Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Skating with the Stars: First Impressions

Well, I'm sure Jenn will have much more to add, especially given that she has been following the Canadian versions on the internet to some extent (and what sounds like a much better potential version in Canada called Battle of the Blades)... but here are some of my first impressions on Skating with the Stars...

- The host, Vernon Kay -- he keeps widening his eyes when he talks. It's kinda scary!! You can see whites all around his pupils and he does it A LOT!
- I think I've heard of ONE of the stars, and that's a barely knowing who she is. Bethany Frankel? Is she one of the real housewives of some city? Oh, it's spelled Bethenny. That's still sad that the only star I heard of is a reality tv star and not really a star... Sigh.
- I know zero of the pros...
- I've heard of all the JUDGES, though. I'd rather they be the stars or pros! But I do like the mix and it makes me happy that they have Dick Button. :)
- I've even heard of the commentator!!! (Well I followed the last winter Olympics pretty closely on the figure skating/ice skating side.)
- The rink is so tiny that it looks like jumps won't be possible ever. Admittedly I wasn't expecting jumps from any of the stars, but when the 6 pros were dancing together... Well it's too small for 6 pros to do anything really cool other than spin around and really just do dance moves... Just kidding -- Johnny Weir did do a jump. :)
- I like that each episode looks to have required elements and they sound reasonable...
- Johnny Weir kind of looks like Jennifer Connelly. And of course he would skate to Lady Gaga in a Lady Gaga-esque costume.
- I really commend the stars for attempting this; I cannot even regular ice skate. But I dunno if even my love for figure skating/ice skating will keep me tuning in every week. Only when I remember.
- This stuff looks ridiculously easy and boring for the pros. At least Dancing with the Stars, the pros get to look like pros...
- Best line of the night: "The fact that you're not gay may be kind of alarming to my husband so we'll just have to pretend that you are." (Bethenny, who's freaky skinny.)

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

I started watching it and thought it was so terrible I couldn't finish. I gather that most of the "stars" have some skating experience which is why they weren't all falling on their asses. I only recognized 2 of the pros and just barely...the rest are totally unknown. (Fox's Skating with Celebrities managed to get actually famous skaters like Kurt Browning and Tai Babilonia and Nancy Kerrigan but ABC went in a different direction for some reason I guess). The host was really annoying, Tanith Belbin's "commentary" was kind of pathetic, and you're right, that rink is super tiny. The judges are alright, I always like Dick Button and this is the perfect thing for Johnny Weir, but honestly, it was just...terrible. NOT going to watch.