katha

I think her friends-collecting is the main reason that her silence on Adele seems very loud now. No matter how much she dominates, no one is obligated to love Adele and pretend that they find her great if they don't. But since Taylor's so smoochie smoochie with most of the industry, her not reaching out and reacting seems very loaded with meaning...so she opened herself up for speculation there IMO. I like quite a few of her songs, but some of the mean girling sticks in my craw. "Dear John" is a great song and no one deserves a diss track like that more than John Mayer, but that part about all the other girls he's used and left broken but not Taylor because she's stronger than that? Ugh. IMO some of this (unconscious?) "I'm better than those other girls" that whiffs through her older output is creepy. She's got it under control now, but "Bad Blood" was terrible for the media campaign and the faux empowerment. That Katy Perry feud wasn't a good look, period.

I, uh, may have bought the album... I've liked all the singles so far and decided to give the rest a listen and l liked that as well. It's good, apart from a dirge called "Life is worth living" that is maudlin and preachy and just all-around terribly written. Strangely enough, a great strength of the set is actually that thematically it's a confused mish-mash of sincere regret, self-pity, defiance, "dissing the haterz", heart-break, love songs, hook up songs, break up songs, religion, whatever. And it's got catchy beats that suit his voice. In contrast to his PR apology tour, IMO the persona on that record is reasonably compelling. It's not particularly likeable, but that's not necessary as he's now making successful strides to transition out of the kiddie market. The rebranding with Bieber is one of the more surprising mainstream music stories this year IMO. He seemed so stuck in his little boy image and then his all around toolishness looked like it had done the rest to kill his career. But they've used it to kinda lay the groundwork for a more adult persona. He's found a sort of cool, electronica-flavoured sound that suits his vocals. And it's always been evident that beneath all that douchebaggery there's some talent and sincere interest and drive when it comes to his music.

I don't think he would have pulled off more wins, but he sure wouldn't be on the show anymore if he tried to be anything else but who he is. Mark is not a streamlined classical leading man type, and had he ever tried to fake that he would have come across as generic and blah and would have gone the way of other pleasant, but generic and unmemorable male pros who had a few seasons and then didn't come back anymore. Mark's controversial and with that he gives the show buzz in the sense that people will argue over whether they like him and his choreo and dancing or not. People have been arguing about it since season 12 or something. OTOH, throughout the years there have been pros whom everyone liked fine, but they didn't create much of an impression in fan circles and/or media, so they're gone.

IMO Sharna's choreo for Charlie wasn't always ideal and the same is proving true with Nick. Having contenders is high-pressure and they tend to be hard on the male contestants they perceive as "ringers" (no matter if Nick actually qualifies as such or not...) in particular. She tended to overload her routines with Charlie so that he couldn't quite execute them cleanly anymore and she's relying a lot on Nick's boyband dancing background this time around. It's all good, but for me there wasn't really much of a standout WOW! moment with either Charlie or Nick. Perhaps the samba for Nick and the jazz for Charlie? But I tend to agree that Sharna's choreography is a bit overrated. It's good, but not stellar.

I liked it for what it was LOL. Mendes and Craig probably realized they can't top Skyfall, so why not just do something totally different? The stylized, campy tone was unexpected, but I found it entertaining. I might be easily amused that way, but I found all the OTT shenanigans weirdly charming: That all the stunts and explosions were deliberately unrealistic and excessive, the campy villain, Craig's Bond having these wry, exasperated reactions to all the BS happening to him (I loved his face when he landed on that sofa after the whole building in Mexico exploded on him, or when he told the security guy at the clinic to stop fighting. Heh.), both Monica and Lea in these beautiful, but totally impractical get-ups. Or in the train when Bond and Madeline are all "what do we do now" before falling into bed together, as a nod to the fact that the movie knows what a bad cliché it all is as well. Or at the end Bond! On a Bridge! Deciding between Job! and Love! The opening credits were a hoot as well. All the meta worked for me. But it is rather a peculiar choice after the last movie, which did a serious exploration of the various questionable thematic undercurrents driving the franchise. This was undercutting a lot of its own mythology as well, but in a half tribute/half parody kind of way. "Wacky hijinks with a sociopathic assassin" is understandably not everyone's cup of tea tone-wise LOL, and it was bound to fall flat for some. Particularly since they didn't soften Craig's Bond up at all, they just put him in this rather stylized, though still harsh, setting. I thought it a somewhat jarring, but interesting experiment.

Also, he wouldn't have put up a funny video of a fake dinosaur doing a goofy dance to triumphant music if it was about Alexa getting back on the show because that would be tied to Tamar's bad health situation. His tone would have been different, or more likely he wouldn't have said anything at all. Fans are just in hysterics and reading into everything.

They won't bring her back, but they probably like the drama of the speculation around it. I hate them LOL. And agreed, there's no point now. Tamar shouldn't have been allowed to dance and I absolutely blame the total incompetence and irresponsibility of the show and producers for letting it happen. But now it's done and I don't see a way to reverse any of the damage. Alexa was in the bottom, so getting eliminated wasn't "unfair", though it turned out to be unnecessary. She went out on fantastic performances, what if she comes back, struggles again and has to endure the humiliation of getting eliminated some more? And if she's not eliminated and someone else is, the show has opened up a can of worms. Because anyone going in her stead could rightly claim that she had the advantage of her fans and the general public knowing now that she needed more people voting for her, giving them a motivation to try and rally for her while the others didn't get a potential voting boost like that. And yeah...imagine the mess if they brought her back and she won? Not that this would be likely anyway, but even in theory...

I think that was the point? Agree that it was uncomfortable to watch, but it was a visual metaphor of what her eating disorder was doing to her mentally and physically through dance movement. She was trying to get away, but it kept dragging her back. It got into her head, it manipulated her and controlled all her movements, it kept attacking her, it dragged her down and smothered her. Notice also the focus on her head and her stomach, but mostly her head. I thought it worked because of how stark and brutal (well, for a family show) it was. There's one moment when he's slamming into her and you see Julianne wince in the background, that was my reaction as well the first time I saw it. That's the effect he was going for, it wasn't supposed to be a pretty dance. Though, again, it worked for me as many things Mark does choreographically work for me because I find his tendencies towards extremism aesthetically interesting, but I know that's why he's controversial and I understand why it might not work for others.

Best wishes for Tamar's recovery! That's just awful and scary news! She probably shouldn't have danced on Monday but I understand why she did. She felt responsibility towards Nick and Val and still thought it was a less serious illness and she could "tough it out". She didn't want to let anybody down, it certainly wasn't about "screwing Alexa over". This season as a whole has been a mismanaged catastrophe, though, and this is just the next example of that. Shouldn't have someone from the show interfered? She looked ready to keel over on Monday, it was very uncomfortable and scary to watch. She could barely breath and stand.

While I would have loved for Alexa to stay on, I wouldn't necessarily call her exit premature. Contestants like Alek always stay on way longer than they should. And Alexa came with little fanbase, no loud persona and then while she had ability, she also had various issues (low self-esteem, nervous, stuck in her head, arguably a strange dynamic with the married couple thing). Perhaps being fantastic every week would have given her one week more, but even then finals would have been a stretch. But she delivered quite a few standout performances despite her inconsistency (salsa, jazz, tango, paso, contemporary, duet dance) and should be proud because she did well for herself. I think, given the (for lack of a better term) "baggage", that Alexa didn't underachieve at all. You also saw that Mark wasn't surprised and IMO didn't seem overly upset, I think he understood that in that particular situation with that particular contestant this was probably as good as it was going to get.

While I agree about dance order, I think in Alexa's case it was also a hint that she didn't have the votes from the start. And to be fair to them, I think the jeopardy stuff and the OTT harshness about the Britney dance can in hindsight be interpreted as the producer's sadistic, twisted attempts to rally support for her and get her more votes.

One other thing I noticed was that Mark seemed neither very surprised nor very upset about the elimination. I think he saw this coming for weeks. Alexa is talented and tried her best, but she didn't seem to have the drive to win, the couple dynamic made things screwy, as did her constant need to put Carlos above herself, and she was nervous and stuck in her own head. They bonded in the last few weeks and made a good pairing in the end, but IMO it was after Mark accepted the reality that while Alexa may have some tools to be a contender, her various issues prevented it from coming together in a consistent manner to really make her a strong competitive candidate. Tbh, I thought Willow's elim was sadder in that she was a tough cookie, constantly improving, a consistent competitor and would have gone on being awesome.

That wasn't surprising. Alexa seems to have minimal own fanbase and has been inconsistent and yo-yoing all over the place all season. Her own nerves and that marrieds! thing did the rest. She made it quite far as it is, I pegged her as gone in week 7 or so. Her dances were awesome tonight and showed what she could have been all season without all her issues. But woulda, shoulda, coulda doesn't come into it and being stuck in your own head is also a weakness and it's been affecting a few of her performances, so sad as it is there's not much to complain about IMO.( I mean, it should be Alek, be we all know how that American hero stuff makes sure that he doesn't have to put in any decent dancing to progress, that's the structure of the show.) I was iffy on her at the start, but grew to quite like her in the last few weeks and at least she went out with a bang. The hysterics from Carlos were way OTT and ridiculous though and showed me once again how irritating and fake I find him. Meh.

Yeah, I thought Sadie, much as I liked her, was pretty heavy-handed about the bible stuff and it was the one thing that annoyed me about her and which made her family in the packages very grating. Candace pushed it as well, but at a certain point her stage fright became the main narrative on the show and IMO prevented the religious talk to get overly heavy-handed. Alexa talked about her faith the first time this week. She also took care to frame it in a way that made it clear it's about her personal experiences and views and to not be preachy about it at all. Carlos, arguably, has used his faith in a more strategic, potentially vote-getting, way. Alexa doesn't object to costumes, she's not banging on about "modesty" or whatever, she's doing all the required choreography.

I think Alexa will go home, but I've been thinking Alexa is going home for, like, 4 weeks now, so what do I know LOL. I don't want her to get eliminated, but the mistake in the AT might be costly. Though the dance itself was cool and reasonably memorable IMO (might the religious theme help?) and then she helped herself out further by doing well in the dance-off (that she won the public vote isn't necessarily indicative of all voting patterns, but it's encouraging nonetheless). And apart from NIck the scores are close. So I guess it's not hopeless and I'll just expect the worst so I can be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't come to pass. Carlos was utterly forgettable in his salsa IMO. The dance-off and jeopardy helped him with votes, I would think. But how much? Alek was utterly mediocre and forgettable all around, but he had his Chris Kyle package (ugh), was that enough? I don't think he's as interesting as Noah, he doesn't have Noah's challenges, he's stalled in his dancing since about week 3 or something and is IMO also not that interesting personality-wise (though nice enough, one temper tantrum a season is pretty harmless stuff). We just assume he does great vote-wise, but it might not be at the level of other army men the show had. Tamar did a nice paso, though IMO it wasn't killer, and the vote in the dance-off is a bit of an iffy sign. I think Val's fans are voting for her, though I don't know how much, I know she has a dedicated fanbase but are they voting a lot? I think it's between these four, Bindi and Nick are safe.

I agree and think that the obvious storyboarding this season to make Bindi out to be vastly superior is really hitting Alexa and Tamar the hardest. IMO both their weaknesses get exaggerated by the judges and Alexa in particular is hardly given any credit for what she does well. I guess that's the fate if you're not the chosen one. Of course unfortunately Alexa's inconsistency to some degree is also masking her positive attributes: IMO she's given pretty challenging choreo and handles it mostly well and she's a nuanced performer.

I think one of Alexa's problems, that is also Tamar's problem, is that they are both women who are Not!Bindi! and get treated in a somewhat ambivalent fashion by show and judges. IMO both are showing the stress and wear and tear of that situation, in different ways because they are different personalities, but it's been affecting them both. I think both Tamar and Alexa certainly aren't worse dancers than Bindi, though both have weaknesses just like Bindi has weaknesses (that no one ever talks about), but if you only heard the judges talk you would think there are worlds between them. What additionally comes in with Alexa is the dynamic with Carlos she brings that IMO is having an effect on her (though it's gotten better) and on both Witney and Mark. And on top of that she's nervous and doesn't seem to have a lot of self-esteem and is in her head too much. What I also suspect, but that's pure speculation on my part, is that Mark misjudged a bit at the beginning of the season and has adjusted his approach since. At least I think that I perceive a bit of an adjustment. IMO he saw her ability, but didn't see her mental frailty at first and was fooled by her outward preppy attitude. IMO he gets now that mentally she's basically Candace 2.0, just with the marrieds! thing thrown in to make things even screwier LOL. ETA: For exhibit 300 or something of the marrieds! thing playing into her various issues see this: http://www.glamour.com/entertainment/blogs/obsessed/2015/11/nick-carter-baby-gender There you have Alexa wishing she's eliminated before her husband because his fragile ego apparently just couldn't take it if she outlasted him. Eyeroll. I think that sort of mentality must be super frustrating for the pro. I'm sure at this point Mark is used to it and has resigned himself there, but still. She's a hard worker, she tries and gives it her all and IMO the show hasn't been particularly kind to her, but that mindset doesn't help.

I think she's doing well for herself. I was frustrated at the beginning of the season with her because she's so inconsistent but during the Britney week I realized that she's pretty much doing the best she can and that she is reaching her potential. Some celebs come with physical weaknesses, with her it's mental because she's nervous and scattered. Then the producers have caught on to that fact and played some mindgames with her throughout the season, which adds to the pressure. Making it to week 9, quarterfinals, is pretty cool and especially since it seemed dicey there for a moment. So yay her! I don't know if she can get past Alek with his American hero package or past Tamar with her dedicated fanbase, or past Carlos? Though she does seem to have people voting for her, whoever they are (apart from Mark's fans), since both Andy and Hayes were higher on the leaderboard than her. Perhaps winning the audience vote for the cha-cha is also an indication that she's picking up some of the general audience? And going for a religious theme never hurts with the DWTS demo, so who knows. But even reaching week 9 is already neat and I hope she has great dances next week!

I think audience was tie-breaker: Bindi won the audience, but it didn't matter since Carlos had all the judges so it was 3-1 for Carlos. Alexa had one judge and the audience so it was 2-2, in which case the audience vote decided and was given the most weight. Of course none of this was explained well, like nothing on this show is ever explained well...

For me, it's not that I find them mediocre. It's that IMO there's no standout at all. I know the judges like to pretend Bindi is, but for me she's not and I think she's overscored almost every week. All of them, except for Alek, are usually pretty good to really good. But no real stunner among them. Like this week, I thought no one should have gotten 10s at all. The dancing didn't warrant it. I guess I'm okay with Nick getting the higest score, but it sure wasn't perfect. Carlos was overscored for his dance. Alek is always overscored. I liked Alexa's dance, but the stumbles were obvious so 8s would have been enough (though I guess if you go way high for everybody, might as well go way high for her...). Bindi was overscored. Tamar shouldn't have had a 10 there either. Poor Andy was about the only one who got scores that reflected his dancing. Scores are close so it could be anybody but Bindi and Nick. And I'm okay with all of them leaving, would prefer Alek though. His hero package will bring us another week of his mediocre dancing, I suspect. I think Alexa is so inconsistent because she's nervous and insecure and then tries to cover it up with OTT positivity. At the beginning of the season I thought it was a problem of her not focusing or something, but now I just think she can't help herself. She tries her best but is scattered like that.

This has been done three million times, but once again: Yeah, it was arranged like that. Just as Rumer/Val weren't mean-spirited bullies going for the super-weak Chris last season. That's how the dance-offs work: The pairs talk beforehand which dance they want to do. Why Val wanted to be a jerk in season 16 though he knew better? Beats me. ETA: All the dance-offs in season 20 were arranged beforehand, just as the dance-offs in season 16 were arranged beforehand. Allison admitted as much in an All Access interview. It had nothing to do with Riker wanting to pick on poor Willow or Rumer wanting to pick on poor Chris or anything. Every contestant got the dance they felt most comfortable with. It's not a real competition, just like many other aspects are BS, so the dance-off is total BS as well. Next week you'll have the same pre-arranged stuff going on, where celebs will pick each other because they agreed about certain pairings and dance-styles beforehand. It's the usual MO on DWTS. They barely even conceal that this is what they are doing. Except for Val, who wants to pretend it's real.

I've said it in the first weeks in Tamar's thread, and sadly it's proven true: There's a sexist pattern towards female celebs that don't fit a certain ideal "norm" (like Bindi), and it's probably a mix of audience reaction (who are much more generous towards mediocre male celebs than many good female dancers, see Alek) and the producers reinforcing stereotypes and creating "drama" for these contestants. Both Alexa and Tamar have been harmstrung by that this season, getting strange edits in the packages, getting sometimes strange comments and scores by the judges. It's not that surprising, the show has often treated female contestants that didn't adhere to very strict "persona norms" in that fashion.

Well. Hayes did the worst thing possible: He danced ok, but not super memorable. He got ok critiques and scores and even though he has 20 billion social media followers, they're of the super young, super unreliable kind. Against him were hero Alek who most likely has the conservative vote and Alexa, who got super harsh scores and super harsh comments and then was in jeopardy and bawled her eyes out (I'm not saying that was calculated, she had a horrible night and at the end just cracked under the pressure). So Mark's fanbase and the bit of fanbase she has rallied for her and perhaps some of the general audience also thought she was scored harshly and voted for her. While Hayes was nice, but forgettable. Worst place to be on this show. And I gotta say, such BS! Look, I get that now that Alexa and Mark have pulled through and have proven that they have some sort of voting pull they'll get the "redemption story" or whatever, but it's tiresome. Now that last week's great producer-orchestrated crisis has brought Mark and Alexa closer together, what will their next soap opera adventure be? Will Carlos get jealous? Will there be some edited-together "tension" or angst again? I mean, I guess being one of the designated "drama couples" (along with Tamar and Val, isn't it curious that all female celebs not named Bindi are being portrayed in this ambivalent light? This show is such a sexist crapfest.) gives them a narrative and keeps them around. But it's obvious how frustrated they are with it, how they don't want to go along with it, but don't quite know how to get out of production's clutches here. And I DO think that in a macabre way they are closer now and have bonded over the way the show is treating them, but at what price? You see how tense and anxious they both are all the time. They were happy with their dance and with their great performance and finally got a somewhat appropriate score for it, but it must be so stressful fearing what nonsense they'll pull on you next.

That's a heavy piece of music to pull off, it's easy to get overwhelmed by it. Perhaps he'll be crap at it and you can gloat about that? (-; My question is: Will the DWTS band have a crack at it and produce an epic massacre? Or will they see reason and take the recording?

Idk, I just don't know what the game plan is supposed to be here? For me it's obvious that they were pushing some kind of agenda with how they treated Alexa this week. But giving her all 8s, being only low-key critical in the comments and NOT putting her in jeopardy would have been a nice way to set her up for a "shocking elimination". I think Carlos' score is too high to put him in danger, but if they are sharing a voting base to some degree and that shared fanbase rushed to save her? Don't believe that one, actually, but who knows. Is there someone who is getting much less votes than everybody else and they want to conceal that with overscoring until they boot them in a "surprise" (Andy?). I think Hayes and Alek are getting votes. Hayes with his 10 billion social media followers, you never know how that translates into actual votes with the youngsters. And he's been unremarkable dance-wise for two weeks now. Alek should appeal to the conservative base, but he's kinda stalled and doesn't have such an interesting presence or story compared to Noah for example. I still think Alexa is most likely to go next, but the treatment she got this week is straight out of the Charlie White playbook: Be mean to them and put them in jeopardy to rally the fanbase. It was just strange.