(DWTS logo from wdtvpress.com)
Each week, Watermark writer Kirk Hartlage provides a recap of the latest episode of “Dancing With The Stars.” If you missed last week’s recap, go here.
With Halloween approaching, there’s plenty to be scared about. We’re six storms into the second round of hurricane names, thanks to Tropical Storm Zeda, which is expected to make landfall in the U.S. later this week. There’s a pandemic that White House officials are saying we can’t control, possibly because at least 30 people associated with President Donald Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus. Plus, there’s an election a week away with results that may not be known for weeks.
And if all of that wasn’t enough, many of the commercials on tonight’s “Dancing With The Stars” that weren’t election-oriented advertised instead early Black Friday shopping deals, holiday candles and other Christmas products and specials. Aaaahhh!
“DWTS” producers likely gave the green light to this all-villains, Halloween-themed episode once they realized they cast no political folks (such as Sean Spicer and Rick Perry) this season.
Halloween means lots of costumes, of course, and tonight “DWTS” does not disappoint, for the most part. Kicking off the show host Tyra Banks describes her hour one outfit as “The Queen of Cagey Couture.” Sadly, it’s less political statement on children at the border and current U.S. immigration policies, and more leather dominatrix with some sort of broke-ass inside-out umbrella attached to her back, or possibly, her ass.
The judges are also dressed for the holiday. Bruno Tonioli appears as Beetlejuice, or as Tyra exclaims: “Bruno-juice! Bruno-juice! Bruno-juice!” It’s odd to hear, and not just because we’re scant minutes into what is traditionally broadcast TV’s “family hour.” Derek Hough is dressed as both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, allowing him to give both positive and negative comments. And Carrie Ann Inaba is Pennywise the clown from “It.”
Now, for the dancing!
•Jeannie Mai is excited for her Hannibal Lecter-themed dance with Brandon Armstrong, mostly because she believes the experience will help her get over the trauma endured from watching “The Silence of The Lambs” as a child. She loves Halloween because “it’s the one time of year you can be a freak, and no one will judge you.” (As if.) Her paso doble set to “Maneater” by Nelly Furtado is well acted, complete with in-character licks and “bites,” if Hannibal were a sultry Latin femme fatale dancer.
•Johnny Weir describes last week’s near elimination as a dumpster fire, so he’s back with a vengeance this week. He’ll be dancing a Viennese Waltz to Radiohead’s “Creep,” dressed as Dracula, with partner Britt Stewart. Johnny says he relates to vampires, as they’re often seen as outcasts. He tells the story of when a potential agent told him and his mother that if Johnny were to have any success on or off the rink he could not be gay; this happened when Johnny was all of 16 years old. He proudly and rightfully says that being unique has given him the life he’s had, one that he’s obviously incredibly grateful for. While Johnny is telling his story of being seen and accepted for who he is as a gay man, as if on cue, ABC News runs a “special report” at the bottom of the screen stating the U.S. Senate has just confirmed Amy Coney Barrett as associate justice of the Supreme Court in a 52-48 vote. The timing of the announcement, coupled with Johnny’s story, could not be more ironically placed as many in the LGBTQ community fear their recently won rights will be stripped away now that the Court will be most decidedly conservative.
As for the dance, the Dracula character serves Johnny well with its gothic, romantic and dramatic flair. His scores are high enough to likely keep him out of tonight’s bottom two.
•Chrishell Stause is excited to pay tribute to the Disney villainess Maleficent. She’s eager to tap back into her “evil” acting chops as she previously portrayed Jordan, a killing psychopath, on “Days Of Our Lives.” (As a mega-“DOOL” fan, this writer can personally vouch for Chrishell’s ability to portray a crazed bad-girl villain.) As a kid Chrishell didn’t get to celebrate Halloween because her mother viewed it as a “Devil’s Holiday.” She gets inspiration in a Zoom meeting with her four sisters before dancing a paso doble with partner Gleb Savchenko. Her routine is heavy on cinematic storytelling theatrics and slightly lighter on paso. She receives kudos for keeping the moves simple and executing them well, earning her first “nines” of the season, though one can’t help but wonder if her scores would be so high were Len Goodman in the (haunted) house.
•“Cheer” coach Monica Aldama and Val Chmerkovskiy’s performance will be inspired by Nurse Ratchet from “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” She Zooms with her kids for inspiration; they assure Val she’ll do fine in the mean, vicious, sadistic role as they’ve witnessed their mom be scary on more than one occasion. Tonight it’ll be – oh, no; not the return of – a jazz routine to Peggy Lee’s “Fever,” an interesting song choice since Nurse Ratchet was more of a head-shrinker type practitioner, rather than, say, traditional medicine. Monica’s inability to fully inhabit the role is likely due to a lack of a performance background that requires acting. That’s not a knock on cheerleading. Unlike skating or soap opera/Disney channel/sitcom acting that requires a range of emotions, cheerleading only requires participants be happy, inspiring and excited. Derek thought she lost the character during parts of her performance, while Bruno claims to have only received a mild chill, instead of full-on fever, from Monica’s dance. Bruno does, however, give us what’s been the best description of what “jazz” means when he invokes the name of famed choreographer Bob Fosse during his critique.
•AJ McClean has experience portraying a villain, given his work in the music video for “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).” Tonight, he’ll be performing a tango to the theme song from “Psycho.” Partner Cheryl Burke suggests AJ start the performance dressed as the mother from the movie; AJ admits it won’t be the first time he’s cross-dressed, having done so at his wedding, wearing six-inch Louboutin heels, no less, to cut the cake with his new bride because … Hollywood? During Sunday’s stage rehearsal, we see Cheryl getting tripped up during a backwards run, falling backwards and hitting her head on the dance floor. After watching the fall multiple times we’re left wondering if the couple will be able to dance tonight, all the way through a commercial break. They do indeed dance, and frankly, deserve extremely high marks for performing a beautiful yet haunting tango to music that lacks any kind of downbeat or consistent rhythm. In one of his best puns yet, Bruno gives the couple props for the gender fluidity of the dance.
•It’s hour two, which means costume change time for Tyra. Now she’s the self-proclaimed “Queen of The Sparkly Ballroom,” a title that deserves a loss of points, given its complete lack of creativity. The ensemble appears to be one of former host Erin Andrews’ simplistic, yet beautiful and stylish dresses that Tyra has now over-accessorized with a cape and a headpiece stolen from the “Game of Thrones” wardrobe room.
•Rapper Nelly and partner Daniella Karagach pay tribute to Freddy Kreuger in an Argentine Tango to “I Can’t Feel My Face” by The Weeknd. As if the injury sustained earlier by Cheryl wasn’t enough, Daniella wants to tempt fate by having Nelly wear a spiked claw-glove, a la Freddy, for their performance. As for the dance itself, oh, where’s Len when we need him most? It’s all theatrics with minimal dance footwork, which gets called out by Derek’s “Jekyll” side.
•Justina Machado scored points by getting waterboarded at the end of her “Flashdance” performance during 80s Week. When it’s announced she’ll be paying tribute to the movie “Carrie,” the final move of tonight’s performance seems inevitable. (The routine actually “starts” in the moments after Carrie has had the bucket of blood dropped on her head.) Partner Sasha Ferber says he loves Halloween, while Justina admits she does not. Still, she loves horror movies, especially “Carrie.” Justina relates to the part of the story that finds the ostracized title character empowered by her teacher; Justina dedicates her performance to educators everywhere. Like Carrie herself, Justina’s tango is also a bit messy.
•“Catfish” host Nev Schulman and Jenna Johnson have received “Black Swan” as their theme tonight. Assigning a movie about two female dancers to a male “DWTS” “star” either fits perfectly with tonight’s other bouts of gender bending, or further proof that even on a dancing competition reality show it’s getting harder and harder for women to be cast in roles they seemingly should be. Though the movie is based around “Swan Lake,” a ballet, Nev and Jenna will be performing a Paso Doble instead. His performance is strong, masculine and the night’s best Paso so far. He rightly receives a perfect score of 30.
•Skai Jackson is cursed with following Nev with a dance themed to … The Bride of Chucky? When informed of this by partner Alan Bersten, Shai asks, “Who am I playing?” (Hey, given the preceding performance by Nev, the question isn’t as odd as it sounds; as it turns out, she will indeed be the Bride.) The performance will be an Argentine Tango set to Billie Eilish’s “everything I wanted.” The dance requires intensity and passion, which may be a tall order for an 18-year-old literally raised on the Disney Channel. It turns out to be one of her strongest performances yet; while the actress could have easily leaned on storytelling and character, instead she and Alan focused on proper dance moves and get rewarded highly for it.
•Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe with Artem Chigvintsev honor Disney’s “101 Dalmations” and Cruella de Vil with their Paso Doble to Rhianna’s “Disturbia.” Kaitlyn is no Cruella as she loves dogs, going so far as to adopt two rescue pups. As the song says, “Trying to maintain, but I’m strugglin’,” which seems to be a perfect description of the performance. Kaitlyn plays well to the camera, but Carrie Ann says it’s another “not great” dance from the former Bachelorette.
After the judges’ scores, Kaitlyn and Monica are in the bottom two, but once viewer’s votes are added in, Kaitlyn is safe and Jeannie Mai is not. Bruno votes to save Jeannie, Derek votes to save Monica. Carrie Ann breaks the tie by saving Jeannie.
Though this week was Halloween-themed, next week’s show will be even more frightful as TWO couples will be knocked out of the competition in a special Double Elimination episode.
Tune in next Monday at 8 pm EST on ABC or check back here the following day to see what you missed! As it’s the last night before Election Day it will also be one of your last opportunities to catch political ads on TV!
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