Author Archives: Katie

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About Katie

I'm a writer and editor; a dancer and choreographer; and a passionate fan of more things than is probably healthy. I love film, literature, television, sports, fashion, and music. I'm proud to be a Nerdy Girl.

Daily Dose of Feelings #1

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The idea for this feature (and the idea for yesterday’s discussion of the emotional power of television) came from a recent YouTube excursion to rewatch some scenes from the series finale of Lost. One thing led to another, and I ended up sitting on my couch, crying my eyes out over one scene in particular—a scene that I’ve continued to watch for the last two weeks on a near-constant repetitious loop.

Fifty (or more) viewings later over the course of three years, the reunion between Sawyer and Juliet at the hospital vending machine still hits me the same way it did that May night when I saw it for the first time.

Even if you’ve never watched Lost, even if you have no idea who these characters are or what they mean to each other, I dare you to watch this video and remain unmoved. I’ve watched a lot of television in my almost-25 years on this Earth, and this is by far the most beautiful scene I’ve ever watched.

The background is relatively simple (for Lost at least): Sawyer and Juliet were happy and in love, and he was ready to propose before she was violently torn from his grasp by electromagnetic forces on the island, eventually dying in his arms. In this scene, both of them are wandering around a kind of “spiritual waiting room” in which they have no memory of their past life until they meet their “constant,” the person who wakes them up to the reality of their lives (and deaths). In this case, Sawyer and Juliet are each other’s constant—each other’s soulmate.

There are no words for how much this scene still fills me with a sense of pure relief and happiness. It truly feels like you’re watching two people with so much history of joy and pain finding each other after a lifetime apart. The chemistry between Josh Holloway and Elizabeth Mitchell in this scene is the standard by which I judge all other actors’ chemistry because they make me feel every intense emotion as it sweeps through them—from initial attraction to the pain of horrific memories to the speechless joy of holding one another again.

Holloway and Mitchell were truly breathtaking in this moment. I love how she falters a little when she remembers falling to her death, but what I love most is that this time he’s there to keep her from falling—and he’s not letting the chance to hold her slip through his fingers ever again. When he says “I got you, baby,” as his voice cracks, I feel like someone is stepping on my chest while simultaneously making my heart grow 15 sizes. There’s something so gorgeously intimate about it, so real. And when Juliet cries and laughs at the same time you can feel her relief like it’s your own—a relief mirrored in Sawyer’s smile, a smile so bright and so hopeful it’s like nothing we’ve seen him express before.

And don’t even get me started on the kiss. Her giddy anticipation. His passionate intensity. The most mature, honest, and beautiful love story on Lost got its happy ending—all to the sounds of Michael Giacchino’s perfect score.

In the immortal words of Juliet, “It worked.” The goal of this reunion was to remind us just how epic this love story had become and just how good these two actors were together—while making us cry buckets of tears. I’d say it worked perfectly.

The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (7/7 – 7/14)

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This week, some entertaining TV shows hit big turning points, and one hilarious new show made its mark on the summer TV landscape.

On The Bachelorette, Desiree basically admitted that she’s in love with Brooks, which should make the final batch of episodes interesting as her decision seems made already, but we all know there’s at least one more dramatic turn coming up before the last rose is given out. So You Think You Can Dance said goodbye to one contestant due to injury and another due to an elimination featuring a strong (but not quite strong enough) group of female dancers. And everyone’s favorite dysfunctional family on The Real Housewives of New Jersey provided a great cliffhanger for this week in television, as a family retreat turned violent.

None of these TV moments could compare to my favorite from this week: the premiere of Hollywood Game Night on NBC. The premise is simple but fantastic: funny celebrities + alcohol + ridiculous games. The result was something that I will be glued to every Thursday night at 10 for the rest of the summer. Where else can you see Lisa Kudrow and Matthew Perry trying to guess the salty snack in a photograph or Martin Short trying to put photos of Johnny Depp in chronological order? This is the perfect summer entertainment—fun, easy to watch, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Watch this clip and tell me you don’t want to be a part of this kind of game night:

 

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

It’s Okay to Cry: The Emotional Power of Television

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“It’s just a TV show.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told that in my life—usually while I’m crying into my sweatshirt sleeve or just letting the tears fall to the point where they end up going all the way down my neck. (I often judge the emotional resonance of something by its ability to produce these “neck tears.”)

TV shows make me cry often and they make me cry hard, but I don’t think that’s a phenomenon reserved for me alone. Even those skeptics who’d roll their eyes at my sobbing over the same episode of Alias I’ve seen 50 times (“The Telling” for anyone wondering) have almost certainly found themselves choked up over one television moment or another.

Ned Stark. Charlie Pace. Dr. Mark Green. Mrs. Landingham. Omar Little. The mere mention of those names is enough to put a lump in the throat of even the most cynical TV viewer. I don’t know a person who hasn’t been moved to tears at least once in their lives over “just a TV show.”

What is it about television that produces such a strong emotional response from its audience? Why is it that no book or film—not even The Fault in Our Stars or Toy Story 3—has been able to move me as strongly as the Boy Meets World series finale continues to move me to this day?

Television is a personal medium, an intimate medium. We let its characters into our lives and our homes for weeks that often turn into years. Books are finished within a few days (or weeks/months if it’s one of the A Song of Ice and Fire books); films end after a few hours. But television shows keep coming back. Because of this, we watch characters develop with a complexity no other medium can replicate. Those characters become a part of our lives, a part of our routines, a part of our families.

When I think of what makes television so emotionally resonant, it always comes back to the characters and the amount of time we get to spend with them. We are able to watch them grow, and we’re able to grow with them. Their journeys often inspire our own. We all have television characters we “met” at just the right time in our lives to feel like their path mirrored our own. Their successes feel like our successes, and their struggles feel painfully relatable.

Sometimes, an entire show mirrors an arc in our lives. When Alias ended, I was about to graduate from high school, and I began watching the show when I was 13. So when the final scene concluded, I cried not because of what had happened to Sydney Bristow but because the show that had been with me through the entirety of my high school years ended—just like those high school years were about to end. The Lost series finale aired the day after I graduated from college. Just as Jack Shephard had to accept that one part of his life was over and another one needed to begin, I also had to accept the end of my life as I knew it and the start of something unknown. In both of those cases, I was so thankful for the kind of catharsis only television can provide—a way to work through my emotions with characters I’d come to love over the course of many years.

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TV Time: Teen Wolf 3.06

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Many thanks to Leah for once again sharing her thoughts on Teen Wolf with all of us!

As a quick heads-up before I start: As you probably know if you watched Teen Wolf this week, this episode dealt with heavy, potentially triggering subject matter. My review will discuss some of this, as I will talk about the suicide attempts that were made by each of the characters in this episode, though I will focus on the new information we learned about them through their hallucinations more than recounting the actions of the direct attempts themselves. Please take care of yourself and judge if discussions of the events in this episode will be triggering and/or emotionally distressing to you before reading.

Title Motel California

What Happened? Jennifer Blake helps a severely wounded Derek back to his apartment, where they form a connection. Scott and the rest of the group are stuck spending the night at a creepy motel, which holds the record for being the motel with the most suicides in California. At the motel, Scott, Boyd, Isaac, and Ethan all begin to have horrifying hallucinations, and Lydia hears the last moments of people who have died at the motel.

Favorite Quotes
“I don’t like this place.”
“I don’t think the people who own this place like this place. It’s just for a night.”
“A lot can happen in one night.” (Lydia and Allison)

“Alright, so I have four.”
“Four? Seriously, you have four suspects?”
“Yeah. Seriously—ten. Well, nine, technically, I guess; I had Derek on there twice.” (Stiles and Scott)

“Scott, just listen to me okay. You’re not no one. You’re someone. Scott, you’re my best friend; I need you. Scott, you’re my brother. Alright, so…if you’re gonna do this, then you’re just gonna have to take me with you.” (Stiles)

My Thoughts First, I want to talk about our B-plot for this episode. We have Jennifer Blake helping Derek back to his apartment, where he heals a bit, they talk, and then they have sex. Personally I like Jennifer Blake—from the very little bit we’ve seen of her so far, she’s funny and at times sort of endearingly awkward, she obviously cares about her students (protecting them from the crows, telling Scott she doesn’t want to see his grades drop this year), and is seemingly sweet, or at least a good enough person to help Derek when he is dying on the ground in front of her.

However, the romance between her and Derek feels off somehow—their connection has felt rushed and has been given the appearance of more emotional depth than I feel the two truly have with each other, and for Derek “I don’t trust anyone” Hale to be trusting someone so much when he knows so very little about her seems quite unusual. All of which leads me to wonder if it is supposed to truly be a romance at all, or whether their scenes this episode were merely two people seeking comfort in each other, seeking an escape from the world around them. They even acknowledge in the scenes at Derek’s loft that they are basically strangers, and the lyrics of the part of the song that is playing over the scene when they first kiss seems to indicate that perhaps that scenario is what is truly occurring: Give me touch / cause I’ve been missing it / I’m dreaming of strangers / kissing me in the night / just so I / can feel something. Either way, I feel like something is going on with Jennifer Blake that we don’t know about yet.

I have a lot of feelings about all of the motel scenes this episode, but I’ll try not to spew them all over you. I’ll start by saying how much I appreciated seeing Stiles, Lydia, and Allison working together as a team to save the werewolves. We saw that these three are clever, brave, and work together very well. I especially am enjoying seeing Stiles and Lydia’s friendship grow to this level, where they work well together—for example, Stiles made the realization about the heat taking the werewolves out of their wolfsbane-induced state, and Lydia remembered the bus’s flares—and where they have enough trust and respect for each other that they can be truly honest, as Stiles was when he told Lydia that he thought she might be involved with the deaths because of the similarities with Peter in Season 2.

Isaac broke my heart (bravo, Daniel Sharman), though we didn’t learn much new information about his character in his scenes. The person we learned the most about from our pack was Boyd. Boyd’s nightmarish hallucinations told us how, when he was little, he was ice-skating with his sister Alicia and somehow she disappeared. It’s not quite clear whether she was kidnapped, killed, or if something else happened to her, but it is clear that Boyd blames himself for losing her, and that guilt is what drives him to his attempt to commit suicide.

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TV Time: SYTYCD Season 10 “Top 17 Perform”

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For a season that started out incredibly strong, last night’s episode of So You Think You Can Dance faltered a little bit. On the positive side: I’m really happy the complaints of many (including myself) were heard, and the results of the elimination were saved until the end of the show. I also can’t really argue with who was sent home. For as much as I loved Jasmine Mason in her opening-week contemporary with Alan, I thought she was less than dynamic in her tango last week, and her solo seemed very generic.

Although I found myself agreeing with the elimination results—and I do like the idea of consulting the choreographers as well—I didn’t like the way Nigel gave both Jasmine and Alexis such public criticism from their choreographers. Those comments felt like they should be said in private to the dancers rather than broadcast to millions. But maybe I’m just being too sensitive…

This week’s judging panel was interesting to say the least. I was beyond thrilled to see Paula Abdul there because if there’s anyone who should be judging these dancers, it’s someone with the résumé Abdul has. Her passion for dance is so contagious, and she’s actually really good at giving constructive criticism as well as praise. However, I have no idea why Erin Andrews was there. Did I mind staring at her beautiful face? No. Do I think she was a good contestant on Dancing with the Stars? Yes. But I don’t think that qualifies her to judge this kind of show in any capacity.

As for the dancing itself, there was no real standout moment this week for me, no routine that I’ve needed to watch 10 times after the show ended. Yes, there were some strong routines. Aaron and Jasmine continue to be my favorite couple; their Broadway routine this week embodied everything I love about their dynamic: It was smooth, mature, and sexy without trying too hard. It was also surprising, especially Aaron’s graceful quality to his movement. Fik-Shun and Amy also surprised me with their Paso Doble, which was much stronger and more intense than I was expecting from those two smiley kids. I loved Mackenzie’s technique and Paul’s gorgeously emotional performance in their contemporary (even if that story has been told on this show before—and told better). And Marko truly brought out the best in Malece, although it was sad to lose Jade to an injury this week.

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The Best Thing I Saw on TV This Week (6/30 – 7/7)

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This week, the world of television gave us another dramatic episode of The Bachelorette (and the promise of more drama to come), an episode of So You Think You Can Dance that saw some couples (namely Aaron/Jasmine H. and Fik-Shun/Amy) start to really separate themselves from the pack, and plenty of great marathons for the holiday weekend (a great Castle marathon on TNT and a marathon of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies on ABC Family just to name a couple). The world of televised sports didn’t disappoint either, with Andy Murray finally taking home the Wimbledon title for his home country after so many years of waiting.

My favorite TV moment of the week also came from a sports network, but it didn’t have much to do with sports, actually. On the Fourth of July, ESPN played a feature on SportsCenter about members of the military returning home to their families, and it was such a beautiful segment. It made me truly stop and think about the sacrifices men, women, and families make every day to keep America safe—and it made me feel so grateful for these brave people who do their best to protect the freedom we as Americans celebrated this week.

If you haven’t seen this video yet, I highly recommend watching it. But make sure you have some tissues on hand—you’re going to need them.

 

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

Nerdy Girl Goes to the Movies: The Heat

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The Heat poster

Title: The Heat

Rating: R

Cast: Sandra Bullock (Sarah Ashburn), Melissa McCarthy (Shannon Mullins), Marlon Wayans (Levy), Demian Bichir (Hale), Michael Rapaport (Jason Mullins), Taran Killam (Adam)

Director: Paul Feig

The Basics: The Heat is a classic buddy-cop comedy about an uptight, conceited FBI agent who’s forced to work with a gruff and unorthodox detective from Boston in order to bring down a drug kingpin and murderer. The unique thing about this film is that both the FBI agent and Boston detective are women. Although it’s probably not the greatest cop film anyone will ever see, this film should be remembered for its dedication to focusing solely on the relationship between these two female characters—and what great characters they are. Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock both bring such different but equally fantastic comedic energies to this film, proving once again that a film driven by women can be just as funny as (if not funnier than) a male-centric comedy.

M.V.P. (Most Valuable Performer): There’s no way to separate McCarthy and Bullock when talking about this film, especially not when trying to judge who was better. They were a true team, bringing different comedic styles to the table and bouncing those styles off each other to create something genuinely entertaining. Both actors played variations on roles we’re familiar with (McCarthy’s Mullins was in many ways similar to her role in Bridesmaids, and Bullock’s Ashburn had notes of her performances in both Miss Congeniality and The Proposal.), but the combination of the two of them together was lightning in a bottle. They’re each skilled in so many different ways to be funny—from physical comedy to deadpan delivery to the perfect time to drop an f-bomb (or 10). When I first heard that McCarthy and Bullock were making a buddy-cop comedy together, I knew they would be a dream team, but they exceeded even my high expectations. They seemed to bring out the best and funniest in each other, creating a kind of comedic chemistry that can’t be forced. Actors either have it or they wish they did, and these two have it in spades.

Scene Stealer: The movie really belonged to Bullock and McCarthy—to the point where it was hard to pick someone who diverted any attention away from them. The closest this movie came to having any scene stealers was Mullins’s family. From Joey McIntyre as one of her loudmouthed brothers to Jane Curtin as her constantly disapproving mother, the casting of this family was excellent. The scene where Mullins and Ashburn cram the whole family into a van to get them out of their neighborhood was absolutely hilarious.

Bring the Tissues? Only if you have a tendency to cry when you laugh really hard.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Stay in your seat during the credits for an extra scene featuring Ashburn, Mullins, and the cat Ashburn likes to borrow from her neighbor. It’s worth sticking around for a little bit to get one last laugh in before you leave.

Most Memorable Scene: There were a lot of memorable, hilarious scenes in The Heat, but the funniest scene—the one that combines all of Bullock and McCarthy’s comedic strengths—is the scene where Mullins and Ashburn follow a suspect into a club and attempt to get close to him to bug his phone. Yes, one of the biggest laughs was spoiled in the trailers and commercials for the film (Mullins asking “What’s gonna come popping out?” when she learns what Spanx are for). However, that scene is so much more than just one punch line. When Mullins tells Ashburn to ventilate the area usually covered by her Spanx, I couldn’t breathe because I was laughing so hard. It’s a kind of humor that appeals to women because we can relate and I’d think appeals to men as well because McCarthy and Bullock’s delivery is just so good. And once the women leave the bathroom and go back into the club, it’s physical comedy gold. Watching Bullock try to seduce the suspect while McCarthy yells out encouragement (“Use your boobs!”) was hilarious, and I loved watching them try to get rid of one woman who kept trying to get herself in the middle of their seduction attempt.

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Nerdy Girl Goes to the Movies: Much Ado About Nothing

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Much ado poster

Title: Much Ado About Nothing

Rating: PG-13

Cast: Amy Acker (Beatrice), Alexis Denisof (Benedick), Clark Gregg (Leonato), Jillian Morgese (Hero), Fran Kranz (Claudio), Reed Diamond (Don Pedro), Sean Maher (Don John), Nathan Fillion (Dogberry)

Director: Joss Whedon

The Basics: This most recent cinematic version of Shakespeare’s classic comedy tells the story of two relationships: the love-at-first sight romance between Hero and Claudio and the bickering buildup of love and passion between Beatrice and Benedick. A game of matchmaking initially draws the latter couple closer together, but it’s only when Benedick sides with Beatrice after her cousin Hero is wrongly shamed by Claudio that the two fall in love in earnest. Set in modern times but told using all of Shakespeare’s dialogue (though it has been slightly condensed), Joss Whedon’s take on this story heightens all of its comedy as well as all of its tragic undertones. This film is already the stuff of legend for being shot in only 12 days in Whedon’s own home, and it deserves all the praise that can be sent its way. The cast is brilliant, the direction is smart, and the cinematography is gorgeous. In a movie season usually filled with explosions and animated characters, Much Ado About Nothing is a welcome bit of culture and substance—while still being a whole lot of fun.

M.V.P. (Most Valuable Performer): I didn’t know much about Amy Acker going into this movie: I knew her from her small roles on Alias and Once Upon a Time, and I knew she was a popular Whedonverse actress—but that was it. It took only a few minutes for me to be completely bowled over by her talents and her charm, and now I want to see everything she’s ever been in (and I want her to be the lead in many more films after this one). Acker was truly the perfect Beatrice. Shakespearean English doesn’t sound great coming out of everyone’s mouth, but each line of dialogue rolled off her tongue like she was born to play this role. She brought such a compelling mixture of poise and spunk to her performance, deftly balancing both the comedy of the part and its dramatic moments. Acker proved to be great at both physical comedy (falling down the stairs upon hearing of Benedick’s affection for her) and verbal sparring matches (with her well-matched partner, Alexis Denisof). However, I found her to be most compelling in Beatrice’s darker and quieter moments. Her delivery of Beatrice’s “Oh that I were a man!” monologue was incredibly powerful; I felt all of her pain, anger, and helplessness. And I bought every step along the way in her relationship with Benedick. Acker positively glowed in her softer moments with Denisof, creating a Beatrice who is a gorgeously multifaceted character in life and in love.

Scene Stealer: Much Ado About Nothing is first and foremost a comedy, and the funniest thing about thing about this film was Nathan Fillion’s performance as the pompous-yet-inept officer of the law, Dogberry. He played the part with a shocking amount of subtlety, considering how easy it could be to go overboard with this kind of role. And that decision made every moment he was on screen all the funnier. Fillion, like Acker, delivered each line like he came out of the womb reading Shakespeare, his smooth voice and great comedic timing working their magic to full effect. His gift for physical comedy was also on display, and those small moments—from trying to get on a suit jacket that’s far too small to locking himself out of his car at the end of the film—were just perfect. As a huge fan of Fillion’s work on Castle, it was fun to see the role reversal of him playing a cop, even if Dogberry might be the most ridiculous (and yet ultimately effective) cop in literary history.

Bring the Tissues: While there are some very powerful emotional moments, this is still a Shakespearean comedy, which means you can probably leave the tissues at home for this one.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? There’s nothing hidden after the credits for this film.

Most Memorable Scene: This film felt like a string of one memorable scene after another: the first party scene (which I found more fun and more entertaining than the first party in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby), all of the matchmaking exploits (Denisof’s attemps to eavesdrop made me cry with laughter), Hero and Caludio’s dramatic wedding, every scene featuring Dogberry, the joyous party at the end…

But if I had to pick just one scene, I think my selection would be surprisingly dramatic for a Shakespearean comedy. The scene where Beatrice and Benedick confess their love after Hero’s wedding disaster was incredibly powerful. Acker and Denisof both brought such a sense of total commitment to that scene and to each other as scene partners—it was a beautiful thing to behold. Acker’s grief was painfully palpable; I believed every tear that ran down her face. And Denisof was equally convincing in his dedication to her and his desire to do whatever it takes to make her pain end. This scene jumps back and forth so sharply between tragedy and romance that it calls for two actors who are strong as individuals but even stronger together, and that’s exactly what Acker and Denisof were in this film. This scene was the best showcase for their chemistry. Yes, I loved their bantering scenes, but this scene—with its sweeping undercurrent of passion and devotion—made me truly believe the love between Beatrice and Benedick in a way I don’t normally believe most Shakespearean love stories.

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TV Time: Teen Wolf 3.05

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I hope everyone who celebrated the holiday had a great Fourth of July yesterday! Today, it’s Teen Wolf recap time courtesy of the lovely Leah.

Title Frayed

What Happened? Scott, Stiles, Allison, and Lydia discuss recent events on the way to a cross-country meet while trying to keep a fight from breaking out between Ethan, Boyd, and Isaac, and also figuring out how to get Scott’s wound to heal. As they travel, Scott remembers the events of the past day or two, in which Derek, Scott, Isaac, Boyd, and Cora (with some well-timed help from Allison) took on the Alpha Pack in the first true, all-out fight, in which both Derek and Ennis seemingly fell to their deaths. Meanwhile, we discover that Kali, Aiden, and Morrell have taken Ennis to Deaton, hoping that he can save him. We end the episode with Derek surprising Ms. Blake with his dramatic bloody handprint on her car and her kneeling over his still-breathing body in the high school parking lot.

Favorite Quotes
“That depends. Are you planning on following the bus, or are you planning on mounting it at some point?” (Lydia)

“Why is the default plan always murder? Just once, can’t someone try to come up with something that doesn’t involve killing everyone?”
“You never get tired of being so blandly moral do you?” (Scott and Peter)

“Come on, Scott, put those away. I’d have to be blind, deaf, and quadriplegic for you to be an actual threat.” (Deucalion)

My Thoughts In a way, this episode was one major, connected narrative, in that it told us the events of the past day or two surrounding the Alpha Pack in a creative way through the use of out-of-order time jumps (by showing us bits and pieces of Scott’s memories). Our focus this episode was on the first major confrontation with the Alpha Pack.

First, I want to focus on one of Teen Wolf’s awesome ladies, Allison. In this episode, we see Scott talking to Allison about her staying out of the way of the fighting. Scott has a good point in that Allison would undoubtedly lose to the Alphas in any sort of close-quarters fight. However, she does have a good advantage from a distance with her bow and arrow, and I love that she comes back at the end of the episode and basically saves the whole pack from the Alphas with her archery skills. I also very much enjoyed that at the end of the episode Scott acknowledged that he was wrong and that Allison was essential to the fight; there was no ego at work, just pure appreciation for her skills, and it was really wonderful to see (especially from a male character towards a female character). I have a feeling Allison will be an important part of the fight against the Alpha Pack in the future, and I can’t wait to see her continue being awesome!

I also think one of the important moments in this episode was Allison’s talk with her father about whether they should be involved in the struggle in Beacon Hills. Chris talked about their path as being a situation called “threading the needle”—finding a safe path between two opposing forces. This theme of trying to live in harmony with two worlds has been one that Allison and her father have dealt with this season, and is prevalent throughout the show—it has been a common theme for Scott, especially in the first season when he was trying to find a cure, and for Allison when she’s been trying to navigate being from a hunter family and being in a relationship with Scott at the same time. I think this will be something that Chris will struggle with more than Allison. She isn’t the type of person to stand back and watch while her friends die, even if it puts herself in great danger, and I believe she’ll join in and help Scott and the others when she can. Chris, however, has less of an emotional stake involved in the fighting, as he doesn’t know the teenagers very well except for his daughter, and staying out of the conflict will likely have a bigger draw for him than it does for Allison. I believe that in the end, Chris’s love for his daughter and his desire to do what is right (even though he’s definitely a bit shaky on his moral code) will win out in the end, and he’ll become a reluctant but reliable ally for our group.

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TV Time: SYTYCD Season 10 “Top 20 to Top 18”

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The first cut is the deepest…

…Or sometimes the first cut is just the most ridiculous.

I hate the new format for the eliminations on So You Think You Can Dance. I mean, I REALLY HATE it. I understand there’s no perfect way to eliminate contestants on the same night as a performance show, but cutting them from the competition at the beginning of the show and then forcing them to still dance with their partner later on just seems all kinds of wrong to me. It is horrible to the contestants (both the eliminated ones and the others who have to dance after seeing partners/friends be cut), and it simply casts a negative light on everything that comes after it.

It was especially hard this week because the wrong contestants went home. Mariah’s solo was terrible, and Jade is nowhere near the dancer Carlos is. I grimaced every time Nigel said that “America got it wrong” this week because America only put them in the bottom; it was the judges who—with no deliberation—sent Carlos and Brittany home. Why even have them dance solos if you’re going base the elimination on last week’s performances?

I think so much of my frustration with the eliminations comes from how well Brittany and Carlos did with their dances this week. Brittany was a firecracker full of stage presence in her Broadway routine (so much so that it made BluPrint’s obvious discomfort in the routine look even worse). And Carlos…Carlos was breathtaking. His performance in his contemporary routine with Mariah was incredible, and it brought out such a fearlessness in Mariah in terms of her emotional honesty (which I think was also aided by her obvious pain at seeing him go home).

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