(S05E09) Oh my god, a group number? Who knew?

Group Number - "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)," Pitbull
(Hip-Hop, Dmitry Chaplan and Napoleon & Tabitha) Cat got a more dramatic entrance after this busy little number. I found myself enjoying the piece as we got into the middle of it. The beginning seemed overly long with the close-ups of the dancers undulating around in the dark. It was more posturing than dancing at that point. But when we got into it there were some nice moments, though no particular breakout stars.

Which actually sums up some of the problems with this season so far. Brandon is a force to be reckoned with, and I like Ade but I think by this point last season I was already seeing a lot of fun personality from Twitch, Joshua, Katee, Chelsea, Courtney, Gev and so many more. Where are those strong dynamic and unique performers this year? We have a lot of great dancers, but a real dearth of stars.

(S05E09) Things were getting too exciting during the competition episodes, so the producers brought in Toni Basil to join Nigel and Mary on the panel. Even though it's a big deal to be receiving a prestigious award, I still found myself dozing off when she started talking about it.

This year, the competition is so tight that it's hard to figure out who's going to be in the bottom three from week to week. So many of the contestants are really impressive in picking up the different styles, and that continued tonight.

What also continued was couples who were great last week being not so great this week. And there are still so many couples that there are only a few favorites sprinkled throughout. In other words "What have you done for me lately?" is in full effect. So what did they do?