Tikichick

As much as I enjoy the fact Hannah's mother seems to be kinder than we usually see on the show, I'm so glad the fact her domination of Hannah was pointed out. Clearly her reaction shows the truth of the allegation -- and the fact that it's not anywhere near the first time she's heard it. The sudden, collective shift in the mothers' attitudes makes me think they somehow got some feedback, or production did, and decided to reign some things in a bit and pivot -- possibly so the audience at least has a scrap or two to work with as far as something to love to hate because these moms were beyond neck deep on the villain scale.

I agree, even during the cancer battle we've never seen the same level of anxiety. When she explained her fears about the intubation I really felt for her -- I can't even begin to imagine. The kids have really grown and matured, and are obviously keenly aware of the cameras.

Sad it's over because I will miss these characters and the wonderful job the actors did to make me care about them. Not completely crushed it's over because I'm not sure there was much story left to tell and I'd rather say goodbye reluctantly than feel sad they destroyed the show on the way out and sour my memories. I was very dissatisfied with the way they dressed Petra for the wedding. My daughter says she was keeping her promise to Jane to dress ugly for the wedding so as not to upstage the bride, but I have no memory of that comment and am resentful my favorite didn't get to go out on a high fashion note.

Oh I'm sure this is quite correct and I in no way think that the judges sitting at the table mulling over pictures are in fact actually serving as emperors giving the thumbs up or thumbs down over the contestants. The fact is the narrative in those golden years had a certain element of magical emotions that allowed the audience to buy into the "journey" as it were. I actually could keep many of the dancers straight in my mind back then and was pulling for many of them, hoping to get to see more of what they had in their bag of tricks. It was jarring to realize we were ten minutes from the end of academy and they were about to montage a string of dancers and in general the most reaction I could summon up was actually not very positive about most of the dancers flashing across the screen. I'm in disbelief that so far this season hasn't even managed the level of "the feelz" of WOD. How on earth is that even remotely possible? Can't believe I've entirely forgotten to mention the bit that had my bottom jaw on the ground. When giving us a glimpse of what's coming I believe next week revealed a very peeved and frustrated sounding Marco giving a reality check to one of the dancers?! Frankly I'm expecting that reaction from choreographers and All Stars when Eddie eventually has his full core meltdown, but I'm having a hard time conceptualizing what or who pushes Marco to his limits.

Realized as I was watching that I'm still so detached from nearly every contestant at this point that I was almost across the board remembering people negatively and didn't have much positive recollection of virtually everyone. So very sad and wrong at this stage of the comp. I found the bait and switch where Mary told the one dancer how wonderful she was, only to cut her off at the knees and send her packing was completely unnecessary and cruel. I was sad to see John the BBoy sent home. He was one of the few I actually thought had a spark. A little sad to discover I've actually reached a level of ambivalence with my favorite show after all these years.

Obviously dancers who are used to learning and performing choreography have always had an advantage over dancers who aren't used to picking up choreo quickly and being able to demonstrate it. That's always been the case with the show from the beginning. Every single ballroom audition I can recall that we were shown this season was Latin style. Matter of fact the only ballroom auditions I can recall outside of Latin over all 16 seasons was Benji Schwimmer, his cousin Heidi G. and sister Lacey Schwimmer, who auditioned with West Coast Swing. I know from time to time we've had some "less than serious" auditions break into faux waltz, etc., but I believe when it comes to the ballroom auditions Latin has been king.

Have to say I was pretty surprised when Kamryn started to dance. I can't say I've ever seen these producers cast a dancer quite so lacking in proficiency before. ETA It feels awful to say that about a seven year old. It's not that she has no potential, because I'm quite sure she could train and become a spectacular dancer. She's simply much more raw clay than expected.

So the choreo rounds are offering up combos that not only challenge dancers out of their training, but require moves that dancers trained in the genre wouldn't be expected to have proficiency in?

I guess that would explain Ben's stress.

I had to rewind and make sure I saw what I thought I saw. I could have understood if they were both out of genre and really struggling, but to insert himself in when she was dancing with an experienced ballroom partner, who was doing a good job to boot?

A half hour episode listed as part one and part two? I take it each is the meat of the two-part birth special that's ultimately coming -- most of which will consist of endless previews/rehashes of this exact footage with virtually no new content? The entire process of heading for the hospital was so strange to me. Jessa goes alone, Ben goes alone, midwife takes baby? I wonder if any of it had to do with the logistics of the boys and when Ben's mom was able to arrive to take the boys -- and I couldn't help wondering where they were during the birth and who was taking care of them? Ben doing his best to be there for Jessa, putting his head on the back of the sofa and turning his face to the wall really showed how stressful he finds the process. ETA: I guess I didn't realize or remember Josiah had his pilot's license and his flying Jana and Michelle home took me by surprise.

Tossing the cake brings the drama and gives production a juicy visual to repeatedly flashback to in an effort to illustrate the tension when he ultimately returns.

So much would prefer they seriously tighten up these audition episodes and use one or two of the episodes for the really enjoyable part of the show -- great dancers doing what dancers do, hopefully to fresh and interesting choreography. My masters work in SYTYCD viewing is continuing nicely. The Larkin Studios sign immediately rang a bell -- is that in MN? Is that maybe where Eva Igo trained? Yep and yep. I'd be curious to see what I might notice going back and watching the past seasons after all I've learned over the years. So many strings would probably appear that I had no clue about back in the day.

As I remember it Christian's competitors felt sorry for Christian getting stuck with such a deliberately impossible brat of a client -- with a very pushy mother to boot. Basically the read of the room was that Christian was caught in a no win situation.

I want to see the reaction of the other moms when it's explained to them that Brady being left dominant means he has another advantage in his toolbox. Most training focuses on right dominant moves since that is more prevalent, therefore the lefties also train more on the right and have a better chance of becoming fairly proficient on their right side. It's much more unusual to get a lot of actual training and practice time to build left proficiency. When choreographers want to use symmetry or something in particular that utilizes the left they're generally pretty thrilled to find a proficient leftie to hang it on. Cue the seething.

And I'm crushed to agree with you wholeheartedly.

Seriously? The Hot Tamale Train didn't even hit the rails until season three when Anya got things sizzling and we've had 2 so far during the first 2 audition weeks? Nope. Maybe you can weasel your way into a ticket to academy, but you've got to EARN your ride on the Hot Tamale Train!

My heart sunk when I heard the announcement that a capsule collection from the winner will be manufactured and sold. It really worries me that constraint will work against Sebastian's very deserved win -- and hand it to Hello Rainbow Kitty Brite. I have so many conflicted feelings about Bishme's situation. Number one, I feel for his worry and heartache over his family's loss and health struggles. That's so much on his heart right there. When I realized his "surprise" challenge look wasn't going to be usable as a runway piece to boost his count to nine pieces and there was no time to make a tenth, let alone a replacement number nine, I realized he really needed to be the odd man out. Watching the comments from the CFDA judge and his demeanor really made me feel that Bishme would benefit tremendously from the mentorship -- although some of his remedial skillset made me wonder if he's not really ready to capitalize on that quite yet. I do think Sebastian deserves the win, and can really benefit from the mentorship to enable him to translate his talent into a thriving business. I actually think Garo could benefit from the mentorship in a very different way by being very directly prodded to fine tune some aspects of his work to appeal to a broader audience. There's no way his "taste level" should be a barrier with his level of craftsmanship while Hester with little to no craftsmanship and beyond questionable taste level is being shown as poised to win this thing. Ugh!

If the saga hadn't been ended as a sprint for the finish Howland Reed would have been important. Once D&D decided to close up shop on the works all those types of painstaking details for which the foundation had been laid wound up in the going out of business sale bin. Varys making a different choice about Jon than he had about Ned isn't hypocritical. In Jon he saw someone who led with integrity, inspired tremendous loyalty -- and responded with a loyalty to help and protect in return. Varys choice required that he put his life on the line in an attempt to put someone on the throne who would have the best interest of the people at heart. Doing so meant he faced his worst fear of death by fire. IMO his intentions were indeed honorable.

The moment I laid eyes on her, before she spoke a single word even, all that came to mind was she needed the costume to make people think she was edgy, has a point of view because she wasn't going to be able to convey anything with her personality or her talent. I still believe that's true. I took note in this episode that her champions were Elaine and Nina, both coming from a jaded magazine perspective. When the lens shifts to actual humans purchasing her clothing to put on their bodies it's nothing but crickets.

That stage set up better have been because auditions occurred close enough in time after WOD finished filming that they got a really good deal to use it for auditions. If it sticks around for live competition I will not be a happy camper. I've more than drained my reserve of patience for LAG. Actually that happened within the first 10 minutes. My years of experience watching the show have finally resulted in actual skills -- I called it that Dominic knew Ms. Jazz from Brisbane long before her audition ended and they revealed Ryan Conferido in the audience as her boyfriend. If only my newfound skills were marketable . . .

It's possible that Varys could have reevaluated the situation based on what he knows of Danaerys before they met and since they met, and what he knows of Jon's past and Jon's course of action as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch and subsequent to that time. Varys knew Ned, understood Ned's sense of duty and honor got him killed -- and understood that prospect wouldn't budge Ned. He recognizes the same in Jon. IMO Varys was in fact looking at it less as putting another Targaryen on the throne, but rather putting Ned Stark's sense of duty and honor on that throne and thinking it would serve the kingdom well.

A few random thoughts I had along the way: Arya and Sansa getting the news of Jon's parentage would have happened on screen! The twists and turns of Varys' storyline would have continued throughout the seasons, rather than turn into somewhat of a magic act complete with the ability to suddenly appear and disappear rather randomly, before suddenly going up in flames on a beach with virtually no build up to actually make it resonate deeply as it should -- particularly where the endgame was headed. The Night King's fascination with Jon at Hardhome should have been explained. It's clear it wasn't forgotten by the writers because we once again got a scene with the NK pausing to take in Jon's presence in particular, before once again stretching out his arms to raise more dead soldiers. We also don't know what it was that made him pursue Bran. The molten Iron Throne should have flowed over Danaerys' body, poetically encapsulating her quest for eternity and creating a strange and distorted echo of both her father's and brother's fates. The fact the dragons recognized Jon as a Targaryen should have caused comments and discussions. Sansa should have become ruler of Westeros, with Jon as King of the independent North. Bran could have served as advisor to both. Part of Tyrion's duties as hand to the queen would be overseeing the care of Drogon, who would not care to live in the cold northern climate with Jon. He would also manage the care of dragon eggs Arya would bring back from her travels, seeing to it that they were safely hatched. Brienne would be head of the Queensguard -- and NOT have slept with Jamie. More focus on characters and decent dialogue over EPIC battles, and greatly diminish use of CGI. All these years of getting attached to the characters and most of the tremendous character development and the acting performances were wasted by the writing of the last two seasons in particular.

Wendy without a license cannot claim doctor/client privilege and therefore can be compelled to testify in court.

Of all the ridiculousness to pick from, I think for me the Helen and Max nonsense has to be the cherry on the sundae. Why all the manufactured angst out of absolutely nothing? Are they trying to eviscerate two lead characters that could be perfectly watchable as simply coworkers and doctor/patient?