'So You Think You Can Dance' Season Eight - FOX HD - Page 24

The Great

Marko & Lauren had one of the best performances of the season. A great balance of emotion and technique.

Sasha & Mark it was just a notch below the performance that came after it was still really good stuff

The Good

Sasha and Marko's Broadway routine was a lot of fun. They both got into the character, and it was entertaining.

Tadd and Josha's Hip Hop was good. It was one of the best numbers Lil C has done for the show. It had the right balance of hard hitting moves as well as fluidity.

The Bad

Almost everything else Tadd did besides his solo was on the sucky side. A lot of blown moves with Sasha. Almost little to no synchronicity with Marko in Stomp. That is not bad choreography that is just plain bad dancing.

I think learning all of these new routines plus the practice of the old routines from the season caught up last four. Melanie continued to look unpolished in a couple of her numbers.

Nigel wants one of the girls to win. So was it just a coincidence that Marko got a disco routine, a comedy dance, and some sort of slapping number that only South Africans have been able to pull off? Fortunately the one decent dance he was given (with Lauren) was superb, but it was fighting against a lot of other unlucky(?) picks.

Stomp is a dance practice by many African American fraternities around the country. I believe Twitch and Josh did one during their season. What it takes is practice and work to get it right. My guess is Marko and Tadd did not do enough of either to get it down correctly.

While there were some very poor style and choreography choices the evening wasn't all that bad. I thought that Melanie had three good routines. The number with Robert was good, as was the one with Tadd. I loved the Housewives dance with Sasha. Both girls were excellent IMHO. The storyline and choreography were very compelling. Sasha's dance with Mark was very good but Mark, in his current bulked up form is so imposing and powerful that he almost overshadowed her. I've gotten tired of the "warrior princess" nonsense every week. It strikes me as just a tad stereotypical. Marko had a decent night and Tadd an OK night but that last Stomp routine did neither of then any good. I don't think that teaming Tadd with Joshua did him much good either and C's choreography was blah to me. I would have liked to have seen Chris Scott or NappyTabs give them a lyrical Hip Hop routine. How you can have useless guest judges in the finals is beyond me. Holmes was vapid and Ortega didn't bring much to the table. And then, of course, there was one of the most insulting moments that I've ever seen on this show. After Tadd and Marko finished their number, for Nigel to tell them that he had predicted a female winner and saw nothing to change that opinion was terribly degrading. These kids work their butts oiff and to have that thrown in their faces as their final "critique" was a very low rent move by Nigel.

Speaking of the Melanie fix did you guys think it was a little creepy that they were pushing Kenny Ortega to hire Melanie to play baby in the dirty dancing remake. She just doesn't look the part and I question her non dancing acting skills. If they had to pick somebody from the show I would go with Lauren Froderman.

This was the most unmemorable show of all the seasons. Really nobody to cheer for and I do not believe ANY of the performances deserve Emmy nominations this year.

boring night, the Disco number was the worst! I totally lost interst after that.

This season has sucked. Not near as good as others. There were what 5 Emmy nominated dances from last year, I can only think of one that might be good enough for one this year. Melanie and Marko's statue dance earlier in the season.

IMO what we needed more this year: more Wade Robson, more Stacey Tookey, more Travis Wall, more harder hitting hip hop, and more elegant dancing.

Katie Holmes, you used to have that hot, innocent, naughty look, not so much. After a couple of dancers we listened to the noise that came out of your mouth.

I was willing to put Melanie on the same level as Katee as the best dancer on SYTYCD. Last night confirmed that Melanie is below Katee. However I still think she will win.

Looks like we are all in agreement that last night's dancing wasn't exactly the high quality we have come to expect from this show. Unfortunately, it seems to get worse near the end of every season though - I think the dancers have too many routines to learn, and they must also be physically and emotionally exhausted from the long season.

I agree that there were some strange choreographer choices for a finale. New blood is good, but perhaps not so many of them at once, and not all for a finale show. Very strange decisions by Nigel and co.

For me, my season-long favorite, Melanie, is still in it and I would be happy to see her win. The quality of her movement is so much better than the rest of them that for me it is not even close.

Regarding Nigel's comments about the girls being so much better, I think part of that is based on what he sees, and part of that is based on the voting results. Earlier in the season, he indicated in a post-show interview that 2 of the dancers (which he didn't name) were always way out front in the voting.

Even Cat was pretty awful at times. Pimping Melanie out for jobs again? Asking Melanie if she thinks her dad would be proud of her? Holy crap what a terrible question. Melanie's response was short and perfect "Anyone would be."

I agree about Stacy. She has been one of the strongest choreographers this season. Again, the choice of choreographers for last night's final was unfortunate. Why would you not go with your established "stars" like Stacy, Mandy Moore, NappyTab, Travis, Dave or Christopher Scott, Jason Gilkenson,etc.? The finals is not the time to use the petri dish. The kids were not given a full opportunity to showcase the abilities that got them to to this point. Some of the routines (Sanchez' Disco, Balas' Cha-Cha) were abysmal. I didn't notice but, if as DSperber said, Mark Balas wasn't even there when his routine was being "performed" that's outrageous. Maybe he saw the train wreck that was about to unfold but still he should have been there.

I do think that, while in many areas, Melanie does compare favorably with Katee, Ms. Shean still stands, for me, as the best dancer in the show's history.

Katie Holmes was there to promote her new movie. Didn't she do a pretty awful pre-taped dance on a previous season? Or was it for a different show? So far, the DWTS choreographers haven't impressed on this show.

The fix is definitely in to 86 the guys. I'm surprised they didn't resurrect a Russian Folk Dancing routine to drive in the final nail in the coffin.

For me, it's between Melanie and Marko. I wouldn't mind either one winning.

We all felt that Holmes looked and acted like she had just gotten out of bed, with her messy hair and stream-of-consciousness rambling that showed little consciousness.

I noticed fellow Scientologist Priscilla Presley in the audience. I wonder if they always have to have somebody there to keep an eye on them.

Why does Nigel think Kate is some big time star unless he is trying to suck up to Tom and his connections.

Whatever ratings god Nigel is praying to, he needs to switch. Been reading a couple of blogs with my morning coffee and many of them think the problem last night was the dancers were exhausted. I don't buy it. Even if they were 100 percent, I dont think it would have changed the fact that most of the choreography was atrocious and the song choices were just bad. Epically bad at times. Lil C's dance had the chance of being good but it was set to a song that was literally two notes played over and over and over. Not good. And a good producer would know if his contestants were overworked and not up to the challenge of 4 dances and a solo and he'd improvise. Bring back past allstars and have them dance emmy dances, or just dance old popular numbers from season's past. Intersperse those with the current contestants. Do anything you can to avoid having your biggest show of the season become your worst show of the season. Last night was the equivalent of a fireworks display that ends with a naked fat guy running around with a sparkler in his ass.

I hope Marko takes it and proves Nigel wrong. I like the girls but I hate Nigel selling them so hard. It gets old. Why would they throw in stepping and disco for the finale?? It was horrible. Disco is NEVER good on this show. Why do they keep bringing it back?? ( I think Nigel is behind it for his own nostalgia but it just doesn't fit!). Poor Katie. She use to be really pretty but now she just looks like a strung out drug addict. What is Tom doing to her?! This finale had some of the best dancers but some of the worst choreography. It just shows you that even the best dancers can't save bad choreography.

Just checked the video and Mark Balas was indeed in the audience during the Sasha/Tadd whatever that was. Maybe he should been beaten about the head by those sitting nearby?

I'm not sure there's a choreographer or producer that didn't deserve a good beatdown last night. I can't get over how abysmal the music selections were.

I think it was Kenny Ortega mentioning that Shasa was dancing with an injury last night. I could see no effects from one. Does anyone know more about a Shasa injury?

I think last night was the first time since the top 20 we haven't heard "Your a b-boy Tadd, your shouldn't be doing this!!!!"

There was a rumor that Sasha was going to be replaced prior to air because of an injury to her ankle. I have a feeling its more Nigel BS. There was a similar rumor prior to the most recent American Idol finale about one of the singers not being able to sing and having to be replaced.

Given Nigel's charming parting shot, he might said "good performance Todd, er, Thad, er, Ted, uh what did you say your name was?"

My take...

• Wasn't the best choreography however as a plus it lets you see how the dancers handle it when the routine doesn't overshadow them.
• Sasha looks like a one-trick pony (of which she does very well).
• Judges comments. They are viewers just like everyone else and whatever they want to express is fine. In most cases I heard too few opinions than too many.
• Katie Holmes played her part just fine. She was there as a fan of the show and as such she expressed her various feelings over the season.

Was he? Maybe I had just dozed off (it was late at night when I watched) as I was really fighting the boredom and the truly awful and uninspired choreography and rendition and had a tough time keeping my eyes open. Add to that the totally unrecognizable and off-putting choice of music, and it really was a battle to pay attention.

But I surely didn't recall a camera homage shot of him as is usually the case for a choreographer deserving of kudos following a number. Certainly there was no glowing admiration and compliments from Nigel (and none deserved, of course) that I can recall. Quite the opposite.

Anyway I still have to do my work excerpting performance clips from my HTPC recording, so I'll look carefully at that routine, to see if I missed him in the judge's area even if he didn't get post-dance kudos.

I did notice Priscilla Presley (and what's left of her face) in the audience as well. Katie Holmes looked a bit gaunt and haggard, and like her teeth had been filed down into fangs. Very strange teeth. She did not look well, and the word "vapid" already used in an earlier post above is a perfect adjective to describe her comments last night. I mean I did NOT want to listen to her.

Katie Holmes looked AMAZING last night and her comments were so STRONG. The shear strength of her amazing comments were....amazing!

I've wondered what would happen to this show if the word "amazing" was somehow removed from the vocabulary of judges and contestents...? A lot of dead air, I'm guessing.

Like, you know, like, AMAZING ... like.

When Nigel shows without a doubt that he's not only willing to openly rape the contenstants that aren't his little darlings, but go so far as to completely screw his entire audience as well just to get the result HE wants, it's over.

Cat stated last night: "Voting phone lines will be open for at least two hours."

It's not difficult to imagine:

Nigel pacing back and forth, staring down the numbers as they roll in, biting his nails, frantic to see Malaine's numbers climb. At 2 hours and 1 minute, Marko leads by a few votes. "Leave those damn lines open!" he shouts, pointing down the barrel of his AK47 at the operators. At exactly 2 hours and 6 minutes in, Melanie takes a slight lead. Nigel opens fire on the phones, fuseboxes, and anything electrical in sight. The lines go dead. Voting is over. Melanie has won!*

*Not that it matters anyway. Nigel admitted this was over at the beginning of the season.

Just tell us the "winner" of Season 9 in auditions next year.

Unfortunately even if it was true he could have at least made it entertaining.

I really feel that his distractions with Idol and the royal visit this year took a toll on quality. As a producer he would be out finding choreographers, guest acts, and better quality guest judges. Most of that was much lower than previous years. Next the quality of the talent. It seemed during auditions that it was quite good but unfortunately they just got screwed with the styles and choreographers.

For example, I still wonder how good Iveta would have been if she had been given more styles to show her skill.

I used to come out each year with memories and favorites. I really don't care this year about any of it. The dancers, the judges, the choreographers, and even the guest acts.

Not good! Not good at all!

... on this wonderful journey.

....and I love you. (of course that could really be all of the judges)