Bitsy

I had a theory, and I have no idea if it is true, that due to Derek's other commitments, he and Amy often rehearse in a separate studio from everyone else. It just doesn't seem like Amy interacts much with the other dancers. I've heard about various friendships that have formed, but I haven't heard of any involving Amy. And she seems to be very reserved, so she doesn't usually give much of a reaction to the other dancers during the show. I was quite surprised that she looked so upset and teary when Charlie was eliminated because I didn't realize they were close. I like her a lot, but maybe because of all the focus on her legs, and on being an inspiration, and on what Derek is doing for her, there hasn't been enough time just to get to know her as a regular person. I think the most we saw of her just being natural was when she rehearsed the duo jive with James, and I quite admired how good natured she was about him dropping her and how much she cared about not holding back the team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBxvvkfXr_4 At 3:13 you can see Candace forget the choreography and crash into Mark, and then him telling her what to do. And at 3:30 it happens again and you can see him move her arm and guide her into the correct position. And there are a lot of small moments when you can see him telling her what to do - like she's grimacing and then he'll remind her to smile. Amy had a moment of panic in her jive where she flubbed the choreography, and Danica had a lot of flubs in her salsa due to the broken rib and under-rehearsal, but I don't remember any other visible flubs that bad. But I really admire how well she's done for somebody who is not the most naturally talented and who has a terrible case of nerves to contend with. She should be proud for having made it to the finals with the caliber of the competition she's up against. Shirley Ballas told Mark at the beginning of the season that based on how "totally uncoordinated" Candace was, they'd be out by week 4 or 5. Making it to Week 10 is a huge achievement for her.

That would be the salsa that she has to re-do. She was already pretty good at the salsa and cha-cha at the beginning of the season, but you can tell she's improved.

I would agree with that. A 9 shouldn't be a bad score, and a 10 should really be reserved for something outstanding (and "special" as Len put it). But on a scale where 9's and 10's are being given to Nene, Candace and James, one can't argue that Meryl getting 9's and 10's is "overscoring".

ITA with everything LadyMustang. If this were true, everybody who got good the best scores and remarks from the judges would always win, and that's not the case. And the people who the judges criticized and marked low would always be eliminated, and that's DEFINITELY not the case. I don't think the viewing audience is so stupid that a few nice remarks from the judges and they all pick up the phone and vote their fingers off. If people are voting for Meryl, it's because they have connected to her dancing. I think it's ridiculous that there's so much anticipatory controversy over Meryl's win when even the people who hate her admit that she's the best dancer on the show and call her a ringer. She is a ringer - Maks said so himself. This is going to be the least surprising outcome of DWTS in the history of ever. And yet we're supposed to chalk it up to "manipulation".

Your post was about showmance, and then you threw this in the middle. First of all, Charlie's fate as it played out on the show had almost nothing to do with Meryl. After the first two weeks, the producers seemed to realize that people didn't care about them as a unit as they had anticipated. It's probably when the votes started coming in and Meryl was getting tons and Charlie was not. There goes the partner vs partner finale showdown! Add in the fact that they didn't even interact much. From about week 3, they were treated as two separate entities on the show (except for that one time the producers tried desperately to introduce something of interest to Charlie's package by bringing in Meryl). Complain about how Charlie was treated, but don't automatically relate it back to Meryl. And I disagree about Meryl being overscored or overpraised. She was blatantly underscored in the first half of the show - which is befitting a ringer. She did better in the second half of the show, but as good as 9's sound, when you have a dancer of Meryl's caliber still tying with Nene or being behind Candace, that's underscoring. As for being "overpimped" and "manipulated" - I'm seeing these vague accusations flying around more as the finale nears and people get bitter about their particular favorite not winning. So far, all I can see is by "pimping" is that people are upset that recently there have been a few more pictures of Meryl on the ABC Facebook page. That's probably because fans were posting 8,000 comments about Meryl on every single post not related to her, and needed a place to go. And evidence indicates that Meryl has proven to be very popular, so of course ABC is going to pick the most popular contestant to advertise the show on their Facebook page, rather than the least popular. And then there are people accusing Meryl of getting longer pages than Charlie. Yeah, because everybody did. She certainly wasn't getting more time than everybody else. The one week I added it up, Meryl's package length had her firmly in the middle, with Candace, Amy and Danica all taking up the most time by far with their dramas. (Candace's package was over 7 times as long as Charlie's.) Let's see what else - the accusation that Meryl is always dancing last in "the pimp spot". I added it up. Meryl, Amy, and Candace have each gotten the pimp spot twice. Charlie got it once. You can argue that Charlie had another showstopping number at some point that deserved the spot (I'm not so sure) but there's hardly a pattern of unfairness benefitting Meryl. As for the shippers...I don't see what a big deal it is at all. Obviously, some viewers enjoy it. Big deal. What's wrong with letting them have their fun?

Maks had a showmance with Willa Ford before showmances were even a thing (complete with dancing and hugging on the beach at sunset), but why is this still being rehashed? The topic has been beaten to death in every single thread on this board. I get that some people dislike Maks and/or his showmances. Ok. So what else is new? It's so uninteresting to read the exact same rants over and over and over again. We got it! If you've got something new to say about the upcoming episode that you actually are interested in having a back-and-forth discussion about, cool. But it feels like two or three people just come in here with a bullhorn periodically to yell the same old stuff.

I thought it was funny at one point, but it really does get tedious to read someone expound at length, authoritatively using dance terminology as if she knows what she's talking about even though she doesn't. (And that goes for ice dancing as well as regular dancing.) She lost me completely when she looked at Meryl's tango steps and thought it was all "walking".

Bring it on! I can't wait! The shippers came up with a brilliant idea: He's going to have them play the video of their first rehearsal where he said he wanted to marry her, and then he will actually propose live in studio, and then they will do their freestyle. I think the proposal would be better after the freestyle culminates with a kiss, but either way. Jeta's freestyle is probably going to include actual humping, so you've gotta fight fire with fire.

Dahlia, there's no judge's choice on Monday, just the freestyle and the AT. So, easy peasy.

Shame on you for forgetting the greatest boy band of all time: Menudo!

My only problem with either of the Houghs is their eyebrows. Derek's are way too big and tend to give him a creepy look, Julianne's are too big and way too dark. My #1 shallow pro complaint is that Cheryl's mouth is ALWAYS hanging open and it is so annoying.

I was going to say that James & Peta might be hurt if their freestyle is too trashy, but I think for James' voters, the trashier the better. The lingerie samba got a big response online.

I agree with all of that - except the part about Candace. She's definitely out Monday night. There's a chance that Amy will pick up enough votes from an amazing freestyle and an Oprah endorsement to beat out James.

I told my sister I was watching DWTS for the first time this season. She has only watched a handful of episodes over the years, and the first thing she said to me was, Derek Hough - which she pronounced "How" - shouldn't win again! He ALWAYS wins! I don't even know where she got that from, but I think it's a pretty widespread meme.

Tuesday's finale is going to conclude with the dramatic event we've all been waiting for - the physical collapse of Meryl Davis! Erin and Tom will get her final thoughts as she's loaded into the ambulance with her Mirrorball Trophy!

Sharna's intent was to get a pro with expertise she doesn't have to teach her student something he needed to know, which was how to convey certain masculine qualities on the ballroom floor. (Just like how Maks brought Sharna and some other female troupe members in to give Hope Solo tips on how to walk and whip her hair around in a feminine way.) I thought Maks gave Charlie great practical advice on stuff like where he should be directing his gaze and why, and how to touch Sharna. It was smart for Sharna to bring in an outsider if she thought it would help the performance. What was dumb was when Carrie Ann told Charlie to disregard the stuff Maks taught him, and when Charlie basically dismissed Maks' input and said "it comes from within you". Charlie, in your case, I'm afraid it didn't. It was also smart of Sharna to realize that getting Charlie to play against type to that degree wasn't going to work. She revisited the "bad boy" thing in the paso, which is very typical for paso, but I wonder if she could have been more creative about creating a paso character that would have met the stylistic requirements but worked better for Charlie personally.

I have no idea what that is, but it sounds like it's going to suck.

That exchange really made me laugh. Tom Bergeron: Your chemistry was palbable. [Me: It was?!] Sharna: Yeah, he's like my little brother. [Me: Oh, the brother-sister chemistry! Yeah, that was palpable.]

I'm well aware of the information out there about what Amy has to do in order to perform these dances, and in fact, I don't think most viewers are unaware of it. I think it was pretty clearly stated on the show that Amy's rib problem and back spasms were because of the different way she had to rearrange herself in order to do the rumba. There's a difference of opinion as to whether Amy's dances should be judged solely on the dance, or on the backstory. The Afterbuzz people clearly think the backstory trumps the end result as Kristyn has been telling people who say they disliked Amy's dance to go listen to her red carpet interview. I'm judging it solely on the dance, and it was good. It did not amaze and delight me the way some of her previous dances have. I don't think it was the best dance for week 9 to show off what she's learned how to do, which is what is being required of the other dancers at this point. I think Amy could have performed that dance just as well in week 1. She made a noticeable mistake, and this is at least the second time she has made a mistake unrelated to her legs and was not marked down much for it. (Part of the problem is that the judges have left themselves almost no room to mark anyone down at this point.) All these people go around saying, "XXXXX is what the show is about!" And I've heard at least 10 different opinions as to "what the show is about". "It's about who dances best!" "It's about people who don't know how to dance!" "It's about who is most improved!" "It's about who has the best journey!" Whatever. If people connect to Amy and her dances and/or story and want her to win, that's what it's about for them and they should vote accordingly. If enough people agree, she'll win. I do think it's offensive for Kristyn Burtt to tell people that if they didn't like Amy's dance, they shouldn't say anything at all and should "look in the mirror". People have every right to get just as excited/upset/indignant/thrilled/underwhlemed by Amy's dances as anyone else's on the show. She signed up to be part of a contest, not a PBS special about inspirational people.

Seriously. She gives off such a "mature" vibe - mature in terms of outlook, but also in terms of coming across as older than she is - and she's got a neck tattoo! I'd love to know more about her.

I think it backfired, but the intent was to get some of Meryl's popularity to transfer over to him.

Everybody raise your hand if you thought quickstep would be a disaster for her. [Raises hand]. And she totally killed it. Same for the jive. The whole challenge of the season for Amy and Derek is coming up with creative ways for her to be able to adapt and perform the dances. Having her stick to only the stuff she's proven she can do deprives her of going on to even bigger achievements, which is kind of crucial on this show, which is all about topping yourself.

For the record, the Afterbuzz folks did not call Meryl's jive "simplistic". That's an exaggeration. Here was Anna Trebunskaya's take: I'm not a fan of the jive as a dance, and I was disappointed when they were assigned that dance because we already saw them do something similar with their swing dance. It was not an exciting routine to me, nor was it flashy, but it was all about being executed perfectly. No points off for being out of sync or not finishing movements, which is what so many contestants are always being dinged for.

Erin interviewed Charlie after Meryl's first dance. I actually thought that mostly presenting Meryl & Charlie as two separate entities was much fairer to both of them. Like that time when Charlie was talking about how tired he was from touring in SOI, and they went to great lengths to leave out and obscure the fact that Meryl was also touring with him and was just as tired. I think they felt Meryl shouldn't be able to piggyback onto Charlie's sympathy story when she had her own story going on. After Meryl turned out to be the popular, perfect-scorer, they did have her guest star in Charlie's rehearsal package as a sage advice-giver, which I thought was a gift to Charlie and very risky for Meryl in terms of how it could have made her look.