Ms. Amused

Feels weird because Steve’s no longer on the show but even if Marlee gets booted soon, I’ve gotten hooked enough to want to see how it all turns out.

If you’re reading this and haven’t watched the show, the scores are done in order of the judges seats at the table so from left to right, Carrie Ann, Len and Bruno.

Prediction: Marissa or Adam will be booted tomorrow. Kristi’s up first with the paso doble which is flawless as usual. Last week, the judges ganged up on her for not really showing any emotion in the dance. This week, I think she did a great job of showing the passion & fire needed in the paso doble. I was surprised when the first judge, Len, nailed her again for lack of emotion. But fortunately Bruno & Carrie Ann shouted him down together.

10,9,10

First 10s of the season! Bruno practically stuck his tongue out at Len. Nyah!

Parting thought, I really loved Kristi’s dress, the gold underskirt struck the perfect balance of flashy but not over the top.

Priscilla does the first Viennese waltz. In the rehearsal video, they showed her partner taking her to the beach and putting her on roller skates to get her used to the gliding motions of the waltz. I was chuffed to see her on the traditional quad roller skates while he was on the roller blades. RollerSKATES FTW! He looked so clunky trying to do turns! Her dance was nice but seemed a little off balance in parts. Judges were pretty nice to her but gave her 7,7,8. I kind of choked though when Carrie Ann raved about Priscilla’s facial expressions and her control over them. Uh…. that was the plastic surgery and its left her with a weird wooden smile.

Adam does the paso doble and rehearsals look surprisingly good. He’s really come along! WOW the performance just really blew me away. Even if you take away the “tricks” of using the unicycle and cape (very well I might add), I really thought that he did a very ambitious choreography and did it well. He’s shaping up to be the surprise of the season!

And just as shockingly, the judges really did not agree with me. Usually I’m able to call on what they’ll pick on but they just tore him to pieces. I wonder if it was planned that way that Adam would be made to be the bottom dog this round no matter what his performance was. After all, Guttenberg pointed out several times that this is an ENTERTAINMENT show, and not a real competition. A measly 6,7,6 for Adam.

Normally I wish he wouldn’t open his mouth but he made me chuckle with his line about wardrobe dressing him like a silent film porn star.

Marlee with the Viennese Waltz again. Another good dress! In the rehearsals, she’s frustrated because she can’t keep her balance in the turns. She says that it might be because she’s deaf. I can relate to that on some level because while I actually have very good balance. I feel a giant blind spot on the left. If I were to spin to the left, I might lose my balance but I wouldn’t to the right ever. The performance was great. I really liked the first part where they held each other’s faces.

I couldn’t help but watch with an eye for the deaf tricks in the choreography designed to help Marlee keep time with the dance. I think the face holding was definitely part of that. A big difference between Marlee’s and Priscilla’s waltz was that Priscilla often faced away from her partner and let go of him too. Things that Marlee has to minimize. Carrie Ann thanked Marlee for touching her so much with the performance that she cried. However, it didn’t show in the scoring, in a solid trio of 8s.

Mario does the paso doble. Interesting tidbit, apparently last week as the reporter for Access Hollywood, Mel B (of the Spice Girls) tried to out Mario & Karina as lovers. That seems very low class of Mel. Frankly, I’ve suspected that they were lovers from the beginning from the subtle body language between Mario & Karina, he kept reaching for her like a lover rather than a partner. However, I don’t need confirmation nor do I really care if they are or not. I presume they’re both single and willing so what’s the problem?

Anyways, I wasn’t too wowed by this performance either because it bothered me that they both kept staring down at the feet for a good part of the dance. It made me feel like they were concentrating on the steps and not acting out the passion of the dance. Len ripped on Mario again but tempered it by saying that he really wanted to see Mario do well. “You’re 21! I have underpants older than you!”

Scores: 8,7,9 Clearly Bruno is all about overriding Len tonight!

Jason does the Viennese. He looks good. His height and long legs really made the dance graceful and sensual which is a lot of what you’re going for with the VW. He did make a major misstep but recovered well and went on as if it never happened. I think that’s why the judges were so quick to forgive him for it and gave him the shocking scores of 10,9,10!

For the first time, someone catches up to Kristi and its even more remarkable that it happens the same time she breaks the 10 barrier on the show. I suspect per the whole “it’s just an entertainment show” thing, the judges are trying to find reasons to score the other contestants higher even if they’re not as perfect as Kristi’s dances so people don’t get pissed off that no one else ever had a chance.

Cristian with the paso doble. SMOULDERING! That’s all I have to say about his performance. Judges agreed that it was good: 9,8,9. The outfits were really different and sexy (though I didn’t like the “hotpant” part of her “dress”).

I just wish someone else was his partner because Cheryl just looks so bitchy and full of herself. I was decidedly unimpressed by the fact that they gave her free advertising & promotion for her new dance studio. At least Priscilla on the skates and Jason at the Medieval Times were more generic and appropriate for what they were rehearsing.

Shannon does Viennese. This was the big drama of the past week. Her dance partner, Derek Hough, hurt his neck pretty badly last Tuesday rehearsing for the performance that night. The rehearsal showed him struggling to stay benched while watching Jonathan help Shannon practice. Shannon was of course more concerned about Derek which totally how I see her real life personality.

As far as I know, Shannon’s single and I really like seeing the two of them together. If they get together, that’d be awesome. Derek charms me every week because he looks so much like Christopher Atkins, my definition of male beauty throughout my childhood.

So the dance… wow I had a hard time focusing on Shannon because Derek was so light and graceful on his feet. He definitely knows all about body lines when dancing and used that knowledge like a weapon tonight. Shannon did look good, I think just a couple missteps. Carrie Ann’s comment was that Shannon appears to be letting her body find its own movement which I have to agree with because she’s not “fighting” it anymore. Len was all over her this time and called it the best performance of the night… and followed it up with his own 10. Score: 9,10,9!

I laughed cause all Shannon could say was that she was awful and it was very cute that Derek immediately scoffed and said that she ALWAYS does that, puts herself down or is too hard on herself.

Marissa is the final performance with the paso doble. When Adam performed, I thought “That’s it, it’s Marissa going home tomorrow night”. But then the judges laid him low. So still up in the air.

I’ve officially decided that the producers intentionally edited the first rehearsal & dance segment for Marissa to make Tony look bad. Either that or he saw and read about how he came off and has been working double time to make up for it. Either way, he’s very clearly devoted to Marissa now and working to make her look as good as possible. In the rehearsal tape, he commented that he was going to put some professional moves into her routine because he felt that she could do it and that it would give her an edge up.

I have to say that he knew what he was doing because she looked really good on the floor! And the judges agreed and gave her what I think are her best scores of the season even if not impressive scores compared to the others tonight. 8,8,8

Summary: An interesting shake up of the roster tonight. Jason & Kristi are tied for first place with Shannon on their heels in 3rd. Cristian creeps up a little more into 4th. Old favorite Mario is still down with the Marlee & Marissa in a three tie for 5th place. Marissa moved up and Priscilla fell to the bottom in 8th place. Adam is on the hot seat.

I’m encouraged that Marlee continues to hang just far enough above the bottom that she is safe in the voting. However, it’s interesting to see Priscilla fall down. If Adam doesn’t leave tomorrow, then it’s because of his radio fan base calling in for him. I’m happy to see Shannon moving up to the top but predict that Jason won’t stay up there… Mario will come back and reclaim his place as Kristi’s main competition for #1.