PureDWTS Season 29, Week 6 – Power Rankings
Just for the record – I really have no idea what I’m doing anymore 😛
I mean, I obviously know how to write, and I know how to look at dances and determine whether they are decent or not; I guess I mean the conclusions I’m drawing are basically a roll of the dice these days, because the results of this show aren’t really making much sense to me anymore. In what universe does an Olympic figure skater somehow tumble into the bottom two with a Superbowl champ, while reality stars with marginal dance skills end up safe??? Last night’s results would have been unheard of ten years ago on this show – hell, even three years ago on this show. Granted, Vernon was not as adept as the majority of the NFL players we’ve had on this show, and Johnny got RIDICULOUSLY low-balled on his score this week – but I guess the only conclusion I can reasonably draw is that not many people are actually voting (or voting consistently), and it’s causing the results to become unpredictable from time to time. There’s also the fact that you can now vote ten times PER COUPLE, per voting method, which I think is muddling things – where people used to have to put all their eggs in one basket, they can now put the same amount of eggs in multiple baskets; this only adds to the total number of points (and thus diminishes the power of each vote) and just seems to result in the needle not moving as much when you combine scores and votes. Add to this the fact that TPTB seem intent on keeping Monica (or Val) around despite a mediocre performance thus far, and I’m not sure what to make of things anymore. I feel like the “perpetual present” that the pandemic has left us all stuck in is seeping into every aspect of my life: it’s hard to think about what’s going to happen in the future, when each day just seems like an interminable NOW with no end in sight. Christ, this pandemic has made me nihilistic.
So we’re past the halfway point of the season, and we’ve eliminated 1/3 of the cast – so what type of narrative seems to be taking shape for the finale? Hard to say. For once, I don’t feel confident claiming any one person will for sure win – I tend to think Kaitlyn (and probably AJ, too – unless they fall into the bottom together) are likely going to get saved by the judges no matter what, but when it comes to winning…all bets are off. Will Nev make the finals? Maybe…maybe not. Nelly, Justina, and Jeannie are all big question marks for me, too – I think it’s equally possible that any of them make the finals or get eliminated just short of them. My gut says they can’t protect Monica forever, and if Skai keeps having off-weeks, I don’t think she sticks around, either. No idea what to make of Chrishell anymore, as it feels like Gleb could walk center stage and take a dump and still get glowing reviews for their routine. And is Johnny being set up as a shock elim in the coming weeks??? Could be…or last night could have been an anomaly. And despite Derek usually making the right call, my confidence in the judges this season choosing the correct couple when saving from the bottom two has waned – I tend to think they may be getting instructed to “make things interesting” from the control room, and may vote in a way that they wouldn’t normally. Hence, Carrie Ann’s (downright idiotic) choice to save Vernon & Peta over Johnny & Britt.
So Derek graced the DWTS stage for the first time in 3 years, and I daresay that was probably the only glimmer of hope DWTS has for a possible choreo Emmy nomination next summer – and given that perennial heavy-hitter SYTYCD did not air this year, it’s possible DWTS could eke out a nod along with some of the routines from World of Dance. Or who knows, maybe they won’t even bother to nominate anyone in that category – seems like a very 2020 outcome 😉 Loved this paso, and it felt like the culmination of all the years Derek spent using DWTS and the MOVE tours as a “test kitchen” for some of his wilder choreography ideas. Paso was always his favorite dance to choreograph, so the choice made sense; it was also nice to see how far Hayley has come in her ballroom and Latin technique, as some of her early days dabbling in it were a bit…shaky. I daresay her Latin technique bests Allison’s now, though, so if they ever went shopping for female pros again in the future (if there is one…), I think she’s a logical choice.
As most of us had predicted, Vernon left us this week – and while it was disappointing, I caught a bit of his GMA appearance this morning, and he seemed to have a very upbeat attitude about his elim, and was generally grateful for the experience. I think he had plateaued in terms of his dancing, too, so I don’t know that he would have fared well when they would have started doing 2+ dances per week. Glad he got to go out on a positive note, though – his cha-cha was a fun tribute to his grandpa and I think he had a lot of fun.
1.) Kaitlyn & Artem – Ok, I’ve got to rant about something that I see a lot in sambas on this show that I like to refer to as “salsa cheating”: a series of moves with more of a salsa vocabulary, appropriated for a samba routine to minimize the amount of time spent doing actual samba steps (because, let’s face it – they’re tricky). I feel like the first half of Kaitlyn’s samba consisted mainly of salsa cheating, which, while entertaining, isn’t really samba; the back half was mainly legit samba, but I feel like Artem deliberately shied away from doing anything that would show a lot of hip action (or lack thereof). It was a decent dance, overall, but it seemed a tad soft, and like a lot of the contestants on this show, she never seemed to get fully in the pocket of the music. Actually agreed somewhat with Carrie Ann (who was talking back to a pre-recorded audience, by the way – “Boo all you want, people!”) that I wasn’t floored by it, and I definitely don’t think it was her best dance. I’d like to see it as a redemption dance later in the season, but I think she probably scored too high the first time around for it to make sense.
2.) AJ & Cheryl – If Kaitlyn’s samba was 1/2 salsa cheating, I’d say the majority of of AJ’s samba was salsa cheating. And he had a harder row to hoe (anybody seen our friend Catherine? 😉 ) because he had the added burden of dancing to the same song that possibly the greatest male contestant in the history of DWTS also danced to – Jordan, aka the only male contestant who ever truly nailed samba hip action and timing, in my opinion. If you watch Jordan’s foot placement and the deliberate change of weight during the whisk actions (:27-:29 mark) and traveling down the floor (:52-:54 mark), that fixation into the floor and time delay before the shift in weight is how you really get samba hip action – and almost nobody does it. Instead, we get sambas like Kaitlyn and AJ’s, that feel more like they do a wishy-washy skim along the floor rather than truly planting and committing to foot placement. Did he have good energy? Sure. Was the routine overall entertaining? Yes. But I’m not gonna pretend it was a fantastic samba, especially since the bulk of it was mainly salsa. The AJ love boat from the judges doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon, but I’m not on board.
3.) Nelly & Daniella – After last night, I daresay Nelly might end up taking more of the Rob Kardashian trajectory this season – it was around this same time in season 13 that Rob came to realize “Hey, I can actually dance. And it’s fun!” I think the most drastic transformation I saw was his arms – he’s actually extending them nicely now! A far cry from the karate-choppy moves we saw in his paso a few weeks ago. Still got some frame issues and his feet are still a bit stompy (and I wish he’d ditch those dance sneakers for some real Latin shoes), but really – I see progress, and potential. And I think Daniella is hitting a nice stride with her choreo and how she’s teaching Nelly – they may have bumped heads a bit a few weeks back, but I think they’ve had enough time to get acquainted that they’re past the head-butting stage and now in the synergy stage. And given that Nelly has yet to hit the bottom 2, it seems like he could ride this wave of improvement all the way to the finale, if he’s able to maintain the momentum.
4.) Nev & Jenna – Ok, so I’ll lead with this: I actually love routines that are corny but self-aware. It’s high art to me when a couple dances a silly routine and you can tell they know it’s totally silly as they’re doing it. I think where this routine suffered was in the fact that I couldn’t tell if Nev & Jenna were doing this jazz routine ironically or seriously; at some points, I found myself saying “Oh, this is totally satire!” and at other times I said “Hmmm, they did that with a straight face – are they being serious?” Granted, the song was ridiculous; I feel like Jenna had no choice but to go a bit of the corny route with this one. But I think I would have liked it better if they went full-tilt silly with it – like exaggerated face-pulling, even more ridiculous costumes, and even more ridiculous moves. I complain a lot about “contemporary by numbers” routines that fall into the trap of overusing tired, flaily contemporary moves; this felt a bit like “jazz by numbers”, and something a 12-year-old girl might do at a dance competition. Jazz is not a style in which I trained heavily back in “my day” (I think I took maybe two, semester-long intro to jazz classes), but when I’m calling out amalgamations of steps fifteen years after I took those classes (“Flea flicker! Piroutte! Leap turn! Plie!”)…perhaps the routine is a bit too garden-variety. And it was a bit too heavy on the straight 8-counts for me to take seriously 😉 Was it fun? Sure. Did Nev dance it well? Yes. But did I feel inspired or super impressed by it? Meeehhhhh. But the idjits on YouTube seem to be eating it up, so I guess it was overall a win for them.
5.) Justina & Sasha – First things first: why did they put Justina in a perfectly lovely gown, THEN attack it with spare Muppet parts? I hated the damn feather flourishes on it – just looked cartoonish and excessive. But really, Justina could probably wear an Adidas track suit out on the floor and still look elegant, just by virtue of her movement. Nothing trips this woman up – every dance looks like something she’s been doing for years, and she’s just having a great time doing it. Thought her arm extensions looked lovely, and I actually did see her foot come off the floor during that spin – but the fact that Carrie Ann couldn’t even tell if she saw it or not just serves to illustrate that the rule is inane and pointless. And while I love that women are feeling inspired by seeing a “curvy” girl like Justina thriving on the show, I wish that her size/shape was something that people didn’t even notice, since she’s such a good dancer – body positivity is good, but I’m more on the “body neutrality” train these days: why are we even paying attention to peoples’ bodies in the first place? If you’re talented, you’re talented, whether you’re a size 0 or a size 22. But anyway – I’m glad these two still appear to be getting votes, and I hope they get a tango or paso soon – I feel like Justina could slay either one.
6.) Jeannie & Brandon – I was pleasantly surprised by Jeannie again 🙂 I give the hip action on her rumba a 7/10, but it was her legs that were blowing me away – she was just placing them so nicely and creating nice lines with them. Arm extensions are improving – only saw maybe one thrown-away line. Loved her story and how emotional she got talking about her family’s fleeing from Vietnam and making it to the US against near-impossible odds. Also loved her rumba costume – gave me Marilyn Monroe vibes 🙂 Not much else to add here – like Nelly, she seems to be growing and improving incrementally each week, which gives her a good trajectory in the back half of this season.
7.) Chrishell & Gleb – I actually thought this was Chrishell’s best dance, and I’d stake my life on the opinion that Gleb likely didn’t choreograph it himself. I know Gleb has utilized outside choreographers before (off the top of my head, he did it for Kenzie & Sage’s freestyle during Juniors), and whoever did this routine seemed to have a deeper understanding of contemporary choreo than our buddy Gleb. Sure, it was angsty and flaily, like most contemporary routines, and I wouldn’t consider it groundbreaking or particularly memorable in the grand scheme of DWTS; but it was generally pleasant, and not over-sexed or chock-full-o-lifts like we had predicted we might see from Gleb. Chrishell handled it reasonably well, and this was the first week I thought I saw overall improvement in her dancing. But here’s my question: is Chrishell’s secret weapon that she has a different sad story lined up for each week? Yes, it was incredibly sad that her parents died so close together, and my heart goes out to her; but at this point, she’s told us about growing up poor one week, freezing her eggs because of her divorce in another week, and now her parents dying. And she still has yet to really talk about the divorce. Last week, she had no sad story and a pretty abysmal dance; I think she was saved by the fact that nobody seemed to really care about Jesse and Vernon was plateauing. It seems to me that she only has these “great” dances in weeks where she’s had a sad story to tell, and she’s also running out of slow dances in which to express these sad feelings – she’s already crossed rumba, waltz, foxtrot, and contemporary off her list; unless they give her Viennese waltz at some point, it’s all high-energy and aggressive dances from here on out, and the only two energetic dances she’s done (tango and cha-cha) have been…marginal. Your move, Gleb – can your girl actually dance? Or is she just a storyteller?
8.) Skai & Alan – Oof. If Skai managed to recover gracefully after her samba flub in week 2, she kinda crashed and burned this week 🙁 She seemed to go wrong once, and it just led to a series of flubs that she only seemed to recover from in the last few bars of the routine. If I had to guess what the big issue was, it was turns – Skai seemed to lose track of the first one, then it was just a domino effect from there. She may just be a chaotic turner – maybe Alan needs to work on spotting, or just reduce the number of turns in her routines. Part of me wonders if she just gets Candace Cameron-Bure-level stage fright – the minute she makes a mistake, it’s deer-in-the-headlights and she struggles to get back on track. But she got the votes to keep her safe (despite a dismal score), so that ought to help boost her confidence in the future. Loved the costume, though – she looked like a little pixie with the pastel wig and matching makeup.
9.) Johnny & Britt – While last night’s dance may not have been Johnny’s strongest, it certainly was better than the 22 points the judges gave it – only one point better than Vernon’s cha-cha where he went off-time more than once? And only 4 points better than Skai’s cha-cha where she was missing a lot of steps? Ridiculous. I know I said last week that I thought Johnny might have been running away with the votes, but that clearly isn’t the case; or he was running away with them last week, but people either got complacent this week or felt like they had to throw votes to other couples that may have been in trouble (I’m thinking Skai) and it ended up actually hurting Johnny a bit. I do remember hearing from Deep Throat in previous seasons that vote totals could vary wildly from week to week – back in season 22, by the time we reached the semifinals (when Nyle, Wanya, Ginger, Paige, and Antonio remained), each of the remaining semifinalists had been the highest vote-getter at some point in the previous five weeks; and in season 21, I vaguely remember someone from the final four being low man on the totem pole at some point…I looked over my power rankings but couldn’t find any reference to it, am I having a Mandela Effect moment? Anywho, I can’t really decide if Johnny’s appearance in the bottom 2 was a result of this type of wild fluctuation, or symptomatic of a bigger pattern. So the dance itself – Johnny was doing something a little loosey-goosey with his feet at times, but other than that, I was entertained. Good lifts and tricks, and I actually loved the outfits – I feel like Johnny was channeling this classic from 10-time World Latin Champ Yulia Zagoruychenko. I guess I’m hoping he knocks his dance out of the park next week, so the judges have to score him high, and he avoids the bottom two altogether; but of the remaining contestants, he and Monica are the only ones who have been saved from the bottom 2 before…and we’ve seen what happens to those who end up there more than once. So I’m predicting a Monica & Johnny bottom 2 next week, and I’m thinking it comes down to a 2-to-1 decision to keep Johnny (with Carrie Ann of course dissenting).
10.) Monica & Val – For everyone last week that wanted to give these two the benefit of the doubt and assumed that their overly-generous score was “owed to them” due to the elimination gaffe the previous week – soooo, are we sticking with that line? Because I would say the show has more than made up for the mistake, even though I don’t think they owed these two anything for it. Feeling like a broken record these days, but here it goes again: decent dance, decent technique, but it bored me to tears and lacked any semblance of showmanship. This rumba actually had a decent amount of content, too, but again – it didn’t make me care about the dance in the grand scheme of things. Even the costume was bland. And I just don’t know why the show seems so intent on keeping Monica & Val there – she can’t possibly be the tour celeb (I highly doubt there will be a tour, and even if there were, spring is the competition season at Navarro, so Monica wouldn’t be able to do it), they aren’t doing any team/face-off dances (and even if they were, having an odd number of couples has never stopped them), and to our knowledge, there are no plans in the pipeline to have Monica host some new show on ABC (I don’t think she’d want to, and really – she’s not terribly telegenic). On the other side of the coin is Val – he is no longer the big cheese male pro he once was, and they have had no qualms with him getting booted early the past two seasons. Is he begging to be kept around so he doesn’t have to move back in with his wife? I’m seriously just spitballing, guys – it makes no sense to me. The only “meh, could be” explanation I can think of is somewhat akin to why I think Chrishell is still around: they might be waiting for Monica to talk about Jerry like they seem to waiting for Chrishell to talk about her divorce. Thing is, I think Monica’s wayyyy too smart to fall for it – she and the Navarro Cheerleaders have all given roughly the same boilerplate response about Jerry’s arrest, and then (wisely) said nothing else about it. They’re trying to distance themselves from it as much as possible, so I doubt she’s going to do some tearjerker dance about it. So again, I go back to “Why is she so important???” And are they willing to send home a better dancer(s) in order to keep her?
So who goes next? Do they continue to prop Monica up? What are our “Villains Night” predictions?
Nailed it with the Rob Kardashian/Nelly comparison.
I’m actually nervous about next weeks elimination. I’ve given up on it being Chrishell or Monica. And Johnny is the only other person whose faces the bottom 2, besides Monica, but I think we are going to get two new couples and it be labeled as “shocking” (I can already hear Tyrant and the judges saying “this is why you have to vote”). My guess is Skai, Jeannie, maybe Justina, and I’ll throw Nelly in, although I think he’s got the fan base to stick around for a while. Plus he seemed to redeem himself to some online fans by finally loosening up. He looked relieved to be called safe this week.
You have a good theory on Monica, although I hope they don’t keep her around until the finals simply because they hope she’ll spill. I actually think it’ll do her more harm than good, honestly. As for Chrishell, I’m actually surprised she hasn’t talked about her divorce, but I think that’s coming at some point. I wonder if Monica is a combo of keeping Val around after he’s had 2 early exits, and somehow she just appeals to the demo/part of some hit Netflix show and somehow her presence makes DWTS relevant as a result. I don’t see it that way, but they made such a big deal about the cast in the beginning, and how more relevant everyone was, so maybe.
My favorites this week were Jeannie (I felt her rumba was more rumba than Monica), Justina (hated the outfit though), Nelly, Nev, Skai (mess up aside), Johnny, and Kaitlyn.
As I’ve already stated, I am not invested in this show anymore. The producers have disrespected the viewers and dancers for far too long as they’ve manipulated everything to suit their agenda. Having said that, I still have some opinions based on what I’ve seen.
The only current Pros who will ever come close to Derek’s success on this show are Emma, Daniella, and possibly Artem. The technical depth of personal dance skills, work ethic, choreographic skills, assessment of partner’s strengths and needs, as well as genuine caring for the partner they have been assigned are the things that move them ahead of all the rest of the Pros. (I see a new, sensitive side to Artem, and I like it.) Since 2 of them are female and the show desperately needs a stellar male standout from the Pros (ala Derek and Mark), I believe we can expect Emma (already out)and Daniella to be “held down” a bit, while they continue to overscore Monica and Chrishell especially to keep the guys in the game a little longer. I think Kaitlyn and Artem will continue to shine and the scoring for them will be pretty appropriate. It’s got to be pretty embarassing for the show that no male Pro has consistently produced high quality work since Derek and Mark left. I don’t know why some of these male Pros still have jobs (and continue to get pimped with scoring) after several seasons of rude behavior and poor work. There is certainly a lot of talent out there to replace them with. I think the show would be better served with 2 fresh new male pros (that have star quality)that receive a “new hire orientation” from Derek on how to do their jobs well. He figured it out on his own pretty quickly, while many others are floundering after several seasons. (I am serious about this.)
They have obviously been pimping AJ and Cheryl as well as Chrishell and Monica, and I believe Jesse was thought to be taking votes away from AJ- Jesse sure got some strange song assignments, and I don’t believe there was any other reason for it. At any rate, Cheryl’s skills are not what they used to be- perhaps because of her long layoff???? AJ is not doing much actual dancing, but is sure getting favored with higher scores than appropriate.
I have not been at all impressed by Skai, Jeannie, or Nev. They don’t hold my attention when they dance. I like Johnny, but he looks very clunky to me rather than light on his feet or graceful. I do not think he has a partner who can dissect his movements and work on each of them for improvement. Nothing against Britt, but I don’t think she has enough experience. I always enjoyed watching her dance.
I am enjoying Justina’s dancing the most out of everyone, and wish they would do a better job with her costumes. Her inner joy just seems to come out with every step she takes and I love watching her and Sasha together. I hope she gets a fair shake with song assignments and judging scores. Sasha’s doing well with her.
An interesting Finals would be Justina, Nelly, and Kaitlyn and would be a nice culmination of some very good work by 3 of the best Pros. Dare I say in this turbulent time we are living in, it would also include immigrants, a Hispanic, and an African American in the mix?
Good ranking, Courtney.
Loved Chrishell’s contemporary and voted for her. I think she will stay long in the competition. She is lovable and relatable to the main demographics of the show (women 35+): divorced, trying to make on her own in the industry, fertility matters, loss of parents. The fact that she is not talking about her divorce is very classy of her. If Gleb can choreograph a good paso (thinking of Anita’s and Jana’s paso), yet simple so she can perform, they will be back on track. Even if she is just a storyteller, I am waiting for her next story 😊
My prediction for top six in no particular order: Nev, Johnny (or possibly AJ), Justina, Chrishell, Nelly and Kaitlyn.
During Chrishell’s contemporary I was hollering about how Gleb ripped off Mark’s contemporary for Candace. I rewatched Mark & Candace’s and see how they both borrow from the same contemporary tropes but unsure now if it was a ripoff or not. Super obvious though that Gleb came up with none of it himself. Before it aired tho I was wondering a little if this would be the first contemporary I see with leather pants or a shower scene, so I’m just a tiny bit disappointed Gleb went the classy and clean route lol
This is a link to what Skai’s dance was supposed to look like: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGkzn_4nrdT/
It stinks because at this point it really must be bad stage fright because if her dances looked like that on Monday night she would be getting 9s and 10s. The choreo Alan gives her is not easy. That being said I think Monday will be a turning point for her, she either figures it out or she’s going to be in serious trouble.
So I put a lot of thought into this lol. Hocus pocus with Justina as winfred and a jive would be amazing. If they somehow can work Hannibal lector into a dance that would be awesome.
The whole “we must keep Male Pro X around because he’s popular with the audience” thing doesn’t really strike me as legit anymore. And it hasn’t since the glory days of Derek, Mark and Maks – Derek in particular (and obviously, at this point) has developed his own celebrity and all around talent. But I don’t see that with any of the current men and I have a hard time believing that the producers see it at this point either. That’s the long way of agreeing with Courtney when she says Val is not the big cheese….he never was, but they tried to get him to a place that happened for Derek, Mark and Maks much more organically. And accidentally. Because this show has always been ABOUT THE CELEBRITIES, and not the pros. Pros come and go with little impact to the ratings. But the male celebrities, if the producers are wanting to appeal to the female demographic, should be where the producers are looking at this point. Which is why it makes no sense to promote Chrishell and Monica over Johnny, Jesse or even Nev. Johnny may be gay, but I think he has a huge female following.
I don’t know what I’m trying to say, actually. 🙂 Just that the ONLY reason why you would want to pimp a male pro was if they had a huge following (and bring that EVERY season) and/or were a choreographic genius that was bringing in Emmy nominations. At this point, it should be clear that ain’t happening without Derek on the dance floor. The producers aren’t totally stupid…which is why I’m trying to wrack my brain for another explanation for Chrishell and Monica.
Again I can’t help but wonder if they’re trying to keep Val as the new Tony Dovolani over Pasha. Val has lost his curb appeal, and Pasha is so new it would be a disservice to Pasha if they kept partnering him with older women. Granted if it’s another Kate Flannery then I’m in, but people think Pasha might be the new Tony. I may be one of the few, but I think Val should be and probably will be the new Tony.
PH- I have spent a lot of time on Monica, trying to figure out why they would want to keep her around, and haven’t come up with anything. On paper at least, I don’t know what her “special value” to the network or Disney could be. Is her husband connected in some way?
So my rankings are just based off on how I enjoyed the performances and not based on who I think will be most at risk of going home.
1. Justina and Sasha – beautiful, I really want her to win. She dances well, has an awesome personality, sounds like a winning combo to me!
2. Kaitlyn and Artem – totally agree it lacked attack, somehow she still dances pretty even though she looked like she was trying. Looking forward to seeing her attack a dance in the future. Would be happy if she or Justina won.
3. AJ and Cheryl – I actually really enjoyed this! The only dance where I felt he wasn’t annoying in. Previous dances have felt either attention seeking “like hey! I’m a BSB! Look at me!” or have just been subpar performances that really fall below expectations that people have of him
4. Jeannie and Brandon – So emotional, I cried watching her cry. She definitely impressed me. I thought a rumba for Jeannie would have been a fiasco but I was so pleasantly surprised. Hope to see her in the finals – I really with the judges, she’s always surprising and fun to watch
5. Nelly and Daniela – Also very pleasantly surprised by him, his arms have improved dramatically!! I think he’s finally hitting his stride and I’m happy to see that. Have a feeling he’s got a strong fan base and we might see him in the finals if he continues on this trajectory
6. Nev and Jenna – Something about Nev bugs me. Somehow he feels a little false to me, I’m not sure why that is and I can’t quite put my finger on it exactly. But this routine was still ok, he’s not going anywhere yet I’m sure
7. Chrishell and Gleb – I actually thought this was her best performance! She’s usually my least favourite but I have to say this was a nice dance. I’m pretty sure Gleb did none of the choreo though.
8. Johnny and Britt – So sad about them this week, I thought that it wasn’t his best dance for sure, but the fall from 10,10,9 was ouch! Really drastic. So extremely shocked to see him there instead of Skai since she did get such low scores this week, honestly worried about him now. Hopefully after this week people will start voting for him again. They might have assumed he wasn’t going anywhere and voted for someone else they thought might have been in danger instead. Who knows. But I’ll be sad to lose Johnny too early in the competition
9. Monica and Val – I’m still struggling to understand this. Was that really a 27 worthy performance? I’m no dance expert, but as a viewer, it really didn’t feel like a 27 worthy performance, especially if we look at Justina, Kaitlyn and Aj’s performances. 8s were more appropriate. I really hope she goes next week, but I somehow I doubt she will because the judges will keep saving her unless she’s up against Justina, Kaitlyn or AJ.
10. Skai and Alan – Wow I’m speechless. Somehow Skai is just doing soooo much worse than o ever imagined she ever would. I remember the expectations everyone had of her going into week 1. She’s really been quite a disappointment in that aspect. This mistake was even bigger than the first one on week 2. It’s really making me wonder if it’s Skai herself or somehow the partnership with Alan this season is just really not working. If she’s dancing more scared when she does partner work versus when she’s dancing alone, it could speak to the latter. But at this point I really couldn’t care less if she just leaves next week. If she does fall to the bottom 2 next week, besides Monica and Chrishell, I hope she leaves, honestly feel like the others deserve to stay over her, they’ve all improved a lot except her (even Monica has, but I just find Monica even more boring than Skai)
Who I’m hoping is in bottom 2 next week (Monica and Chrishell) and who I’m hoping leaves is Monica. Then I hope Chrishell leaves after, followed by Skai.
My rankings this week are in order of fun I had watching/rewatching it.
1. Johnny & Britt: Fun to see salsa danced by the male in a somewhat feminine fashion on DWTS. But I do wonder a little if their dance missed out on the playup of gender stereotypes that make salsa what it is. Like I used to go to salsa meets that had drag kings in twirly pencilled mustaches and campy bow ties, playing the role of Latin Lothario with so much swagger. When I heard Johnny was assigned salsa I hoped he would do something like that and embrace, and poke fun at, the ridiculous hypermasculinity in Latin Dahnce. Instead we got strips of fringe. It looked like costume dept took the fringe off the leg lamp in Christmas Story and glue gunned a strip to Brit’s neck and Johnny’s crotch before showtime. Still loving this dance, even if Johnny’s’s not pushing out from the ball and flubbing up the framework of the dance by doing so.
2. Nev & Jenna: My mister can’t stand Nev, says he looks like Ross from Friends. Nev reminds me of a student from my college contemporary dance class. He’d sit crosslegged at the base of the lectern facing the class, and literally polished apples for our faculty on his flannel shirt. These are just some of the Nevs we’ve known, in fiction and in real life.
Even though my house hates on Nev a little, we can’t stop watching that shiny, corny jazz. It reminds me of that SNL “Fosse” sketch where Christina Applegate plays the jazz dance teacher that dated Tommy Tutone, except with Jenna in the Christina Applegate part.
3. Jeannie & Brandon: Loved that Jeannie said some Vietnamese in her package & did it again when The Ex-George Michael Music Video Model interviewed her (I feel like any publicity is good publicity for our hostess without the mostess, so I’m not typing out her real name).
4. Justina & Sasha: Watched it on mute because that song is like the brown noise when it hits that high note, and the lyrics don’t seem kind to the woman the song is about. But even on mute she looked lovely (except for the pink & blue maribou tails).
5. Nelly & Daniella: I had little faith in Nelly’s previous dances but Nelly’s country music connection is so deep, I knew it would make this dance special. It took me back to when I was DJing in the 00’s and people would ask me if I’d play Nelly. I’d say I’m glad to, but then they’d ask for this one song he made with Florida Georgia Line. Then I was like: does it look like I carry around country records with me? At this electronic music/rap gig? Like really, people!! But that’s how much country people love Nelly, and how much Nelly loves country. Glad to see it come out in the dance. Nice Rob Kardashian/Nelly comparison! I’m feelin’ it too.
Monica, Kaitlyn, AJ, Chrishell, Skai aren’t doing anything for me and I’m fine w/ any of them going home next.
Skai: she’s an adult woman in college, no longer a Disney kid that needs to be coddled with cutesy kid dances like Zendaya or Sadie when they were on the show and younger than Skai. I’m not expecting a Gleb shower dance for her, just something where Skai isn’t dancing with Alan like she’s his little niece at a wedding or staring directly into the camera. There’s no excitement for me here.
Kaitlyn: I’m not into the Bachelorette then she fell off my radar completely when she dressed like a “nerd” for 80’s night. When a very popular and attractive person pretends to be a shy ordinary-looking type with no interest in physical activity just to offset the worst break dance ever… Be nice to nerds, Kaitlyn. Chances are you’ll end up needing their votes.
Chrishell: always in the tabloids, even when she’s just walking to practice and rehearsals. I’m thinking at this point that she hires or tips off the paparazzi herself? She doesn’t wear a mask when she walks past people outside rehearsals. Plus there’s that time she injected her own ovaries on TV and I will never, ever unsee that. Chrishell can go Gleb herself!
AJ: There’s a Mr Show sketch about a boy band called 3×1-1 and that’s exactly how I feel about AJ and BSB. I sometimes just vote for Cheryl no matter who she is with because I love Cheryl, but no way with AJ and his bad attitude.
Monica: She’s growing on me since she’s been sticking it to Val, but I’m also forgetting all the details of their dances except for Val’s 80’s Night mullet.
Personality-wise, I’d prefer to keep Vernon over Monica, Kaitlyn, AJ, Chrishell & Skai. There was the briefest, funniest “WTF is that girl doing” look on Vernon’s face when he was watching Kaitlyn’s breakdance. It made me wish he’d stay longer. But he was the weakest dancer left and I’m much more glad that Johnny’s still on.
I’ve seen the Villains Night lineup and the proposed villains didn’t wow me, like I think 2-3 are leftovers from Disney Night. Also wondering why we can’t just have plain ol’ Halloween Night? Does NBC own the rights to the word “Halloween”? Or is this one of the groundbreaking changes to DWTS promised by The Woman That Played Will’s Girlfriend on Fresh Prince For Part of the Fourth Season?