This season of
So You Think You Can Dance has taken some hits - the injuries, the judging inconsistencies, whether there were more pros or cons in the all-star format, etc. But overall, I thought the dancing was top shelf this season, I thought the quality of the entertainment was the best since season 4 and I thought the finale was the most emotionally satisfying in the show’s history.
Right from the start it was firing on all cylinders last night. The opening group routine was a terrific production featuring all 11 contestants plus the all-stars choreographed by one of the gentlemen from the Legion of Xtraordinary Dancers, who really are the shit. They even found a way to include Alex when they brought him out in a chair and had him doing some synchronized hand work that was very impressive.
The thrills continued when they flashed over to the judges table and who did my eye spy but Mary Murphy! After putting up with a whole lot of nonsense from the judgery this season, it made me appreciate what Mary brought to the proceedings - namely some genuine affection and enthusiasm for the dancers and the overall quality of the dancing on the show as well as some ballroom expertise that I think would have saved us all from raves over Robert’s constant, terrible flailing around during his ballroom routines. So I was thrilled to see her smiling, botoxed face on the panel last night, joined as it was by Stacey Tookey, Tyce DiOrio, Kenny Ortega and the usual three stooges – Nigel, Mia and Adam (who, by the way, appeared to be a good 8 inches shorter than everyone else on the panel).
The collected “judges” then started introducing their favorite dances from the season and then the dancers once again took the stage to recreate them. I agreed with some and others definitely wouldn’t have been my pick. And after half a season of talking about it, I was a little disappointed that they didn’t recreate the prom routine with Kent and Lauren.
They also had some guest performers. Quest Crew (minus Dom) did a really entertaining number that included one guy in a gas mask and top hat who didn’t remove either the entire time. A couple of tap-dancing teenage brothers did a thing. And when Nigel faked a stubbed toe as part of the Season 7 Injury Curse, a 7 year old boy named Luke came out and tap-danced better than anyone has ever tapped on the show before. Oh, and Black Gold performed their song that the show has used to back the “best bits” packages for the departing contestants this season.
They also invited Charlie Bruce over, she’s the winner of So You Think You Can Dance UK, to perform a Mandy Moore routine with Neil. So not only is she beautiful and an amazing dancer but she’s lucky as hell to boot. Ok. It’s a great routine that makes me wonder where that sort of choreography was for us this season. Perhaps Mandy didn’t leave her best ideas in 2007 so much as she left them in Britain.
Half way through the show Cat called our finalists to the center of the stage to let Robert know that he’d come in third. I knew that would be his fate and all I can say is that on this show, more than any other reality competition I can think of, there truly are no losers. Just ask fellow third place contestants Neil, Katee, Kayla and Kathryn.
There was one, much-ballyhooed performance still to go before we found out who won. The Alex/Twitch hip-hop routine was, by most accounts,
the highlight of the season but with Alex unable to recreate the number on stage due to his Achilles tendon’s stubborn refusal to do it’s one job properly, we had to see it another way. Normally they would have simply replayed the original performance for us (as they did with Alex and Allison’s week 1 Hallelujah routine) but it seems that a big fan of the show, and of Alex’s, called Nigel and asked if she might pay tribute to Alex by recreating that routine for the finale. And Nigel said yes because he never passes up an opportunity to grab viewers with a stunt. So they added a door to the set piece for Dr. Twitch’s therapy office, for maximum reveal drama, and when Twitch answered the knock, there hung Ellen Degeneres.
NappyTabs re-worked the routine to simplify it for her and the four rehearsed for a week. She didn’t treat it as a joke like I feared she would. Instead she gave it her all, she did an admirable job, and when it was over, she gave a heartfelt speech to Alex and the audience about how much dance and the show mean to her. It was a nice moment.
And when that nice moment was over, Cat called Kent and Lauren – the exact right top two for this season in my opinion – to the center of the stage and announced that America’s new favorite dancer is…
Lauren Froderman!
They had just seconds left in the broadcast so things moved fast after that but it was probably the most joyous and sweet final moment I can remember from this show. She received her flowers and the Gatorade bottle with her picture on it and then a million pounds of confetti rained down on her as the rest of the contestants and all-stars stormed the stage for hugs. Lauren quickly cracked open her Gatorade and doused herself, as all the real athletes do in times of victory, and then Twitch and Dominic whisked her up onto their shoulders and everyone celebrated.
There are many, many things to love about this show, not the least of which is the extraordinary dancing, but my favorite thing is how much the contestants – each year and from all previous seasons – genuinely love and support each other. From this show I can see that the professional dance community is a family of people who do what they do because they love it, not to be better or more successful than anyone else. They are truly wonderful, hard-working, talented, awesome people and I get misted up just talking about them.
Congratulations, Lauren and congratulations to all of the contestants and all-stars and choreographers this season. You are amazing people and it’s been my privilege to share another season with you. I look forward to spotting all of the dancers in many things to come and I’ll see everyone else back here next year when we find another batch of our favorite dancers.
Eric Stonestreet 
Archie Penjabi
Jane Lynch
Jim Parsons 
And everyone at Modern Family
Six episodes in to my 10 ep Rookie Blue marathon over the weekend, my TV relationship status changed (sorry, Mark Salling). Please meet my new TV boyfriend, Ben Bass, who plays the dreamy Officer Sam Swarek (even his name is pretty awesome, no?). 
Mad Men – Until yesterday, I hadn’t seen a single episode of Mad Men and I have always suspected that I was really missing out on something I’d love. I mean, it gets nominated for a zillion awards and critics rave about it and Twitter is all, well, atwitter with talk of it every Sunday night and Monday morning. So I finally put the first season into the ol’ Netflix queue and the first disc arrived a week or so ago.
Fringe – I hadn’t ever watched the last 4 episodes from last season and since the next season will be starting soon, I thought I best catch up (same is true of House, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet). First let me say that I suspect the writers spent some time taking psychedelics while writing “Brown Betty” because that was just odd. But the three episodes after that were pretty great and in particular, I’m intrigued by Other Olivia switching places with Our Olivia. How long will it take Our Olivia to get home? Will the power of Peter cause Other Olivia to stop working a nefarious angle for Other Walter? Who will realize first that Other Olivia isn’t who they think she is? I kind of hope it’s Astrid. Will Liv keep the Other Olivia brunette with bangs 'do? Because she really should!
The Crazies – There were a couple of genuinely jump-worthy moments, but mostly this movie was more dark commentary on the government than it was fright movie. I’ll take any excuse to watch Timothy Olyphant exist on my TV but this one just seemed to go a step too far. Nuking their town was bad enough but then to have it end on the note that they’d just have to go through it all again in the city was a step too far for me. I might have liked it a bit more if Mr. and Mrs. Sheriff weren’t the only ones to make it out. Oh, and also if someone had explained definitively whether or not Mr. Sheriff caught the virus when his gaping open hand wound was pressed up against the slit jugular of a Crazy. I mean, no one was even worried that he might have caught the fucking thing from blood-to-blood contact? Really?
It’s Complicated – It’s really not. While Alec Baldwin is always entertaining to watch and I do love Meryl Streep and Steve Martin, and John Krasinski was particularly entertaining here, the movie was mostly just one middle-aged-sex joke after another. I’m guessing that plays a lot funnier to my mom’s crowd than mine.
Rookie Blue – Remember when I watched the pilot and said it was slow to get going but worth watching? Well since then, I hadn’t watched any more of it. I kept tivo’ing but just hadn’t gotten around to viewing. But a friend kept telling me that it was her favorite summer guilty pleasure and that I really needed to catch up. I felt like I owed her since she did the same with Pretty Little Liars on my recommendation (and agreed with me that it was cheesy brilliance) so I set my mind to playing catch up with it this weekend. She was not wrong.
Rookie Blue isn’t high art, believe me. I’m not sure it would have been the success it is if it had gone on in the fall or spring but it didn’t. It is exactly what we need in the summer months – something decent to keep us entertained and make us care about what’s on TV. The cable nets have managed to make the summer entertaining and I’m glad to see that at least one broadcast network is attempting to replicate that formula.
Melissa McCarthy turns 40 today. Melissa is adorable, talented, funny (she was wonderfully enjoyable on Gilmore Girls and Samantha, Who?) and once got paid to pretend to be married to Ryan Reynolds and make out with him a little (in the movie The Nines, which I didn't really care for except for the partial Reynolds nudity). Nice work if you can get it! 
Chris Pine is 30. I always forget that he was the love interest in that really awful Lindsey Lohan movie where she was the luckiest girl in the world and then the unluckiest and then when I remember (after I Google his picture), I marvel at how that's kind of the story of Lindsey Lohan in general if you replace "unluckiest" with "stupidest" or "most poorly parented." But this isn't really about Lindsey is it? No. This is about how Chris Pine may have come from humble employment beginnings but he ended up starring in the most kick-ass Star Trek movie I've ever seen. Plus he's dreamy, so his life isn't too shabby at all. 
Joan Allen is 54. 
James Marsters turns 48. 
Amy Adams is 36. 
And my favorite angel, Misha Collins, is also 36 today. 
Kyra Sedgwick is 45 today. I hope I stumble on a giant bag of money soon, so that I can afford the many, many surgeries it will take to ensure I look that young and amazing when I'm 45. 
Tenure - As you've no doubt noticed from previous movie reviews here, I'll watch pretty much anything if it has Luke Wilson in it because I find him adorable and I like the character he plays - and make no mistake, he plays pretty much the same character in every movie. While most of the movies are at best sweet and funny and at worst stupid, they all feature this one character - Luke's character - who somehow makes it feel like it wasn't a complete waste of your time just by virtue of being so likable (and adorable). 
Drive Me Crazy - After Tenure was so unenjoyable, I couldn't bear the thought of being disappointed by another NetFlix pick so I went to my old standby shelf and picked something I knew I'd enjoy. I hadn't watched Drive Me Crazy in quite a while but I've seen it many, many times before and I adore it. 
Melissa & Joey - I tweeted a while back that I was a little ashamed of how much I actually wanted to watch this show but to be honest, I'm not really ashamed by that. The part of me that wanted to see this is the same part of me that still enjoys watching episodes of The Facts of Life, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, What I Like About You, and other such shows when I happen by them. 
Robert Redford is 74 today. Have any of you ever seen Barefoot In The Park? He was a very good looking man in his prime. And his prime lasted a good long while. 
Christian Slater turns 41 today. Ah, I remember my youth when I thought he was the hottest thing since fire. I think nearly every woman in my age bracket has a favorite Christian Slater movie even still. Mine is Pump Up The Volume. What's yours? 
Edward Norton is also 41 today. He's quite the looker too but I'll never love anything he does more than I love his turn as Worm in Rounders. I know it isn't exactly the best movie he's ever made, but I still love it. 
My TV boyfriend, Mark Salling, turns 28 today. My TV boyfriend's age makes me feel slightly cougar-y. I hate that. 
Contestant: Kent
Contestant: Lauren
Contestant: Robert
Contestants: Lauren and Robert
Contestants: Lauren and Kent
Contestant: Kent
Contestant: Robert
Contestant: Lauren
Contestants: Kent and Robert 
David Burtka and Neil Patrick Harris
Jon Hamm
Josh Hartnett
Brad Pitt
Ian Somerhalder