People have been asking me in email if I think the difference between the quality of the Canadian version of SYTYCD (thus far – be wary, as they all danced mostly in-style this week and next week is the real test) as to the American version which has not enthralled this season so far is down to the quality of the dancers or the training or something else entirely, and the answer is “I’m not sure.”
However, one nice thing about the Canadian version is that they always show the full dances the dancers have to go through in finals week, and it gives me an opportunity to show off Jean-Marc Genereaux and his wife France (sorry, “thelovelyFrance”), who always demo the ballroom portion of finals week and who are always sick.
Is the American version as rigorous as this? I’m not sure, because they never show the full routine.
Your guest judges this week are Jesse Tyler Ferguson of Modern Family and Sonya Tayeh. Ferguson is verbose and actually occasionally helpful, and makes the long-overdue point that Cat Deeley really deserves an Emmy nomination for her work as host. Sonya is a neverending stream of celebratory nothing.
Sasha and Alexander: paso doble and Broadway.. Alexander says his character is “ready to go” in the gentlest, most boyish way possible, which tells you a great deal about Alexander. Tony-N-Melanie choreographed a paso here where apparently both dancers were playing the male role, and Sasha was better at it than Alexander, which also tells you a lot about Alexander. Anyway, this was your standard mediocre two-contemporary-dancers-do-ballroom paso on SYTYCD, but there have been far worse.
Tasty gives another Broadway, which was unfocused but not bad. Sasha slips up at the end, but covers for it well. Alexander is Alexander and that is all you need to know: Nigel gives him props for being strong for once, which… he was okay and in any proper season of this show would have lasted three weeks (or get Kameronned in top 10, which is what looks to happen).
Jordan and Tadd: contemporary and Broadway. I really liked Travis’ choreo on the contemporary: it was like what he was trying to do with that Legacy contemporary in season 6 – use a B-boy to make violent choreo more emphatic – except this time it worked properly and wasn’t a mess. Tadd was excellent. Jordan was… well, she was perfectly adequate, which is what I expected from her at this point. Jordan doesn’t really engage me as a dancer yet: whereas Tadd has demonstrated some really exciting work, Jordan has just never screwed up anything and is competent all the time. But, unfortunately, also kind of boring.
The Broadway was cute (Spencer Liff going two-for-two) but very, very basic, and it looks like they took everything Jordan couldn’t do out of the routine? I don’t know. The judges act very disappointed, thus giving the audience permission to not vote for these two so they can eliminate the only non-technically-trained dancer remaining. Oh, wait, that’s just my running conspiracy theory.
Ryan and Ricky: Broadway and cha-cha. Spencer Liff put together a really engaging and impressive bit of choreography for the Broadway, and Ricky and Ryan did not really carry it. Ryan danced heavily like she always does (but, on the bright side, got to dance in a style where her constant smiling is an asset rather than a hindrance); Ricky made the mistake of trying to match unison with Mollee 2.0 instead of simply outdancing her, which is both gentlemanly and stupid. Nigel again praises last week’s lousy “fashion zombie” routine, which – shut up, Nigel.
The cha-cha was… oh my god so bad. SO GODDAMNED BAD. Ricky was okay and I think with more practice could be quite decent at this. Ryan was terrible. I mean, there was nothing good about that performance: every second of it was awkward, her footwork was a mess, she didn’t have anything resembling a decent Latin carriage… I could go on at length. The judges soft-sold their criticism. Mary calls it the “fastest darn cha-cha I’ve ever seen,” which – not even remotely close. This was horrendous, arguably worse than Missy and Wadi’s cha-cha three weeks back.
Caitlyn and Mitchell: hip-hop and contemporary. Christopher Smith says this routine is about child soldiers, which… sure, whatever, anything to distract me from what was one of the most godawful hip-hop performances I’ve ever seen on this show. No unison, almost completely absent of hip-hop technique, no flavour or attitude whatsoever. Both Caitlyn and Mitchell were completely lousy in this, and it was already a routine that had quite a few points where they weren’t doing anything but running around so I’m not inclined to be generous with them. Judges give them the “it sucked but you’re still awesome” judging.
Travis’ contemporary choreo was mostly a miss for me: some interesting lifts, but nothing else that really impressed me. (One of the dangers of constantly tossing out and celebrating contemporary choreography is that it all starts to run together – such as, for example, when in a single night you have four contemporary routines and three Broadway routines with SYTYCD’s standard contempo-focus.) Mitchell and Caitlyn were perfectly okay in it, however.
Melanie and Marko: tango and contemporary. Louis Van Amstel! Woo! And the tango was… okay. Their execution was not perfect, but it had some great bits of choreo (the portion by the stage’s edge, the final lift) and they executed those bits quite nicely, and I can’t really call a routine where they hit the high points dead-on “bad” per se. It was okay! But only okay, and thus the judges’ overpraising of it was really irritating. Coincidentally, this is the only time in the first five weeks that Melanie and Marko have had to dance out of their genre (I refuse to count their “lyrical hip-hop” as being anything other than contemporary set to a beat).
Dee Caspary’s choreo was lovely and they danced it perfectly, which is not surprising, and the constant pimping of Melanie and Marko as a power couple when they’ve danced in their genre effectively five times out of six (and have had their weakest moments when they strayed away from their comfort zone) drives me batty, but it was a good routine and danced well.
Clarice and Jess: hip-hop and jive. On Twitter I was asked “Jess performing hip hop: Horrible farce or insult to all dance?” and the answer is: a-ha, false premise, because they were dancing a contemporary piece with beats in, just as Melanie and Marko did a couple weeks ago. Which they did quite well, given that they weren’t dancing a hip-hop routine: ignore what it says on the tin, as Christopher Scott has learned well that this show is not interested in actual hip-hop choreography any more. And for that, their unison was good and their chemistry excellent (and it is worth noting that their chemistry was initially terrible and they have worked hard to rectify that).
The jive was… laboured, is the word I think to use here. I think this is another one of those pieces where with more practice it would have been much better, but as it was I could see them mentally preparing for the big tricks. Judges praise it to high heaven, because I guess this is what constitutes “good” ballroom on the American show these days. Sorry if I sound bitter, but the Canadian show this week was so much better in just about every possible way and such a reminder of what the show can be that seeing what the American show has become is endlessly frustrating.
Probable bottom three: Ryan and Ricky, Caitlyn and Mitchell, Jordan and Tadd. Should go home: Ryan and Mitchell. Will go home: Caitlyn and Tadd.
Your judges tonight are Jean-Marc, Tre, Blake, Luther and Mary. No surprises for the first episode – well, other than the fact that they went with five judges, and Mary’s judging two shows this week, and what happened to Moses, which is just downright tragic. (For SYTYCD USA viewers who don’t follow the Canadian show: Moses has auditioned all four years for the show, made it to final cut years two and three, and finally made the show this year – and then had to pull out because of torn shoulder ligaments a week before the first performance episode. The backstage video was just him crying. Poor dude.)
Lindsay and Christian: salsa. (Lindsay: contemporary, Christian: ballroomer.) This was a ridiculously good way to start off the show: easily one of the best kickoff performances for a season ever (up there with Philipchbeeb/Jeanine from season 5 USA and Ben/Pania from Australia s2). Tony-N-Melanie called it a street salsa, but for me this split the difference between a competition-style performance salsa and a street dance. This is not a criticism, as both Lindsay and Christian were very, very good in this: the over-shoulder split-leg lift could have been a bit faster and smoother, perhaps, but I suspect that it was actually choreographed that way. Lindsay in particular was impressive because she matched Christian step-for-step (and he was predictably excellent). I’m sorry, but it’s been so long since I saw a really great ballroom performance on SYTYCD and I am jazzed.
Jordan and Joey: contemporary. (Both contemporary dancers.) In vignettes, Joey is shown dancing practice dances with Sabra, which is random but wonderful. This dance was a Stacey Tookey number that was apparently dedicated to “everybody suffering in natural disasters,” and although that theme didn’t come through for me – it felt like a dance that could apply to any difficult situation solved through selflessness – that doesn’t mean that the choreography wasn’t lovely and the dancing superb on Jordan and Joey’s part. The twinned leg extension on the floor: amazing. And Stacey Tookey defied my expectations because, when the music hit its crescendo, I was expecting standard SYTYCD intense contempo-flailing and then she did not do that thing, instead going to slowness and deliberation, and I was very pleased to see that happen.
Denitza and JP: hip-hop. (Denitza: ballroomer, JP: hip-hopper.) Despite that JP is the hip-hop dancer here, I actually felt Denitza did the better job simply on the basis of performance: JP looked a bit nervous and uncomfortable. They all hit all their marks, but I didn’t particularly care for the choreography, which wasn’t up to what I expected from Tucker Barkley (who is a really insanely good hip-hop dancer); it felt thrown together and often arbitrary, and I don’t know if that’s to Denitza and JP not getting his steps and the dance having to be dumbed down, or if he just had an off night. This wasn’t especially bad, but it was average, and suffered following two excellent performances in comparison.
Shelaina and Matt: contemporary. (Both contemporary.) I really liked the shit out of this routine. I don’t think Shelaina and Matt danced it quite as well as Jordan and Joey danced their routine (Matt in particular had one or two visible bobbles), but Sabrina Matthews’ living-doll choreography was exceptionally entertaining, and minor mistakes aside both Shelaina and Matt really got into their characters and danced the hell out of this: the piece had a great edgy, brittle feel to it which I appreciated greatly, and the lifts were just cool in a way that’s really hard to approach with contemporary lifts. This was very good.
Yuliya and Adam L: “theater.” (Ballroom and jazz, respectively.) Adam L looks suspiciously like Pasha and dances suspiciously like a jazz dancer version of Pasha. I believe there has been cloning! Anyways, both Yuliya and Adam L danced this quite well, but here is the problem: it is a Melissa Williams routine, which means that even before the dancing begins I am expecting something corny, frenetic, disorganized and mashing up genres for the sake of it, and once again I am not disappointed. For all that this was a “theater” piece, what it actually turned out to be was a jive with some jazz flourishes to it, not unlike Melissa Williams saying “well, I have a trained ballroom dancer and a jazz dancers – let’s work with that!” and then failing. Again. (I’m sorry if this seems like I am being hard on Melissa Williams, but it has now been four seasons and she hasn’t choreographed one single piece I liked. I am just thankful this was not “new disco.”) It’s a shame, because in spite of the lackluster piece I thought Yuliya and Adam were doing their best with it.
Cassandra and Francois: rhumba. (Cassandra: jazz, Francois: ballroom.) Cassandra refers to herself as “Cassexy,” which – she is eighteen, so it is forgivable that she would do something like that, but that does not make me say “.nnnnnno” any less. Eric Katy and Kelly Lannan’s choreo was really very nice here, hitting exactly that level of “epic” I like to see in a SYTYCD rhumba (to the point that, when rosepetals began falling from the ceiling, it didn’t seem forced), and Francois and Cassandra mostly did it justice: she was a little tentative in parts, especially at the beginning, but as the dance progressed she clearly found her groove and transitioned from just walking through the steps to dancing them. Francois was, unsurprisingly, really terrific. This was damn good.
Carlena and Boneless: hip-hop. (Both hip-hop.) Carlena gets the “by the way, I had a horrible childhood” vignette, presumably because the producers realized that after the judges lectured her for being bitchy they needed to counter that so that voters wouldn’t treat her like the plague. Anyway, the crowd went absolutely apeshit for this, which isn’t surprising because Carlena and Boneless absolutely murdered Steve Bolton’s choreography, and I think the last time I wrote that about a hip-hop routine on SYTYCD was when Alex Wong and Twitch danced off in season 7, and that is sort of cheating because it was Twitch, who was proven and professional talent by that point. (Aside: when is Twitch going to get to do choreo for a show? He deserves a shot if he wants it.)
Teya and Kevin: contemporary. (Teya: hip-hop, Kevin: contemporary.) There’s a sort of point where a non-trained dancer can hit when they’re doing technical choreography that I really love seeing (and this goes for other genres as well): they’re not doing extensions in the way that a trained dancer does, but they fall into the dance and work it to the best of their abilities, and it becomes something special, which is the reason to watch this show in the first place. Pasha hit it in season 3 USA, Demi hit it in season 1 Australia, Legacy hit it in season 6 USA, and Teya hit it here. Kevin was extremely good, justifying his inevitable fan-favorite status (as he’s been auditioning since season 1, and lost sixty pounds over the four years as he pursued dancing – really, the visual contrast is striking). Stacey Tookey’s choreography here was more what I expect out of a “standard SYTYCD choreography” mode than her first piece, but that didn’t make this not good.
Lauren and Rodrigo: cha-cha. (Lauren: Latin ballroom, Rodrigo: hip-hop.) GUSTAVO MOTHERFUCKING VARGAS routine, oh yes, and his choreo did not disappoint, but if we are being truthful this is the sort of routine that the term “hot mess” was invented to describe. The performance quality was off the charts: this really felt like a genuine club performance and Lauren and Rodrigo have insane amounts of chemistry., and Lauren can cha-cha like nobody’s business. However: Rodrigo wasn’t doing a cha-cha here. He was doing this sort of weird synthesis of hip-hop with a little Latin flavour and some purely animalistic movement, and I can’t call it good cha-cha in conscience, but it was extremely entertaining, and I suspect that since he took his shirt off the teen girls will be voting for him in force.
Geisha and Adam L: new disco. (Both contemporary, but Adam clearly has some b-boy roots.) OH GOD IT’S MY FAULT I SAID “NEW DISCO” AND IT’S LIKE WHEN YOU SAY “CANDYMAN” THREE TIMES. Yes, it’s another Melissa Williams routine, and I’ll say again that “new disco” is just an uneven fusion of jazz and disco that veers back and forth between focusing on one or the other depending on who’s dancing it, and why can’t Melissa Williams stop trying to make “fetch” happen? Geisha and Adam did as well as could be expected with it, for what that is worth, but… yeah. The entire thing felt half-speed. (Also, I am unabashedly rooting for Geisha right now as she is a fellow Carletonian.)
Melissa and Shane: afrojazz. (Melissa contemporary, Shane jazz.) Both Melissa and Shane are tryout veterans (her four times, him three), so they are clearly pleased to be here. An excellent piece of work from Sean Cheeseman, I thought, and Melissa and Shane murdered it: their unison moves were dead perfect, their performance quality was superb and their chemistry solid. I don’t have much else to say, other than A) this was great and B) this episode contends with Australia season 2 and USA season 5 for “best opening performance episode ever.”
Probable bottom three: Denitza and JP, Yuliya and Adam L, Geisha and Adam A. Should go home: Yuliya and JP. Will go home: Yuliya and Adam L.
How about a list of recommended TV shows? Relatively new (or otherwise)? I know you do televisualist, but that’s usually commenting on whatever is on in any given week and it also seems to strive for as broad a scope as possible, it’s not really the same as a “TV you should totally see” list.
True, but the thing about “TV you should totally see” lists is that they end up being sort of redundant. I mean, am I really going to be the umpteenth person to write an article saying “you should really watch The Wire“? I wouldn’t even be the first comics blogger to write that. You need to come at it from an angle that’s at least vaguely fresh, because Entertainment Weekly does a “must watch” list every frigging year.
(Incidentally, you should really watch The Wire. All those people calling it the best show in television history? Are correct.)
So here’s my angle: call it the Baseball Team method. Nine categories, and I’ll name one show for each category.
Sitcom (three-camera)
Sitcom (single-camera)
Sitcom (British)
Drama
Drama (British)
Dramedy
Animated
“Genre”
Wildcard
There. There’s your model for recommending shows from now on. Comedy in three distinctly different styles, none of which is superior to one another – the traditional three-camera setup, the more modern single-camera comedy, and the Britcom, which by virtue of its seasonal length and cultural difference is distinct from either American model. Hourlong drama, hourlong dramedy, and Brit drama are likewise three wholly different beasts. Animated shows and genre shows genuinely differ in production and result from their less flamboyant relatives. And finally, a wildcard slot so if you can’t make up your mind between Buffy and Firefly, you can include both. (Although if that’s your big sticking point, maybe you should broaden your horizons.)
And you can’t pick The Wire, because that is cheating. Also: no Doctor Who, a show that I love but which has been enthusiastically recommended to everybody in the world now.
And my team?
Sitcom (three-camera):Newsradio. Currently available in a “complete series” boxset on DVD that is quite cheap at the price. Newsradio is a master-class in farcical comedy; its character interactions are rich and complex (one could write essays on the odd relationship of Dave and Mr. James), its cast thoroughly skilled and its writing near-perfect. Do not ignore the fifth season simply because of the tragic death of Phil Hartman; Jon Lovitz is an able replacement, the short run of Patrick Warburton as Johnny Johnson is one of the show’s best longer storylines, and some fifth-season episodes are simply brilliant even for one of the best sitcoms ever made.
Sitcom (single-camera):Arrested Development. Which, frankly, almost deserves to be sidelined for the same reason that The Wire and Doctor Who are sidelined, but it’s my game so hell with it. Arrested Development is one of those shows that writes its jokes in layers: the first time you watch it you catch the obvious jokes, then the second time you watch it you start to see the subtler ones, then the third time through you start seeing the cross-references and callbacks to jokes they’ve already written in previous episodes, and so on and so forth because this show was written more comprehensively than any comedy show I can think of.
Sitcom (British):The Inbetweeners. I decided to go with something recent here, although I was very tempted to pick The Young Ones instead – but The Inbetweeners has two things in common with that classic show. Firstly, they’re both very funny. Secondly, they’re both excellent examples of shows that simply could not get made in America. The Inbetweeners‘ central conceit of “these are the normal guys in the middle of their school’s social system, you know, the ones who aren’t total losers but also aren’t cool kids, the ones who just get by” is the sort of thing that American TV – prone to hyperbole as it is – would utterly screw up if given the chance. The Inbetweeners is funny, but it also feels like growing up in a way that many comedies about high school never do, simply because most of us were inbetweeners, when you get to it – desperately trying to get laid and failing, trying to become popular and failing, trying to rebel against the system of popularity and failing at that too.
Drama:Deadwood. David Milch’s three-season Western ran too short for almost everybody’s liking, but it really is magnificent: it’s the story of how civilization is created from scratch, how criminals are often the ones who demand social stability in order to ensure their safety, how law and politics are created and soon corrupted, how corporate capitalism comes to dominate any economic system given the chance. Plus there are cowboys and truly fantastic violence and lots of swearing (which only serves to season the fascinatingly great dialogue) and Ian McShane and Timothy Olyphant basically ensuring their careers forever.
Dramedy:The Unusuals. I know you would’ve expected me to go with The West Wing or maybe Gilmore Girls here, but I’m picking this single-season offering from two years ago which was cancelled far too soon: it’s a great cop show in that it actually shows cops doing everyday cop things. Not just homicides and drug deals and all that fancy stuff; the boring procedural work and routine calls that cops do all the time, except it made them entertaining. Great cast, too: Jeremy Renner right before he got big, Harold Perrineau, Adam Goldberg. A great little single-serving of TV.
Drama (British):Luther. Currently in its second season, Luther is the polar opposite of The Unusuals. Rather than ground itself in the mundane, Luther takes the elements of cop shows and raises them to nigh-mythic levels: Idris Elba’s title character is a bruised and battered angel, his nemesis is all but a Moriarty, his villains are deadly and just dank in a way that is exceptionally pleasing to watch. Luther is grim and serious and it never, ever tries to go for a cheap laugh to deflate itself, and in these days that’s something of a rarity – even when a character in Luther makes a clever quip, the viewer’s response is not to laugh but only to nod intently.
Animated:Eek! the Cat. Probably one of the most absurd and insane kids’ shows to ever air, and indeed often incredibly cynical, but balanced by the protagonist: Eek himself is a genuinely admirable sort of cat, noble and well-intentioned and brave, and his never-flagging good nature makes all the horrible things the show does to him all the funnier for that, making this quite possibly the only animated show to ever truly explore the comic possibilities of martyrdom as opposed to simple violence. The first season is a classic; thereafter it drops off as the show added additional characters like the Terrible Thunderlizards, who weren’t anywhere near as fun as Eek was.
Genre:Farscape. It was a tossup here between this and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and while I think DS9 hits greater heights, i think Farscape is more consistent because it’s a show that finds its voice early on and sticks with what works for it, which is high-quality space opera in the Han Solo end of Star Wars‘ tone. This show made a number of nerd careers, not least Ben Browder and Claudia Black (both of whom went on to work in the Stargate franchise, effectively playing their Farscape characters but with different names), and worked imaginatively with a relatively low budget thanks to the brilliance of the Henson Company’s effects wizards. The ending is a bit rushed, as the show had to compress the planned fifth and final season into a four-hour miniseries, but it still works. Farscape was playing with genre conventions early on and never stopped for its entire run, and its odd quirks (including Harvey, the villain inside the hero’s head) made it all the more unique.
Wildcard:Titus. Christopher Titus’ eponymous comedy, a mix of single-camera and three-camera, was dark. It was very dark. His character’s mother was a violent, paranoid schizophrenic, and the show never lost sight of the seriousness of that fact even while getting maximum utility out of it for comedic purposes by letting Titus both love and fear her simultaneously; his father, played by Stacy Keach (in probably that actor’s best work ever) was a womanizing, emotionally abusive drunk but also a weirdly dedicated father. Titus is one of the most emotionally complex sitcoms ever made; it’s also brutally funny and sometimes uncomfortable to watch. And that is why it is great.
Your guest judges this week are Carmen Electra, who is useless and not even slightly adorable, and Travis Wall, who is so busy trying to be nice that he ends up coming across like a giant kiss-ass, to the point where contestants are actively making fun of his judging while he’s doing it, but at least he’s doing his best to give actual constructive criticism.
(Incidentally, So You Think You Can Dance Canada announced its top 22 this week (yes, a top 22, it’s a repeat gimmick), and for those wondering: five hip-hop, five ballroom, twelve contemporary/jazz (and the bulk of final cuts at the Walk of Doom stage were hip-hoppers). See, it is entirely possible to have a style-diverse cast for this show. You just have to admit that styles other than contemporary are worth performing well, and that training in hip-hop and ballroom is as important as training in jazz and ballet. I’m hoping downloads will eventually show up for the later episodes of the show, because the auditions this year were, as always, insane, and I’d like to do another compilation for the Americans.)
Top seven boys: contemporary. Chris was seriously behind in the unison section for a bit, but other than that this was a really good group routine.
Melanie and Marko: jazz. Technical routine #3 (out of four) so far for Melanie and Marko, and that will be a theme tonight. But this was interesting, because generally so far my opinion of M&M has been that they are excellent dancers dancing choreography that could be better, and tonight I thought the choreography was excellent (Ray Leeper can stick around; he is cool beans!) and Melanie and Marko were both subpar as compared to their previous work. Melanie seemed to be dancing as if she was wearing lead weights for parts of the routine, and Marko was visibly off-balance at several points in the routine. It wasn’t bad by any stretch, but after watching a very strong couple for three weeks I have to say that this was a bit of a stumble.
Sasha and Alexander: hip-hop. Nigel complained that this was basic, and the judges were critical of it, and god knows there’s nobody I trust more for hip-hop criticism than the people who thought Evan could dance hip-hop in season five. I agree that it was pretty straightforward, but it was also charming choreography by Shaun Evaristo (and I hope the whining doesn’t kill his chances for more work, because I thought this was a decent start) and hearing Nigel and Mary complain about a lack of “swag” after jizzing their pants over god knows how many routines that barely had a beat to them makes me just shake my head a lot. However, they were correct that Alexander barely has any style. Sasha was predictably good.
Jordan and Tadd: waltz. Wait, again? I mean, giving all-technical couples jazz and contemporary all the time, that’s just predictable, but giving Jordan and Tadd the waltz twice in the first four episodes? Yeeesh. And this was barely a waltz; Jordan didn’t waltz at all, honestly, she was just doing her contempo-stuff the whole way through, and there was, what, maybe four seconds total of closed hold? Tadd, meanwhile, has really lovely rise and fall and sway, and he is a B-boy. Mary explains that this is American smooth waltz, but even in American smooth waltz you hold your partner for more than four frigging seconds.
Clarice and Jess: contemporary. (Three of four technical dances, again.) Okay, I’m going to admit that Jess has basically completely changed my initial opinion of him, which is that he was a one-note Broadway dancer who couldn’t partner and also had a sort of douchebag aura. This is two weeks in a row where Jess has partnered Clarice excellently, and this was reminiscent of hip-hop, the movements were so sharp. (But only reminiscent. When I complain that a lot of the hip-hop contemporary dancers perform on this show isn’t aces – consider its similarity to this and you start to get the idea.) Clarice was great. Justin Giles’ choreography was excellent and I want to see more of his work on the show, between this and the opening boys’ number. This was just good on numerous levels.
Ashley and Chris: salsa. This was extremely vanilla with occasional flashes of style and flavour, which is more or less how I would describe everything Ashley and Chris ever do on this show: they are technically sound (apart from their hip-hop thus far), but neither of them seems terribly able to really perform (as opposed to executing steps correctly) outside of their comfort zone. (Ashley hasn’t even done an enthralling solo so far.) Travis tries to say “I love you guys” approximately seven thousand times to make up for saying that they were boring and bland, and the crowd goes apeshit with booing because the judges never say anything negative any more and they’re not used to hearing even mild criticism. They should have been eliminated already, but they probably will be this week because literally every other couple got a genre they’d already done well in, which makes me think that Nigel – who is really about as subtle as a lead weight – is trying to fix things as he sees fit.
Nancy Travis Junior and Ricky: jazz. Hey, it’s a new choreographer! His name is Chucky, which I could not make up if I wanted to do. It is a zombie routine. It is a mostly boring routine. The judges jizz over it being “original,” but it is a zombie routine, and I think at this point it must be like the 75th zombie routine in SYTYCD history, and it has all the same ripoffs from “Thriller” that just about every zombie routine has these days; ostensibly this is a fashion-zombie routine, which could have been amusing but absolutely nothing gets done with that concept so: fuck it, this routine sucked. Ricky was predictably decent, dancewise. Ryan was surprisingly mediocre (that last pirouette was just ugly as she came out of it), but as anybody who follows the show-gossip knows, she is a Judges’ Favourite, much like Lauren in s3 (and for the same reason, as she has worked as an assistant for SYTYCD choreographers previously), and that means she gets praised to the moon for wholly unremarkable work and, it seems, for managing to not smile crazily through the entire routine. Indeed, she gets praised for inhabiting her character, but, again, it is a zombie routine: hundreds of people inhabit the character at every zombie march because it isn’t a character, it’s just moving in a certain sort of way and groaning a little, so performing it is not some sort of amazing achievement. Nigel compares it to the classic Wade Robson zombie group routine from season two, which: no, not even a little bit. And come to think, at least Lauren danced numerous styles and showed competence in them: Ryan has had jazz twice, contemporary, and one lyrical hip-hop which was, shockingly, more lyrical than hip-hop. Ryan is not the new Lauren. She is the new Mollee. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Caitlyn and Mitchell: contemporary. The first two-thirds of this did absolutely nothing for me; it was very standard SYTYCD contemporary, your flowing clothes and your paired leaps and your ecstatic expressions, danced very well by both of them and absolutely nothing anybody will remember three weeks from now. The last thirty seconds were some genuinely impressive choreography, though, including a set of lifts that were spectacular and a really nice end position. The judges fall over themselves to proclaim it the Best Routine of the Night, which it wasn’t in any qualitative sense (Clarice and Jess had it all over this), but it was certainly, of all the routines, the most predictably So-You-Think-You-Can-Danciest, danced by a couple who are both technically trained and who between them have danced one routine (last week’s samba) outside of their comfort zone.
Top seven girls: jazz. This was good.
Probable bottom three: Ashley and Chris, Ricky and Ryan, Sasha and Alexander. Should go home: Ashley and Chris. Will go home: Ashley and Chris.
Your guest judges this week are Lil C and Kristin Chenoweth, which makes me think they have the judge-choosing equivalent of a roulette wheel somewhere and it broke, but both of them are insightful and eloquent and make Nigel’s terrible jokes a little more bearable, and the prospect of seeing strong dancers eliminated in favour of Yet More Contemporary Dancers Who Have No Shot At Winning No Matter How Pimped They Are a little less bothersome. But only a little. Yes, I am bitter about last week’s eliminations.
Group dance: Broadway. This was terrible awkward choreography, one of the worst Broadway pieces Tasty has ever put together, and he has put together some goddamned doozies.
Sasha and Alexander: contemporary. Sasha straight-up murdered this for the second week in a row. Alexander continues to be the less-comfortable Robert for me, and again: that’s saying something. He was better than last week because he was in his comfort zone this week, but I don’t quite feel comfortable saying he looked great. I really liked Dee Caspary’s choreography here: it was contemplative and original and fresh on a show that’s often gotten stale in recent years.
Caitlyn and Mitchell: samba. Caitlyn’s costume was just a disaster here: she had good carriage and worked her body superbly, I think, but all the floofy stuff wiggling around her made it almost impossible to see her dancing. Mitchell did quite well for somebody who didn’t have a lot to do – seriously, go back and watch it again and see how much, well, standing he was doing – but what he actually got to do was excellent. I didn’t really like the routine that much (Jean Marc is capable of much better, unless it turned out that Mitchell really needed to stand around a whole lot), but I thought they did a good job with what they were given.
Miranda and Robert: Broadway. So that’s Tasty 1-for-2 then tonight, I guess, since this was… okay! Not great – I think Tyce diverged a little too much from his music (especially for a Broadway routine) and it got distracting. And I think it was pretty basic, for the most part. But it was okay. Robert and Miranda were both game and threw themselves into it, and it was okay. I am using the word “okay” a lot, which is probably condemning with faint praise, but whatever. I didn’t hate this. It was there. For Tasty doing Broadway, that is practically a victory.
Melanie and Marko: hip-hop. Marko and Melanie are exceptional actors in a way that most dancers on this show just aren’t, first off – they embodied their characters wholly. That having been said, although I thought this was excellent, I didn’t think it was excellent hip-hop. Excellent jazz-with-beats, definitely, but whatever, at this point when I see an honest-to-god hip-hop routine on SYTYCD it’s A) a novelty and B) most likely going to be bad since they fill seasons with winsome modern dancers who can barely hit a beat. But Melanie and Marko can clearly both hit beats (although it’s worth noting they don’t sync up perfectly; Marko hits his beats very crisply and Melanie is more fluid, so despite the fact that neither is dancing offbeat they appear a little bit askew). So basically I can’t wait until they actually get to dance a hip-hop routine!
Ashley and Chris: jazz. Sonya went outside her usual bag of tricks here, and that’s good to see. But this was so bland and lifeless. Ashley and Chris again dance out of sync and again just don’t have any snap to their movements (and Sonya’s routines need that sharp quality more often than not). Neither of them are going to win: hopefully they go this week.
Clarice and Jess: foxtrot. Jess is dead-on once again when they dance apart; when they’re together… not so much. He was a lot better this week than last, since he didn’t blow the lift and as the routine progressed he really seemed to get comfortable with it, but man, that first closed hold he was so stiff! Clarice is good as always in her sort-of-generic way.
Ryan and Ricky: contemporary. Ryan’s smile keeps sneaking onto her face and it’s so goddamned distracting, which is a shame because her movement was so excellent otherwise. Ricky was excellent. This was good, in the sort of personality-free way that all the routines this season seem to have – my god, the dancers this season are so bland, I have trouble imagining a top four that would get me excited to watch the season develop. Melanie, Marko, Tadd and Sasha, maybe? Maybe? Euuuurgh. It makes me think that Jess is popular only because people can remember that he has a schtick and he isn’t fucking up too much.
Jordan and Tadd: hip-hop. My god, this was appallingly bad choreo. Just… yeesh. Tadd was excellent throughout, and demonstrated what could be done with actual hip-hop dancing on this show before Tabbynaps decided it would be more fun to have him put on and take off shirts and bounce on a bed. Jordan: see aforementioned comment about dancers this season being so frigging bland.
Group dance: contemporary. This was fine, and that’s all I’ll bother saying about it, because, really – this show’s genericness is just depressing. The formula is clear: one Latin ballroom per week, one standard ballroom per week, and the rest is contemporary or jazz (hip-hop is virtually dead on the show at this point). Bland bland bland bland bland.
Probable bottom three: Ashley and Chris, Miranda and Robert, Ryan and Ricky. Should go home: Ryan and Chris. Will go home: Ashley and Chris.
Your guest judge this week is Debbie Reynolds, who is dance royalty and also completely blah as a judge. BRING BACK THE CHOREOGRAPHER JUDGES ALREADY PLEASE AND THANK YOU.
Nancy Travis Ryan and Ricky: jazz. Mandy Moore Does The Eighties Volume 844; nothing particularly interesting about the SOOPASEXY choreography, but then again I watch the Canadian show where this sort of thing is just weak tea. Ryan continues to smile through her entire performance and it’s just crazily distracting at this point; she no longer seems exuberant and instead is giving off serial-killer-in-denial vibes, and her dancing isn’t special enough that I care to look past that. Ricky continues to impress me much more than I thought he would.
Caitlyn and Mitchell: contemporary. Stacey Tookey’s choreography can just sometimes be so smart, like here where she clearly designed it with camera angles in mind – that first sequence with both chairs in focus was just so goddamned visually striking. Mitchell and Caitlyn were both just completely solid in this and I was thoroughly happy with it.
Missy and Wadi: cha-cha. This was… not that good. There is a certain swagger to cha-cha, a flick of the hips (beyond the wiggling Jean-Marc was showing off in the practice – and incidentally, notice that Vincent from SYTYCD Canada s2 was one of their trainers) and snap of the toes that Wadi just did not have, making the striding portions of this look like very basic walking, and his general carriage was not there either, which had the effect of making the entire dance feel like it was moving at half speed. Missy was better, but strictly okay, and not nearly so amazing as the judges claimed; she was in “would have made an acceptable partner for a blazing ballroom expert” territory and not much more, and she had the same lethargy that Wadi did for large stretches.
Iveta and Nick: Bollywood. All I can say about Bollywood most of the time is “I don’t know how to critique this style.” In this case, I can add that Nick and Iveta were off-sync at least twice during the routine, although they resynced quickly enough. Nigel does whatever is the opposite of soft-selling by pointing out that Joshua and Katee did it better “but they were in the top ten,” which A) cunningly implies that Nick and Iveta aren’t top ten material and B) is wrong, since at that time Joshua and Katee were in the top twelve. Thanks, Nigel!
Miranda and Robert: hip-hop. This routine didn’t gel for me, and I place that mostly on the choreo since it just felt kind of aimless and unfocused and didn’t go anywhere; no sense of build to this routine. It just meandered. Robert and Miranda were both good at it, though (Miranda’s somersault flub aside). Nigel exclaims that Miranda gave one of the best hip-hop performances a contemporary dancer has ever given on this show, which… no. Not even in the top ten. She was respectable, though.
Clarice and Jess: contemporary. Jess is terrible at close partnering. Terrible. He is awkward in close holds and his lifting was terrible (at one point he very nearly stumbled). When he dances alone he’s really very good: his timing is near perfect, his centre is, as previously mentioned, absolutely insane (he is up there with Danny from season 3 for flawless pirouettes) and his moves are crisp and just snap into place so well. But he’s not good at partnering, and if you can’t do lifts on this show why even bother? However they are probably safe considering the screaming from the tween brigade.
Jordan and Tad: Viennese waltz. This was quite nice. Was it as good as the judgegasm? No, not quite. But it was good, and both dancers acquitted themselves well. That is all.
Melanie and Marko: jazz. The first two-thirds of this routine were staggeringly good – just amazing dancing from both Melanie and Marko (who are a really excellent partnership), but additionally Mandy Moore’s choreo was actually very clever and original and fun. The last third of it (pretty much the point where the music shifted into full-on house)… kinda went nowhere, choreographywise, but Melanie and Marko were still quite good in it even though Marko briefly lost his prop-hat. This was a strong piece of work all around, though, and excellent dancing.
Sasha and Alexander: hip-hop. Much, much better choreo for this Tabbynaps piece than their first this evening. Sasha absolutely destroyed this: just incredible technique and performance. Alexander’s effort was unfortunately visible and his technique not on par with Sasha’s by any measure – he didn’t blow any moves but the technique was lacking, and he tried to make up the difference with facial acting. Still, this was fine, albeit mostly because of Sasha.
Ashley and Chris: Broadway. Spencer Liff is so much more welcome to see than Tasty. Seriously, one hears “Broadway” and you just start wincing, and then… hey, not Tasty! This was fun choreo, well outside of the standard SYTYCD box in a lot of ways – I especially liked the various interactions with the bars, which were more varied than I expected. Ashley and Chris, for what it is worth, danced it quite well. Perfectly decent on all levels.
Probable bottom three: Miranda and Robert, Missy and Wadi, Clarice and Jess. Should stay: Clarice and Wadi. Will stay: Missy and Wadi.
Your judges are Nigel, Mary, and an embarrassing miscut to backstage Megan Mullally, who is apparently a superfan with dance history so… why not, I guess.
Jordan and Tadd: afro-jazz. Always glad to see Sean Cheeseman get work, but he can do so much more than afro-jazz. Still, the American show is all about niches. The piece was okay; the lifts were a bit laboured but Jordan and especially Tadd really seemed to find their groove as it progressed. All three judges are nonspecifically pleased.
Sasha and Alexander: contemporary. Your standard Travis, which means Mia Michaels-lite (although he’s starting to develop his own identity – but it’s kind of hyperactive, which I’m not sure I like, because when he’s better than that he’s really better than that). Sasha’s transitions here were excellent. Alexander… reminds me a lot of Robert from last season, except perhaps not with all of Robert’s technique, and Robert bored the crap out of me more often than not. Judges ding Alexander for a dull performance, but he should be fine.
Clarice and Jess: Broadway. I’m not sure if giving Jess Broadway his first week is giving him an advantage.. oh, who am I kidding, the audience eats Tasty’s stereotypical Fosse-ripoffs up with a spoon. Dull choreography, but Jess’ center is absolutely insane and Clarice reminds me greatly of Katee from season four, although of course it’s early yet (because Katee was good at everything). Judges give Jess a verbal blowjob and Nigel scolds Clarice for not being as good as Jess.
Nancy Travis Ryan and Ricky: lyrical hip-hop. The cynic in me says that they’re pushing lyrical hip-hop as a genre because the mass of contemporary dancers they get every year can’t consistently dance straight-up hip-hop well. I liked Chris Scott’s choreo, but Ryan’s performance left me cold – smiley face all the way through in what was supposed to be a “sad” routine is one thing, but her moves were just soft and although she didn’t miss anything she really didn’t hit anything either. Ricky, in comparison, did the choreo justice and then some, and that was pleasantly surprising.
Caitlyn and Mitchell Apparently An All-Star Robert: jazz. Huh, Robert. (My previous criticism of Alexander stands.) Sonya’s choreo just gets more and more repetitive with each season; she needs new tricks really, really badly. This was fine for what it was.
Miranda and Woo Man: “Latin.” Apparently “Latin” is a style now? Which is weird, because this wasn’t especially a genre-crossing dance that Jason Gilkison put together: this was ninety-five percent jive with a few swing and salsa moves (which felt horribly out of place) and would have been perfectly fine just labeled as a jive. Robert was fine; Miranda was bland and I’m not inclined to think she’ll stick around too long.
Missy and Wadi: jazz. See? Sean Cheeseman can do more than afro-jazz! Wadi is a really impressive partner: he’s athletic and strong and he looked incredibly comfortable in this, and I don’t see how he can’t be a frontrunner after this. Missy was very good and didn’t let Wadi steal the whole thing from her.
Melanie and Marko: contemporary. Obviously praised as the routine of the night, and deservedly so, but… about two-thirds of the way in, after Travis has been choreographing this simply excellent routine and avoiding all of his usual bad habits, and it’s like he just needed to let out his Travisness and be all “here’s a BIG MUSICAL MOMENT so let’s bust out the big pairs choreo” and it just felt sort of predictable in a “okay now here’s the guitar solo” portion of a 90s rock song. Which – I’m not saying it wasn’t good. It was very good. But it wasn’t perfect and it came so close, and it’s frustrating when it gets ever so nearly there. Oh, yes, Marko and Melanie were both dead-on perfect in this.
Ashley and Chris: hip-hop. They weren’t in sync for big chunks of the dance, they didn’t hit their moves hard, and they didn’t have terribly demanding choreo either. Worst routine of the night by a country mile. Judges try to soft-sell it.
Iveta and Nick: quickstep. A remarkably strong performance in one of the show’s most difficult dances: Iveta was predictably excellent and Nick was surprisingly strong, and this isn’t the first time Gilkison has choreo’d a great, entertaining quickstep either. The judges hardsell them because quickstep doesn’t draw votes sometimes, but I think it may have been unnecessary, because this was entertaining on its own right.
Predicted bottom three: Ashley and Chris, Caitlyn and Mitchell, Sasha and Alexander. Should go home: Ashley and Chris. Will go home: Ashley and Mitchell.
