Season 24 - Week One

by **LadyMustang65** Tue Mar 21, 2017 11:11 am

For the most part, we really enjoyed the premiere of this season and are looking forward to the coming weeks. We thought most of the celebs at least showed some promise (Chris K. being the real exception), and several seem like real contenders.

First to leave is a toss-up between Chris K and Erika Jayne. We did not like either of these people. Erika is probably the better dancer, but she was the more objectionable persona. Don't want to see either of them again, though. Ugh!

Mr. T surprised - he moved better than I expected, not that that's saying a lot. And he seemed likeable. Charo is OTT, but she's always been that. She's another one who moved better than I expected. Hopefully they'll find a way to reign her in a bit or she'll leave early just because she'll be too annoying.

David Ross seems like a real nice guy, and he seems to have some potential. But that had to be one of the slowest quicksteps ever. I was not prepared for the high marks at all. smh Bonner and Nick did okay. They both seem as though they could improve. Not sure what to make of the backstage incident with Bonner. I noticed it but hubby didn't. I'm not convinced it was done deliberately - it almost looked as though he was trying to rest his arm on her waist and it slid - but the way she moved the hand made me wonder if he's kind of grabby in rehearsals. I'll have to wait and see with him. I'm not a fan of The Bachelor. It's premise and the way it plays out makes me cringe, so I'm also not inclined to be kind to anyone who goes on that show. But at first blush anyway he seems like a nice enough guy and potentially a better dancer than any of the others. I know the bar's kind of low on that one.

Rashad is definitely the stand-out of the guys for us. He seems like a nice guy, he was definitely having a blast, and he's clearly got some natural rhythm and natural movement. I think his dance was our favorite of the evening - not the best, but we outright enjoyed it the most. This couple is our favorite of the men right now, with David & Lindsay a close second.

The women's field is much deeper. Once you get rid of Erika and Charo, I think the others all did pretty well and potentially have the ability to be standing when we get to the finals. Nancy Kerrigan is probably the weakest, simply because of her age. Not sure she'll be able to do the latin dances that well. But he waltz was very nice. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked her. I was not a fan of her attitude when she was a skater. I still remember her complaining after she won her silver medal. And I always thought she was kind of 'heavy' on the ice - she always seemed to 'clunk' down on the ice when she landed her jumps. But she was graceful. Anyway, I half-expected to find her a bit off-putting, but she seemed gracious, humble, hard-working and quite nice. At this point I'm not expected her to be in the finals, but I'm thinking she'll make it to the later stages of the competition.

Normani, Heather and Simone are, I think, the top 3. I agreed with Len that the quickstep took too long to set up, but once they got into it, I thought she did very well. She seems like a hard worker who wants to learn, so I expect her to get better with Val. Heather is a beautiful dancer, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do with Maks. The fact that she's a ringer may keep her from ultimately winning, but then again it might not. We've seen ringers win, and we've seen ringers done in at the end by fans wanting to reward a non-dancer who came a long way. She played one of our favorite characters on Glee, so we've got a soft spot for her. If Maks can really bring it with the choreography (and he's unfortunately inconsistent in that department), I could see her winning it all. I know a lot of folks seem to think Simone is a shoe-in, but I'm not convinced. I like her, and she certainly did well (although not as well as the judges thought) with her tango. I'm a bit worried about this pairing. I generally like Sasha's choreography, and he did some really wonderful dances with Terra. But he was always throwing in backflips and such when he was in the troupe, and my worry is that, unlike Val, he will attempt to use Simone's gymnastics ability a lot. Val rarely went there with Laurie, and I think Sasha needs to do the same with Simone. It'll also be interesting to see how Simone does with some of the other dances. Laurie was always considered the best dancer of the team, while Simone was always a powerhouse. That won't necessarily lend itself to her being able to do some of the 'looser' dances like salsa or samba or cha cha, though. And with Laurie having just won, there is a certain segment of the audience that won't want to see another gymnast win. So we'll see.

My early prediction for semi-finals: Normani, Heather, Simone, Rashad and one of David, Nick or Nancy.

Loved the star on the floor for Florence Henderson. Very classy, DWTS. J