PureDWTS DWTS Juniors Season 1 – Court’s Week 2 Post-Mortem
I wasn’t originally planning to do a post-mortem this week, but given the site issues we had last night (which should be fixed now – please let us know if you’re still getting a message about our security certificate being expired) and the fact that last night’s episode moved ridiculously fast, I thought I better sum up my feelings…
Trying to fit (10) dances into (1) hour was perhaps a bit ambitious. I could barely keep up on the live blog – I was trying to verbalize how I felt about a dance, while still keeping my ears peeled for what the judges were saying, and hopefully getting enough of the general gist of it before having to scramble to report the scores. Last night moved at a breakneck speed – by the end of it, I felt like I had been shot out of a cannon. Made it hard to remember all of the dances…at least last week, the pace was a bit more leisurely, so we got a chance to really get to know the couples. I worry that the shows are going to continue to be rushed for at least the next few weeks – seems like things won’t calm down a bit until they narrow it down to at least six couples.
Judging felt rushed, so not sure anyone really improved. Since the judges were just as rushed as the show was, I’m not sure there was really even room for improvement – Val’s critiques felt even less focused this week (hell, even a passing “work on your technique” would have been better than the rushed “it was good” of this week), Mandy tried to stay on-topic (but she struggled to be concise), and Adam had a couple gems but mainly just a bunch of forgettable “it was great!”-type lines. Part of me is thinking this is part of the reason why the judges picked feel like such an afterthought: TPTB knew there wouldn’t be a ton of time for them to actually judge, so they just said “F*ck it, let Val have his ‘judging’ position, throw Mandy & Adam in there, and be done with it. They’re only going to have a max of maybe 15 seconds to judge a dance, for the bulk of the season.”
However, judges’ critiques are NOT a time to call out your fellow pros for lack of content. This week, it was Cheryl on the receiving end of Val’s “tsk, tsk”-ing over lack of content. Which is borderline hilarious, considering Val has become the king of time-wasting non-dancing on the regular show, and Cheryl has far more years of this show under her belt than Val. But I digress – it’s not of ANY benefit to these kids to have the judges (or really just Val) picking on content, which they have no control over. If it really gets his goat, he can go pull the “offending” pro aside after the show to hash it out. Stick with critiquing the kids – especially since you have such a limited time to judge, anyway.
When you have TINY voting samples, unexpected things can happen. So needless to say, last night’s elim was…shocking. Shocking-ish, but when you consider that the amount of people voting is TINY compared to the regular show, it really puts things in perspective. The audience capacity of the studio is 838 people; when you take into account that friends/family of the celebs/junior pros/pro mentors cannot vote, that number gets even smaller – it may be only 500 votes total determining who stays and who goes, so it could easily come down to only one vote determining who gets eliminated. Hudson & Kami had four couples that were below them on the leaderboard, and two couples they were tied with; however, I’d argue that three of the four below them had big personalities that left a lasting impact, as did the two couples they tied with. Hudson & Kami, while being cute and doing a good dance, seemed to fade into the woodwork a bit – and this microcosm of DWTS Juniors just really re-illustrates what we’ve been saying about the voting on the regular show: you’re better off being memorable, for better or worse, than you are being quiet, compliant, and potentially forgettable. But I think they did a respectable job, as did Hayley as their mentor.
Some of the bigger personalities that aren’t such great dancers seem to be making more of an impact than the better dancers that aren’t as outgoing. The three that come to mind in particular are Alanna, Akash, & Jason – probably the three weakest dancers left, but also EXTREMELY memorable and likeable. Sophia, on the other hand, is actually a great dancer, but is so shy that she’s barely a blip on the radar. Kenzie has a weird hollowness to her dancing, where she’s doing the moves well, but almost seems robotic in her personality (kind of the same problem I’m currently having with Juan Pablo on regular DWTS). Sky, Miles, & Mandla are slowly coming out of their shells, and also dancing well; Ariana (and really, Artyon too) is just an absolute firecracker that also is a great dancer. I hear a lot of talk about Alanna, Akash, Jason, and Ariana – not so much about Kenzie or Sophia. Coincidence?
Any thoughts about last night’s show?
Here’s an interesting question. Could the dancers actually be given longer critiques than we see because it was pre-taped, and the judges comments are simply edited down to fit an hour-long show?
I know that for The Voice, contestants that took two auditions to get past the Blind Auditions have said that the judges talked with them for 15-20 minutes or longer, and their advice really helped them improve for their next try.
DWTS Juniors might be the same way.
I just can’t get into Kenzie. And putting aside any reason why, I still feel like I can’t get behind her. She just seems kind of bland, and while I know this isn’t her fault, she just looks out of place on this show. Watching her dance and then Sky go right after makes one look like a junior contestant, the other like she should be on the regular show. Again, I know being tall and looking older than her age isn’t her fault.
In all, this show is quite fun. Eliminations are rough. I’m not terribly surprised Hudson got eliminated, as I think he had the disadvantage of going early and, as you mentioned, not being a big personality, didn’t help. Alanna would no doubt last a few weeks on a regular DWTS.
The eliminations on this show make me so sad. Poor kiddos. I loved last night’s episode but I wish that it was 2 hours every week instead of one – felt super rushed. Jake is AMAZING, and I love him and Sophia together, but I fear that they may soon fall prey to being outshined by some other pairings even though I feel like Sophia is a pretty good dancer. I hope we get another season of this show, or that in a few years we’ll see Jake as a pro on the regular show!
@Justin – It’s possible, but if that were truly the case, I think some of the stuff they edited to include in the show seems a tad frivolous. I’m thinking mainly of the bulk of Val’s critique of Mandla & Brightyn being dedicated to calling out a lack of salsa content – that was really the most valuable thing they could include from his critique? I’ll have to rewatch last night’s show and see if I can find any telltale signs of editing (i.e. strange segues from judge to judge, weird audio cuts, etc.), but I think it could be a combo of both editing and just general vagueness on the part of the judges.
@Courtney: I didn’t notice any obvious “Frankenbites” in the edit, either, but they also rarely had the judges, or anyone, talk off-screen.
That’s why I brought up The Voice because is cut almost the exact same way. You rarely see the judges speak when they’re off-screen, so you’d never know unless someone at the taping reveals their tricks.
Once again, a great week of dancing! I just love the “littles”. I agree with # Kara, there is something about Kenzie. I can’t figure it out either, but she is the only one that isn’t drawing me in. She is talented, but something falls flat for me. Hopefully, that will improve as the show goes on.
The judges don’t bother me, but I do feel that Mandy is the only one that is giving actual critiques that a child can work with and understand. Adam makes me smile every now and then with his comments.
An hour did feel rushed. I need at least 2 hours of the happiness that these cuties provide. Still surprised how much hubby and I enjoy it. These kids just make us smile. So damn cute!!
@Sara – The only explanation I have for not connecting to Kenzie is this: I feel like she and Sage do the dances more like they’re doing a paid gig, than like contestants having fun and trying to learn how to dance. Some of that disconnect feels a bit like a professional dancer dancing full out and technically perfect because they’re collecting a check, but they may not be super-invested or passionate about what they’re dancing. The rest of the kids have more of an authenticity about them – you can tell they’re having fun and just enjoying the experience.
[…] It’s night 1 of the “two night Disney event” on Juniors & regular DWTS ???? I’m expecting there to be some fairly heavy-handed marketing ploys on both shows, but at the very least, on Juniors the kids’ excitement about dancing to Disney songs is a bit more sincere and fun to see. Also crossing fingers that our technical difficulties here at Pure last week are behind us, as it didn’t seem like I got much conversation on the live blog thread last Sunday. Womp womp womp. Song and dance list here, spoiler post here. If you want a recap/rundown of last week’s episode, week 2 live blog here and week 2 postmortem here. […]