Five reasons why this season of SYTYCD still isn’t doing it for me

1. No voting, plus weird scheduling

Nothing kills a good show faster than having it be inconsistently timed. I understand Fox was trying to work around the World Series, but what that resulted in was irregular timing to the extreme. And on top of that, it resulted in the judges choosing who stays and who goes. Isn’t this supposed to be the search for America’s favorite dancer? If I cared about who the judges thought was the best dancer, I’d have tuned in for the Vegas weeks. There’s  reason I didn’t.

2. No rotating fourth judge

Don’t get me wrong – I’m still as much of a fan of Adam as I ever was, which is to say, a huge one. But I think So You Think You Can Dance needs to get over itself and realize that Paula Abdul just isn’t that into them. Give it up and bring in a new voice, please. At this point, I even miss Lil’ C.

3. Lack of interesting choreography

How hard did the producers on So You Think You Can Dance fight to keep Mia Michaels from leaving to work on other projects? Because they needed to fight harder. When you think back on the truly great routines from seasons past, the first ones that pop into your head are probably Mia Michaels routines. Without her, the show’s pretty flat with only the occasional Bollywood, Wade, or Napoleon and Tabitha routines to blow it out of the park, and even my stand-by favorites seem a little wilted.

Last night we had all three of them and while Bollywood delivered, the other two did not. Napoleon and Tabitha put too much work into trying to hide the fact that Karen can’t do hip-hop but can look sexy, and Wade fell into the trap of his concept being so disconnected from his dance that, as wonderful as it was, it kept the dance from its true potential. And I’m not even going to get into how Mia Michaels needs to sue Stacey Tookey for pretty much stealing the entirety of her “Addiction” routine with Kayla and Kupono last year, and then doing a much worse job of it. (Then again, is it physically possible to top that piece?) As for the other choreographers – hip-hop tennis? Really?

4. Not pushing the dancers far enough

Yes, Jakob can leap like a gazelle, and that’s great. But call me old-fashioned, if a dancer’s doing a waltz, I feel like they should be waltzing, not leaping. And we know that Karen is sexy as a ballroom dancer and can be the hot girl, but when Napoleon and Tabitha dumb down a routine to make her shine instead of expecting her to rise to the level of her partner, that hurts the show. And that makes me a) irritated, because the choreographers give some people slack and then demand a lot out of others, which reads like favoritism, and b) it makes me bored.

5. No stand-outs

It’s a good thing I write own names and all their weird spellings while I’m watching, or I’d be screwed, is all I’m saying. I barely have feelings on any of them, not even dislike. I don’t really care about anyone going home, either. Even when someone does a good job and stands out for dancing reasons (like the magnificent Argentine Tango, which was the unquestionable highlight, especially in light of the dress getting caught in Ellenore’s shoe), I don’t really root for that pairing based on that, I just like them for that week. And that, as far as any show is concerned, is the worst criticism to receive – when you don’t have people compelled enough to need to tune in week after week and stick around despite the schedule and staffing changes.

You need to change something, So You Think You Can Dance, and you need to change it fast.

Clacked by Julia Hass
on Nov 05, 2009 @ 15:00 EST5EDT