dmmetler

I really didn't like Stay Tuned's performance this week. It just didn't sound good, at least not on my TV. Having said that, I would much rather have my child with Deke than Diana.

I wish they'd cast someone more like Rosie O'Donnell's character on The Fosters to run the group home. Someone who is older, more mature, and can sell being the adult in charge. The only way I can buy a 25 yr old is if he was some sort of child prodigy (and I do know a 17 yr old who graduated with a degree in psychology last Spring and is now in graduate school, so it does happen)-and I doubt seriously most facilities would hire a 23 yr old straight out of school to manage a program.

I hadn't planned to watch this one, but it was on demand after Bring it! I actually really like this-we have the stage parents and the overly cocky kids, but the industry folks are very realistic, definitely are actively trying to help and support the kids in their goals, while also giving them some 'tough love', and the kids are generally likable. I love that it's not an elimination each week, and that one slip up doesn't send a kid home. I think Poopy needs to hang back until he goes through Puberty. I suspect he'll be in the same position NIqo was a few years ago-when his voice starts shifting, he's going to have a tough time of it. Right now, he is making it because he looks so young and cute, but has the maturity of a 12 yr old, not a 9-10 yr old. But that's not going to last forever. I don't have problems with Peach's sister helping her write the songs now-but she needs to find her own voice. As it stands, she's coming off less a villain and more a puppet. None of these kids should have the responsibility for their family, or should feel that their success or lack thereof in a very difficult industry should be responsible for their family's livelihood. I understand passionate kids who want to follow a goal-but sometimes, you have to say "No, I'm not going into debt or cashing in my 401K on a one in a million chance".

I kind of wish they'd brought the minis in a season or two ago and focused on a new group of younger girls. As it stands, we have less than impressive girls who are no longer cute little kids and, with the exception of the ringers, simply aren't all that impressive (in large part because they've been focused on the show, not in class learning skills-which is why Kalani and Brynn are simply better at this point). Or, just kill the show entirely. I'm kind of disappointed in myself for watching it at this point. And I do have to wonder-what kind of parent brings her 6 yr to Abby?

Gotta love it when the high school kids are more sensible than the adults. I majored in music, and Diana is a typical personality type that you see a lot at the college level, less so below that-the failed performer who ended up teaching and resents it, so takes it out by being the big b-word queen diva. Female or male. Deke is more the person who ends up teaching at the high school level-the one who truly enjoys teaching and seeing their kids do well, and no longer needs to be a star. But yeah, Vocal Adrenaline vs New Directions,and you just KNOW that Deke's team will pull off a win by the end of the season. Because, don't you know, they have heart. I'll continue watching. I'll watch almost anything with dancing or singing in it, and this show doesn't make my heart hurt for the kids.

Toe shoes on a gym floor?? I'm just glad Faith got through it without a broken ankle. That's got to have been about like dancing on ice.

http://quarterlifeqb.com/2015/11/19/sportsmanship-lessons-from-pre-teens/ A blog talking about the show

http://www.commercialappeal.com/blogs/entertainment/go-eat/Logan-Back-on-MasterChef-Junior-for-Guest-Appearance-347602761.html http://www.adweek.com/news/television/olive-garden-hopes-customers-will-eat-appetizer-created-13-year-old-168085 Olive Garden will be offering two of Logan's appetizer recipes in conjunction with this MCJr season :)

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/masterchef.junior.season.4.episode.2.spoilers.logan.guleff.returns.to.cheer.for.kiddie.cooks/69915.htm Logan will be back for episode 2 (the spoilers are for episode 1)

My prediction is that we'll never see baby Carlton and Lily again-that Toby will end up divorced or coming home for a family emergency, but that those two characters are done. I expect we haven't seen the last of Will/Eric/Hope. Unfortunately. I want Bay to stay in her tattoo parlor, happy, successful, and using her art skills. The kid deserves that. In fact, I'd be happy if the series would end there, sans cliffhanger. I'll even ignore that Daphne somehow became an audiologist and capable of speaking Mandarin in 10 months.

Didn't Bay just have an art show a couple of weeks ago?

I wish Bay had called the police when Will was taken-it would have served Regina right for leaving her daughter out of the loop, plus would have been the rational, logical thing to do when some person who you know only because she came up to you at an art show steals your mom's boyfriend's son!

I'm just glad they didn't go the pregnancy loss route (although I guess there's still time). It's just too often used as an easy out on TV.

My guess is that they wouldn't have nearly as many costumes if the TV show wasn't happening, nor would they have as many performances or travel as far. Having said that, my DD has a friend on a similar team, and the parents have a lot of fundraisers. They park cars for big events like the county fair, they sell concessions at the local minor league baseball stadium, and stuff like that. The team contracts with the event, and the team parents work it, with the money they earn deposited into their child's account. I don't think many parents just write a check.

I'm guessing the Southern Royalettes were created for the show, possibly at the request of the producers. I've seen PGA cheer (Pat Grey Academy-the studio they are out of) at competitions locally (and they're good). It seemed more like cheer routines to me (although they did pull back on the stunting compared to what they can do-which is reasonable on a gym floor without mats or a spring floor). If anything, I suspect their technique was too clean for Majorette, which may be where they fell down with the judges. I wonder if they'll do the same thing with PGA that they did with the SupaStars, where they'll start popping up regularly with an eye to a spin-off.

Even if John were salaried as the team coach, Daphne is not legally his daughter, and tuition waivers would apply only to family. And, FWIW, tuition waivers aren't a benefit at state schools here, anyway (although they are at some private colleges). Financial aid should be based on Regina's income, not John/Katherine's. One thing that hasn't been mentioned, though-I imagine Daphne COULD get assistance from whatever Missouri calls their vocational rehabilitation program, and is possibly eligible for SSDI as well. She may be playing the "Deaf isn't disabled" thing, but the federal government considers it a permanent disability, and they have an incentive in getting adults with permanent disabilities the education they need to be self-supporting.

I think I'll just forget season 5 happened. Seriously, Amy...huh???

Not only that, but Daphne has magical lip-reading skills and is extremely intelligent, and has had a very supportive parent and a very, very good school situation. Contrast that to even Travis, and you can see how Travis may find deafness a lot more disabling as an adult than Daphne does. And most kids with any disability don't have a great self-contained school and community that fits their needs, nor a college program created just for them when they need it.

It's time to start focusing on a new team. This one is starting to really play to the cameras and be annoying. The coaches, the moms, and the girls.

I assume Lily is fluent in ASL vs BSL because the showrunners aren't aware (or are ignoring) that ASL, BSL and Auslan have far less overlap than American, British, and Australian English. I also assume they went for DS rather than a genetic disability with the assumption that the audience knows what DS is, but would be less aware of, say, Fragile X syndrome, where a premutation passed to a daughter leads to a much higher chance of having the disease, and which can be tested for prenatally via amniocentesis. If Lily had a brother with DS, it's unlikely they would do an amnio on her at her age, but Fragile X would call for prenatal testing since she would have a very high probability of carrying the mutation. You'd still have the same level of drama as far as "should she go through with the pregnancy"-and I can't imagine there wouldn't be room to explain what Fragile X (or any other disease of the week) means just in dialogue.

I'm torn on trio-gate. The kids and moms seemed to think that the concern was that they might not get 1st, and if that was indeed the concern, I'd say they should have gone for it. But at the same time, as a cheer mom, I've seen teams that simply weren't ready, and that's when injuries happen or when kids come off the mat in tears because they forgot halfway through. And I'm not convinced the trio wasn't in the latter category, where they just plain weren't ready to perform at all. Leaving before awards is in poor form. I wonder if Lifetime is pushing for it, since it's played out on both Dance Moms and Bring It recently.

Ava's costume for her solo looked obscene on her body. I know it actually covered everything, but in some ways it was worse than Maddie's for the Sia videos-in that, it was obvious there was a body stocking. Ava's seaweed covered just enough to make her seem more nude than she was. Not appropriate for a 12? Yr old, IMO. Nia's dance looked good, and the skip would have had more impact if they didn't cut dances on the show anyway. I honestly didn't realize anything was cut out until Nia was talking to JoJo. Maddie's dance, eh, nothing special. All of her dances choreographed by Abby/Gianna are interchangeable. Yes, she's good at doing it-she's dome the same dance in 3/4 of the episodes for the entire run of the show!

I really wonder if the moms were told to ramp it up. It just seems like there's FAR more mama-drama. And I hope Kayla is at least enrolled in college locally this fall. I hate to think that being Ms. D's assistant coach is as far as she goes.

I wish Ricky's being valedictorian had been presented as his classmates/faculty voting him an honor instead of the highest GPA. I just can't buy Ricky's GPA being higher than, say, Lauren's brother. Ricky having a high SAT, I can believe-he's smart, and the SAT is not entirely prior knowledge. But given what the guy has been through in the last few years alone, the idea that he would never have just plain spaced out on an assignment or test, or that he would have been doing the weighted grades/classes needed to have the highest GPA while working a lot of hours, being a dad to John, living independently, and dealing with a newly sober and released from prison bio-mom just seems unlikely. Heck, just graduating on time is a major accomplishment.

I started watching Season 4 this morning. As a pregnancy loss mom, I've been impressed with how Mercy's death has been portrayed. Adrian is going through a very typical grief process, and Everyone else's reactions are on point-from Ben wanting out of the relationship because he can't deal with Adrian's grief, to the adults expecting her to move on and not sure what to say, to her friends going on with barely a hiccup, to Adrian wanting another baby. That drive to have a baby in your arms is very, very strong. Most TV shows that go to the convenient miscarriage/stillbirth route don't really show the grief response past a very special episode.