Warm Glowing Warming Glow

So You Think You Can Dance FINALS!

Cat is wearing another little silver dress. It's better than last week's -- a better fit, anyway. Her hair is nice and smooth, too.

Courtney/Twitch. This is yet another "crazy girlfriend" routine and it makes me uncomfortable. Why do they keep on doing that? Because "crazy boyfriend" sounds scary and abusive? Oh, right. Anyway, this kind of bores me. Ditto the judges, who kind of ramble at each other about nothing for a long time.

Courtney. All of the human interest stuff is surprisingly enjoyable. She's really good and really sweet about Gev. (Maybe they weren't doing it? I'm so confused.) The fix is in, though. The judges seem to be telling everyone that Courtney is not the winner of this competition. She's "young" and "not the best dancer." Her routine is the same one she's done every time she's had the chance.

Joshua/Katee. It's a Wade Robson routine. I almost crap myself. And yes, it's that good. Wow. Joshua is going to win. There's no way anything else could happen.

Courtney/Katee. This sucks. It's a stupid routine and the girls don't dance it very well. It's all about the frippy costumes and the bullshit umbrellas. And, yeah, Nigel tells us that Katee is much better than Courtney.

Twitch. Another good interview. Twitch is cast as the underdog. Poor Twitch has to praise the stupid French Canadian angel baby Viennese waltz. Of course. His performance almost redeems last week's teeth and glasses mugging. There's a little bit of hateful business between Nigel and Mary.

Joshua/Twitch. A Russian dance-off? Oh my God. I can't stand it. And the winner is . . . Josh, right? He had the one "holy shit" moment in the entire piece. Does it matter, though? Those boys have smoking chemistry. Mandy is practically fanning herself over the whole man-on-man thing. Cat, who was practically drooling over the Josh-Twitch pairing at the beginning of the show, does nothing to help. Um, Mary is, surprisingly, professional. Nigel talks about the men's thighs and then says "fo sho." Make it stop. 

Katee. Of course we have to re-hash that stupid bullshit from Las Vegas about Katee maybe not wanting it enough. Cat confirms that Katee didn't do anything wrong -- thank you! Katee still doesn't have much of a personality. She kicks the shit out of her solo, though, even if she still needs help choosing songs. Seriously. Mandy deflates Katee's chances a little bit by encouraging her to take some more classes. I'm guessing -- based on watching Center Stage -- that even dancers at the top of their game are constantly taking classes, but Mandy sounds like she's extolling Katee as "America's favorite dancer . . . who could use some more work."

Twitch/Katee.  This is very nice. OK. It bothers me that Michael Bublie's cover of "Feeling Good" is the soundtrack and it bothers me that the fringe on Katee's dress reminds me of human hair. (OK -- I watched Hedwig and the Angry Inch again last night.) Then the judging takes forever as Mandy and Nigel wet their respective panties over what Twitch looks like in a tuxedo. Is it weird that Mary is the one judge who can stay focused tonight?

Joshua. Wow. Good interview -- although I'm starting to get interview fatigue -- and then he has the best individual routine we've seen yet (OK, the best individual routine that was not Gev's). How can this kid not win?

Bzzzzzttttt  -- Typepad crapped out here and I lost/forgot what I was going to say about the rest of the evening.

Oh Thank God

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6583776.html?industryid=47171

So You Think You Can Dance Results -- Top 4

Holy crap! Chelsie! That did not play out the way I expected it to. What went wrong?

Actually, to be fair, nothing went wrong. All six of those dancers are excellent. All of them deserved this, and all were equally deserving. I'm just very surprised. I thought Chelsie, of all six, was the safest. Oh well. I really didn't know what to expect with the guys. I really thought that any of them could be eliminated -- even Joshua.

What else? Not crazy about Cat's look last night -- the dress looked like something she borrowed from Mary. Good show, though. Actually, really good show. What was weird was that each of them performed a much better routine -- not just danced better, but conceived better -- than they did Wednesday night. Which is weird, considering that the Wednesday routines mattered, in terms of voting, and these did not. Oh, and how classy were Chelsie and Mark? That was nice. And what about that Lil Demon kid? That was crazy, but did you see Nigel's veneers practically snap together outside of his mouth, like he had just seen a delicious treat? Don't get me wrong -- I'm sure it's all about the talent, but still . . . Chilling.

So You Think You Can Dance Top 6

Wow! Is it just me or is there a huge difference between eight dancers and six? The stage looks empty. Where is everyone? That said, I think we have the right final three. Maybe Gev should have been there, too, I don't know. Joshua winks before his solo and my stomach flips over. He's going to win!

Cat is wearing silver, per usual. I like the flippy hair. Not crazy about the dress.

No time for the usual introductory blather from the judges. Adam Shankman is our guest judge, which is surprising and not encouraging.

Mark/Courtney. This is pretty good, although it makes me nervous because Mark is super-femme-y and I keep expecting someone -- Nigel -- to draw attention to it. Shankman is surprisingly brief. But, as if to make up for that, Mary is unusually incoherent, almost Paula-Abdul-like, in fact. What am I saying? Mary can never even at her worst approach Paula. But the shouting is starting to make me very tired. OK. We're safe -- no limp wrist talk from Uncle Nigel.

Chelsie. Pussycat Dolls. Uh-oh. Is this smart, Chelsie? Does your audience want to think of you as a Pussycat Doll? Chelsie! You are not a whore!

Twitch. Midnight Star. Gold teeth, glasses. I feel like the take-away from Will's ouster was that America does not like gimmicks, and this routine . . . is nothing but gimmicks. OK, some good moves, but this is 90% bullshit and 10% mugging. But. I'm a sucker . . . for Cat. Her post-routine bits with the glasses and teeth make me laugh out loud.

Joshua/Katee. Another weepy contemporary piece. It's technically flawless, but super-boring -- and I usually like the lachrymose shit. The judges like it, I think. Shankman for some reason just rambles about himself for about 15 minutes and I have to wander away.

Chelsie/Twitch. Wow. No one wants to say it, but I will: Twitch just shat the bed. The judges fall all over themselves trying not to criticize him. Oh wait. No, actually, Nigel says it, pretty much. Is it just me or is Twitch in serious trouble?

Katee. Worst musical taste of the top 20? Hi, Katee! This routine sucks. Am I wrong? She doesn't show us anything in this routine.

Joshua. Memphis Bleek. This took maybe a little too long to get started and the best stuff was after the music had stopped. There was also a lot of just walking around between moves. But does it matter?

Mark/Courtney. It's a Sonya routine. I'm going to vomit from the anticipation. Huh. Good piece for these two (especially Mark), although it didn't speak to me as much as Sonya's others have. Of course the judges -- not Shankman, to his credit -- freak out about what a head case Sonya is. Whatever.

Joshua/Katee. I think I just had a seizure. Shankman makes a veiled reference to the presidential campaign. Right? Then Mary, predictably, shrieks herself hoarse, again. Nigel pretends he's going to criticize Joshua but instead says what I'm thinking, which is that Joshua has thrown the entire enterprise off balance with his awesomeness. Mary shrieks again. I want to rescind my seizure complaint now, because I've got a real problem: I think that prolonged exposure to Mary's voice is giving me deep tissue bruises -- everywhere.

Courtney. Elisa -- whoever the Hell that is. This looks like the same thing she's danced every week for as long as I can remember. But it might be enough.

Mark. It's a good performance, and a smart one, which is to say that he whips his shirt off.

Twitch/Chelsie. This is maybe the funniest routine we've ever seen. This is great. Somehow, though, for Shankman, it's all about his own film career. I give up. Mary seems to be saying goodbye to Twitch. Interesting.

Out: Oh, God. I can't tell. Twitch and Courtney? Joshua and Chelsie aren't going anywhere, but of the other four, I think any of them could be eliminated. This is crazy -- just let all six compete in the final.

So You Think You Can Dance Top 8

Opening dance sequence -- I love Joshua. He dances the shit out of his five seconds. Almost as good? Katee's beehive.

Cat Deeley is wearing a clingy black jersey number, super-short. Hair:loose. It's a good look. Still maybe a little more bronzer than I'm comfortable with, but good just the same.

Will/Courtney. My freaking Fox affiliate decided to shrink our show to about a fifth of the screen because it's raining outside, and it's possible some viewers are unaware of that. So, I couldn't really see, but the judges liked this. Something about Will and 300 -- I hate it when Uncle Nigel makes pop culture references.

Comfort. I think I've lost all perspective on Comfort. I feel like I keep seeing things in her that no one else does.

Twitch/Katee. These two are friends in real life. In this piece, Katee is playing -- I can't help but sense -- Mia Michaels. I'm sorry. I didn't love this piece. I loved Twitch in it, so much. Otherwise, this felt like someone told Mia, "Write a piece for that Duffy song." Am I wrong? It's good, but it's not truly crazy or personal the way Mia's usually are. Then the judges are out of hand for about 15 minutes. Toni Basil (I know! I can't believe I haven't said anything about her before, either!) says some stuff I have to translate and then immediately forget. Mary screams some thing long and incomprehensible, possibly about North Carolina.  Then there's a long, unfunny discussion about whether or not Nigel has ever imprisoned Mary. I'm serious -- I may have misunderstood the whole thing because at some point I stopped being able to process information, but that's what I think I heard.

Will. Wow. So this seems like a huge stunt to convince America that Will has a personality, and then the routine itself is one long insult with a wig on top. Wow. Either he's safe this week because he's Will, who can apparently do no wrong, or he's goneso because Jesus! He wasted most of his time standing in the back and then he did like a split. It was all wig! I'm insulted. I think America should be insulted.

Mark/Comfort. Wow. This was so much better than I expected -- I thought Mark would suck, but he was excellent. Then Nigel insulted Comfort -- "You're so much better when you perform to choreography." Wow. And that's the end of Comfort on this show.

Katee. My local Fox affiliate has fucked things up so badly that I can barely see this. It's just a series of stills accompanied by weird buzzes and clicks.

Joshua/Chelsie. Reception still blows, then it returns. Wow! I think it says a lot that Chelsie can hold her own with Joshua. Of course the downside to turning the shit out on a number like this is that Mary Murphy is going to scream at you about her God damn Hot Tamale Train. Toni Basil, though, is surprisingly lucid and measured in her response. She says what I think we all kind of think, at this point: "How can you not respond to Chelsie?"

Missed some in the middle . . .Mark's solo routine . . . I don't think it matters . . . Will/Courtney. No, I saw this but it left no impression. Chelsie -- I certainly did not see Chelsie perform.

Twitch/Katee. Eh. This seemed fine but kind of boring. They always just praise the crap out of Tyce Diorio, but here I don't think it's completed earned. Hmm. Nigel says that Twitch has the least training of any dancer in the competition -- is that high praise or subtle undermining? I can't tell.

Joshua. Fairly good routine -- it seemed to build a little too slowly. I think he meant to get more in before the end of his time.

Mark/Comfort. This was boring but it didn't bother me as much as it bothered the judges. My main problem -- the lighting made me feel like I was having a seizure. That doesn't seem fair to the dancers.

Courtney. Not very exciting -- why do all of the solo contemporary routines look exactly the same? Jump to the front of the stage, then swing back, then spin, then weird splayed-hip swaying . . . What does all of that represent?  Is it supposed to express something? I don't get it.

Joshua/Chelsie. Wow. The judges loved this, but it seemed to me clunky. Maybe that's just disco? It's supposed to look amateurish because it's really just something regular people do (or did) on the dance floor? Plus Gloria Estefan . . . OK, I get that the lifts are hard and they looked great. Glad the judges liked this as well.

Bottom Four: Mark, Comfort, Courtney, Will. Going home: Mark, Comfort, absolutely. No question.

So You Think You Can Dance Results

I hate this show. I hate this show. I hate this show. Seriously. That was torture. Not American Idol results show torture -- not at all boring or enraging, actually -- but too suspenseful and awful.

I think I called the bottom four -- didn't I? Wait, I totally didn't -- I called the women and Mark, but I had this crazy theory that Will would be the other bottom guy, a theory I'm too embarrassed to try to explain right now. And I'm still sort of shocked about Gev. No, I'm really shocked.

The group dance numbers were all really good -- even the weird Celine Dion "Ave Maria" number. Who knew the idea of Nigel hanging out with five young men would be even creepier than the sight of Nigel ogling all of the young women?

So You Think You Can Dance Top 10

First and most important . . . what is Cat Deeley wearing tonight? Gold lamé, plus a lot of bronzer. It's . . . not the most flattering frock she's worn. Her hair is good, though.

Jessica. Of course my first response is “If she can walk in those heels, she can dance. Faker!” Then “my side” -- who's heard of someone who can't dance because she hurt her side? Then of course I feel like an ass when she reveals she has two broken ribs.

Joshua/Courtney. Wow! That's a lot of lighting and costumes and other special effects. I kind of wish they had just come out and danced, instead of acting out some weird, sexed up Frankenstein story.

Chelsie. Good, solid routine. I don't think she's going anywhere. Who is watching this show? Who is voting? I've assumed teen and pre-teen girls. But does it matter? I bet a lot of people like Chelsie – she's so little and cute.

Mark/Kherington. Say what you will about this show, the on-screen personalities are about a million times classier than the ones on American Idol. Even here, when they hate the entire thing (with good reason), they're really nice about it. Mark is wearing higher heels than Kherington is.

Gev. Oops. Not really dancing and his best move didn't come until after the song ended. Still, he's not lazy -- check out those arms.

Twitch/Comfort. Wow. Journey. This is a routine to Journey. That's all I can think. And then so much for the judges being nice. They were at least constructive -- except for maybe Little C., whom I didn't entirely understand -- but not nearly as kind as they were to Mark and Kherington.

Courtney. Very good routine, not much to say about it -- about what you'd expect her to do.

Katee/Will. That's an interesting pairing. Tyce Diorio. This is going to be great – two of the technically best dancers, right? – or disastrous – if we finally have to hold Will accountable for a so-so routine. I call it a disaster, but the judges love it. Is it possible that Will is hypnotizing America with his smoking bod? Plus did Nigel just admit that they were too harsh toward Katee during the auditions?

Mark. Oh no -- this is the "Bohemian Rhapsody" routine we saw during auditions. Learn a new routine, Mark! It's good, though, and Mark's clowning afterwards is a lot less distracting than usual. What a gaywad, though.

Gev/Chelsie. I liked this, but maybe not as much as I expected. No, it was really good. I just decided. It was a smart, well-choreographed routine. It's nice that two halves of the two high-chemistry couples from the first half of the season (ie, Gev and Courtney and Mark and Chelsie) were able to communicate a real connection to one another -- I agree with I think it was Nigel, who gave a lot of the credit to the choreography.

Comfort. Still too big for this damned show. What are we going to do with her?

Twitch. Jesus. Best of the night. I think he actually ended in time with the end of the music! Twitch isn't going anywhere anyway, but Jesus! This routine really makes the other guys -- especially Gev -- look bad.

Joshua/Courtney. Wait. Everyone is doing two routines in addition to a solo? Now I get why Mark danced "Bohemian Rhapsody" again. Holy shit, though. Joshua is going to win this thing. He's so great. I barely saw Courtney (whom I usually love) -- both fluid and masculine.

Katee. Bitch did an interpretive number to "This Woman's Work." I'm done.

Mark/Kherington. That Jamiroqui song from Center Stage. I think Tyce Diorio saw that movie, too. I liked this better when Jody Sawyer did it. I think it says a lot about Mark's chemistry with Chelsie (and his lack of chemistry with Kherington) that Mark seems really, really femme this week. Seriously, too -- do these two hate each other or what?

Will. This is both very good and very boring. Even Cat doesn't have anything to say about it.

Twitch/Comfort. That was exactly right. There we go. Really good chemistry. Little C. explains "buck," which I still don't get. Comfort is super-gracious about the "You usually suck, but not tonight!" pile-on.

Kherington. Good -- about what you'd expect.

Will/Katee. Pas de deux. To "Imagine." Huh. And yet -- sooo much better than their first routine. It's nice that the judges are coming around on Katee -- I noticed this last week, as well. Is she the most highly-praised of the women now?

Joshua. Really good. Maybe not as good as Twitch's? But as good as you'd expect, based on what we've seen of Joshua this season -- a little startling, even, because we haven't seen him dance solo since Las Vegas.

Gev/Chelsie. Seems like old times. Seriously. So Chelsie danced circles around Gev, basically led him around like an old dog, except that Gev is so game and the trust between the partners is so strong that you almost feel like it's intentional. Wow. Mary said what I was thinking -- it was a little like Dancing with the Stars. 

I can't tell who's going home. Mark, must be -- and either Comfort or Kherington.

So You Think You Can Dance Shocker

Jessica King has pulled out of So You Think You Can Dance, due to an injury, according to Zap2it. Replacing her will be Comfort Fedoke. Sad for Jessica -- it would have been interesting to see how she would have done, with a different partner -- I'm thinking a Twitch-Jessica pairing would have been exciting. Smart of her to exit now, though, I think, rather than risk more serious injury. She got to the top 10, which means she gets to go on tour, and I'm guessing her days were numbered in the competition -- she had been the judges' whipping boy for weeks. She and Will had landed in the bottom three at least twice. I'm guessing that starting this week, with the switch to voting on an individual basis, she was in pretty serious jeopardy. Happy for Comfort, though -- maybe she can turn things around, with the shake-up in partners?

So You Think You Can Dance Top 6 Couples

Mark/Chelcie. Routine 1/Latin. Another half-dress. You know Nigel is going to say something revolting -- and he does. Routine 2/Broadway. Meh. This story didn't really speak to me. Again, Nigel has to take it there with Chelcie's costume. Mark's phone number clowning makes it really hard to like him.

Thayne/Comfort. Routine 1/Hip Hop. Oh crap. It's over for Comfort, I think. I still feel that she's a good dancer, but the judges don't like her, I tell you what. They're right to pick on her lack of chemistry with Thayne, I guess, but whose fault is that? Routine 2/Contemporary. Nice George Michael song. The lack of chemistry between Thayne and Comfort was really a problem here -- dancing was just a little sloppy, but mostly they couldn't sell the story.

Will/Jessica. Routine 1/Contemporary. This really is naked week here on So You Think You Can Dance, isn't it? That looked really difficult to dance, especially all the silent parts. Routine 2/Quick Step. Does anyone like this? Apparently, no one (except Mary, assumedly) likes to dance this, and I can't imagine anyone really likes to watch it. And this one was to that fucking Barry Manilow "Bandstand" song that made me want to die. This was so corny and fake.

Gev/Courtney. Routine 1/Cha Cha. There is no doubt in my mind now that these two are doing it. This was interesting because it seemed to do for Gev what Doriana Sanchez was trying to do for Jessica a few weeks ago -- he really had a chance to shine. Routine 2/Jazz. I did not expect to like this. Those hats? The map? But Jesus! The hip moves and the handstand and all of it. Maybe the best of the night.

Twitch/Kherington. Routine 1/Krump. I sort of missed the early, good part of this and only saw the final, shitty part. Too bad. Routine 2/Smooth Tango. Good, a little anti-climactic. Did Twitch and Kherington oversell this during the introductory segment?

Joshua/Katee. Routine 1/waltz. Huh -- a Goo Goo Dolls revival? This number seemed to be at half-speed and Joshua's footwork kind of sucked. That last lift -- "the snake?" -- was great, though. Routine 2/Bollywood. I was way too excited for this routine: I loved the idea of it and this was probably the best couple to assign it to (um, maybe Will and Jessica would have been as good, or Mark and Chelcie), but somehow . . . It was technically about right, I think, but seemed somehow westernized. Sadly, I lost power right after they finished, and never saw the judges' reaction.

So You Think You Can Dance Top 7 Couples

This week was so much better than last week, in terms of entertainment -- each couple performed two routines, which meant almost no filler. In terms of dancing, this was maybe a little less strong. It seemed like most of the couples weren't quite up to learning two entire routines (in addition to whatever group number they'll do to open tomorrow night's episode, plus the solo "Dance for Your Life" routine six of them will need to perform).

I am still finding this format tough, though. It's hard to watch 14 of these in a single night and then try to remember and talk about them afterwards. Fortunately, I watched with our friend A., who had some vivid remarks.

Will/Jessica. Wow -- I can't remember both of their numbers. There was the shirtless one, grace a Mandy Moore. That one was good, but showed up Jessica's limitations (per usual).

Thayne/Comfort. Thayne is so much more bearable paired with Comfort. I know -- a lot of that has to be my pro-Comfort bias, but also, he seems to be toning down the overblown, fakey smiling. I thought the judges were unnecessarily harsh on the first routine; the second one they liked for some reason, although I found it boring.

Matt/Kourtni. I think these kids are done. They keep landing in the bottom three, plus the judges seem to have had it with Matt, particularly his "flappy" (per A.) hands.

Mark/Chelsie. Hated the first routine (which the judges loved), but liked the second one, even with the awful, ill-fitting dress. A.: "That girl is what? 12 years old?"

Twitch/Kherington. Twitch was pretty shirtless throughout. Both of these struck us as pretty gimicky. The second one (no surprise -- it was Mia Michaels's), at least, was emotionally compelling.

Joshua/Katee. The first one was unbelievable. I thought the second one completely sucked -- it got better, but still . . . The costumes were gross, too.

Gev/Courtney. Both of these were pretty fun, but Gev seemed a little overmatched -- is that the correct term? He was having to work too hard to keep up with Courtney on the first one, then on the second one, he seemed always a step ahead.