kitcloudkicker

I can see this happening. I doubt they could have been together for the duel without "It's not fair" backlash. Or if the worst happens and Charlie is "shocking eliminated" he could pop in for a cameo in Meryl's freestyle? (Though he might seem to be third-wheeling a bit there.)

I don't know if I quite believe Maks is as obsessed with winning the trophy as people think, but I do like picturing him singing this to himself before every show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3rkLRJ0m0k

I'm super interested in how those running blades pan out. They'll definitely give her spring, but it's my understanding that they naturally sort of propel you forward - it'll be interesting to see how they work going backwards or side to side - or how precise of footwork you can get with them. I wouldn't be surprised at a samba either, but I kind of hope not. Maybe it's just the shadow of the slightly awkward Meryl/Danica samba last week, plus the Latin night the week before, but it feels like there's been a slight over-abundance of sambas in the lineup overall.

Anyone hear anything about what Amy's dancing this week? She posted a picture to instagram of herself in running blades. (I hope she uses them for quickstep, and I hope it's awesome.)

And Len's age would prevent that too. There are many reasons Abby Lee isn't qualified to be a judge - what she looks like isn't one of them.

This is a cute comment from James:

If you watch the Maks/Abby Lee comment though, you can see Peta in the background clapping along with Derek. She clearly agreed. Though that was before their 10. Both Peta and James do have a bit of an air of desperation about them when they're begging for votes.

Nope, she was in the swimmies. You can see here, they're completely flat bottomed, the 3 inch ones have an arch. (She was in those for the jive.)

I would take the manipulation talk with a grain of salt too, because I've seen people absolutely convinced it's fixed in favor of just about every contestant still left in the competition.

If that's what you saw happen, sure, probably not a perfect 40, but I definitely didn't see that - I saw a lot of intricate footwork executed by a dancer with amazing lines, and performed well with incredible understanding of the feeling of the dance and the music. With a few seconds of sitting in the middle, which yes, may have been strategically placed to allow her to rest her back for a bit, but it didn't bother me any more than Maks taking about 8 counts to have a dramatic almost-kiss with Meryl a few weeks ago. (Edit: Went back and watched it, it was a good 15 seconds of dramatic pausing. Which they got a 39 for, a harder feat that early in the season, and one that I didn't have a problem with either - it fit the dance.) But hey, minds vary. There's usually a "technically great" dancer every year I never connect with, no matter how great their dancing is deemed. (Usually a Disney kid like Corbin or Zendaya.) There's actually not really one of those for me this year, except for maybe James, who's dances I tend to find bland and uninteresting.

Just kicking this out there, both Anna Trebunskaya and Sasha Farber, Real Life Dance Experts, had nothing but praise for the Argentine Tango, both say 40s well deserved. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2014/05/dancing-with-the-stars-2014-pro-anna-trebunskaya-on-the-best-celebrity-dance-duels/ http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/sasha-farber-s-dancing-with-the-stars-blog-show-switches-and-judge-disses-37948 Honestly, I like everyone left. I complain about James a bit, but he's pretty likeable, and everyone's stepping up their game.

Heres an explanation of the stool bobble at the end of Derek & Amy's dance - he was supposed to kick it over to her, and she was supposed to catch it with her foot, but when he kicked it he didn't do it hard enough and it just bobbled instead of falling, and they scrapped it. My two cents: I loved the Argentine Tango, and Amy absolutely deserves to be there. I love watching her dance, and see a lot of expression in her moves. Especially since her Jive week, that was her breakout for me. In terms of performance level and dance ability, she's definitely up there above Candace, and in my opinion, James as well. I want her in the final so I can see what they do with the freestyle. And, maybe because I only recently got into this show via youtube, I really don't give a shit who wins, I just want my favorites in the finals so I get to see all their dances. And for me that's Charlie, Meryl, and Amy. And I don't for one second think Meryl's fans are going to let her go home this week.

It went more like, Maks said something along the lines of, "Can we all stop being idiots right now, these are the simplest steps in the world." Meryl then pointed out that they weren't professional dancers. Maks may have said something else, then Danica went into, "It's our job to ignore their insults." Maks got pissy, Danica tried to calm him by saying, "But you're doing a great job, teaching untrained dancers." And then he accused her of being condescending. So no, not the biggest deal in the world, but he was being a dick.

The Bing predictor source is here, it's pulling social and search data to attempt to take a popularity poll. How accurate it is, I don't know. It does happen to match my gut feelings though, unless Amy has to pull out.

Conspiracy theories make me tired. Do producers have a vested interest in setting up storylines that they think will create the best show? Of course. It's a tv show. Are they dumb enough to put all their chips in one basket and cling to it no matter what? No, it'd be incredibly boneheaded to not be flexible enough to see how things play out. "Candace finds her confidence" is a great tv story that I think is going to give her some staying power. Charlie on the other hand is fading a bit. At the beginning, sure, Charlie vs Meryl in the final two seemed like the most interesting story, but I'm not so sure now. I was playing with that bing search thing and searching each contestant and completely forgot about Danica. Whoops. Though it agrees with me she's likely the next to go, she just keeps fading into the background. Hopefully followed by Jamezzzzz. I just can't get interested in that guy.

Kristen, on Afterbuzz, mentioned that ratings tanked on the All Star season because nobody wanted to watch only good dancers, without the average "everyman" people in there. Personally, I like to watch the best dancers, but if that turns off a large portion of their viewing public it does make total sense to grade people on a personal curve. The show's not really about finding the "best" dancer, it's really more about finding the favorite one. Honestly it seems like the purpose of the scores, really, is to generate more media buzz, give people something to talk about, and inject more drama, and "controversy" into the show

With all the injuries (Amy and Danica - ribs, Meryl - toe, Charlie - potential knee tweak?), and some of the commentary I'm seeing that "it's just that time of the season," I wonder why they wouldn't want to give the cast a "bye week" halfway through. Would they really lose that much momentum? If football fans can deal, it seems like this show could deal. I mean, probably not gonna happen because, money, but I'd much rather see healthy (well, healthier) cast members than see people forced to drop out or struggle through the competition on injuries. A week off wouldn't heal everything, but it'd ease the burden a bit.

I'm wondering now if Candace's "finding her confidence" story arc is going to propel her to hang in there a couple extra weeks ahead of Danica and James. The therapy session seemed way staged but otherwise she's some personality and spunk, maybe more than Danica and James right now. Did anyone catch her grabbing Derek and Mark's chesteses after the group dance? (And I mean, really, anyone who can maintain a friendship with Stamos and Bob Sagat can't be that much of a prude.) Amy and Meryl were my two favorite dances of the night, and were my favorites in the group dances. I hope Amy's injury and personal dramz don't overshadow the dancing. I still want a Meryl/Charlie/Amy top 3.

Amy on Ellen: Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZVHMKskTj0 Dancing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qncM9wZrUzw

I guess for me, admittedly casual viewer, I've never seen the judging to be all that balanced. And I don't have any expectations that it will be, if it was, Meryl and Nene would never have a week where they finish with the same scores. James' contemporary performance was pretty good but did it seem perfect across the board to me? Eh. (though also admittedly, I was distracted by the terrible arrangement if the song.) So Amy's scores don't stick out to me at all as any more or less fair than anyone else's. It's not like there's a clear formula for scoring dances, and in the end they don't seem to matter that much, except to give people something to debate about on the Internet. ;)

I'm continually super impressed by Amy, and I don't get the desire for the judges to show her what for with the scores. It's not just "spirit," it's the impressive athleticism, musicality, and performance ability that allows her to do these dances on stilts, more or less, and have them turn out as amazing as they do. From her performance level, you can tell she's a natural dancer, and if she had full range of motion through her feet I think she'd be nailing everything. And in a world where Nene gets 9s, Amy definitely gets one or two 10s, especially from the judges that tend to focus more on performance level and musicality. (Bruno, guest judges.)

I was talking with a friend the other day, (not about Dancing with the Stars, but research methods) and she was saying you can't give people a 10 point scale to rank things, because they automatically treat it like grades, and you'll never get anything below a 6 or 7. Which is an interesting thing to think in the context of this show, because it really seems like what's happening. (10 = A+, 9 = A, 8 = B, 7 = C, and anything lower feels really harsh.) So if psychologically that's how we think, seems like they really need to bust back out the .5 paddles to break up the scores a bit, or just do away with scores all together and just go off viewer votes.

There is definitely something problematic about how we treat successful women. As for Meryl, she always comes across to me as someone who's probably introverted, with a slight case of RBF (resting bitch face) and people project all sorts of things onto that. (Me too Meryl, high fives. I get it.) I watched bits of the Virtue/Moir show and thought that they ended up coming off much worse than Charlie & Meryl, just because of how obviously reaching that edit was. (I know they don't edit it either, but the way it was shown just ended up making them look super passive aggressive.) My tops so far, just by how much I enjoy watching them, are the Olympians, Meryl, Charlie, and Amy. Danica and James slightly lower, there's a manic energy to Danica that I find slightly irritating, and I feel like you can still see her "thinking" the dances a little bit. James I find just a little bit bland (though he seems like a nice guy and that last lift he pulled off was amazing.) The rest could go in any order.

I have mixed feelings on Amy's scores, though I'll totally cop to being completely inspired by her. On the one hand, I see where people are coming from in terms of not wanting her scored any differently, on the other, she's playing the game on several difficulty levels higher than the rest of the field. There was an interview where she compared her range of motion with her legs like dancing on stilts. Or, I'd imagine, as if Charlie and Meryl had to do the dances still wearing skating boots. That said, I do think she should be knocked for lifts if anyone else would be. (And Derek can choreograph them in strategically if he feels he can make up the points in votes.) I don't really mind if she has to keep a hand on Derek for balance, or if they have to use less of the floor. I do wish he'd knock off the move where he just picks her up and spins her around, that's getting old. I missed most of the rest, but Danica was delightful.

Can we reply to these now, or is it a wait for the show situation? If we can reply now I want to say: Interesting that Amy & Derek are the only ones to really get a love song, I would be the happiest person if the world would let go of "Let it Go" for a while, and I really hope Charlie does a little bit of the Dick Van Dyke Mary Poppins penguin dance.