Kara

I didn't start watching until the Globetrotters first season. I just discovered I can watch previous seasons on Amazon, so have been binge watching. I really liked the first 3 seasons. I am watching season 4, and it is by far my least favorite. The clowns are the only likable team. And I am shocked and disappointed that tptb would force female contestants into a situation where they would almost certainly be sexually assaulted. Indian public transportation has long been notorious for sexual assault. Only in the past couple years has it gotten wider attention, but it was well known by seasoned travellers for years, and never should have been allowed to happen.

I just started watching now, so I haven't read the thread, and can't comment on the dance yet, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, Cat's dress. She looks adorable

I know nothing about obtaining rights to music for broadcast, but I wonder if the rights for season one were different that later seasons, and that is why we never see anything from season one. I started watching this show right before season 4 started. MTV ran a marathon of seasons 2 and 3 that got me watching. They did not show season 1. Even if Nigel is bitter, I can't imagine he would have the power to block the revenue that the production team (and FOX?) could have received for rebroadcasting season 1 when they were doing the marathons.

For a few years I lived in the hometown of Mark Espinoza, who played Jesse on this show. When he would come back to visit, he would go to the bar that was my regular hang out. I was shocked at how small he was. On the show he looked fairly tall, but irl, he was probably about my height and super skinny. So I can only imagine how tiny the girls on the show were, as he was much taller than them on the show. As an aside, he was a super nice guy. My brother and I used to watch this show together every Wed night (another straight guy that watched the show), and my brother had just left to join the army. So I asked Mark to write a note for my brother and autograph a bar napkin, he happily did it.

Hmmmm...I guess I am the only one who was completely bored by this episode. I am sick of the whole waiting room will he live/die trope. I just wanted to get it over with so we can move on with the story. Don't care about Hank and his daughter. I did enjoy amber and Drew, but didn't really care about Ryan. Been there done that. wish she would have just called and told him and saved a lot of time since it didn't change anything in the end. Glad to get a break from snowflake academy. I didn't have a problem with Julia telling Joel over the phone. Joel left, she is doing the best she can, her dad is in the hospital, she just needed to quit being pressured by Joel. Although I do hope they get back together. He was my favorite character until the writers decided to give him multiple personality disorder last season. I am will to just erase that all from my memory though.

I really relate to Amber's character, she reminds me a lot of myself at her age. So, maybe I give her too much credit, but I don't think she has unrealistic expectations of what parenthood actually means. She is smart, and obviously scared, so I am pretty sure she has considered the reality of becoming a parent. There are women who think having a baby is going to be similar to having a really cute living dolly to dress and have fun with, but she doesn't strike me as that type. She has seen her mom struggle as a single parent. She has witnessed Sydney and Max's asshole behavior, and the baby with colic as living examples of how difficult children can be. And if she hasn't, trying to force her to recognize it right that moment, isn't going to all of a sudden open her eyes. First, Amber needs to be able to trust that she truly has her mother's love and support, and then she will be more open to listening. By going straight with the negative, Sarah was telling Amber that she didn't trust her or think she was competent, and Amber wasn't going to be open to listening to Sarah or taking advice from her. I wouldn't be either. Like I said, I think Amber and I have really similar personalities, so I feel like I just take her pain really personally. I just want to hug her and let her know she is smart and strong, and it will be hard, but she will be ok. But like I said, I get Sarah's reaction, and her feelings and concerns are not wrong, but sometimes as parents we have to let that go and address the heart of the matter, which was Amber's fear, not only of becoming a mother, but fear of rejection from her family. After that, we can work on the other details. Of course, if my daughter comes to me, young, single and uneducated, announcing her pregnancy, I reserve the right to screw it up too. Parenthood is hard!

I mentioned this last week, but I was in a situation similar to Amber. No hospital traction sex :p But with a relationship with an unstable partner that ended right before I found out about the pregnancy. I waited until after the first trimester to tell him (and considered not telling him at all) because I didn't want to have to deal with an emotional draining, emotionally abusive asshole's reaction if I had a miscarriage. I am not saying this is exactly Amber's reasoning, but it is hard enough dealing with the reality yourself, without adding the reaction of an unstable man to the mix. As I said before, pregnancy is a long haul thing, there is no need to resolve every issue immediately. Amber is not stupid (though she does make some stupid choices, but who hasn't). I think she just needs time to adjust, and she will get it right in the end.

The reason I keep watching this show, as ridiculous as most of it is, is that when they get stuff right, it hits home. I think the whole thing with Amber and Sarah and Zeke is pretty realistically done. And I just want to slap Sarah. As much as I hated her reaction, it was pretty realistic, and consistent with her character. I thought she was going to get it right the second time, but it took her third try to get to where she needed to be. Pregnancy is not something that immediately needs to be immediately resolved, as scared as Sarah is, and as much as she wants what best for her daughter, and her feelings about it aren't wrong, she has six months left to work with Amber and make sure she is in the best place she can be in when the baby arrives. The immediate need of any expectant mother, but especially one who is young and single, is unconditional love, and the knowledge that the people closest to her are going to love her and support her, and not shame her, because she is feeling enough doubt and shame and fear all on her own. Just a tip if anyone is ever faced with the need to immediately react to pregnancy news. There is lots of time to make sure that everything else is in place. Lectures will not be well received. And I am not sure if Sarah was trying to tell Amber she should get an abortion, but pressuring someone into it be basically telling them they would suck at motherhood is going to cause long term emotional damage. I am fully pro-choice, but the decision needs to come from the pregnant woman because she has weighed her options, and decided it is the best choice for her, not because she feels other people will not support the pregnancy. As for the whole Snowflake Academy lunch kerfluffle, it was absolutely ridiculous. Here is an idea. I have no experience as a school administrator (which apparently makes me as qualified as Kristina) but here is an idea. If you call your vendor, and are about to explode the relationship, take a step back, take a deep breath, and tell vendor that you understand that they can't make last minute changes, and not to worry about it. Then allow the vendor to continue honoring the contract and get the other children fed, and figure out how to get the one kid lunch. It is probably a lot easier and cheaper than having to figure out how to feed 40 kids, no? You can then look around for other vendors, or work with the parents on a solution. Also, I can't imagine with the chaos in that tiny kitchen, with inexperienced child chefs, that there is no cross contamination. Seriously stupid idea. But of course it all works out. I wish the school would fall into a sink hole (when no kids are there of course) and they would just scrap that whole stupid story line. Does anybody know if the school is a charter school or a private school? I was thinking it was a charter school, in which case it is required to make "reasonable accommodations" for food allergies provided that there is a diagnosed allergy with doctor certification. What "reasonable accommodations" means is up for debate, but no parent can demand special foods and expect it to be met that same day. I am assuming if there was medical documentation that the paperwork stating such would have had to be included in the registration paperwork, and they should have been aware of it in advance, and if not, that would need to be taken care of and a plan put in place, which takes time and won't be done the same day. Kristina is an idiot. She lets the parents at the school act the same way they let Max act, so at least it is consistent.

I also thought Zeke was a goner when he went to take a nap. I however, was disappointed that he woke up. He may be the most annoying to me, and his crappy attitude is probably the reason for the rest of the Bravermans' annoying dysfunction. Does that make me a horrible person? I was dreading Sarah's reaction to Amber's pregnancy. I was older and educated with a good job when I became pregnant under similar circumstances. It was hurtful that nobody was happy about my pregnancy. I understand Sarah's concerns, just like I understood my mom's. But at that point the ship has sailed. There is a baby coming into the world, and being openly negative about it is hurtful, and doesn't help at all. Sarah has every right to be worried, I would be too, but you suck it up and focus on the fact that there is a pregnant woman who needs positive support. You act happy, even if you aren't. My sister who was married got pregnant a few weeks after me. She got cards and congratulations from family. I got crickets. It sucks, and I will never trust some of my family members again because of their response. So, I guess this was kind of personal for me. But realistic, so I can appreciate that. Also, Haddie was lovely, it took living across the country for a year to develop a functional personality, because she was one of the most whiny, annoying, selfish characters before she left. Getting away from the co-dependence did wonders for her. I want her to stick around, but am afraid she would fall back into bad habits. I work in a kind of Snowflake Academy. Although it is a public school, not a charter school created by very special parents. But it is a small school (about 50 kids) for kids who cannot function in their normal public school. It is for 7th-12th grades. About 75% of the kids are there because of criminal activity. The other 25% have various disorders, severe ADHD, learning disorders, extreme social problems, etc. Left alone, I have no doubt that the criminal kids would bully the kids with social problems. But we run an extremely tight ship. The kids are never, ever left unsupervised. When they switch classes, or even have to go to the bathroom, they have to be escorted by an adult. Only 1 kid at a time is allowed in the bathroom (we wait outside while they go). There is about a 3:1 student to adult ratio. That is the only way to prevent bullying. Because I am assuming the Snowflake Academy is for special needs kids, they most likely have funding for a lot of adults, but they have to be on it all of the time. But, there is a huge range of abilities at my school, the classes are multi-age, depending on ability. But, the goal is to get the kids to be able to function well enough to get back into their home school. The truth is, we cannot offer great education, because of the differing abilities, the kids on the higher end don't get the opportunities they would get at a bigger school. So, unless they are only offering spots to kids that are highly intelligent, they are going to have a difficult time meeting everyone's needs. Of course, it is the Bravermans, so they will figure out how to operate an ethical, excellent charter school that can offer individualized education to every child, despite abysmal budgets for education.

My almost 9 year old daughter's reviews: Alexander: "Meh, it's ok" Amanda: "That's ok too" Char: "Meh, ok" Emily: "Ahhh! That is all kinds of wrong!" Kini: "Ummm, I don't want to be mean, but she looks like the worlds smallest pregnant woman" Korina: "I like that, it is definitely on the maybe list" Sandhya: "Ooooh! That is more like it. That is my favorite so far" Sean: "I like it and would wear it if I didn't have anything else" By far her favorite was Sandhya, lol. I made her look at all 3 views, hoping she would see the hideousness of it, but nope. So she liked Sandhya, then Korina then Sean. I take no credit for her taste in clothing. I also loved how Zach was totally into the dolls and knew all about them.

It was storming here last night so the satellite cut out several times. I had missed that the chin was supposed to be a tongue, and could not figure out what was going until the judges inspection, and they were raving about it. I think it was a clever idea, but the execution wasn't quite there, and I didn't really like the makeup as a whole, it looked really cheesy and fake. I was surprised that he was in the top. Though it definitely was better than the bottom 3. I would have put him in the middle. I was glad they used the save last night. I like all of the bottom 3 and want to see more from them, although at this point in the season, there is not anyone that I really want to see gone. I think Sasha has a pretty unique perspective, and her stuff is usually fairly unique. I agree that it is a problem that she hasn't spoken up in the group challenges, but hopefully the past couple weeks are a wake up call to be more assertive. I also thought the deer was a disaster. It could have been a tiny bit less of a disaster if it weren't for the elf costume. As it was, it could have been a great horror parody, and one that I would laugh my ass off watching, it just wasn't creepy in any way. The backwards homecoming queen was a mess too, the concept was just too difficult in the amount of time they had. But I did like the black and white idea.

I agree. And the instruction not to make it "costume-y". I wedding dress is nothing but a beautiful costume to be worn on a stage in front of an audience.

I did not like Dita Von Teese. All of her judging was about her and what she would wear. The challenge was not to design for her, so she needed to step out of her own self importance and think about what another woman would like. I did like the other guest judge. She might not like or want to wear all of the designs, but she could get past that and see some of the positives. I agreed with Heidi about almost everything. Thought Kini should have won. Loved Fade's fabric. I was disappointed w/ Sam and Alexander because I loved the oxblood red, and the dresses could have been gorgeous, but they went overboard with the appliques. I really liked Sandhya today (not her design, but her straight forward, honest attitude).

The blind dance made me super uncomfortable, and I had to ff through most of it. Did not enjoy the Bollywood. Was it just me, or was the synchronization off through most of it? Valerie was ahead of Jessica most of the time, which made Jessica seem tired, but it could have just been Valerie going too fast. Was there any ball room tonight? I really liked both of the tap routines. Hello Aaron! The tap choreographer is really good. He makes tap fun and accessible for a broad audience, which is difficult. Zach and Ricky (we are in the finale, and I still want to call him Billy, he obviously is not making a huge impact on me) were my favorite of the night. I thought Zach was harder hitting in it. I really liked the opening group routine too. I loved how they were same sex partnering through most of it. It was unexpected, and beautiful (and I am sick of Travis's routines, so I was surprised when he was the choreographer) I hope Zach wins, but don't care too much. Jessica is my least preferred dancer, but I just wouldn't care very much if she won. This season has not grabbed me. Even though the last few season's have not be my favorites, there are usually at least one or two dancers I feel passionate about, but this season, they are all fine, but that is it.

I watched the first 5 minutes with my 8 yo daughter and she was in tears. She does not like the new doctor. But she looooooooved Matt Smith. She wants to be his companion. I sent her to bed after that, but will have her watch the rest in the next few days. I am interested as to how she will react to seeing Matt at the end. I think I will be ok with him. At this point I don't think I will hate him, nor will I love him as much as I did 10 & 11, but we will see. The last scene w/ him and Clara made me think it is possible. I was totally unspoiled for Matt Smith, and I was happy to see him again, but I was always so annoyed by his relationship with Clara, it just felt really contrived. I did like Clara more this episode than I did all of last season. Hopefully she will continue to grow on me. If not, I hope they get a new companion soon. As for the story, I was kind of meh. I found the end intriguing though and am looking forward to finding out more.

In the top picture there it appears that Twitch is having a wardrobe malfunction that could have unleashed little Twitch on the viewing public. I really liked Fikshun (how does he spell his name) and Zach's hip-hop. Cool concept, I could have kept watching for hours. Glad to see Philip. Jessica's in the club dance was disappointing. It could have been a fun, kooky number, but apparently, this show doesn't do kooky this year, which is a shame, but I don't know if Jessica could have pulled it off anyway. And I just kept staring at the muppet pelts on her legs, which I think made her look clompy and heavy. I liked Jacque and Will's dance. It was really sweet. Wish it were to different music. I like Valerie, and recognize her shortcomings. It is odd. I despised Evan, and was annoyed by Cyrus, Fikshun, and all of the other "entertainers" that were just not very good outside of their own style, but kept going on because they were likeable. But for some reason, I have fallen for Valerie. Maybe it is because she is female, and I want to feel joy like she does. I don't know. I would not have been upset and would have completely understood if she was sent home before now, but I am glad that she is still around. Maybe if there were any other women that were exceptional this year that got kicked off while she stayed I would have less affection for her, but the dancers this year are so underwhelming, that I am ok with it. Zach is my favorite dancer left. Hope he wins. I still don't feel the love for Ricky. I acknowledge his talent, he seems like a nice kid, but he never makes me feel anything much. Still hoping for and all all-star show in 2015.

Only the all stars impressed me last night. I think if they are renewed for another season, they should do and all all-star season. That would be worth watching. Of the dancetestants, I enjoyed watching Valerie the most. I just love her joy. I would rather watch flawed technique that exudes joy than the bland dancing of most of the other ladies (Tanisha is the exception, but I don't even remember what she did last night, and she is gone now. boo!) I also was a bit put off with the whole MJ night. Wade has not choreographed for the show in a few seasons, and his presence is greatly missed. I loved all of his routines. All of the choreographers now blend in to one another. I can't watch a comtemp routine and tell who the choreo was. I could always tell Wade's routines. Last season they at least had the one that Mark choreographed, which is one of the only routines I remember. This show would have been better served to dump the MJ crap and beg Wade to come back. I guess I hope Zach and Valerie win. But that is not a ringing endorsement. Can Twitch win? I was also hoping that one of the choreographers would have done a "very special routine" highlighting childhood sexual abuse just to stick it to Nigel and co for forcing them to use MJ music. And I deplore the "very special routines" but in this case it would have served a purpose.

Yes! I think one of the best things this show unintentionally did was the first all star season, where the bottom three were the lowest vote getters, regardless of whether they were male or female. I think the produces assumed the bottom three would be fairly evenly mixed each week, so they could keep the balance, but they guys were so much better that season, the women kept crowding the bottom three, so they ended up with way more guys, and the only way they could use the guy all stars was to do same sex pairings. This forced the choreographers to think outside of the box and they came up with some excellent routines. I proved that they didn't need to rely on male/female sexual tension constantly.

So glad to have the all stars. Even the not so good dances this week were better than 90% of what we have seen so far this season. I love Jasmine. She is just so freaking gorgeous. I love to watch her dance. And emilio held his own. This is the first dance this season that I gave a little "whee" when it was done, and was actually clapping at the end. So much fun to watch. I do agree with the baggy pants problem. They have done that a few times this season. Specifically, the skeleton hip-hop with the saggy bones. Maybe it is because the whole drop crotch, bagginess is hip right now, but it does not compliment dancers' movements, so stop. I love Valerie. She just makes me smile. I kind of feel about her the same way I felt about Aaron last season. Not the greatest dancers. There is something heavy and labored in their dancing, but something in their personality shines through and makes me want to keep watching. Although I would not be surprised if she goes home next week, and would understand why. Whoever compared Casey to the guy from the New Normal, thank you! I have been trying to figure out who he reminds me of, and that is exactly it. I do love Casey. He seems shy and sweet, and he's got beautiful movement. I hope he sticks around. Ricky just doesn't do anything for me. I almost called him Billy, because he brings to mind the Billy from a few seasons ago who was technically wonderful, but left me cold. I don't know why. I just always feel meh about him. Tanisha was hot again tonight. Love her. Twitch will always be my favorite of all time. I love everything he does. He just brings humor and personality to everything. I think he was dancing with someone tonight. I was not blown away by the "Contemporary Ballet" or Zach's routine (even though I love him) They were both good, I just didn't get all of the fawning. I was just kind of bored by both of them. I loved the opening number. I even dug the colorful costumes. But I love color, it makes me happy.

I am obsessed with Carrie's hair. I could just stare at it for hours. I hope she just got a bad edit tonight, because her construction skills seem strong, and I want her hair on my screen every week, but if she is a mean girl, it will take the pleasure out of it. I loved Fade's dress. It was my favorite. I loved how he worked the patterns on the skirt. I would wear Amanda's design, which means it does not belong on the top in a show that is supposed to be fashion forward. It was nice, but not exciting. The winning dress was terrible. I thought it would be in the bottom, and deserving of an auf, but figured she would be saved because it was at least interesting, unlike the annoying dude with the yellow top and bike shorts that should have gotten das boot. I didn't like Jefferson's design, but I liked him and was sad to see him go.

Based on tonight's dancing, I think they made the right decision with Nick. I would have preferred Jordan go over Malene, but it is not the worst judging decision ever. That being said, I think the choreographers gave Nick and Malene no chance at staying. The West Coast Swing was so hard for me to watch, and the reason for that was the music, which I am assuming Benji chose. And I love Benji, I wanted that dance to be so awesome, but there was no connection between the dance and the music. When that happens, especially with a dance like WCS, which really needs to play with the music, the whole performance is ruined, and I can't judge whether the actual dancing was bad, or the choreography was bad. It just felt completely flat for me. And Malene got screwed with the phone prop. I agree there was no connection between her and stanley, but the were attached to two separate cords, so how could there be? And Nigel is an ass. He basically said Malene did not deserve to be there based on her dancing abilities. If that is the case, then it is his fault, and he needs to shut up. She was absolutely gorgeous tonight, I wish she would have been given a dance that actually gave her a chance. Jourdan was given a good dance tonight, but I wasn't all that impressed. I didn't feel a connection between her and Marcquet either, and they didn't have anything physically keeping them apart. I wasn't impressed by either of the hip hop numbers. I liked the second sonya dance. I loved the tango and the african jazz. I didn't really like the first travis wall routine, with the tapper and the anointed one. There wasn't much dancing in it, it was all writhing and rolling around and I couldn't really tell if she could actually dance, and I really want to like her. I don't even remember the second travis or first sonya dance, so I guess they go somewhere in the middle. I love stanley, even in that crappy dance, he just looked gorgeous. I think it is interesting that he and Jessica will be partners now. I think he is the best male dancer, and she seems like Nigel's pet of the season. I wonder if they knew who they were planning on sending home when they picked partners last week, and fixed it so they would end up together, which would seem less fishy than partnering them together from the beginning. I am usually not one for conspiracy theories on this show, but I do find this to be quite a coincidence.

My guess is that the group routines are not so much about the dance (although you can't completely suck, or you will get kicked off), but more about how the dancers work together under pressure. While there are usually one or two people who act like idiots during the other routines during Vegas (or not Vegas), it is the group routines, working late into the night, having to collaborate, and not just take instruction from professional choreographers, that really puts on the pressure. I feel like this show does a really good job finding people that are down to earth, willing to work hard, and treat the other dancers with respect. I think that the group routines, as pointless as they seem, really give insight into the personalities. For that reason, and not so much for the actual dances, I appreciate them. I am also sad about Jaja. At this point, I can't even remember the other women, except for the tapper, and while I like her a lot, I don't see her lasting long in the competition. There are several guys I like, Marcquet, Ricky, the two friends. The guy tap dancer was adorable. I love Stanley, but he is so skinny. I hope he has the upper body strength to do lifts.

I loved Georgie's American accent when they were pretending that Poppy was getting the part in the B&B.

I am really enjoying this show. I was a bit worried that it would be too mean spirited. I can't watch Borat and the like because it makes me too uncomfortable when they make other people look like fools (as much as they may seem to deserve it). I was a bit worried when they went to the tea party meeting that they were going to go there, because it is so easy to make those people look stupid. But I was glad they didn't go there. They are more about making themselves look like fools than others. I giggled through both episodes.

Was it ever specified what Miss Claudette was in for? I was reading an old article here that said she was in prison for killing the guy that raped one of her housekeepers, but from my memory, it wasn't clear that murder was the reason she was in prison. I thought maybe it was for human trafficking, or slave labor, since when they first showed her story, she was told that she would have to work off her debts after coming from Haiti. It appeared that she took over for that woman, and continued forcing girls to work off their debts. I thought maybe the murder was never pinned on her, but it led to an investigation that resulted in her conviction for forcing the girls to work. Did I just miss something? When she was going through her appeal, was it mentioned? Also, I know the actress was severely injured in an accident, so I figured that was the reason that she was not in season 2, but did they ever give a reason for her character's absence? I can't remember how season 1 ended in regards to her story. I should go back and watch it again.