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S19.E01: Week 1: Performance & Judging


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Forgive me in advance for being an ageist, but the reason I credit Alfonso's dance experience more than Lea Thompson's is because she's 50something, and at at a certain point that ish gets hard.  So I give her a pass on the fact that Baryshnikov said she was an excellent dancer.  Frankly, if Baryshnikov himself came on this show at this point, I'd give him a pass, too.  Dude has to be pushing 70 at this point.  If he's still got it at that age, more power to him. 

 

I was going to give Antonio Sabato crap for being a latin dude with no rhythm, but my latin mama pointed out that he's Italian and not Spanish, and only half Italian at that.  So I guess I can contain my horror.  Still, he was stiff.  I hope he never gets the Samba.

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Quick comment on each:

Antonio: 6s are supposed to be "average" and his dancing was. Thought for a moment judges would hold down the scores.

Lea: Less fluid, less elegant than I expected. 8s should have been 7s. Clearly we'll see 9s before the night is done.

Janel: too frantic but I can see potential. But then she blew it in the skybox. Maybe she was trying to be funny, but she turned me off.

Lolo: dancing, judging + skybox horribly awkward. Keo didn't seem to know how to control her.

Betsey: hilarious - hope she stays for another week or 2.

Tavis: Better than expected but doubt his fans will expend much effort in voting. In jeopardy tonight.

Sadie: Were the 9s too high? Maybe. But scoring escalation started with Lea. I thought she did really well. Cute as can be.

Michael: poor dancing and not amused by his "humor". I hope he leaves soon. (but I love Emma!!)

Jonathan: nice (like James or Brant), Alison massively overdanced. What's with the bug-eyed surprise look?

Tommy: simple choreo, but he got it done. Not really a fan of Peta but I give her major props for getting Tommy dancing!

Randy: smooth mover. Hope he stays awhile.

Bethany: danced well but she's like a wind-up doll: she's on or she's off. I'm not getting any personality from her.

Alfonso: definitely the dance of the night-predictable with all his dance training (tap, hip hop, MJ, etc.). Witney would do well to keep "The Carlton Dance" under wraps till the finals if possible. Fans will vote till they get that dance.

 

Camera work was awful. I kept wondering if my tv was shaking it was so jittery.

Miss the announcer-guy.

The show overall was just tooooooo rushed!

Edited by Uke
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Loved Alfonso, especially after he and Witney did the Carlton dance fake-out in the bumper. I wouldn't be surprised if they bust that out at some point, though. Alfonso's not weepy about his past (coughJaleelWhitecough) nor does he trot it out at every opportunity, but he knows that people love The Carlton and would go nuts if a little of it made its way into one of their dances. And Rick(y) Schroeder was there! This might be weird but it makes me happy to know they're still friends.

 

I didn't know what to expect from Tommy Chong, but damn. Grandpa can still get it.

 

I felt bad for Lolo while she was dancing -- I was watching it while peeking through my fingers because it was so so embarrassing -- but then she wouldn't stop complaining or trying to demonstrate that she can do the cha cha walk (which ... oh honey, no), and then I started hoping she'd be the first out.

 

I would also be okay with Betsey going first, even though she was gracious and a good sport about not doing well. As much as I enjoyed Tommy Chong, I do wish the show would stop casting people who are this old. They have no shot at winning and, honestly, I'm not sure they fully realize that. I think about all the over-70 contestants the show has had and they've all been so sad/confused/sometimes angry about their scores. I'm 51 and still sometimes think I can do things I did when I was younger and when I'm brought up short, it can hurt a little to be reminded that I'm old but at least it's not happening on national TV.

 

Jonathan's going to be the needy one, I can tell right now.

Edited by fishcakes
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I would also be okay with Betsey going first, even though she was gracious and a good sport about not doing well. As much as I enjoyed Tommy Chong, I do wish the show would stop casting people who are this old. They have no shot at winning and, honestly, I'm not sure they fully realize that. I think about all the over-70 contestants the show has had and they've all been so sad/confused/sometimes angry about their scores. I'm 51 and still sometimes think I can do things I did when I was younger and when I'm brought up short, it can hurt a little to be reminded that I'm old but at least it's not happening on national TV.

 

I think the elder contestants are well aware that they have no chance of winning but are happy to "compete" for a few weeks, get a few turns on the dance floor and have some fun.  I think the show books them assuming they'll be the first ones eliminated, giving the others a little more rehearsal time. Over the seasons, they've shortened and shortened the preseason training to barely 2 weeks for some of them.

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I hate Lolo Jones with the heat of 1000 suns. I don't hate the Dick Dynasty child, just her family. I hope this won't turn out to be Brisket 2.0.

If I'm getting your drift I think it will be though she's a better dancer than Bristol IMO. 

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Love Allison, hope she does well. I'm sure she's on there over better-qualified ballroom dancers because they want star power on the dancer's side, too. She has a ton of fans from SYTYCD where she gets repeated exposure as an all-star. She can fake ballroom just fine for the purposes of this show.

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Forgive me in advance for being an ageist, but the reason I credit Alfonso's dance experience more than Lea Thompson's is because she's 50something, and at at a certain point that ish gets hard.  So I give her a pass on the fact that Baryshnikov said she was an excellent dancer.  Frankly, if Baryshnikov himself came on this show at this point, I'd give him a pass, too.  Dude has to be pushing 70 at this point.  If he's still got it at that age, more power to him. 

 

I was going to give Antonio Sabato crap for being a latin dude with no rhythm, but my latin mama pointed out that he's Italian and not Spanish, and only half Italian at that.  So I guess I can contain my horror.  Still, he was stiff.  I hope he never gets the Samba.

 

Alfonso is 43, so he's not far off.  And it's not like he was in fit dancing shape as this contest started.  Sure, he has a short hand and will be able to pick up the dances and moves better than most.  I felt the same with figure skaters or even when Mario or Joey Fatone were on the show.  They had a leg up, but it wasn't like they were professional dancers.  

 

Alfonso's biggest problem is that in the same way that I don't know who these little reality stars or youtubers are....their fanbase doesn't know who Carlton is.  He can be a great dancer and get great scores, but it is fan support that keeps you in the game IMHO.  

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Alfonso's biggest problem is that in the same way that I don't know who these little reality stars or youtubers are....their fanbase doesn't know who Carlton is.

 

Fresh Prince was a huge show! The people who don't know about him are 19 years old. Think about how long Candace stayed in the competition, add dance experience on top of it, and Alfonso is the best bet. 90's nostalgia is a powerful drug and I'm not sure anyone else (besides maybe Antonio) has that decade covered. 

 

I think the demographics are splitting the votes for most of the other contestants. Judging off my mom and her friends, they watch just to see Tommy Chong (70's nostalgia), Tavis Smiley (because they are middle-aged black ladies), and maybe Lea. The "youths" have never been reliable with votes, but I'll tell you what I gathered in the under 25 group. Mean Girls and Pretty Little Liars are both pretty important, so Jonathan and Janel split that group. 

 

People aren't going to win based off their pre-show popularity alone, of course. I left a lot of people out because they are harder to pin down what group they will speak to. For instance, Betsey Johnson is over 70, but a lot of her customers are in their 30's. I'll shut up now.

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I'm inclined to give people a pass on "bitchfaces," especially the ones not experienced in needing to be "ON" to read well on live camera. I know my "I'm so nervous I'm trying not to throw up" face likely looks very close to a "bitch face."

 

Lolo came across as just a very odd, defensive person. I watched it after reading some comments and expected her to be argumentative/defensive and it more came across as defensive weirdness - she wasn't arguing the judges comments, she just wouldn't. Stop. Talking. But agreed on the painful to watch. 

 

Janel did a little worse than I expected (she might suffer from "wanting it too hard" and or "overenthusiastic theatre kid" syndrome), and Bethany did better. Pretty much agreed on all the highlights, Randy (surprising), Sadie (more enjoyable than I expected, I don't mind her sticking around a bit like she likely will), Chong (I really like him with Peta! She gets to show off her spunk). Alfonso knocked it out of the park. 

 

I really don't understand the appeal of Antonio, but I guess he's out of my demographic? I found him completely bland and forgettable.

 

I liked Julianne when she was just giving critique, but she is kind of painful when she tries to be clever or funny. 

Edited by kitcloudkicker
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I really don't understand the appeal of Antonio, but I guess he's out of my demographic? I found him completely bland and forgettable.

 

He looks better standing still in his underwear than he does dancing.  (Or at least he did pre-Botox.)  Movement does not do him favors. 

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I felt so bad for Betsey Johnson - the way her face just fell when she got her scores just broke my heart. And I blame part of that on Carrie Ann, because with the way she yelled, Betsey clearly thought her scores wouldn't be terrible. And honestly, she danced better than Lolo, who looked like she forgot the steps, so no way did Betsey deserve a lower score.

Tommy Chong is a delight. And normally, I can't stand Peta, but I kind of loved that she just went all in, pot leaf dress and all.

Alfonso Ribero was just great. And while Whitney annoyed the hell out of me when she was a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance, I've really enjoyed her over the past two seasons. She seems like a sweet kid.

Whenever the new seasons start, it always entices me to go to the gym, because WOW, am I jealous of the female pros bodies - I would kill for legs and abs like theirs.

Edited by Princess Sparkle
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I can usually sort of tell right from the first episode which stars are likely to be competing for the trophy.  But it’s tough this season.  Beyond Alfonso, there are a whole group of them who seam roughly about even in terms of dancing ability.
 

What is this show coming to?? A youtube personality? Ugh

 

 

Mota is one of the few so called “stars” this season who I actually recognized.  Not that I’ve ever watched her on YouTube. But she’s gotten quite a bit of coverage in the financial media.

 

There just aren’t all that many small town Mexican-American girls who have managed to build a multimillion dollar business by the time they finish high school.  She not only has own clothing line at a major national retailer (Aeropostale) over which she maintains complete creative control, while also partnering with two other major retailers (JC Penny and Forever 21), but she's also beginning to really pull in the bucks giving motivational and fashion related speeches and consulting from New York to Tokyo. 

 

The fact that she’s done all this from her own bedroom in the middle of nowhere Northern California was probably only possible in this YouTube age.  But however the show wants to portray her, Mota is rapidly moving way beyond being just a YouTube personality.

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There just aren’t all that many small town Mexican-American girls who have managed to build a multimillion dollar business by the time they finish high school.

 

There probably aren't that many small town girls of any race who have managed to build a multimillion dollar business by the time they graduate from high school. That is some serious business! 

 

Seriously though... wow! I had no idea about her, so this is interesting to me. That is really impressive.

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I can't stand Janel's wardrobe.  Those boots were awful and totally distracted me from watching her dance.  The YouTube chick wasn't all that either.

 

 

 

I call that a smart move on Val's part because when she wasn't posing or playing sex kitten the actual dance steps were quite bad.  I suppose Val took a page from Peta's playbook and used wardrobe to distract (and as an aside, I thought Peta looked quite lovely).

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Finally checked out the show. My biggest thought -- I really missed the "Dancing the foxtrot ... cha cha ... " announcer voice. I mean REALLY missed him.  Why get rid of him?

 

I don't mind that Alfonso is a ringer. He's a bit older -- not exactly in his prime dancing years and certainly not in top form -- and he looks genuinely happy to be there. I have higher expectations for him, though, and wouldn't mind seeing him rated on a slightly tougher scale.

 

All the young girls whom I've never heard of before seemed completely interchangeable. They ranged from rather bland to slightly annoying. Val's partner, though, has the potential of being very annoying.

 

Enjoyed Tommy Chong. He might be the stays-past-his-welcome contestant of this season.

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All the young girls whom I've never heard of before seemed completely interchangeable. They ranged from rather bland to slightly annoying. Val's partner, though, has the potential of being very annoying.

 

 

I can certainly see how they could easily run together, particularly after only one episode.  I certainly have trouble keeping track of all the contestants.  But I do think it will eventually become apparent that the three "young girls" are very different from one another in everything from looks to personality to dancing style.

 

I did have to laugh at your comment on Val's partner, because that's exactly what I think about her character on Pretty Little Liars (one of my kids favorite shows).  From the times I've watched parts of that show with them, I'm already predisposed to hate that girl.  This really isn't fair to the actress, except that in this first episode she came across as a little too much like the character she plays.  So now I have to wonder if she's really like that in real life or if she was channeling her character on purpose. If so, I expect its going to backfire on her.

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