Wednesday night is still reality night

[jlh]

Before I get started, OMG how boring is On the Lot? I mean, I keep thinking I could not possibly care less about that show and then I watch it again and lo and behold, I DO. Adriana Costa wears horrible sack like baby doll dresses and is a terrible host. Carrie Fisher and Garry Marshall almost never say anything that is actually interesting, and the guest judge is often useless. The films are fine, but there are probably only two or three directors that I'm interested in (Zach and Sam, and I liked Shalini until this week). But in looking at the website I think I see the problem. On nearly every other similar competitive reality show, the contestants are prominently displayed on the front page. On this one, you have to click through to "contestants." I don't need to know these people's life stories, but surely Burnett if not Speilberg understands that in order to vote for these people I have to care about them, that a lot of what happens on shows like Idol or SYTYCD is my giving a contestant I like a sympathy vote on a week that they mess up. If you want it to be only about the work, "fuck up and you're gone," then just have judges and make it like a Magical Elves show (PR/Top Chef/etc.). But if you want audience voting, then you need to give me the drama.

Speaking of Top Chef, I remarked a couple of weeks ago that I couldn't tell the difference between Camille and Casey, and now that they've finally given me enough footage to do so, it seems to only be to tell me how much they suck. I'm glad that Lia won to balance all of that out, when Sara and Camille and Casey were all in the bottom and the other Sara was seen to be the weakest on her team. Three eliminations in a row have been women. I'm not saying conspiracy; I'm saying what happened, when in season one there were two very strong women who absolutely looked like possible winners? I hope Casey and the Saras can get their shit together and Lia can keep going strong. Meanwhile I also continue to adore CJ, and Dale despite his misstep, and Joey is still annoyingly immature. Hung seems to be showing his true colors now—he's happy to be nice when things are going his way, but he certainly doesn't take criticism well at all, and the judges are not 100% on the Hung Train.

Meanwhile one of my favorite parts of Top Chef, reading the blogs after the episode, has become pretty dull since Padma is taking time off to deal with her divorce and Tom is too busy opening a restaurant. Being left with Ted, Gail and LeeAnne, much as I adore them, is lame as only two of them were there, and only one was a judge. And Harold's blog doesn't show up until like, Friday. *sigh*

SYTYCD this year seems to have a few couples that I care about, a blur of people that are fine but haven't really hit me yet, and a couple of people that I could do without in a red second—Danny and Cedric. I love Dominic and Sabra every week but they were fantastic last night. I've already had my eye on Pasha and Sara so I'm not surprised that they were able to make a great couple, and yeah, it was fun to see Benji in the choreographer's seat with Heidi helping him. And Jordan and Neil finally had a great number and a great effort at the same time! Still, Cat isn't taking the kind of control of the stage that she really needs to, and Nigel, much as I love him, is doing far too much yammering.

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Did you read that article about Danny in the NYT? It's incredibly annoying. I don't agree with the writer's spin on the show at all, and it just made me like Danny even less.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

What a vile article, which clearly reveals its own very strong bias toward classical dance. I mean, that's fine? But that really isn't what this show is about, so to say it hasn't revealed a dancer of distinction when Benji is still a West Coast Swing champ who was in an Xtina video (I can just hear that writer sniffing at ballroom) is just gross. And yeah, totally makes me like Danny less. Like, why is he even there?

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

My roommate, who doesn't watch the show, read it and asked me to explain what he even meant by the repeated claims that they were "looking for Leroy from Fame." It's just such a blatant distortion of the way the show really relates to street dancers and what they like about them.

I think it's kind of fascinating how Meta this show has gotten--AI does this in its own way, but it doesn't seem like every week you get the announcements about how they're picking people and all that. I felt like the whole thing about Danny last night could almost have been an answer to the NYT article by a dance snob who seems so threatened by people daring to remind us that dancing can actually be enjoyed by the general public, especially when it's got something to do with performing. Honestly, it's not like great ballet dancers don't usually have the "magic"--iirc from the article, it's not like Danny was a principal. If Angel Corella was on SYTYCD he would be mugging through his phone number too--as would Baryshnakov!