors, but I'm not sure whether there are different rules for astronauts versus staff.

You're not alone! I also thought The Weeknd (had to look that up...he has something against too many Es I guess?) was a band, until I saw him perform on some awards show a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, as much as I love Jordan and his beautiful voice, pairing him with Usher was a huge mistake. It just showed how much his voice is not as well suited for pop music as it is for choir music. Count me as another viewer hoping that Gwen is not back as a coach. Maybe she would have been better in a different season when she wasn't going through such a public divorce and subsequent public romance with a fellow coach, but her attention almost never seemed focused on her team.

The only thing Adam really did for Jordan is save him from elimination. Other than that, Jordan basically ran the show. Adam basically admitted as much when he said Jordan went with a different song choice than Adam had picked. I do really want to know what Jordan's "holiday" song would have been if he hadn't insisted on Mary Did you Know.

Same here. I don't care that the songs were overly Christian/Christmas-y, because I think they are songs with pretty melodies. In other words, I would like the tune to "Mary Did you Know" even if the lyrics were something totally different. Then again, I was raised Catholic, and although I identify more as atheist these days, I still enjoy the pomp and circumstance surrounding the big Catholic holidays. Jordan will end up winning and make a contemporary Christian album, probably covers of most of the songs he's already done (plus hopefully "Only Hope", which is a song by a Christian band but made "famous" by Mandy Moore in A Walk to Remember). Will I buy Jordan's album? Nope. Will I listen to it on Spotify when I'm in a mellow sort of mood? Absolutely. Meanwhile, there's not a chance that I would ever seek out music (covers or original works) of any of the other contestants. Their voices and their talent are a dime a dozen. Emily Ann may have moderate success only because she will end up replacing some other aging blonde country star. Barrett and Jeffrey will be forgotten 5 minutes after the end of the finale. I blame America for choosing terrible finalists. It also doesn't bother me that Jordan has no stage presence, because 1) I don't watch music, I listen to it; and 2) I don't see big stage shows being the focus of his career (if he has one). He could manage to connect with audience in a forum like Adele's concert with practice (and age - he's still quite young). But he's never going to be the next Freddie Mercury, and he doesn't need to be, because that won't be his musical style going forward.

I'll also say that of all the duets, Jordan + Adam was the only one (besides maybe Blake and Emily Ann) where I felt like the coach wasn't trying to steal the spotlight or carry the song. I though Gwen took away a bit of the impact from her duet with Jeffrey, partly because the female part to that song is so dominant, and Blake's voice is just so dominant over any other country singer that has ever been on this show, that Barrett especially had no chance of shining through that one.

Jordan killed it with all three song choices. I think the other three contestants are also talented, but they don't always choose the best songs for their range/skill set. Example: Jeffrey and O Holy Night. That song is so easy to butcher, and he did fine with it, but it did not blow me away. Or else, there is literally no song that Jordan could sing poorly (I wonder what his O Holy Night would have been like). Too bad that Emily Ann had to follow Jordan's Mary Did You Know. She did fine with her song, but it just didn't have the show-stopping impact that was needed to make an impression after Jordan. If he doesn't win, I will be shocked.

This show! I need those two binders full of Santa's science/engineering background, because that is how I will be teaching my children about Santa from here on out. The grandmother cracks me up. I can't remember her line about Garfield (something about how she appreciates his disapproving glances at everyone?), but thought it was funny when they cut away to reveal her placing Garfield in the village instead of one of the kids. I'm surprised Jessica allows anyone to go near it.

Sorry to see Charlie go! According to IMDB, the actor is on that new show Angie Tribeca, so maybe he just couldn't do both. Hopefully, he will still guest star once in a while.

Nick's freestyle just reminded me how much of a ringer I assumed him to be because of his BSB, even though the argument has been made that he's not a true ringer because he didn't do that much dancing in his BSB days. I wish Sharna had tried to highlight more of the dance styles that Nick had learned this season. All I saw was "boy band" dancing. It also threw me off to see Val in the mix for Nick's dance - as someone upthread said, Val excels at the dark and moody dances, not the sugary pop boy-band dances. Every time someone does a contemporary style dance, Travis Wall's name gets tossed around as though every choreographer has ripped him off. Is it possible that there aren't too many ways to choreograph a contemporary? It's not a very complex dance style, and there's only so many bells and whistles that you can add to make it "unique". Bindi did fine with what Derek choreographed for her, but I would have liked to see something more upbeat and fun. Bindi was the chosen winner before the season even started, the producers just lucked out in that she does have some dance ability.

Same here regarding this episode reminding me of the Vegas episode, which is probably my favorite episode of the series. This episode wasn't quite as well done as that one, but still very funny. It killed me when Phil comes into the room with his virtual reality gear on and everyone else in the room is frozen like statues. I thought all the stuff with Andy and Haley was so contrived. The show shouldn't have to work so hard to get them to a point where they realize they want to be together. That part brought the whole episode down. It feels like the writers didn't have anything to do with Gloria and Jay this week - there's no situation I can think of that would have them showing up at the sexy house, since they already have a pretty awesome house.

Indeed. He's deserving of all the praise and the wins because his dances are just more interesting to watch (Mark's too, although they are always a little on the weird side). The trio dance with Karina and Witney was interesting because it was a Charleston, which we hardly ever see on this show. But what Lindsay and Emma put together for Alek and what Peta and Sharna put together for Nick were as basic as their respective dance styles get. Even if the cube and the gimmicks aren't your cup of tea, you have to admire the creativity that goes into every one of Derek's dances. He brings it to a new level every time. I have a feeling Val and Jenna got to do a full-length dance to fill in the time that would have been spent on Val and Tamar's dances. But yes, fifthed, sixthed, seventhed, etc., especially if Jenna is involved because I love pretty much every thing she does. Definite girl crush.

Who is voting for Carlos though? I don't understand who his fan base is, but then again, I also forget how he's famous other than via being married to the girl from Spy Kids. Who I never would have recognized had they not said that's where she's from. I imagine that the average viewership of DWTS is slightly older than those who were back-in-the-day BSB fans, but have to imagine Nick still has a stronger fanbase than whats-his-face. If I remembering correctly, he was also wearing a knit hat in that picture, which makes me think he IS cold, but doesn't want to take the obvious action of buttoning up. Which is fine by me.

Yes, yes, yes. I could watch the two of them all night. Simply stunning and sexy. I've always been indifferent to Val, but last night....wow. Jenna is one of the best female pros (IMO), I wish they'd give her a more prominent role on this show. Speaking of Val, was that a picture of him hugging Tamar in the hospital bed? With an open shirt? Doesn't he ever get cold? My next favorite dance of the night was Bindi's trio. I actually thought they should have done more with the box, but I loved the song (Resolve by Nathan Lanier). ETA: I agree with you. I used to like her choreography, but now I realize how one-note it is. She just goes back to the same moves over and over. Nick's trio dance last week reminded me of different pieces of Noah's dances from last season.

I couldn't quite figure out what they did with his face, but I thought the resemblance was on point. I thought all the costumes were great.

I switched over to Fresh Off the Boat at 8:30, so I have no clue what happened after the Sing Along. Who doesn't enjoy the Ghostbusters theme? Besides those two people who didn't know the lyrics? I didn't enjoy the random audience member segment. First, why would she notice her name in the credits? She had a fairly common name. Second, it seemed like those shots of her kids and husband in the audience and during previous sketches were fake. Finally, she didn't seem all that excited about winning a trip to Australia. She had a deer in headlights look about her during the entire segment, which is understandable when you're not expecting to be caught off guard like that. I just didn't think it was funny or interesting. Good thing there's only one episode left, because this show seems to be running out of ideas.

I really enjoy this show and I don't know why. Most nights I'm sitting at my laptop doing work, and it's nice background noise. I thought the tribute to Neil's mom for her birthday was really cute. I could feel her embarrassment through my TV screen. David Burtka is literally the cutest and I would love to have a playdate with him, Neil, and their kids. I had never heard of the artist or song that they used for the Sing Along segment. I'm either out of touch with reality or it was not very popular (even though it was touted as a summer hit). The best part for me was the segment with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, where Neil (and randomly Jane Krakowski) tell him what to say, only because he was having trouble getting through it with a straight face. It's hard to believe that Britney Spears did a better job of pulling off that bit, but she was really brilliant when they had her do it. The End of the Show Show was lackluster, and poor Reba for having to cover a Taylor Swift song instead of doing one of her own (although I guess she's a big fan of Taylor?).

Is this thing on? I came here looking to see if anyone is still watching this show, and had to create the topic myself. Not a good sign. I watched until 8:30 and then flipped over to Fresh Off The Boat. I'm guessing most people were watching the Cubs. The only part of this episode I saw was when NPH and Nicole were re-enacting the lady's diary about all her childhood crushes, which was kind of funny. Then they had to go and ruin it by bringing out the actual crushes. Awkward city! The best part for me was when my husband looked up from what he was doing and we had this exchange: Him: That looks a lot like Jack Black. Me: That is Jack Black. Him: What? I thought he died!