So we end the season premiere of DWTS’ 25th season (and my 17th season blogging!) and I’m left feeling possibly the most vague and uncertain I’ve ever felt about a season before – about the only thing I feel fairly confident in saying is that Lindsey & Jordan will likely be the last two standing, as I’ve already expressed. But the rest of them? None of them suck terribly, per se, but not many of them really sparkle, either…at least not yet. I think we’ll get a clearer picture of where the audience’s heads are at next week, after eliminations 1 & 2, and after the celebs have had a few more dances and another week to let everything marinate.
I had to chuckle a bit when Tom announced that only (1) judge would be critiquing each couple – I think I may have said out loud “Yeah, good luck with that!”, as we all know that the judges just LOVE hearing themselves talk. And sure enough, whichever two judges didn’t get to give a full critique to a specific couple gave a quick one before throwing up their scoring paddle – Carrie Ann in particular looked like she was about to implode if she didn’t get to offer her opinion of a dance. Why they did this, I’m not sure – could have just been a time-saving measure, could have been an attempt to appease an audience that seems to grow increasingly bored of the judges’ pious soap-boxing – but I’m glad they did it, because probably 80% of what the judges say anymore seems like scripted filler. Less talky. More dance-y. Me likey 🙂
Wish I could say I was as pleased with the scoring, which on the whole seemed to error on the conservative side, and wasn’t always what I would consider congruent with the quality of dance we were seeing. There may be an agenda in play – particularly with regards to our married couple(s) and possibly Jordan – but like so many other things, I don’t think it will become fully clear until we’ve gotten a few weeks under our belts and can identify some patterns. The score distribution is pretty dense, though – seems like a good chunk ended up in the 17-19 point range. And having scores bunched up so closely can often lead to some unexpected eliminations…
…other observations? I thought Erin looked stunning last night – for once, her dress was on-point. The whole “married couple vs. married couple!” schtick has already worn thin and has reached the point of beating a dead horse…and we’re only in week 1! Unfortunately, I don’t see it ending until one of them goes home – and that could be awhile. Opener was cute and fun, but not really all that different from the past few seasons’ openers we’ve seen – not sure there’s a whole lot else they can do to keep things fresh.
Just a reminder for those of you that have been here before, and a crash course for those that haven’t: the power rankings are NOT just a ranking of who danced the best, or who is the most popular, or who has the most fans, etc. It’s a comprehensive ranking, where I try to take into account scores, memorability, popularity, running order, technique, etc. – basically anything and everything that could affect whether a couple stays or goes. Top of the list are the couples I think are the LEAST likely to get eliminated; bottom of the list are the ones I think are most in danger of getting eliminated. So please – don’t be “that guy/girl” that shows up in the comments and starts in with “Your rankings are wrong, [insert couple here] scored better than [insert another couple here], so they should be higher in your rankings!” It’s not all about the scores, folks – we appreciate nuance around here 🙂 Shall we begin? Read more..
