Dots And Stripes

Even though I could see tonight's 'big surprise' coming from the first promo, I still loved tonight's episode. Having Ben realize he wanted to be a father before he found out was a sweet touch. Ben's line calling other Ron a hobo and Andy's line about the SAT's both killed me. Leslie and Andy are great together and I liked seeing them interact so much since it doesn't happen often. Finally, you know Craig is officially a Pawnee resident now that he randomly picked up a new job.

I brought up that it was outside of the show because of your comment that you only use what's on the show. But this also goes back to my point about Maks receiving more scrutiny. When other pros make critical remarks they tend not to get blown up in the press, particularly the pros who joined in the past few years. And I can't think of a single pro who I haven't heard talk out of both sides of their mouth. Not everyone has to like Maks, but I think the extra attention he gets means that his flaws are put under the microscope more often on the show and in the media.

Did Maks make comments about Melissa on the actual show? I seem to remember him calling her out in an interview off the show, but my memory could be faulty there.

I didn't mean to turn this into a general ringer debate. My point was all of pros defend the celebrity they have at the time. Cheryl definitely has made comments about people like Chad and others being all the more impressive because they lack experience. Maybe she's a little more diplomatic about it, but most if not all of the pros will talk about how important improvement is when they have a star who starts weak and talk about the importance of overall skill when they have a ringer. Just because you haven't heard it or don't remember it doesn't mean it's not said. I don't think Maks is the only pro who tailors their pitch for what's important to the show based on the celebrity he has. Personally, I'd probably rather no ringers, but if there is going to be a major ringer I want to see her with Maks. I like the guy and I want to see as many weeks with him as I can. I'm really enjoying not only the dancing between Maks and Meryl but their rapport as well.

This double standard applies to all of the pros. They all love ringers when they have them and hate them when they don't. And Maks had made several comments alluding to Meryl being a ringer, even to Erin Andrews in their interviews on the show. He admits things are easier with Meryl. This sort of issue exemplifies why I find a lot of the criticism aimed at Maks frustrating. Why single him out for something all of the pros do? That's the good and bad of Maks being a polarizing pro. He draws fire for things other pros do, yet he also benefits from the extra attention. It's all part of the package, I guess. Also, this Maks verses Val issue is one reason I hated the switch up. I love Maks and find Val to be utterly obnoxious and charmless. Val certainly gets away with saying obnoxious things that would be the controversy of the week if Maks said them. The show is now inviting the comparison among the pros with the switch and Sharna said it very well when she criticized the show for playing the pros off each other this past week. If this is a competition among the pros. I would love to just focus on the great season that Maks can have with Meryl and not worry about what the other pros would do with her. This is Maks' partnership with Meryl. I'm happy that switch week is in the past.

First of all, I adore Maks. I'm so happy to see him with a talented partner this season and with someone who seems to respect him. I really hated the idea of the switch up. I also think he brings a charm and charisma that is unmatched. Then, producers give away the Argentine Tango when Maks is the one who did that dance on Broadway. Not only that, but this is probably one of the dances Meryl is best suited for with her background in lifts. It tends to be a very big crowd pleaser of a dance and one that scores highly. No matter who received Meryl, the odds were that they were going to receive raves in part because they had an excellent draw of a dance. That doesn't mean Val didn't do a good job with Meryl, but that does mean that the dance style made it easier to harness Meryl's natural skills they way a cha cha or a rhumba wouldn't. It's also irksome to me that Maks and Meryl didn't receive much credit in the scores for really ambitious routines weeks 1 and 2. Then week 3 Maks added more story and gets rewarded. Is it any wonder he went for more story and performance value with Danica? Sure I think it's a valid criticism to say he went too far, but considering the number of jives we've seen over the years that have little to no actual jive, I thought Julianne was way out of line. She also seems to think Meryl performed a jive week 2 based on one of hier interviews which is just false. There's no reason to expect Danica week 4 to match Meryl week 2 or to blame Maks for that not happening. They're different people with different skill sets performing different dances. Maybe I just got spoiled week 3 when suddenly the judges decided Maks is capable of getting something right. I enjoyed Maks' first three dances with Meryl and I hope now that the switch is over there will be more great dances from them. I love their chemistry and I don't care about 'what could have been' with other partners. I just want an enjoyable season of Maks with Meryl. They are fantastic individually and together.

Carrie Ann might not know the difference, but she should would spot the lifts. Will they even be assigned the standard Tango? Amy and NeNe both sound like they'll make it through 4 weeks without any standard ballroom dances. With the addition of salsa, AT, contemporary, swing, jazz and whatever weird things the producers dream up, the couples get to avoid a lot of dance styles.

Nene didn't work out to be much of a spoiler. According to the rules, celebrities were ranked based on their overall total of votes, then pros were assigned to the highest ranked stars first. Nene finished either 3rd or 4th (it wouldn't change the outcome either way). Maks was the top pro choice for both Nene and Danica. Danica ranked ahead of NeNe, therefore she received Maks. As a Maks fan, I wanted the partner with the most ability for Maks. He couldn't have Meryl, so Danica was the next best option. I like Candace more, but she's at least a foot shorter than Maks. I don't care about what's best for NeNe, I'm not a fan of hers. As for her needing Maks based on height, I'm not buying that. Val has had too tall ringers in back to back seasons. I read on twitter that NeNe is Zendaya's height. She's not so tall that she couldn't work with either Val or Derek. I highly doubt all of the votes I saw for NeNe and Maks were looking out for NeNe's best interest either. She's combative and the weakest dancer in the field. IMO, some people might have enjoyed them together, but others were looking for the wrong kind of fireworks.

I agree with this prediction. It's the same way Derek 'wins' the team dance every year since the winner is decided by three of his biggest cheerleaders. Now let's add Derek's sister to the mix right before the two start a dance tour and see what they have to say about how Derek deals with a challenge. They've given Tony a free pass so far with NeNe, so I won't be surprised if that trend continues now that she's spending a week with Derek. If we gauge Derek's 'success' by the immediate feedback of these judges, the boy will never fail at anything. As for the counting of the results, if the rumors are true I have no doubt that the results were counted. Yes, TPTB put out vague rules that allowed themselves some flexibility. That said, they seem to have gone with a reasonable manner of counting. The only variation I've seen is assigning Meryl to Val instead of Derek. TPTB had 3 choices there: 1) tell Meryl tough luck and force her to either stay in LA or not have a partner for the week 2) tell Derek tough luck and force him to stop choreographing Macy's and give up his movie promotion in LA to travel with Meryl or 3) Go to the second highest vote getter and pair Meryl with Val. While I would have loved for them to go with option 2, option 3 makes the most sense. I fully believe Derek's unusual schedule forced their hand hand here. Finally, I'll be so disappointed if Maks can't dance the Argentine Tango with Meryl. I saw him dance the Argentine Tango on broadway and I would love, love, love to see Maks put that expertise to use with a capable partner like Meryl. This switch was a terrible idea.