Episodes 1-3: The Season 2 Auditions

We’re on Season 2, huzzah! Even if it is only the audition shows. I’ve decided to write one post on all of the audition shows, because let’s face it, who wants to read 3 posts about auditions? (And ok, who wants to write that many posts about auditions? Even the best of these episodes is not that interesting.)

But there is one thing about the Season 2 auditions that is unreservedly awesome. Cat Deeley is hosting! I didn’t realize it until I started doing this rewatch, but SYTYCD just isn’t SYTYCD without Cat. She gives the show its soul – chipper, warm, a little acerbic, and prone to goosebumps.

Season 1 Synopsis: What do I remember?

It has now been a few weeks since I have watched the Season 1 finale, and almost a year since I started this project (I’ll be faster with Season 2, I promise!). So the questions I now need to ask myself are: How does this season stack up? How much of it do I remember?

The truth is, I don’t remember very much from Season 1. In terms of the dancers, I remember Nick and Melody clearly, though with a little effort, I can dredge some of the other dancers (Ashlé, Jamile, Ryan, Destini, Blake) up from the mnemonic void. I can’t remember a single dance clearly. All I can remember is that Mary Murphy is a damned good choreographer, and needs to start choreographing again. Lauren Sanchez was an adequate host, but hiring Cat Deeley to host Season 2 was one of the smartest moves the producers ever made.

Episode 12: The Finale

The final episode of Season 1 makes it very clear this is a test run. Most of the show is pre-packaged filler, with some results thrown in. It kind of felt like the producers went “Oh, crap, we have to do a results show. What is that supposed to look like?” There are two new numbers created especially for the show, but otherwise the dancers just repeat some old dances. The dancers themselves (supposedly) chose their favorite dance of the season, but to be honest, none of the dances were really worth seeing again.

The two most interesting performances come from non-contestants. First, we have Anthony Bryant, otherwise known as “that dude from with the ribbon” from the auditions. He dances with his ribbon again, and it’s clear this guy is really good. I’m not surprised to find out he’s at Julliard. At the end of his performance, Nigel waves a little white ribbon in surrender. It’s a great PR move – no one has to apologize, and everyone saves face. The second performance is by a hip hop group known as the Gruvaloos (http://www.groovaloos.com/), which features some pretty impressive break dancing. 

Episode 11: The Last Performance Show

Well, we’ve finally made it to the Final Four – and the second to last episode of Season 1 – just in time for Season 9 to start airing. As a rule, I am not going to comment on the Season 9, as the whole point of a rewatch is that I am re-watching the episodes. That being said, I will immediately break that rule and observe that dancers auditioning for Season 9 had dances that were noticeably longer than the dances performed by dancers on Season 1 (which are generally under a minute).

Before we get into the episode proper, we see that Kamilah and Blake got sent home. More on them, as always, at the end of this post.

Part of what I love about the finale is that everyone dances with everyone else. Not only does that let you compare dancers side by side, it means we get pairings that are more interesting than the standard "guy + girl = love story" formulation. Each of the four dancers also performs solo, none of which were worth extended discussion.