So You Think You Can Dance

I have so many things to tell you about, but those will have to wait for some other time. One of my favorite shows has come back for another season, and we need to discuss it. But first, let me just explain something: I do not believe in spoilers. Oh, I know other people feel very passionately about them, and I respect that, and never spoil endings for them if I know they're excited to see how something ends for themselves. But just understand, this is my blog, and on it, I'm going to talk about shit I've seen recently. If that upsets you, consider the fact that it could be worse - I could be posting on the East Coast. Moving on then.

Let's talk about Mary Murphy. Let's talk about the fact that she laughs too much. Let's talk about the fact that she has an annoying laugh. Let's consider that you've REALLY got to love dancing to stick it out despite Mary's constant laughter throughout each episode. Somebody should tell her to take it down a notch. When you laugh that often, it becomes disingenuous.

Everyone in show business whitens their teeth. But you guys, did you ever see that episode of Friends where Ross whitens his teeth too much and they glow in the dark? I guess Mary didn't.

Highlights from the show:

1. Hanna Lee - the chick who was in that terrible accident in Israel. Remember? There was a wedding, everyone was dancing in a hotel, and then the floor just gave out and everyone crashed three stories down. 24 people died. Hanna Lee was there. I didn't like her outfit, but hopefully somebody behind the scenes will tart her up properly for future shows.

2. The funny dumb fat black kid who may have only been pretending he was dumb. Technically he's not a great dancer, but his moves are so fluid and he's fun to watch that I hope they keep him around for a while. Each time he was featured I missed his name, but I'll get it next time.

3. Joel from Manhattan, dancing with his ex-girlfriend Carmen. Joel tries to be fancy by pronouncing his name "Joelle." Yeah, enough said. Except it's not, so let's talk about his dancing skills. Of which he has none. It was sad. He claimed to really love to dance, and said he dances all the time, but I saw absolutely no passion at all. Yes, in fact I could do better.

4. Carmen (see #4), who danced so poorly that I wondered if she was trying to sabatage Joel's opportunity.

5. Lastly, the guy who calls himself Sex, because like Puck, he doesn't appreciate his given name David. Who EVERYONE would agree, can not dance to save his life. These people have 60 seconds to perform for the judges. One minute of dancing is completely average. This guy had multiple moments when he stood still on stage, clearly trying to think of something to do. Nigel, one of the judges, tried to explain to Sex/David that he was insulting the other dancers there to audition, but Sex/David didn't want to understand that.

Can we expand on this for a moment? Because it seems to be a theme when people audition on reality shows. I think it's great to have confidence. I think there's something to be said for faking it sometimes. But you've also got to have some amount of actual talent. You simply can't audition to be a dancer among other people who've studied dance for over a decade, and claim you should get the golden ticket because your confidence tells you to announce to the judges that you ARE a dancer. Although Nigel was cruel in shooting down Sex/David, he was completely correct. The guy could not dance. At all. His mother was there (Mrs. Sex) and although it's nice that she went to support her son, I think the kinder move would have been to tell him she'd pay for dance lessons and let him dance around the living room or something.

There's your recap. There'll probably be more of them.