Premiere Watch '08: Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl: Summer, Kind of Wonderful

Gossip Girl is back!

Unfortunately, this good news is being tempered by the concurrent bad news that summer is over. And that development is seriously depressing. Luckily, I'll have Chuck Bass to help me through it.

Unluckily for me, it seems that GG's masterminds have decided to drag out the Blair/Chuck saga while rushing along the Serena/Dan reunion. Probably a wise decision, because Chuck and Blair (and the actors playing them) can sustain an emotional, drawn out separation, while a separated Serena and Dan would just look whiny. Not that they don't look whiny when they're together.

Nevertheless, the Chuck/Blair angst is torturous. The scenes after dinner and outside the party were both heart wrenching. Chuck was just adorable in the one outside the party. He was so tortured, so insecure, so gorgeous...

Chuck: "I was scared."
Blair: "Why?"
Chuck: "I was scared that if we spent the whole summer together, you'd see."
Blair: "See what?"
Chuck: "Me."

He totally won me back, but I can't honestly say that he ever actually succeeded in alienating me.

Other thoughts:

• I'm glad GG is back just so they'll start showing promos other than the one of Blair saying "A hot lifeguard is like Kleenex--use once, then throw away!"
• Ugh, Dan, I did not miss you.
• It is nice to hear Kristen Bell's narration again.
• Dan needs to start naming his stories by something other than dates.
• Gossip Girl: "A man is a good thing to come home for, but an even better thing to come home with."
• Gossip Girl: "Isn't karma a bitch? We know Blair Waldorf is."
• Blair: "The only thing lamer than dating Dan Humphrey is mourning Dan Humphrey."
• Serena is so not smooth. "Whose James?"
• Blair: "I bet you'll like him just as much as I do!"
  Chuck: "If by that, you mean 'not at all,' then you're right."
• Dan got an internship with a writer? Do those even exist?
• Blair got some serious hair extensions in France.
• Nice mint green suit Chuck's got on there...
• Chuck should have noticed that Blair was starting to cry while telling him off, which would be an inappropriate reaction if she really didn't like him.
• Couldn't Dan write a story about something else? Perhaps that would be a little easier for him. If he can't write a story unless it's about a major life event he's just been through, then he's going to have a problem in the future unless he has a very, very eventful life.
• Jenny's dress looks better on her than it did on the hanger at least.
• Grandma van der Woodsen has had quite an attitude transformation.
• James: "It's no wonder you hate Charade--it hits too close to home."
• Whose clothing is Dan wearing? I think it's Chuck's. He he he. (Oh, boo, it turns out to be Serena's grandfather's suit from the '70s.)
• Ha! For once Dan's holy-than-thou attitude get shoved back in his face when his two summer hook-ups tell him off in front of Serena.
• James is actually a lord! Ha ha ha ha, this is so The Prince Is Me!
• Blair: "Not quite, my lord!"
• Hey, I just realized what I liked about this episode: no Vanessa!
• Wait, in the promo, did Nate's girlfriend say she was a duchess too? She's not the mother of "James," is she? Eew.

Premiere Rating: 7.5/10

(photo: cwtv.com)

SYTYCD: The Fab Four

So You Think You Can Dance: Finale Performance Show
I do love this show to pieces, but I'm glad this is the final week for it. Once the Olympics start, I'm going to have no time for all this silliness. You know one of the nice things about the Olympics? In the events where there is judging, the judges give you a score, but they don't get to sit there and monologue about it for 10 minutes.

Last week's elimination: I wanted Mark to stay instead of Twitch. I'm glad the final two girls were Katee and Courtney.

I wonder which two of the dancers collapsed due to dehydration this week, and I hope they're all ok now.

They better let Josh and Twitch to a hip hop together. Why even bother letting them do any other style?

Courtney and Twitch (hip hop): Please, please, please maybe this be the last Napoleon/Tabitha hip hop routine of the season... Twitch is getting type cast as the boyfriend with they crazy girlfriend/ex-girlfriend. I was distracted during the side-by-side dancing because Twitch is so much bigger than Courtney. Whoa, he spun her on his head...and then she kind of careened off. That routine didn't do much for me.

Courtney's solo: Nice spirit and musicality as per usual. Wow, the judges get to critique the solos tonight. Ok, by "critique" I mean "bestow massive amounts of praise on the dancer."

Katee and Joshua (a Wade Robson routine): Yea, it's Wade! Absence makes the heart grow fonder (as does having to watch two Napoleon/Tabitha routines a week all summer). Last week they were Romeo and Juliet, and now they're doing another love-themed routine. I like this routine better; there was nothing particularly big and flashy, but the movements were really neat and well choreographed. (Now all the judges are being especially nice to Wade. They learned their lesson about dissing his routines when they complained about the little foxes last season and he went MIA for most of this year.)

Katee and Courtney (Broadway): Broadway? Really? Weird outfits; I think the skirts are distracting. Not sure I'm following the story here... Their leaps while holding the parasols were a highlight. So did they give the girls this rather blah little number to ensure that a boy (Josh) wins? (Oddly, the two-girl numbers in the finales--at least in seasons 2, 3, and 4--have never gone over gang busters.)

Twitch's solo: Twitch seems extra big this week for some reason. Maybe it's something about the thing on his head.

Twitch and Joshua (Trepak Russian dance): I didn't know Josh and Twitch were having a rivalry all this time. Wait, wait, wait, they're doing a Russian dance?! This is brilliant/hilarious. Whoa, pants!!! Josh's amplitude on his straddle jumps is ridiculous. Ok, there doesn't seem to be a whoa lot of actual Russian dancing going on here... It was kind of like free styling while wearing poofy pants.

Katee's solo: She brought out the big guns tonight with Imogean Heap's "Hide and Seek."

Katee and Twitch (fox trot): They're making Twitch do a fox trot in the finale? Eesh. Katee's dress is pretty awesome. This is a very jazzy fox trot. Wow, the actual "fox trot" part was really slow. The lift was super. Well, it wasn't a great fox trot, but it was a nice performance. Twitch just has the most adorable smile.

Joshua's solo: Josh does look like a sprinter. Josh takes his wiggling and chest popping over to the judges table.

Courtney and Josh (jive): It looked like they were thinking really hard about what they were supposed to be doing, but they mostly pulled it off. It seems weird seeing a girl do a jive without heels on. As tired as these two look right now, I wouldn't be surprised if they were the two who collapsed. (Esp. since Josh had the super intense Russian dance too.)

Top 4 group number (Mia Michaels routine): There's a lot of plaid going on here. The routine was kind of weird, but it had a triumphant air to it and was entertaining.

I've never seen the dancers on this show look more tired after their performances than they have tonight. And I don't blame them, because I feel exhausted just from watching this finale...

My final pick: Well, I don't have a strong enough preference to vote, but if it were up to me, I'd give the win to Katee. After almost getting herself left out of the top 20, Katee has been nothing but fantastic all season long. My second choice would be Josh.

SYTYCD: The Super Six

So You Think You Can Dance: Top 6 Performance Show

My take on last week's eliminations:
When the top 20 performers were named, Will was absolutely my favorite of the bunch. That said, I wasn't all that distressed that he was voted out last week for one reason: the judges. The more they gushed and gushed and gushed about Will the less and less and less I wanted to see him stick around. More than anything, the judges should take this as a lesson against over-hyping someone. Nothing about Will himself or his dancing ever made me want him off the show, however, so I was still sad to see him leave. He was absolutely a class act throughout the whole season, and his post-elimination speech was eloquent and uplifting as he encouraged viewers to pursue their dreams, saying "There's no depth to the ocean: Keep swimming."

As for Comfort, I think not getting eliminated two weeks in a row was a victory in and of itself for her. No big surprise that it was her time to go (again), but she, like Will, handled it beautifully.

This week:
How I would love to see Mark make it through this week too! I think everyone should vote for him just to piss Nigel off.

At first I thought I really liked Cat's sparkly silver dress, but now I'm not so sure. It has quite a high slit on the one side and something brown on the other...I'm confused.

How did I know Adam Shankman was going to be the third judge tonight? At least since it's only an hour-long show tonight, the judges won't have too much time to babble.

They put Mark with Courtney? Come on. Why does he always have to dance with the girl who almost got sent home the week before? That's not fair. Especially since it was clearly Mark's turn to dance with Katee. And TPTB are making Mark and Courtney dance first no less!

Courtney and Mark--Dance 1 (Viennese waltz): This was a very lovely performance. Wait, someone forgot to tell Adam that they're supposed to be low-balling Mark: he just said Mark did the best "rise and fall" of any guy on the show. Wait, now Mary thinks Mark has been "growing every single week"? Why has she never mentioned that before? Now I know what's going on; they think that if they're too mean to Mark he'll get sympathy votes, so they're being moderately nice.

Chelsie's solo: In a novel turn of events, she tries to do a solo without a ruffly dress on. I'm still not sold on it though.

Twitch's solo: Umm, the first half of the routine was a little light on the dancing. I don't need to see 10 seconds worth of Twitch putting on his glasses. Cat looks cute in them though ;-) Poor Cat wears someone else's grille and she still can't get nominated for an Emmy.

Katee and Joshua--Dance 1 (contemporary): Hmm, it's not like we haven't seen these two dance together a ton of times before... Can I please put a moratorium on routines choreographed to Celine Dion songs? I liked everything about this routine except the song. The lifts were especially cool. Is this a dance competition or an episode of "Namecheck Your Favorite Choreographer"? Come on. (And of course Nigel was "so thrilled" to hear that Katee and Josh were paired together--he paired them together!)

Chelsie and Twitch--Dance 1 (mambo): Poor Twitch is hilarious with his wondering where 1 and 5 went in mambo counting. Well, Chelsie really went to town with this routine. Twitch was certainly trying, but the basic mambo technique just wasn't there. The routine was really fast, though, so he didn't have much time to catch his breath. Hey, how come when Twitch is out of his element and does ok, he gets nothing but praise from the judges, but last week when Mark was out of his element and did ok, he got skewered?

Katee's solo: Props to her for trying to show a bit of a harder edge than we normally see from her in her solos. It was alright, but she definitely thrives more in the choreographed partner routines.

Joshua's solo: Easily the best solo so far. It was tons of fun, and he did some seriously difficult looking moves (and a crazy-high split leap).

Courtney and Mark--Dance 2 (jazz): Ahh, good, Mark can rock the crazy faux hawk again. I was a big fan of that routine: no gimmicks, just good music and strong choreo. And Mark and Courtney sold the hell out of it. They definitely tapped into some dark, raw energy, and they danced the routine beautifully. The routine certainly suited Mark's bizarre style, and Courtney had no problems channeling the weirdness either.

Katee and Joshua--Dance 2 (paso doble): I think I recently complained that here hadn't been a paso doble in a while, and now one appears. Josh finally has to do a shirtless number! I love Katee's skirt. I'd say they did a pretty good job for neither of them being a true ballroomer. Uh oh, the judge over-hype is starting to make me apathetic toward Katee and Josh. And that's not good, because I love them, and I think they're great dancers.

Courtney's solo: She might have wasted her best solo on last week's elimination show. In my opinion, she still did the best solo of the girls tonight.

Mark's solo: Ha, he's taking his shirt off too. Mark's dancing is just so weird. Half the time, it looks like he's doing an Arrested Development-esque chicken dance, but it's so freaking cool.

Chelsie and Twitch--Dance 2 (hip hop): Hmm, Twitch gets to hip hop again. On the other hand, Chelsie's only hip hop was that "lyrical" routine where she was jealous of Mark working too much, which wasn't really classic hip hop. Nooooooooooo, not Tabitha and Napoleon again...and they've come with a gimmick. Awesome. I do like Chelsie's crazy hair. Chelsie overdid the facial expressions, and that shorts/socks combo is not flattering. She did seem to be a pretty good hip hopper; her movements were definitely more blunt than Twitch's more fluid movements, but I don't know if that's bad or good or what.

My favorite routines:
Mark and Courtney's jazz
Katee and Josh's contemporary (minus the music)
Josh's solo/Mark's solo

If it were up to me, the Top 4 would be Katee, Josh, Mark, and Courtney.

TV News Roundup

What I'm paying attention to:

• Based on a behind-the-scenes Gossip Girl feature I saw on Access Hollywood a few days ago, it seems like Blair Waldorf has spent her summer vacation figuring out how to turn Chuck Bass' name into swear words. So far she's got: "Chuck Basstard" and "mother-Chucker."
• Uh oh. Art imitates life as Scott Michael Foster (Cappie) drinks too much, gets in trouble. Evan Chambers is going to have a field day with this...
• Wildfire's Kris Furillo is hooking up with one of Rory Gilmore's ex-boyfriends on Supernatural! Genevieve is seriously brave to sign on for this job, as Supernatural fans have been notoriously harsh critics of some of the show's past female characters. I'm kind of missing Kris and the Wildfire gang, though, so I might tune in for this even though I don't watch Supernatural. Wildfire, Junior, Matt, and the wind turbine are all going to be so jealous though.
• Speaking of the Wildfire gang, Nana Visitor (still can't believe that's her real name) a.k.a. Jean Ritter is in the soon-to-be-released film Swing Vote (you have to scroll down the list to find her). I know about this because she delivers what seems to be a fairly important line in the trailer.
• Even after spending a year working on Private Practice, Chris Powell is still hilarious. Is it just me, or does he seem pretty serious when he's comparing the rest of PP's cast to a group of elderly people who need someone young to reassure them that they're still attractive?
• Grunberg comes dangerously close to admitting that he thought the second season of Heroes sucked too.
• My favorite season 2 Chuck Bass outfit so far.

SYTYCD: The Great Eight

So You Think You Can Dance: Top 8 Performance Show

Cat looks lovely tonight in a fairly understated black dress.

Toni Basil, of "Mickey" fame, is the third judge tonight. She's an interesting choice, but I think I'm going to miss Lil C.

I could live without everyone having to do a solo, personally.

Will and Courtney--Dance 1 (samba): Good, we need more Latin dances this season. Wow, Courtney's outfit is out of control. This routine seemed really long and tiring, but they did a good job of keeping their energy up the whole way through. There were a few parts where they didn't seem quite together, maybe, but when you looked at either one individually, they both looked like they were hitting it really hard. Courtney definitely looked like a samba queen (and I don't think it was just because of the outfit).

Comfort's solo: Who knew she had all this ballet training at school? It doesn't always show... While I feel like I've spent half my life watching Comfort do solos, I think this one was my favorite one yet.

Twitch and Katee--Dance 1 (contemporary): Two kids from the O.C.! It's like Ryan and Marissa 2.0! (Side note: Katee's beating the hell out of Twitch this week--first she punched him in the eye, now she's kicking him...) It's a Duffy song, but the routine is clearly depicting the Life Story of Amy Winehouse (complete with her hair and makeup). Was I the only one worried that Katee was going to get her fingers slammed in the door? This routine was edgier than other routines of Mia's, and I liked it. Katee kicked the crap out of the dancing, both of them nailed the performance, there was a hardcore kiss and a lot of door slamming...what's not to love? (I could, however, deal without the Nigel/Mary sex innuendos.)

Will's solo: Will started dancing because he loved the final dance in Dirty Dancing! That's adorable. They should make a Dirty Dancing tribute routine for him to do sometime. Holy crap! He's dressed like James Brown! Are you kidding me?! I'm not sure the "dancing" was the best he's ever done, but the whole thing was freaking hilarious. Way to go out on a limb instead of doing the same contemporary solo week after week after week.

Mark and Comfort--Dance 1 (hip hop): Wow, they're making last week's bottom two survivors dance together? They are really hanging these two out to dry. Comfort gets to dance hip hop two weeks in a row? That doesn't make much sense; she hasn't had to do a Latin dance in forever. Well, Mark definitely has the "stank face" down. This was not my favorite hip hop routine ever, but I'm putting that on the shoulders of the choreographers (Napoleon and Tabitha), not the dancers. Mark and Comfort both did a good job. I did appreciate that it was a bit harder than N&T's typical "lyrical hip hop."

Katee's solo: Not the most interesting thing ever, but her dancing was lovely, as per usual.

Joshua and Chelsie--Dance 1 (Argentine tango): Dmitry! I'm not quite as excited to see him as I would be to see Pasha, but I'm still excited. Chelsie was giving Josh a really hard time during practice, eeesh. Someone in the costume department must have gotten a discount on fringe this week. The lighting was really dark during this routine; I think it was a darn hot routine, but it was a little hard to see. I think this was definitely the best tango we've seen this season.

Mark's solo: Mark was the only boy dancer in his liberal arts school, poor kid. He says he was always a little weird. His solo dances display that weirdness, but he has definitely learned to use it to his advantage.

Will and Courntey--Dance 2 (hip hop): NOOOooooooo. I don't want to see any more slow/lyrical hip hop. I'm over it. But Will's playing a ghost, so maybe that will save it... Courtney's outfit is weird. Well, this routine was better than most of T&N's lyrical hip hop numbers, and Will and Courtney danced it quite well--I wouldn't say it's going down in SYTYCD history though. I think Mary just suggested that we "cart [her] away and take [her] to the funny farm"--don't give us any ideas, Mary. I wish Lil C were here to critique the hip hop numbers.

Chelsie's solo: She was wearing some seriously hardcore makeup in the photos from the ballroom competitions. Hey, look, more fringe! I've seen other ballroom dancers do better solos.

Katee and Twitch--Dance 2 (Broadway): Why does Katee always have to do Broadway? Wait, again Katee wants Twitch and Twitch doesn't want her? I'm noticing a theme... Katee kind of stole the show with her superior technique, but Twitch does really bring it with his performance. The lifts were wild (esp. the one where she stradled his neck and he did a wiggly walk). This was one of my favorite Broadway SYTYCD routine ever (I think this season's Broadway SYTYCD numbers have been better than they were in the past). Katee hasn't done a bad routine yet.

Joshua's solo: I wished his solo had been a little longer, because he was just getting into it when it was time to stop. The boy can be sick though, when he wants to be.

Courtney's solo: Best female solo of the night--she displayed lovely dancing and great musicality. It was a powerful little performance.

Twitch's solo: I'm going to call this an old-school street-style solo. I'm not sure if that's the correct terminology, but "street" seems to be the watchword tonight (esp. from Toni), so I'm going to go with it.

Mark and Comfort--Dance 2 (fox trot): Here comes the payback for Comfort getting to do hip hop again... I love Mark when he's dressed up in Swing Era attire. Wow, they performed this routine better than I was expecting (close hold not withstanding, I guess). Ideally it could have been faster and smoother, but it also could have been much worse. I think Comfort did better with this than she did in any of her previous ballroom attempts (and it would have been nice if one of the judges had pointed that out). The spinning lift at the end was hot.

Joshua and Chelsie--Dance 2 (disco): Chelsie is coming off really annoying this week... Well, they're certainly sparkly to say the least. I can't believe they're ending the show with disco. Poor Josh, I feel bad that they made him do this ;-) The lifts were cool, especially the Dirty Dancing-esque spinning one (which is apparently called "the superman lift"), but I wasn't thrilled with the rest. Chelsie did do a good job of being a feisty disco diva.

While I don't enjoy agreeing with the judges, I concurr that this was a really great show tonight! By far the best night of performances this season. It's hard to pick favorites tonight.

Favorite Routines:
Twitch and Katee's contemporary
Twitch and Katee's Broadway
Solos from Will, Courtney, and Josh

Who's In Trouble:
Girls: It seems likely that Comfort will be sent home for good this week. Aside from her, I wasn't all that impressed with Chelsie this week--she did well in both of her dances, but nothing blew me away.
Guys: This is a really tough call. I'd love for Mark to stay around, but I don't want to see Josh, Will, or Twitch go either. Performance wise, I didn't think Will was as amazing as he has been, and Josh got stuck with some difficult dance styles--but both of their solos were great. I think Twitch made a case to stay with both of his couple dances. I'm at a loss.

SYTYCD: It's the Top 10, Baby!

So You Think You Can Dance: Top 10 Performance Show

Pre-show prediction of who is in trouble this week: Gev (process of elimination) and Comfort (seeing as she was already eliminated once)

So, let's find out what's wrong with Jessica: She doesn't look particularly injured... She "broke two ribs and fractured one"--wait, what's the difference between a "break" and a "fracture"? Whatever. It doesn't seem to have affected her ability to walk around in really high heels and a really tight dress. So that, at least, is something.

As for Comfort: I can't really see this shaking out in any other way than her getting voted out this week. And getting eliminated two weeks in a row has got to really suck. At least she (and Thayne) can go on the tour.

It's nice to see Lil C on the judges panel tonight. At least I'm fairly confident that he's not going to just start shrieking...

Courtney and Joshua--Dance 1 (hip hop): Courtney has never "popped" before. It will be nice to see Josh do hip hop because I feel like I haven't seen him dance in his own style in a really long time. Courtney's hair is fantastic! (Speaking of hair, has Josh's hair always been this long? He's got quite a pony tail.) Well, I'm not popping expert, but it looks like Courtney's doing a good job to me, and I'm just glad to watch a hip hop routine that's not choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon.

Chelsie's solo: Ahh, the solo, the bane of the ballroom dancer's existence. It was fairly standard fair, but she did a pretty good job. And her tiered dress made everything look extra cool.

Kherington and Mark--Dance 1 (Texas two step): Good riddance, Twitchington, I'm so over that pairing. I had a feeling Mark would be paired with Kherington this week, because she needs someone tall. Ok, so what I'm gathering is that the two step involves a lot of spinning around. Their dancing seemed oddly slow and not as smooth as it could be. Kherington's bikini top is weird too (it reminds me of Star Wars for some reason). Kherington looks slightly terrified--because of the dance or out of fear of a wardrobe malfunction? Mary's putting the blame on Kherington and her lack of connections.

Gev's solo: It was cool how he took off one of his shirts while doing a cartwheel. Other than that, it wasn't that exciting.

Comfort and Twitch--Dance 1 (smooth waltz): Seriously? They're making Comfort and Twitch do a smooth waltz?! That's just mean! Twitch: "I have a big hand though, so she has a big seat." At least Comfort has some chemistry with this partner. As far as waltzes go, this isn't the best one I've ever seen by far, but the performance level was better than I was expecting. The lift at the end was nice. Cat: "No one puts Comfort in the corner."

Courtney's solo: She started out with a lot of flopping to the ground (looked better than it sounds). I liked this solo--it mixed some leg extensions and "tricks" with some other dance moves.

Will and Katee--Dance 1 (Broadway): Sight unseen, I love this pair. Will's a cute nerd. I still, however, do not love SYTYCD Broadway routines, but as far as they go, this is one of the better ones. It was very well danced. Dimitri and Mia are hanging out together in the audience! Lil C says Will and Katee were "explosive in the character and even more explosive in the choreography," and I agree.

Mark's solo: Mark's own style of dancing is so weird. He always dances like a mad scientist or something. Nevertheless, I like it and I hope, hope, hope he doesn't get voted off this week.

Chelsie and Gev--Dance 1 (contemporary): Poor Gev, they're sure making him out to be kind of pervy... I like the song, I like how this contemporary routine is almost waltzy at times, and I like the lifts and the incorporation of Gev's tricks. I'm a fan. Nigel needs to stop pushing this Gev/Courntey stuff.

Comfort's solo: Why do I feel like I've seen this before?

Twitch's solo: I like the floor coverage that Twitch works into his hip hop solos and also his nice, fluid movements.

Courtney and Joshua--Dance 2 (rumba): Ahh, the boringest of all the Latin dances... (Why haven't we seen a paso doble since the first episode?) Wow, Josh is selling it; he's having one of his I-don't-look-like-a-hip-hop-dancer moments. I liked this routine significantly better than the other SYTYCD rumbas that I remember. It was a little faster and that last lift kicked ass. I'm glad that Josh has also noticed that Will and Twitch are "always nekkid on stage."

Katee's solo: This is the first time we've seen her dancing by herself in quite a while, and it's definitely worth watching. You can see the technique that everyone is raving about, but I also thought she did a good job of interpreting the music.

Kherington and Mark--Dance 2 (jazz): This routine is kind of disco-tastic. Not a bad routine at all, and I hope it's enough to keep Mark in the competition. They showed good technique. These last few weeks, I've noticed something lacking in how Kherington relates to her partner.

Will's solo: Hang on, Will's dancing and his chest is thoroughly covered...wait, what?!

Comfort and Twitch--Dance 2 (hip hop): I figured they were going to give this pair a hip hop number to make up for the smooth waltz. The futuristic costumes are fun. Twitch did the backwards worm! So, based on the individual hip hopping merits of these two dancers, putting them together should make for the best hip hop routine ever, and, you know what, I think it kind of was. I've liked other hip hop routines better for the characters (Transformers, mannequins, nerds, etc), but as for the quality of hip hop dancing (and, granted, I'm no expert), I think this one took the cake. And I'll agree with Lil C that this was the best performance by Comfort ever (she stole the show in my opinion). So apparently, getting eliminated is what it takes to give Comfort a kick in the pants.

Kherington's solo: Um, I'm not all that impressed. I'm beginning to feel like we've seen all K has to offer.

Katee and Will--Dance 2 (pas de deux?! WTF?): Katee's become quite the new dance pioneer. Ahh, look, Wills not wearing a shirt. Wow, I didn't know Katee's legs bent like that either! I think this is a perfect dance for these two technically proficient dancers. I'll say that I'm a fan of the pas de deux, (or "pa de dure" as I spelled it. Ha.) which, I guess, is kind of like ballet. Whatever it was, Katee and Will were super. You know, I think I'd like to see Katee win this whole contest.

Joshua's solo: We haven't seen him dance a solo in a long time either. Well, he made me giggle. I like how he seems so sweet in real life but can put on such an attitude when he's dancing.

Chelsie and Gev--Dance 2 (jive): Ok, come on, guys, we need a good jive this season... Not to quote Mary Murphy, but when Chelsie's doing a ballroom-type dance, she is one hot tamale. Gev's personality translates well into a jive, even if he's not the best jive technician ever.

Major kudos to Lil C's judging tonight. I had a good feeling about him, and he came through. I liked how he even attempted to give constructive criticism instead of just complimenting people for looking hot and saying, "WOOOOOOOOO!"

Best Routines:
Chelsie and Gev's contemporary
Comfort and Twitch's hip hop
Katee and Will's pas de deux

Who Should Go:
Girls: Kherington (In my opinion, Comfort saved herself with the hip hop, and Kherington wasn't great at anything tonight.)
Boys: Well, I imagine it will be either Mark or Gev, and I'm not really sure who it should be. Neither of them were all that remarkable tonight.

Tomorrow night: A group Bollywood number!!! Mia choreographing the girls!!! A mystery guest working with the boys!!! Sweet!!!

Burn Notice: Back in Miami

Burn Notice: "Breaking and Entering"

Yea, Burn Notice is back! It's nice to reclaim at least some of the glory that was last summer's television. Let's just see if I can remember anything that was going on...

The best part about Burn Notice is the characters. Michael, Fiona, and Sam are all extremely likable, and Michael and Fee are so cool that it almost hurts. The second best part about Burn Notice is that it's so freaking fun. It's like Alias before we had to worry about prophecies and entire cities blowing up.

Not that Burn Notice doesn't have it's share of high stakes. After all, Michael is being coerced into working for the people who "burned" him (for some unknown reason) and who do not seem like the nicest bunch of folks you'll ever want to meet. The lady on the phone is all kinds of annoying with her threats, but at least by the end of the episode we got to put a face to her voice. It wasn't a big surprise that the seemingly-random "firecracker" at the bar turned out to be the mystery lady, but it was still entertaining.

Highlights:

• It's nice to see Fiona again since seeing the actress who plays her (Gabrielle Anwar) in The Tudors playing Henry's sister (who ended up being kind of pathetic, which is something Fiona will never be).
• Michael (on airbags): "Gone are the days when you could run through a line of trees without getting a face full of nylon."
• Back to Miami already...Michael had barely left.
• Poor Jimmy. He has quite an unfortunate tale.
• Sam trying to fit into Michael's shirt.
• Ha, nice accent!
• The scene where Mike and Fee were shooting at each other and trying to miss was pretty awesome.
• The Psych commercial of Gus and Shawn singing "Ebony and Ivory" is hilarious.
• Spies have such extensive experience in the strangest stuff (cutting through a floor, for example).
• Michael laughing when Jimmy tells the security guy to take off his jacket and pants.
• Jimmy giving Michael his car as a thank you.
• Ahh, the obligatory beginning-of-season-two break up. This is television; we can't have the couple be together, now can we?

I'm glad to have this show back. Now if only Damages had returned too...