SYTYCD S8: Top 4 Perform

Hmm. Is it just me, or was tonight's finale kind of lackluster? Lacking some definite luster. I think maybe three routines stood out to me out of the ten partner dances. 30% is not the best percentage. And, also? Tonight was a prime example of ridiculously overpraising guest judges. Not to get all rude up in here, but Katie Holmes basically said the exact same thing for every routine. At least Kenny Ortega mixed things up, but neither of them once said anything bad, and there was some bad stuff to be seen, I think we can all agree.

Observation: all of the dances they did with the all-stars were in their own style while the ones with each other seemed to try to make them step more outside the box. This drawing things out of a hat business is clearly bunk.

I'm going to go through by dancer, in their solo dancing order. Up first...

Melanie - Though I'm not sure her solo quite lived up to the one she did last week, I still feel she has the most heartfelt and quietly powerful solos this season. She can do so much with just the smallest movement, and that's what everyone has come to love about her. Were all of her partner dances tonight as powerful? Ehhh... I think, by far, her best routine of the night was with Tadd in their Ray Leeper piece. She had great attitude and dancing to match. Her worst routine of the night, however, opened the show, and was especially sad since it was a reunion with her longtime partner Marko. But their Doriana Sanchez disco just could not be called great by any means. The lifts were labored, and honestly I found the camerawork really distracting. Not to mention the slow song choice. I termed it "weird." And not in a good way. Rounding out the middle were her two contemporary pieces - the first with all-star Robert in a Stacey Tookey contemporary number that just felt like most other contemporary numbers I've already seen, there really wasn't anything extra magical about it for me. The other was, oh me oh my, also choreographed by Stacey Tookey and danced with Sasha. It was fine. Honestly they had so much dancing to do tonight, you can't expect them all to be amazing.

Marko - I think Marko's solo tonight was the best solo he's demonstrated in the competition ever. He really seemed to put his heart and soul into it, and it showed. Marko's best routine of the night was easily the contemporary piece he had with all-star Lauren, choreographed by Tessandra Chavez. They had such a great connection; everything about it was incredibly heartfelt and powerful, but not in an overpowering way, if that makes sense. Honestly my favorite routine of the night, period. I've already mentioned the dismal disco debacle (alliteration!) earlier. Bluck. His second best routine of the night was the Broadway number danced with Sasha and choreographed by Spencer Liff. It had a certain lightness and playful nature to it that was nice to see, as sometimes things can get too dark and sad. Nigel was negative about his performance but, whatever Nigel. The final routine of the evening was the gumboot stepping piece he had with Tadd, choreographed by Chuck Maldonado. I'm... not so sure about this one. I know that the gumboot thing is in the name of the style of dance, but those boots were seriously distracting, and looked incredibly hard to dance in. I can barely walk well in those non-bendy boots. I didn't get it, to be honest.

Tadd - Tadd has had to do a lot of solos over the course of this season, but you know what? I never get tired of seeing them. I love that he brings the sense of humor and uses the stage in unexpected ways. Not to mention his always surprising music choices. Tadd's best piece of the evening was the previously mentioned Ray Leeper routine with Melanie. Though, I must admit that my favorite part of the whole thing was afterward when Cat said, "When all else fails, bring out a pair of comedy boxers." Comedy boxers! Can we please make this a phrase? Tadd's worst piece of the evening was undoubtedly his Mark Ballas choreographed cha cha with Sasha. Egads was that bad. They had absolutely no sexual chemistry, seemed to miss a lot of the moves just slightly. All in all, a serious struggle. And seriously, Sasha looked like a giant next to him! I already talked about that gumboot routine he had with Marko, which I also termed "weird." Two weirds in one night! Not a great sign. But I will say that I thought Tadd was doing the stepping slightly better than Marko. Finally, Tadd's all-star piece was with season four winner Joshua in a Lil C hip hop. Now don't get me wrong, I love Lil C, but I'm rarely a fan of his hard-hitting style of choreography. I think Joshua was out-doing Tadd in it, which is not really a surprise since it's his bread and butter.

Sasha - You know, all of the dancers had good solos tonight, which is not always the case. Sasha was no exception, though I'm having a hard time recalling anything specific about it other than this thing she does with her legs. I don't know what to call it, so we'll just leave it at that. Sasha's best dance of the evening was her all-star dance with Mark (Mark!) in a Sonya Tayeh jazz number. I mean, come on. Mark and Sonya, you can't go wrong. Plus, a shirtless Mark? mmmmmmMark. Oh, sorry. I'll stop the drooling now. Ahem. Okay! They both demonstrated such strength in this piece! It was my second favorite routine of the night. I dig the quirky dark style Sonya always brings, which is obvious to probably everyone by now. Sasha's worst number of the night was, obviously, the cha cha with Tadd. I thought it was weird that the judges were saying she danced it slightly better than him, because honestly I thought he was doing a bit better than her, but then what do I know about ballroom dancing? The answer is only what I've seen on this show, so I am clearly not a reliable source. I think tonight was also the most we've seen Sasha in dresses! Right? I loved her gorgeous purple gown in her Spencer Liff dance with Marko, which I think was her second best dance of the night. Some of you may disagree on that, but I was left not feeling much in that '50s housewives number with Melanie. Maybe I was just tired of seeing so much standard contemporary by that point? Bring on the funky jazz! Oh well.

Phew! Okay, well, that was the last performance show of this season! Who do you think will be taking home the prize tomorrow? Do you agree with Nigel that it's going to be between the girls, or does Marko have a chance of making the top two? Should Tadd just know right now that he's going to be the first eliminated? Can I ask more questions?

If past records are any indication, it should be Melanie to take home the top prize, but if we're just going based on tonight's show, I really don't know. They all had highs and lows, so it's hard to say.

That's all for tonight! Get pumped to see the best routines of the season in the finale tomorrow! I'm sure we'll be seeing at least the Melanie/Marko statues, the tWitch/Sasha breakfast hip hop and the Jordan/Tadd vulture routines, right? Plus that contemporary one from Allison and Marko. Oh and maybe that jazz one with the kiss from Melanie and Marko! Wow that's a lot of Marko. What routines do you hope to see?

I'm done asking questions, I swear.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural: Best Scenes of Dean Eating (Seasons 1-6)

As promised, I am focusing on some less than serious lists on here this year. We've had a ranking of Sam's Hair, so I figured it was time to give Dean his own list. Since his hair doesn't change much through the seasons, what better way to celebrate our love for him than to focus on one of his true loves: food.

Oh yes, Dean likes to eat. A lot.

Some of his "best" moments shoveling stuff down his gullet....

It's a Terrible Life (4x17)

What's this? Starting off with such an atypical scene?! It's true, this may be the first and only time we have ever seen Dean eating a salad. Of course, this wasn't our real Dean, but a version in another life, which was the whole point of this scene in the first place, to show us that something was terribly wrong with him if he wasn't eating burgers and fries and pie.

Provenance (1x19)

The best part of this little scene is Dean's total entitlement for the hors d'oeuvres and champagne, even though it's quite clear he's not really from some kind of art firm. Classic.

Nightmare (1x14)

One of the very first instances of Dean being inappropriate with his food needs, but certainly not the last.  Posing as a preacher, no less!

Mystery Spot (3x11)

Not the last time his food will come back to haunt him, but certainly one of the most memorable times. Technically two, twice in the same episode he died from his food intake. Maybe that's telling you something, Dean? Nah.

Wishful Thinking (4x08)

Of course the thing that Dean would wish for from a magical wishing well is a sandwich. And, as you would expect, the wishes don't exactly go so well. Cue vomiting up said sandwich! Note to self: don't make wishes in magical wishing wells.

Bad Day at Black Rock (3x03)

We've all experience this moment. Or at least, we all should have. What is life without an occasional ice cream headache? This was like Dean's dream come true - free food for, what, a year? I can't remember the exact details anymore! 

Tall Tales (2x15)

Another classic moment - eating some chili fries on Sam's bed. Don't worry, the moment you're thinking of from this episode is still coming, but I thought the fries deserved their own too just for the look on his face alone.

What is and What Should Never Be (2x20)

Probably the best part of this scene is Mary's "what are you doing" facial reaction to him eating that giant sandwich. A sweet moment that he never got to experience in real life, alas.

Folsom Prison Blues (2x19)

Even while in prison, he can't stop eating, going so far as to take Sam's food as well. Not that we ever hardly see Sam eating, so that's no surprise. Maybe he's always stealing his food. Unless it's a salad shaker.

Hollywood Babylon (2x18)

Dean and craft services = made for each other. Whether little Philly cheesesteak sandwiches or... whatever that other thing is. Food he doesn't have to pay for is always the best kind.

Tall Tales (2x15)

Ah yes, the caramels. Probably the most iconic moment, even though surely exaggerated through Sam's point of view. But hey, with all of the evidence, it sure looks like all he does is stuff food in his mouth, right? 

You know what is an interesting observation? Though it has been a well-documented fact that Dean loves pie, we've never actually seen him eating it. He's ordered it, had it in front of him even, but never actually taken a bite on screen. EDIT: Someone said he did actually eat some during Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. You know why I forgot that? Because it's one of my least favorite episodes!

Sadly, I could not find individual clips of all of the scenes above, but I did find a couple of compilation videos that feature most, if not all, of the scenes above: here and here.

For my past lists, head over: here.

Psst! Hey you! You should totally go like my Facebook page. I'd love you forever and ever. Click and like: http://www.facebook.com/freshfromthe.com. 

SYTYCD S8: Top 6 Results

All is right with the world. I have to say this is probably my favorite top four ever. In the past seasons I've always been disappointed about one of the people who make it into the top, but not this time. Way to get the voting right, people!

I really don't have much to say, so I'll just list the results...

Eliminated:
Caitlynn
Ricky

Top Four:
Melanie
Marko
Sasha
Tadd

Barring something really crazy happening in the performance finale, I can't really see anyone winning this other than Melanie. She and Marko are the only two dancers to never be in the bottom this entire season, and the roar she gets from the studio audience is much more deafening than any of the others. Honestly, she's been my favorite since her initial audition.

You know what's funny? I just went back and looked at my recap for both Melanie and Marko's audition week, and this is what I wrote: "Melanie Moore, the jazz dancer who's also an artist. I liked her quirky style. Marko Gemar, the guy with the bullet in his arm. He looked like he had some real potential too. Those were really the only two from the Atlanta ones that stood out to me." HA, I guess I was right, and so were the producers, to feature them!

What about you? Are you happy with this top four, or do you think someone is missing?

SYTYCD S8: Top 6 Perform

Can you believe next week is already the finale? This summer has just flown by so quickly, it's crazy. As far as who will be in the finale come next week, I think three essentially clinched it tonight, whereas the last spot is a little less clear. Who are the three? Obvious. So obvious. Melanie, Sasha and Marko. I hope it's Tadd joining them and not Ricky, but one never knows with the votes.

Joining Nigel and Mary on the judging panel this week were Christina Applegate and Lil C. I wouldn't have necessarily ever expected Christina Applegate to be a great judge, but she had some great comments, I must say. Who would've thought all of the comedic actor guest judges would be so great? Not me, apparently!

On to the dancers! In the order of their solos...

Ricky - Ricky's solo was planned out well, and went in beat to the music, but I feel like we've seen just so many solos from him by now that it's hard to bring anything new to the table, and there wasn't anything new this time around either.

As for his partner dances... he was teamed up with all-star Jaimie for a Dee Caspary contemporary piece involving sticks. I wasn't paying attention to the intro package, and I must say I had no idea what the sticks were for when watching the actual dance itself. They seemed more like a prop for the sake of a prop, and while I can understand that it was a challenge for him, I don't know. There was some kind of emotional center lacking for me, and maybe that's because he was more worried about the prop than the intention behind the movement. He's a great dancer, but is he a great performer?

For his second dance of the night, he was paired up with Sasha for... whacking. What. This just sounds like a disaster, and honestly, it wasn't the best. After seeing the audition of Princess Lockeroo months ago, this number really just fell flat to me. It seemed really slow and didn't have as much arm stuff as I was expecting, and was just so... bubblegum.

Caitlynn - Oh Caitlynn. She really needs to do something to make her solos stand out more, because every time they just seem to be a lot of flailing about. I feel like that sort of reflects her young personality, though, so I guess it's sort of expected.

For her all-star dance, she was paired up with Pasha for a samba choreographed by Dmitry Chaplin, and though it was certainly serviceable, all I can say is that whenever I see Pasha doing a dance like that, I want to see him with Anya because they have such fire together and can both dance it so well. That lift spin thing at the end seemed super labored too. I'm not sure if it was actually supposed to be that slow or what.

I will say, however, that Caitlynn's shining moment on this entire show was her final number with Marko, a Sonya Tayeh jazz piece. I mean, I love Sonya, for one thing. And Sonya and Florence & the Machine music are just a match made in heaven. It's funny too, because I wrote "Best C's danced" in my notes, and that is what all of the judges then said! Yes, it was the best she's danced, but I don't think it's enough to beat out the other two ladies at all.

Tadd - Dude, how long can Tadd stay up on one hand like that? Crazytown. I'm not sure that Tadd presented anything new in his solo tonight, but there is just something so likeable about his performances that bring a smile to my face, so I could care less.

Tadd's first dance of the evening was with all-star Ellenore in a Sonya Tayeh jazz piece that will probably be dubbed the chandelier piece from now on. It was very cool, I thought. The judges weren't so sure about it, but I felt like I was watching something from Cirque du Soleil up in there. I will agree, however, that it seemed way too short. I wanted it to just keep going. The way he swung around and was able to time it all perfectly was great.

His second dance of the night was with Melanie in a Spencer Liff broadway piece. And can I say something about broadway? Whenever I hear that people are doing a broadway routine I straight up groan. I would say about 90% of the time I don't like them, but tonight? Tonight I did. I think it helped that there was a cool sort of Black Swan story going on. The judges really focused on Melanie in their comments, but I thought Tadd was doing just as well. Go Tadd!

Sasha - Sasha's solo left me wanting more, which can be taken one of two ways. I mean it in the positive way - that I just wanted to see more of her dancing, rather than I wanted to see her do more with it. She has a great musicality to her movement, and is always so centered emotionally in whatever she is doing. Well, except for maybe whacking, but I'm not there yet.

Her first partner dance of he night was with all-star Kent in a Tyce Diorio contemporary piece. And can we just all agree right now that Tyce should stick to contemporary choreography? It's always so much better than any of his other stuff. I really liked the use of the wall in this piece. It was all very passionate, and it came through in their movement. Sasha truly just shines when she is up there dancing, there's no other way to say it. There's something about her that is so engaging.

Except, maybe, in her final partner dance of the evening with Ricky. I mean, I already touched on this earlier, so I won't repeat myself, but this is the one time I didn't feel a connection to her at all. I don't entirely blame her for that. As the judges said, it seemed like they were focused more on getting it right than feelin' it.

Marko - I enjoyed Marko's jumping intro to his solo, and actually enjoyed it on the whole, but there wasn't necessarily anything that new about it that we haven't seen before. But hey, I still love Marko.

His first dance of the evening was with all-star Janette in a Dmitry Chaplin paso doble. First of all, I want that skirt she was wearing. I would be swishing around in that thing constantly, though, so it would probably be a bad idea. This type of dance can be sort of hit or miss, and I think they came up somewhere in the middle. We've seen better, but we've also seen worse. Honestly I hope there aren't too many ballroom style dances in the final performance show next week, because they always seem to be the least exciting.

For Marko's second dance, he had the Sonya Tayeh jazz piece with Caitlynn. I've already said I liked this dance, but now I'm wondering if it is going to be one of the most memorable of Sonya's pieces or not. You know I still remember The Garden from years ago with Mark and Courtney. I'm not sure it was quite to that caliber. But hey, they danced it really well. Man I am so critical sometimes!

Melanie - Wow. That solo was straight up AMAZING. By far one of the best solos I have ever seen performed on the show, period. And apparently she was just coming up with it on the fly before she had to go on! What! What in the world! That is usually a recipe for disaster! Wow.

Ahem. Okay. Melanie's first partner dance of the night, however, was with all-star tWitch in a NapTab hip hop piece. I would say that I liked the concept more than I actually liked the dance itself. That's not to say that I didn't like the dance. For the most part I thought she was hitting it pretty hard, but there were some instances where I wanted her to hit it even harder. This was the first time we've seen her do hip hop, though, so that was a nice change of pace. I was a bit distracted again by the music, though. I'm not sure songs which feature such strong lyrics are as appropriate for this show because it can often overpower the dance, like that Busta Rhymes one a couple weeks ago.

Melanie's second dance of the evening was the broadway number with Tadd. I don't really have much more to say than what I already said. Melanie's great. I think she could win the whole shebang, depending on how next week goes. You never can tell. But if it's not her or Sasha, I will be surprised.

Okay, phew! I think that's enough rambling from me. Who do you want to see as America's favorite dancer next week?

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Underappreciated Gems: Reaper (2007-2009)

Welcome to another of my underappreciated gems posts, the ones where I pay tribute to a TV show canceled too soon.

This time, I'm talking about: Reaper.

Reaper was a show on the newly formed CW network from 2007-2009 about Sam Oliver, a guy who finds out his parents sold his soul to the Devil before he was born, and is now, at age 21, forced into being a sort of bounty hunter for him, sending escaped souls back to Hell.

Though an hour-long show, Reaper was very much about the comedy. In fact I would call it more of a comedy than a drama. While Sam (Bret Harrison) was the emotional core of the show and definitely had some moments of angst about his eventually having to go to Hell, his best friends and coworkers Sock (Tyler Labine) and Ben (Rick Gonzalez) were not always helpful layabouts who also know his secret, and attempt to "help" him catch the souls.

The beginning of the first season played a lot more episodic, focusing more on capturing the souls and the hijinks the guys would get into doing that, rather than an underlying substantial arc. The arc slowly evolved as the first season went on, and, as such, gave the show much more intrigue. The characters became people you actually cared about rather than caricatures. An important thing on a television show!

The second season amped up the serialized nature of the story, and made it more about how Sam was trying to get out of his deal and less about the actual capturing of the souls. Though that was still going on, of course. More moral dilemmas were presented for the characters, with more interactions with demons, and what that all meant.

And if you are looking for a love story, never fear. Sam's been pining after Andi (Missy Peregrym) for quite some time, and has to hide his true nature from her for awhile too. The nice thing is that the show didn't drag this out forever, which can become really annoying on other shows that take five seasons before characters get together. Alas, this show didn't have five seasons to do anything like that anyway!

In short, if you like to laugh, you'll like this show. Plus you've got Ray Wise playing the Devil, and you just can't go wrong there. He plays it with a certain panache that makes you like him even when he's doing terrible things. Personally, my favorite character was Ben. Though Sock was the more over the top funny guy, Ben was subtle, and I dug that.

Top episodes:

• 1x12 - Unseen
• 1x15 - Coming to Grips
• 1x18 - Cancun
• 2x04 - The Favorite
• 2x09 - No Reaper Left Behind
• 2x13 - The Devil and Sam Oliver

Best episodes to get you into it:

• 1x01 - Pilot
• 1x04 - Magic
• 1x06 - Leon

The entire series is on ABC.com right now, and I can assure you, even though it's a few years old, it still made me laugh a lot when I rewatched the whole thing. There are some fun guest stars throughout the series, including Ken Marino, Michael Ian Black and Armie Hammer.