cali1981

I didn't realize that Spicer has been campaigning for votes on right wing outlets. Look at this: "Sean Spicer said he hopes his presence on Dancing with the Stars is continuing to send a powerful message to members of the intolerant left – that conservatives are “equal participants” and “cannot be canceled out” – during an appearance on Breitbart News Sunday" I'm sorry but if this is not against the show's rules it should be. Frankly, Spicer should be disqualified for blatant politicization of this season. It's outrageous and terribly unfair to the other contestants who are quietly plugging away at trying to improve every week. If there's an award for profit of the year, Tom Bergeron should get it. If there's another award for A-hole(s) of the year the show runner/producers should get that one.

I have not seen Tom exhibit one iota of disdain for Sean during this season. He has been doing this for too long and is too much of a professional to do that. But the point that he made when the cast was announced is well taken. From what is apparent, Sean Spicer's presence has mired the show more deeply into politics than previous celebs with political histories. Maybe the suits at ABC think that this is a good ratings ploy but for some of us who have stuck with the show since day one, it just looks like another indication that the pool of legit "celeb" is drier than ever and that the show is getting closer to going off the rails. Sometimes I wish that PTB would remember that first word in the show's title is "Dancing", not gimmickry.

Tom Bergeron's concerns when Spicer was included in the cast have unfolded right before our eyes: “A few months ago, during a lunch with ‘DWTS’ new Executive Producer, I offered suggestions for Season 28. Chief among them was my hope that ‘DWTS,’ in its return following an unprecedented year-long hiatus, would be a joyful respite from our exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations,” Bergeron wrote in a note posted on his Twitter account Wednesday. “I left that lunch convinced we were in agreement. Subsequently (and rather obviously), a decision was made to, as we often say in Hollywood, ‘go in a different direction.’ It is the prerogative of the producers, in partnership with the network, to make whatever decisions they feel are in the best long term interests of the franchise. We can agree to disagree, as we do now, but ultimately it’s their call. I’ll leave it to them to answer any further questions about those decisions.” Spicer should, minimally, have been bounced last week but there is clearly a politically driven voting block supportig him that is strong enough to negate the judges' scores. It's very unfortunate. The show runners should have paid heed to Tom's opinion. Each week that Spicer survives at the expense of another vastly superior dancer is just one more black eye for the show. Truthfully, there's a part of me that almost hopes that Spicer wins. After last season's debacle, it might just be enough to finish the show off.

I realize now that you were in agreement My bad and please accept my apologies. After all when great minds think alike, there should be peace and harmony in all things.

My, my how presumptuous of you. Amy Klobuchar was going to be given a fair amount of time by design. I was annoyed because the show had a potentially good panel that was short changed because of the Stern love fest.

I'm almost 25 minutes in. Is there a rest of the show? This is very disrespectful towards the other guests tonight. This is where Bill's producer should be yelling at him to end this love fest between him and Howard.

I finally watched the season opener last night and sat through a lot of it thinking "who are all these people?". The show can sometimes get a little too cute with its alternating time lines and this episode was even beyond that. Sure, the last few minutes did tie some of it together but there had to be a better way to introduce these folks.

Katie Porter was a student of Elizabeth Warren's at Harvard Law School and graduated Magna Cum Laude, not too shabby an accomplishment. Before being elected to congress last year she was a law professor herself. If you've seen her question witnesses at committee hearings, you know how tough she can be at grilling someone. As she showed on Bill's show that night, she can also be funny as hell. Bill needs to check his own impulses when it comes to booking guests. As others have said, he keeps having the same go to guests on who end up disrupting the flow and limit the ability of others to get a few words in. At the very least, some of his guests need to be gently schooled in proper etiquette on a panel show.

The show was almost unwatchable last night. I respect Barney Frank but he was completely out of control and destroyed the flow of the show. For some reason MSNBC has Noah Rothman on fairly often. He's smooth and slick but ultimately says little of value. Gena McCarthy was very good and Salman Rushdie was, as always, excellent. Bill would have been better off having the two of them on by themselves.

While I'm not surprised that Bailey won, my choice, Gino, placing third was very disappointing. I suspect that the judges knew the results and we're going to give Gino maximum screen time last night to remind choreographers and the Broadway community just how good he is. Gino will do just fine as a professional dancer and pretty quickly I would think.

All four kids are terrific. No matter who wins, their futures are secured. I suspect that Bailey will end up dancing with some of the top crews in the country. Gino, Sophie and Mariah will be in very heavy demand by choreographers. What will be interesting will be to see if any of them follow in the footsteps of so many SYTYCD alumni who have gone on to solid careers on Broadway. With some additional seasoning and training all three appear to have the chops to do it.

I can't recall Tom being this outspoken about the casting decisions made by the Big Poobahs. Maybe he's just running out tolerance for the political and "criminal" selections that have gone way beyond the normal amount of stunt casting that the show has lived on since the beginning. I guess I'll give the first week or two a spin but if Spicer stays alive and Tom and Erin are forced to fawn over this professional liar, I may be out until he (and some others) are gone. That and not having a troupe this season and, apparently, unceremoniously dumping Sharna (maybe the show runner's response to her winning with Bobby Bones last season and the outrage over that but tarring her with that brush?) make this season not a must see. I can always watch the dance routines on YouTube.

I like James Van Der Beek. I thought he was very funny as a hyper-egotistical version of himself in Don't Trust the B* in Apartment 23 and, of course, he was the immortal Mox in Varsity Blues. Sean Spicer? Was Sarah Huckabee Sanders not available? Spicer should dance to nothing but songs with lie, lies or liar in the title i.e.: Little Lies, Lyin Eyes, Miserable Lie, Every Time You Lie, etc. As for the rest of the cast, it's the usual mixed bag but hopefully there will not be repeat of the Billy Bones debacle when all is said and done. That would do it for me.

I have to call BS on Stephanie's elimination. Saving Anna struck me as a casting decision to keep a B-girl in the competition. After the Jive that she did with Gino, there's no way that Stephanie should have been sent packing. I've been disappointed with Laurie Ann as a judge. She's a world class choreographer, known to be tough and no nonsense but there hasn't been much substance to her critiques so far.

Let's all remember that the judges are doing more than choosing dancers for the live shows. They are casting a reality TV show. This is especially true of Nigel with his producer's hat. Given this, they will always select cast members who will make the show more dramatic and interesting, same as any other TV show. That's why Madison (and I take nothing away from her dancing) was a stone cold lock to make the top ten. Let's see what happens next week in regard to Eddie Hoyt, the tapper who didn't make the show his first time around. Will his "oh, he's so sincere and he tries so hard and he's an underdog" story line hold sway. Anyone wanna bet against it?

Before I decided to pull the plug on Dance Moms for other shows (I.E. Jessica Jones and Designated Survivor on Netflix) I was wondering about whether Abby held to her intention to discontinue Chemo. It would have been a terrible decision. Burkitt's Lymphoma is very aggressive and the post-op chemo is essential. I was glad to see that she did finish her treatments. Her chances of long-term survival would have been in doubt without them. Good for her.

Ariana DeBose, fresh off last year's Tony nomination for her performance in the Donna Summer Musical on Broadway, will play Anita in Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story. Other SYTYCD alumni in the movie are Rickey Obeda, Gabby Diaz and Jess Leprotto. Not too shabby is it? For Dance Mom fans, Maddie Ziegler will also be in the film.

So after watching 30 minutes of the recorded first episode of Season 8, I stopped it, deleted it from the DVR and cancelled all future recordings. It's just the some old dreck, with another cast of young kids and despicable mothers. Even in the summertime, there are so many quality shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. as well as previously viewed series to revisit that I don't want to waste one more hour of my life with Dance Moms.

I like Neera Tanden but she is another of Bill's "go to" guests who has no sense of the timing of the show. She kept muscling her way into every conversation, often cutting off another guest. The producers should really brief he panelists on basic show etiquette before the cameras go on.

I just finished the series last night. It was weird, dark, inexplicable at times and I enjoyed the hell out of it. The one thing that puzzles me was how did Vanya suppress all of those childhood memories? Maybe they were so traumatic that she buried them deeply into her sub-consciousness. Perhaps Reginald with Pogo and Grace's help gave her mind altering meds because they knew how dangerous she could be out in the real world. I was struck by the irony on how the apocalypse actually started. Talk about best intentions back firing. The chunk of moon being a planet killer reminded me of the similar premise in Armageddon when Billy Bob Thornton is telling the president what would happen when the "size of Texas" asteroid hit the earth. Like everyone, I'm hoping that there is a second season just to see what the show runners and writers come up with.

Agreed! Michelle as Capt/Emperor Georgiou has been great. The aura of danger and malice that surrounds her is palpable and her sarcasm is a big plus in my book. The deep eye shadow that she's using gives her face a certain look that really emphasizes that aura. As starri noted, Michelle can make the simple act of biting an apple look malevolent. Her scenes with Sonequa were up there with Sonequa's scenes with Doug Jones. I loved the Admiral's talk with Leland and Pike, in effect telling the boys to put their manhood back in their pants and get the job done. Jane Brook nailed it. Alan Van Sprang, who plays Leland, looked vaguely familiar. I just watched the four season run of The Tudors on Netflix and Van Sprang had a pretty juicy role as Sir Francis Bryan, envoy, fixer and assassin for King Henry. He's a very good actor. I'm finding this Section 31 plot thread to be very interesting and dig the black and silver Starfleet badge. Bet that will be collector's item for Trek fans.

It looked like Platov's crew found Daniel on their own. They were going to find the dacha sooner rather than later. I suspect that they maimed the body and dumped it in Berlin to send a message to the Americans and the Kremlin. Platov's ignoring Moscow's order to stand down is going to cost him dearly if and when his plan for Estonia fails.

I almost thought that Saru might be killed off but then it was, "nah. no way". Saru is a bedrock character on the show and Doug Jones portrayal of him every week is wonderful. Still, I enjoyed that plot thread, especially since Doug and Sonequa were just so damn good in their scenes together. Sometimes, even when you know how the story ends, the real fun is seeing how it gets to that ending. The Saru "death" story was well played.

I have really enjoyed the first two episodes. The addition of Anson Mount as Capt. Pike has been a major plus for the show. The decision to shoot this season using anamorphic lenses was a good one. The 2.35:1 image gives the show a more cinematic look than the previous 1.78:1 image did. I know that some don't care for the top and bottom black mattes but almost every movie is now shot in at least 2.35:1 so the mattes are pretty much standard now. The wider image suits a show like Discovery very well.

It's nice to see Ismael Cruz Cordova back on another series after his excellent work on Ray Donovan. I may be crazy but when they showed the flashbacks of "Diver" my first thought was "that's Steven Frost". From the little we saw of him, he looked a bit like Richard Jenkins and sounded like him. Wouldn't is be a kick in the cajones if the man that Daniel respected and trusted turned out to have killed his parents? On that note, I'm so glad that Jenkins is part of this series. He has been one of Hollywood's best character actors for decades and always delivers superb performances.