LadyMustang65

I am so glad to hear it's not just me. It is really annoying. Even in scenes where it's broad daylight in the desert, it's still dark as hell. The show is grim enough as it is; we don't need "mood" lighting to tell us the subject matter is dark. We know.

I seem to be in the minority here, but I am really enjoying the show. No, it's not as good as Death in Paradise, but Humphrey was my favorite DI from DiP, and I enjoy watching him here. Kris Marshall does a great job with quirky characters. That said, it's not a perfect show. I agree with those who did not like the way Anne treated Humphrey in the first season, but I can kind of understand it. I did enjoy the new team in Shipton Abbott getting to know and adjust to Humphrey's quirks and way of doing things. I'm honestly enjoying the more low key crimes with greater variety. I appreciate what they tried to do with the personal storyline between Martha and Humphrey - in the end, it did serve the purpose of getting them to the idea of fostering - but I can't really say I enjoyed all that. Unlike many, I couldn't stand the Archie character. Like Martha, I would have picked Humphrey over him as well. All things considered, it's been an enjoyable couple of seasons - a show we look forward to as a nice respite from some of the really "gritty" shows we tend to watch, and we're looking forward to a third season. Just as an aside, I'm really looking forward to the other DiP spin off that's set in Australia, Return to Paradise. Not sure when that's supposed to being airing, though.

My comment doesn't pertain to specifically this episode, but to all 3 of them that I've watched so far. Why is it so.damn.DARK all the time? I'm not talking about the subject matter; I'm talking about the filming. When I watch the trailers, the lighting is more normal, but every single episode has been so dark at times you can barely see the characters. Even when they're outside during the day, it's like they're filming in a barely lit room. Even in their offices. Did the FBI forget to pay the electric company or something? It's just awful. I thought maybe it was my tv, but this is the only show that airs that way. Every other Paramount show is just fine as are the shows on other streaming services.

I wonder, though. It was a contemporary, which has no formal structure. And the use of props seems to be quite widespread as well. At least they actually used it to good effect. And I give her props for the trust fall.

Shangela was a true gem and just a really good person. I loved how on Instagram she would congratulate the couple who went home each week and say something nice about them or share a memory. Loved her spirit.

Tyra probably wears stilettos so add another 4" - 6" to her height. Maybe if she switched to flat shoes and wore simpler dresses that weren't so overwhelming, it might look better.

In psychological terms, shyness is defined as a fear of negative judgment. So for someone who is truly shy and just not mistaking it for some other form of social anxiety to constantly put themselves in a position where they are inviting others to judge them does not make sense. I've known some people who were truly shy, and they never did anything to draw attention to themselves. Just the thought of being noticed was enough to cripple them. To the point where even asking a salesclerk in a store where to find something they needed was a horrible experience for them. So I don't believe Charli is actually shy. She may have some form of social anxiety, but I don't believe she is actually shy. More likely she is an introvert (who is someone who can enjoy being around people and performing but then needs time alone to recharge), but that doesn't garner the same sympathy as being "shy" does. I still think that whole "shy" thing was a manufactured narrative by the show runners (along with the whole "I wasn't finding joy in dancing any more so I went on a dance show where I was forced to dance to regain that joy" arc). I was surprised to find out that, as part of the contract for being on the show, the show has complete control over the celeb's narrative, and they are have to go along with it. So if they sense chemistry, they craft a "showmance" angle. If they sense conflict, the celeb can be portrayed as a total bitch, and the celeb has no say in it (like what they did to Nadia Comenci). So they can sell it, but I'm not required to buy it, and in this case, I don't. Your mileage may vary.

In other words, then, you never liked the show before this season because it's never been about "excellence in dancing" (there are other shows for that), it's been about taking mostly non-dancers and watching them learn and grow over the season. That's why most of the audience tunes in to watch. A season where the winner is a foregone conclusion from the get-go? Not so much.

Everyone keeps saying Charli is shy, but I have never met an actual shy person who puts themselves in the spotlight constantly. I just don't buy it. Nor am I really buying either her or Mark's protestations of not finding joy in dancing any longer. If that were true, it seems the last thing you would want to do is have to force yourself not only to dance but to dance how someone else wants you to (the show assigning dances) and then have them judge you for it. Unless, maybe, you're just really an attention ***** and don't care how you get it. I think that was a narrative dictated by the show (and yes, they can do that; it's in the contract) and not terribly convincingly acted by either of them.

What a surprise! The winner is exactly who we said would win from Week One. The show could not have pushed her any harder unless she'd been the only contestant. I was hoping against hope right up til the end that we'd have a surprise upset, but nope. Yawn! Didn't even get an amazing Mark freestyle out of it, which might have made it somewhat worthwhile. My husband didn't even realize that was their freestyle. And I am so way past over the ridiculous gushing over her. Wayne and Witney were great. He really improved his Quickstep over his last outing, which was good to see. The freestyle was a lot of fun and really enjoyed it. Gabby and Val did their usual good job. Could see improvement in her cha cha, and I liked their freestyle even with the little glitch at the end. Charli's "redemption" dance was one where she scored a 38 first time around - that's 2 10s and 2 9s - and it was the highest scored jive of the season. Yeah, she really needed to "redeem" herself on that one. <lol> Not sure why they didn't go for her cha cha or Quickstep, since those were her lowest scoring dances. So dumb. And even with all that, she still is not a great performer, but the judges act like she's some prodigy. I had really been looking forward to seeing one of Mark's uber-creative freestyles, which would have made up somewhat for the show's pushing of Charli on us all, and instead we got a retrospective of their greatest hits of the season. Well danced of course but completely forgettable. Shangela and Gleb are the season's biggest revelations for me. Shangela did much better with her Quickstep this time around, and that freestyle really brought down the house. Just pure joy, light and energy. Absolutely loved it! And huge props to Gleb for going all in and becoming a drag queen. He's a good-looking man but who knew he'd be such a beautiful woman? That was so different and so fun it was worth having to put up with the inevitable coronation of the TikTok princess. Some real fun moments tonight, but overall this has been the second most disappointing season after Bobby Bones. They orchestrated that right up to the faux showdown between Charli and Gabby they've been pushing all season with the inevitable winner that we all saw coming the entire season despite their ludicrous attempts to pretend her win wasn't inevitable. I just hope they've gotten it all out of their system now, and we can have an actual fair-ish competition next season.

From what I've read, she's trained in contemporary, jazz, and ballet. He had not been bottom 2 before.

Nope. Not even close. Most of the so-called ringers have been figure skaters, gymnasts, cheerleaders or boy banders. And none of them picked up the choreography as easily as Charli has and so had the luxury of spending hours and hours perfecting technique. Or were able to incorporate the kinds of advanced steps that Mark has used with Charli. She is in a class by herself. No question she's a great dancer as far as technique goes. That's exactly the problem. She was a great dancer before coming on the show and was simply too far ahead of the others for it to really be considered at all a "fair" competition. That's been the issue. There are "ringers" and then there's a professional dancer with the show truly desperately to make us believe she isn't picking this up as easily as she clearly is. Her rehearsal packages show it. If she doesn't win, it will be strictly because the audience knew the show was trying to coronate her as queen and said no thanks! If Charli wanted to be on a dance show, she should have tried out for So You Think You Can Dance. That would have been a great fit for her, and I might well have been rooting for her there. But not here. On this show I watch to see them learning and growing.

Three have won (so far). Twelve have competed (Gabby is the 12th). That's why I say Bachelor Nation doesn't often bring home a win for their faves. Gabby may make #4, and I'd be okay with that.

Because, as the saying goes, it's ain't over til it's over. The only thing the show can't control (at least not without getting into a lot of trouble with the FCC) is the votes. We know the show wants to see a Charli/Gabby "showdown," but we don't know how many votes either are actually getting. Wayne could be killing it in the vote counts. If they hold true to past years, everyone will get a 10 for their freestyle unless it just really sucks. And they typically also do one new dance and one "redemption" dance. I think it's safe to predict however many dances they do, Charli will get all 10s for every dance. Gabby will probably get the same or pretty close. Wayne and Shangela they will be less generous with because that's been their trend. If people don't watch and vote, the result will be what the show wants. If people do vote, surprising things happen - like Iman wins over ringer JoJo and Amber Riley wins overs ringer Corbin Bleu. Bobby Bones was a fluke, but he was actively encouraging his fans to vote for him, and I suspect a fair portion of his fan base are jerks like he was, so they probably thought it was funny. We know Bachelor Nation votes but they aren't often able to eke out a win. So the question is how big is the voting base of Wayne and Charli? And how much will Lady Gaga's endorsement of Shangela help her? So we watch and we vote and we hope to see the show's favorites fall short. Sometimes we win; sometimes we lose. Charli winning would be as big a disappointment to me as Bobby Bones was but for different reasons. And a big part of the reason I don't want her to win is then maybe the show would rethink who they're bringing in as contestants and not set up a competition to be so uneven. One can hope anyway!

We'll have to agree to disagree on Heather. She didn't make it to the actual competition rounds, so I don't consider her a contestant on the show. And you prove our point about Charli when you say she was focused on learning the technique and perfecting the technique. That's because she was already a highly trained dancer and so had the luxury of being able to focus on technique rather than needing all of her time to just learn the basic dance. She could pick up the steps easily and learn the choreography quickly and then could spend the bulk of her time *perfecting* instead of learning. Something none of the other contestants could do. She had the high score every single week on the show. Every.single.week. This isn't a competition; it's an attempted coronation. She was hand-picked to be a contestant, hand-picked to entice Mark to come back for a season, hand-picked to win. But the show can't control the voters and often those ringers don't win. I hope that, as they did last year, the voters will reject the highly trained dancer and reward the one who took them on a journey, made them see the joy they had, and gave them a reason to root for them.