SYTYCD: Well, I can't say I'm sorry to see Mary depart from the panel. She's fine in small doses, but I hated her as a permanent judge. Actually, I dislike the permanent three judge format entirely. I much preferred it when Nigel was the only permanent panelist and each week we'd get different faces in the other seats. I miss the variety of voice, opinion and POV and don't think Mary (or Shankdaddy for that matter) brought enough to the table to make up for it.
And I really, really don't want Mia on the permanent judges panel. She's a great choreographer but, IMHO, a terrible judge. She has shown through her past stints on the panel in the audition rounds, during Vegas Week, and when she's been one of the guest judges in past seasons, that she can be incredibly biased against classically trained dancers, finding them lacking in the more "organic" style of movement that she prefers. At the same time, she can be incredibly condescending to the "untrained" street dancers, making a big deal out of even the smallest advances in technique and downplaying flaws because the performance was "authentic" or "came from a real place". Feh. She's also very quick to form opinions about a dancer and what he/she can do and then be unwilling or unable to see past those preconceived ideas, which causes her to be biased against certain dancers. Just thinking about how she treated Brandon at certain points, or Natalie (Katee's roommate). Egregious. She brings what she knows of dancers from different pre-show contexts into her critiques of them on the show. And sometimes she's a bitch just because she can be. The whole Danny situation will never not make me boiling mad, even though she eventually came around on him, the damage was done. Did I mention I think she's a crap judge?
In happier SYTYCD news, Sonia, Travis and Mandy Moore are choreographing pieces for the final performances of LA Ballet this season and I soooo want to go.
TAR: Sad that the Cowboys couldn't win, but the brothers really did earn it. I'll be interested, too, to see if the producers outlaw using notes on the last task in future as someone questioned earlier. I thought I saw Jordan reading from a notepad and I think it would be a huge advantage for any team. Not that I think the Cowboys could've caught up, because they seemed pretty far behind at that point, but still.