Latsmile

Ugh! Michael should have been kept or stolen. His performance was a blast and the judges obviously felt it too. They kept saying their focus was on his look vs. his sound but they were having such a great time, they knew he sounded great, period. I think he would be really popular in the lives. If they bring him back and he performs with that much joy, he could win. In the meantime, it was hard to enjoy the rest of the show, knowing that a less worthy steal was coming.

I've never watched so many seasons of a show and bailed but that was the most boring hour of TV I've forced myself to sit through in a long time. I'll probably read recaps for awhile and see if those can hold my interest. Deleting Talking Dead, don't care to hear them gush (like Abe and Glenn's heads?!) over how epic it was. Zzzzzz.

I'll give Nyle a pass for what sounded like overconfidence this week because until now, he's had virtually no critique. I put that on the judges. He has no background in dance and likely hasn't paid much attention to it in the past. So all he knows about his abilities is what they're telling him and although he's great for a beginner, they've been giving him a pass. I hope they start giving him constructive criticism that Peta can use to polish him up and make him really great.

Meanwhile, divides that have existed in the Deaf world for over a century are flaring up around Nyle's success and visibility in the hearing world. A historically oral organization, the AG Bell Association, wrote a negative response containing misinformation, to an article about Nyle's efforts to make visual language accessible to Deaf children. http://www.agbell.org/in-the-news/response-nyle-dimarco/ Here's one of many responses from those who share Nyle's culture and his belief that's it's every Deaf child's right to have access to a natural, visual language. http://www.deafeyeseeit.com/ I can't imagine how tough it is to be a role model at this level. Nyle obviously takes the responsibility that comes with his new found fame very seriously. But I think he has a good head on his shoulders and feel confident that he'll handle all this with passion, kindness and grace.

I think these are two different issues. I believe the judges often speak to the pro about what they should do with their celeb. They might critique and give advice to the celeb and then speak to the pro, advising them about how to get the most out of their celeb or how to change their choreography, etc. In these cases they're just giving advice to two different people, one after the other. This is what they did with Nyle and Peta, treating them as they do other pairs. If they'd spoken directly to Ramon, saying "Tell Nyle such and such", that would be rude and inappropriate.

The ginger in the audience is his fraternal twin brother. A nice looking guy but...how does that feel, to have a twin like Nyle and know that when people see you they were hoping you'd be identical? :-/ They're fourth generation Deaf which is a heritage to be proud of in the Deaf community. His mom was on ANTM for an episode or two and I've seen videos of his family at home. I hope they show that on this show, his mom seems like such a happy person and their big family is really close. He seems to have grown up in a really positive, nurturing environment and I think it shows in his personality. He seems to be secure enough to just go for it and try new and interesting things.

I'll be watching for the first time in many years because of Nyle. The Deaf community is very excited and that along with the ANTM crowd and people who watched him on Switched at Birth, he might put together a decent fan base. All he needs to do is last one or two shows because once the audience gets to know him, he could really win over a big following with his sweet and genuine personality. As far as I know, Marlee Matlin and Nyle are quite different. I believe Nyle is a proud third generation Deaf (or at least second). And I saw a quick video where he said they tried to practice dancing with the volume all the way up and it just threw him off to feel the vibrations. I'm pretty sure he doesn't voice at all and Marlee does. She may have some level of hearing and he may not. There's a wide range of ways to be Deaf, both in how one identifies, how much one is able to hear or not hear and how one chooses to communicate. And I'm pretty sure that Nyle wouldn't want to be identified as "hearing impaired". He's Deaf and I believe he identifies that way. Some feel that hearing impaired is like calling a Person of Color "non-white", labeling someone in relation to the dominant culture. And it's often seen as negative because, who wants to identify as "impaired"? Obviously, some people are fine with that label but many who are born into Deaf families, have a strong Deaf community and a sense of Deaf Culture are not. They often identify as being part of a linguistic minority as opposed to being disabled. Most importantly, Nyle is not only a sweety but he's super-hot!! I could just look at him all day and fingers crossed that he's got good rhythm so we can look forward to lots of shirtless Nyle in motion!!

I actually had to watch that scene twice because I was so fixated on the background drama the first time that I wasn't paying attention to the conversation! I believe it was a woman in a wheelchair who fell in two stages, with some ignoring her and others eventually helping. I guess it was about how oblivious our girls are to anything but each other and their "serene day in the park" or whatever they said, was the punchline. Not my favorite ep but I agree that Alda was great! And I'd like to look at the DMV line again, I bet there were details there that I missed.

Jordan sang Beyoncé's Halo.

Pharrell signed "Deaf" as he said it. Interesting!

We loved this show last season, weren't crazy about the first two this season and this one was just terrible. Something has changed, besides grown-Eddie's voiceover. For one thing it's more sappy, while last season they might have expressed similar sentiments but in a more funny and sarcastic way. And Jessica has lost her mojo. Last season her bitchiness was admiral, you had to cheer for her taking no prisoners and having no shame. This season she just seems bitchy and whiney. We saw the Shaq punchline coming and that was still the best part of a dismal showing. We'll give it one more week and we're out if they don't bring our old Huang family back.

So does Lenny have a naked lady tattooed on his arm? I got a fleeting look but it appeared to be a human figure and it was blurred about where the breasts would be. Perhaps I'm totally off and it was a brand name that wasn't part of the episode's "message". But if it's the former, that wouldn't quite go with the wide-eyed, man-child, gee-wiz, innocent he seems to be playing. Yup, these people would do anything to be on TV, they just proved that. Kinda pathetic and I feel a bit dirty for watching.

Where have I seen Donna before? She's so familiar and I would have sworn it was from this show. I wish this mess was on a night when I didn't have to go to work the next day. It's almost too cheesy to enjoy even with the snark factor and would be so much better with cocktails.