PBGamer89

Everything seemed off tonight. Nick was a bad guest judge too. Telling Nancy she blew his mind and giving her an 8 and basically saying he idolizes David and Rashad by giving them higher tham the other three judges gave them. His one season as a runner up qualifies him? I doubt he's watched any season besides his own. By that logic and me seeing every season and learning so much, I qualify more honestly. I can tell a heel lead, footwork, etc. Simone got hosed by a song that is in NO WAY a Samba. The band tried by upping the tempo and adding some beats, but it got so muddled it must have been hard to keep up the tempo and counts for Simone and Sasha to choreograph it. Heather was perfection. Tonight continues the eliminated celeb getting their best comments and scores. Look out for that next week. No way should she have gone now. Maybe like Week 8 or 9 , but not now in 8th place. Nancy was never gonna live up to Mel B's Paso and i smelled total manipulation that Nancy exposed of "them" changing her boots last minute. Skaters are trained for the need of proper fitting footwear. She still was solid. Normani was great. I saw plenty of Salsa content and Len has given 9's and 10's to other dances with less content if I recall in past seasons. He seems to always pick a female star to pick on in the beginning and middle and then around Week 8 he turns the key and it's all 9's and 10's. We saw it with Mya, Nicole, Shawn in All Stars, Amber, and some others too. Calling all the women in jeopardy before the dances really hampered how I felt about their dance, it made me enjoy it less knowing one was going. They danced more and got harsher critique and the men basically jumped around and stripped but the crowd and judges ate it up, basically this show in a nutshell.

Just finished this as well, and I admit the rape scenes, and suicide scene were the toughest to watch. They were portrayed well and acted well and believable. As someone who suffers from anxiety and depressions, I've experienced many times where some stuff happens to you and to others it seems like a small issue, but sometimes when small things happen to you and it just keeps happening, you develop a "why me?", or "seriously, enough now" mentality that can be hard to dig out from, and luckily I was able to a few times. So Hannah's reasonings over time didn't seem that far fetched to me. Some were admittedly worse than others (Jessica and Hannah rapes vs. something like Marcus calling her a slut in the diner), but like I previously mentioned it was a snowball effect. A second season i'd be open to, maybe a shorter one (8-10 episodes) because a lot was unresolved, but one thing i'm curious over is that even though Clay was obviously in love with Hannah, he never admitted what he sexuality could be (bisexual vs. heterosexual), because I always felt a huge underlying chemistry between him and Tony, to the point where I think Tony actually does have feelings for him, I mean look at all the time Tony spent with him, comforting him and making sure he was ok, etc. It all just felt more than just some guy making sure he listened to tapes. I think that's something that could be explored in a potential second season.

Normani and Simone stole the night for me. Normani was exceptional fierce and powerful in that. Let's not forget this was her first dance where she was completely in the US and trained every day as much as possible. If that's what she produces, I'm excited for future weeks. Simone was excellent. Yes she showed off gymnastic movies, but still a recognizable Contemporary dance. I think she danced more than Rashad did in his Contemporary piece last week. Nancy was a delight as well, appropriate score with all 9's. She's such a dark horse. Dances well, great partnership, right in the pocket of the show's demographic and voters. I'd love her to sneak into the finals. I love Heather and hope she doesn't go next week from lower scores and a meh dance. Maks screwed her over with this. Plus, Jazz on this show is just so meh in general. I'm still so irritated that Jazz/Contemporary are still here. I can handle Contemporary to a degree, but Jazz is too undefined and hard to judge. The men were mostly meh for me. I'd love any combo of Nick or Bonner to go next week.

To me what ruined freestyle was the addition of Jazz and Contemporary. The troupe doesn't bother me too much, even enhancing some dances at times. If they insist, I would keep Contemporary as it's style is more defined and recognizable. Jazz on this show just often comes off as a pre-freestyle "freestyle".

It was funny especially with Pure how they loved the idea of Laurie being on last season until they found out she had Val and then they immediately switched onto hating her, especially because one of the mods is basically in love with James Hinchcliffe so between that and Val, Laurie was enemy number 1.

Maybe i'm the only one who wasn't awestruck by Rashad's dance. I immediately hated how he got Contemporary and the rest have dances with technique and rules. Like I'm not cold hearted and saying he sucked, but I think 10's were a bit unneccasry. I'd go for all 9's personally. It's easy to impress with a bunch of lifts and flailing your arms and rolling around the floor. Simone should've gotten the 10's. Emotional story with the added actual dancing. I think even Nancy deserved a higher score and once again, Normani got underscored by going first. They should just allow like one lift per dance to make it more fair so people's dances stop getting docked for Carrie Ann's constant need to feel important.

Hope has a long track record of violence and run in with the law anyway, not to mention she has a track record of a temper. The show likely thought her and Maks would be a good pairing, but they were both too combative and tough. Not to mention she was a crap dancer. Her making the semis int hat season showed how weak that season was dancing wise. The fact that Maks has such a good relationship with many past partners (Mel B, Meryl, Amber, Brandy, Erin) shows that he's not a horrible abusive guy. He has a temper yes, but Hope likely exaggerates. Don't we all, (ex. when we say "God this is a taking a thousand years" when you've been waiting in line for something).

She's gonna be a sleeper contestant. I'm seeing a lot of people saying they loved her and love her personality and think she's enjoying herself and glad Artem has a good partner. I think she's someone, that as long as she continues on this trajectory, can easily sneak into the semi finals or even finals.

She gave two back to back strong performances while touring and traveling and her last show of the 5H tour is friday. I can't imagine how well she'll do when she's stationed back in LA and can practice more and get more sleep. Girl is fire. She knows the moves, executes them well and embodies each dance. I am anxious to see something slow though. All 3 dances have been kinda of showy, faster numbers. If she can deliver a Rumba, Waltz, or Contemporary as good as these 3, she's a shoe in for the finals.

The four women (Nancy, Normani, Heather, and Simone) really stole the night for me. Nancy is doing so well, not just in the Waltz like most expected but her Latin has been stellar. I love too how great she and Artem are together and they just click, good partnership. Normani is just a performer. I hate the word slay, but I don't know any other way to describe how she's doing. She's turned into a frontrunner. She has great technique and love the partnership between them. She's fierce and solid during the performance. I can't wait till she gets something slower to see the variation. Heather's best dance. This was the Heather I was waiting for since the beginning. Loved the sharp, staccato movements and how it was no backup dancers or props, just a solid, near flawless Tango. I hate to say but I like her better with Alan. Simone was another great one. I think she's been a bit under the radar since the premiere, which could be better for them in the longrun. I think the assisted jump called as a lift is bull honestly. I do think the dress, as pretty as it was hid some of her great footwork. Another one who I'm anxious to see in something slower and more emotional, maybe next week's Memorable Year dance. Erika is good, but she's fading into the woodwork, some of that is Gleb's choreo. Then again, Jive is tough for novices, and especially tall novices. It's sad when a David doing a Jazz dance to a Magic Mike theme with little actual content, was the highest scored dance for the male celebs. Rashad is the best shot for a guy in the finals.

In relation to the bolded part, it's likely why we've seen maybe 6/7 Rumbas in the past 3 seasons in total. Last season only had 3 and S22 only had 3 as well. Personally I miss Rumba on the show, when it's done right, it's so good.

I always remember during season 20 when Allison and Sharna publically stated that they requested "Worth it" by the Weeknd for their own celebs to use and they got turned down, just for TPTB to give the song to Rumer and Val in the semis for the Viennese Waltz. There have been so many music issues throughout the seasons, and I don't think the dancers cut each track to their liking. I've seen in some packages the CD they get and it says "Song, Artist, and Length of track" so sometimes it's already cut for them. I don't think Maks put in a few counts of 8 of Hip Hop to be mean to the Len or waste time. It was likely from having a Latin dance and beingf criticized that Heather didn't show enough personality. There have been moments in past dances just the same amount of counts of 8 were used for props, walking down stairs, or generally messing about and Len just decided to be an ass about this time because of his hatred of Hip Hop.

The worst thing is a star thats not self aware and thinks they deserve super high scores for whatever reason and her disgust over her low scores is bugging me. A 6 last night from Carrie Ann was too much especially when she gave Simone and Nancy only 1 point higher.

I can agree with pushing Chelsea into the finals that year. They were looking at 3 finalists (Kirstie, Hines, Ralph) all over a certain age and they wanted someone younger to try for better demo ratings. I loved and voted for Chelsea that season but even I know that 15 point challenge was ridiculous. I don't think the show pushed Nicole into the finals. I believe she went out and did it on her own without help or significantly higher scores. In the final even, she wasn't significantly higher than Erin or Evan. Heather seems like a 4th placer at the point because the show is trying to paint some kind of narrative that I don't like. I agree with others that have said if they didn't want a huge ringer, then don't invite her on just to berate her each week. Plus you know how many times on SYTYCD other genre dancers attempt Ballroom and Latin and it's subpar? Most of the time, it's why you don't see good Ballroom/Latin on that show most of the time because it's such a different and specific technique.

Len had a point but he said it rather mean and rudely. She was asked to be on the show and what is she gonna do? Turn down a paycheck and a chance to dance again? Len always does this with females with experience. He did it with Mya, Nicole Scherzinger, Shawn in All Stars, and even more.

Nancy was surprisingly good in Latin, although Samba and Salsa could trip her up. I love her and Artem's partnership too they seem to get each other and Artem is thrilled he has a shot to get high scores and get deep in the season. Nick was just there for me, the most forgettable one tonight. Bonner and Sharna's showmance nonsense is wearing incredibly thin and Rashad is the best male this season maybe the only guy to make the final. I just am not a fan of football guys on the show. There's almost one every season (or three like in S22) and they just do nothing for me. David was a disappointing dance to end on. Normani should've been last, that was a wow dance to me. I can't wait until their tour stops and she can really rehearse and perfect a dance. I loved Simone. OK, she seemed a bit timid in parts but overall it was a well pitched and well danced Cha Cha. Worthy of at least all 8's. The fact that Carrie Ann and Julianne gave Bonner 8's and not her is laughable. Charo or Mr. T out next week likely. Erika maybe but she does have a bit of a following and got decent-ish scores. Not really looking forward to Vegas night. Seems like a night of props, big sets, and extra dancers and it's too early for that.

Nancy impressed me tonight. Her Cha Cha had a couple small stumbles, but most expected her to be reserved for her Latin like most women in that age range tend to be, but she had good legs, good footwork, and nice spins. I loved too how invested she is and wants to do well. I can relate to that reaction of her getting compliments. When you go a long of your life of people being very hard on you or not giving you nice feedback, you tend to not believe it when it happens, so I get it. I think as the weeks go on she'll improve and get more comfortable on the dance floor, and she could sneak her way into 6th or 5th place.

I actually think Len was quite mean in his comments. Ok there was a few bars of hip hop style, but the rest was authentic and well danced Jive steps, he made it seem like they completely ignored the style. I get his not liking hip hop incorporated into Latin routines, it goes well back into earlier seasons, but the tone seemed a lot meaner than it needed to be.

The middle America and country vote will get him further than need be, but all the blushing and sexual innuendos reads to me like Sharna knows he won't win and this is the angle she wants to pull because she's never gotten to do the "showmance" angle yet.

Not to mention, Bonner wasn't that good and Carrie Ann was salivating at the mouth. He's got a nice body but i've seen so much better.

Anyone else catch on to how the four "frontrunner" women (Nancy, Normani, Heather, Simone) all got stuck with Ballroom dances, while every man except for David got Cha Cha?

I actually didn't mind the 7's too much, only because in relative to David or Nancy it felt low. I did see a moment where she might have rushed and got caught in Maks' arms plus not as much content as I would've liked. I do think Maks is trying to make it seem like they can build up to something. I don't think he wanted a situation where it's too much too soon. She danced well and turns well too, but I was only slightly disappointed and it was mostly the choreography honestly. Maks needs to channel his choreo with Mel B, Laila, and Meryl because those were when he was on fire.

I saw it a little bit too, Laurie was stating many times by the other girls that she was the best dancer of the group so i wasn't surprised when she was so good. Simone is great too, but I hope the gymnast arms can be smoothed out.

I wish Nancy and Normani went later in the show because they are classic types of dances that got underscored for going in the beginning. Not saying they would've gotten tremendously higher, but maybe two or three points higher which can be a big deal in the end. It was smart to underscore Heather and keep her dance simple. Coming out all guns blazing with a 10 worthy dance would've been bad, very bad for her. I am excited to see her routines throughout the season. Nancy also was kind of awkwardly adorable too. If her dancing stays at a good standard, she could be here for awhile cause of the Olympian and 90's nostalgia. Plus all the people who want Artem to go far. Simone is easily the one to beat. So many things going for her. The biggest name from the Rio games, a pro who's not won or even made the finals, and the typical gymnast movement ability. The height difference could be an issue, but Sasha seems excited to have someone with potential to win. The men all seem like lost causes except for maybe David and Rashad, those are the only two I could see making the finals.

Maks was smart in a way to keep their dance a bit more simple instead of just wham bam in your face jam packed choreo. Plus keeping her scores a it lower puts a little pressure off them at this moment. I don't expect her to win, but I do hope she gets far and gives us great routines. I can't wait to see her do Latin.