DWTS Season 21 Finals: Of course, it's Bindi and Derek!

There's a lot of hooha that goes on in the Finals of Dancing with the Stars. (The two-night DWTS extravaganza, that is!) By now, you know that this is the end. But let's walk back through it a bit, shall we? Leaving out all the frou frou and hoke, there were some incredible moments.

(So, kick back, and let's just have a moment from last week to savor...)

Have I mentioned how much I love this dance? And Jenna? Wow...

OK, moving back to the Finals... Night One (Monday)

Meghan Trainor kicks it off with a big splashy number, choreographed by Mandy Moore (of course).

The first dancers are Carlos and Witney. There is some sloppy editing, where he talks about a dance being "so hard," when he's actually talking about a dance he does later in the Finals. *sigh*

This first foxtrot they do I just hated. Just hated everything about it.

Then, we had Alek and Lindsay doing a rumba.

Compared to the sublime sexiness that we had earlier in the season (with Alek and Emma), this just felt half-baked.

So just when you're thinking that this has got to be the most boring #DWTS Finals ever, this happened.

And after this blistering jive, you're left wondering, Gosh, WHY hasn't Sharna won a Mirror Ball yet? Nick Carter still can't really keep up, but damn is she wonderful to watch!

And then, this.

An incredible quickstep by Bindi and Derek.

Then, we had a truly groundbreaking number. Groundbreaking not only because of this...

Shirtless Val backstage as Meghan Trainor sings about "Boys Like You," but also because Who Is Fancy? (whom I actually don't know who he is) did this...

The line is about blowing you... Ahem... a kiss... (hence the glitter). It actually felt quite shocking to me in the moment. (And wonderful!) (See, boys don't dance with boys on this show... on purpose...) Like I said, it felt wonderful to finally see this. I mean, if Wheel of Fortune can have guys talking about their husbands, I think DWTS needs to broaden its horizons a bit too.

And finally, we are at the most exciting moment all season (usually): the Freestyle round.

My own personal bias/belief about the Freestyle round is that, unless you're Derek Hough or Mark Ballas, if you do a Freestyle with lots of people and lots of stuff going on, and lots of noise, it's gonna fail. Carlos even says that to Witney in the package: "Are you sure having all these people is going to be OK?" Side answer: Nope. No, it's not. (Even though she says, Oh yes, it's fine.)

This was the effort by Carlos and Witney. One can only dream of what Mark Ballas and Carlos' wife, Alexa, could have come up with instead. *sobs*

Also, I really dislike hip hop music. So any dance that relies mostly on hip hop is lost on me. I pretty much hated this one. Ugh.

Well, Lindsay is dancing with a military man, so the obstacle course thing kinda seemed ok, except that it's supposed to be dance, not a workout routine. Yeah, I didn't much like this one as Freestyles go, either.

A successful Freestyle hopefully ties in both a bit of who the person was before #DWTS, and chronicles their journey on the show. As Derek explained in the package, Bindi Irwin is "one of the most authentic people" he's ever met, so doing a Freestyle with a lot of bells and whistles didn't feel right.

Also, what we really know Bindi Irwin for is her father, and her father's death. They danced to a song called "Footprints in the Sand" and unbeknownst to Bindi, Derek added a picture of her dad and her at the very end, which made her, and us, cry.

It was a beautiful, moving dance, chock full of fabulous choreography. Bindi and Derek are truly amazing.

Lastly, we had Nick and Sharna.

Another type of great Freestyle is when the artist shows you not only who he walked in as, but also how far he's come. It was natural, I suppose, to choose "Larger Than Life" as this Backstreet Boy's Finals Freestyle. And boy, was it! WOW. All sorts of troupe members (Val, Jenna, Emma, Keo, a couple others) joined in. The stagecraft was over the top and amazing. Fun stuff.

Miche FAVORITE FREESTYLES
1. Bindi and Derek
2. Nick and Sharna
3. Alek and Lindsay
4. Carlos and Witney

Carlos and Witney ended up being eliminated on this night.

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Night Two of the #DWTS Finals extravaganza started like this, as one does around Christmastime in LA (although actually it aired around Thanksgiving), at the Grove. It was going to be hard to top the opening of this season, when damn near everyone in LA came out to dance on Hollywood Boulevard with the DWTS cast. So this craziness was a stage at the Grove, and a stage at their regular studio, and in some cases shuttling cast members back and forth between stages during the live show. But it was wonderful.

Erin Andrews, thank you for being on DWTS. You brighten up every show.

They also brought back, as DWTS does, cast members from the whole season.

God bless the producers who decided NOT to have Chakka Khan dance, but only what she does best: sing, as her partner Keo danced with the lovely troupe members.

In fact, previous finales were tedious affairs, where all twenty contestants were trotted out to do a dance. Thank God, this was not that. (Although they do make a marginal effort to remind you of the season that was with all the dances.)

Instead, some brilliant producer decided to do this instead.

Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes! Thank you, DWTS.

Then, Sharna and Nick recreated their #DowntonAbbey dance. Karina and the jockey dude danced to La Bamba again. Then, back to the Grove for #AndyGrammar, who mostly just sang, while the luscious male dancers danced behind him.

OMG, the Outtakes. LOL I had completely forgotten this exchange between Paula Deen and formerly-lived-in-England Mark Ballas.

DEEN: "We shag in Savannah. Have you ever shagged?"
BALLAS: "I have shagged, but it means a completely different thing."

LOL I'm thinking she means pecans or something. I know what he means... Ahem. :-X

Next, they trot out Gary Busey again (God help us), and all I can think is, MAN! I hope they paid Anna Trebunskaya a LOT to put up with this Busey debacle. A LOT, America, A LOT. *shakes head*

Then, Elle King sang her wonderful hit, Exes and Ohs.

Jenna Johnson dancing. Elle King is behind her. Great number. (Tom Bergeron loves it, too!)

Emma danced with her "Internet-sensation" (that's how they introduced him) Hayes. Can't find any pics of it. It was short. They danced to his friend's song, Stitches. I hope his friend remembers this for a long time.

Then, there's a tedious bit with Santa and Erin Andrews, where the mic isn't working. Ugh.

THEN! Mark and Alexa recreate their amazing Breaking Bad routine (also incredibly hard to find pics of this). Really amazing.

Then a tedious thing that Tom Bergeron called "my favorite thing in a finale ever." Best to not talk about it. Gary Busey, Twas the Night Before the Finale... is all I'm gonna say. *shakes head*

Bindi and Derek recreated their incredible song, "Roses and Violets," danced to a stirring Mark Ballas' composition (as part of Alexander Jean). But this time, both Mark Ballas and BC Jean (his fiancee) were there to perform it. That was pretty awesome.

Season 20 winner, Valentin Chmerkovskiy danced wonderfully with Emma Slater at the Grove again. Chaka Khan and Andy Grammer sang, thankfully didn't dance to Baby, It's Cold Outside, salvaged only by the fact that Anna, Karina, Tony and Sasha were dancing.

Finally! Back to something that matters! The fusion dances of the three finalists. I love this whole segment usually. Part of the excitement (for me, as an audience member) is that they go back to the studio in which they expended so much blood, sweat and tears over the season, and the production staff has hung photos of them from the season. You will note that Mr. Backstreet Boy (who's probably darn sick of photos of himself) is the only one who didn't comment on the photos at all.

Their tango-salsa fusion ended like that. Sharna's choreography, as always, stunning.

Alek and Lindsay did a rumba-tango fusion.

Derek and Bindi did a cha cha-Argentine Tango fusion.

As always, Derek's choreography is stunning. He and Bindi make a great team, and it is sad to think that this is their final dance on DWTS.

Then, they trucked everyone over to the Grove again, and basically had the three finalists stand around, while Nick Carter sang his new song. Album on sale now. Yawn.

Ok, they did flash back to segments of the three over the season, to show their dances together. But still.

This was dumb.

So then, everyone rushes back to their studios (not far away) to crown this Season's champions.

I must say this. Sharna has been so close so many times. I would so love to see her win a Mirror Ball soon. But that was not to be. Instead:

Of course it was Bindi. Always Bindi. Congrats to Bindi and Derek. Thanks for such a great season.

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DWTS Season 21 Week 7: Halloween Scares Up Some Ego, New Team Dance Champs

There are some truisms you can say about a Dancing with the Stars Halloween show. The cast really gets into it, someone plays Halloween pranks on everyone and Derek's team always, and I mean always, wins the Team Dance. (To be fair, last year, Val's team TIED with Derek's. So the record was still never broken.)

This year, we have NEW winners. More on all that in a moment.

The other significant thing about this show (very significant to me) was this statement. Take a guess at who said it. "I'm probably the best dancer in the competition." (It was one of the stars, not the Pros.)

If you guessed...

...Tamar Braxton, you'd be right.

Let me just say this about that. Rampant ego doesn't play well on reality TV. Unless you want all of America to hate you, you don't say a thing like that into the camera.

Val kinda (understandably) went ballistic when that little tidbit aired, but SHE DID SAY IT.

"The best dancer in the competition." :-0  Oh my, oh my. Dear, this is Week 6. There is a long way from here to there (and let me clue you now, she DOESN'T win the competition). Nor would she have.

Don't know about the rest of America, but what that little statement did for me was completely SUCK all the votes which would have gone to her and Val out of my phone-dialing hand.

Oh, another thing about ego, btw. She was on this ego high because they had gotten all 10s last week for their amazing Rhythm Nation recreation. When the judges were commenting on the dance, they said, "Excellent choreography!" And Tamar said, "Thank you." Last I checked, it was Val who was the choreographer here. (And an amazing choreographer at that. The only reason she's ANYWHERE in the competition is that Val is her partner.)

 Valentin is the reigning champion, a dancer in fine peak form, a stunning choreographer. He's a joy to watch and has an incredibly creative mind. Ms. Tamar is only along for the ride here.

And while I'm on my anti-Tamar rant, my other DWTS pet peeve is when stars sign up to do this show and they have ten other commitments as well. Oh, sorry, I have to go do this book tour. Oh, sorry, I'm touring with my band. Oh, sorry, I have to go co-host this daily talk show. WTF? Casting directors? Can't you get people who are out of work, who have the time and energy to devote to doing this show? WTF is up with these losers who try to do six things at once, then bitch on the show about how tired they are?

You don't see folks on Survivor leaving in the middle because they have a book tour or have this obligation in Vegas or whatever.

I have NO sympathy for these folks, and totally vote them down whenever the bitching starts. So Ms. Tamar has a few black marks on my dance card from that. But, for me, Valentin Chmerkovskiy can do no wrong, I will vote for him many times in the future, but Tamar Braxton lost every vote from me, starting with this week. "Best dancer in the competition," my ass. (This week Tamar received 24 out of 30, one of the lowest scores.)

Ah, but let's get back to something positive. The truly best dancers of this week, my favorite of Week 6: Alexa and Mark. (Who did receive a perfect score of 30 from the judges.)

Alexa, is, for my money, at this point in the competition, the one I want to win. Mark Ballas is just a genius with choreography and costuming and story, and every week, I look forward to what they do.

This gorgeous paso doble homage to Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands was just beautiful and so well done. I love watching them, every time.

The person I truly believe is the best dancer in this competition, and very likely to win it is Bindi Irwin. It helps, of course, that her partner is Derek Hough, who can do no wrong with his dances.

But this was a very beautiful and well performed Argentine tango. And those kicks and flicks were kickin and flickin (from both participants). Really amazing. And they received a perfect score for the effort.

Or this...

Alexa's husband Carlos is not shabby in the dance department either. Another paso doble, to Carmina Burana, for gosh sakes! And his ego was the opposite, insisting that last week the judges "overscored" him. Julianne insisted she did not. Refreshing.

The gold standard, though was amazing paso that Mark and Alexa put forth, which was so stunningly good, so this one that Andy and Allison presented was... well, not that.

Where Mark and Alexa's lines were sharp and clear, these... um... ugh.

And Andy Grammar, too, in his package, was commenting about how everyone had pretty much written him off as a dancer at the beginning, and then they got all 10s and... well, NOW we can see... etc. Let's just take a moment to remind Mr. Grammar that they got 10s because the dance (from Singing in the Rain) was complex, involved a lot of props, and is more than the usual DWTS dance. And they performed it well. Still doesn't mean he's a great dancer, cause for the record, I don't think he is.

Turn on the table, then lift up the raincoats, then go up, then down these stairs, then jump on the first couch, then the second... etc. Lotsa steps and things to do.

So, he wasn't as blatant with his ego tripping as Tamar, but it was out there.

This paso doble received only 26 out of 30.

Another rampant ego was from our hero Alek, who went all ballistic because the judges gave him bad scores last week, when he "performed the steps perfectly." Luckily, they brought in Artem to show Alek a thing or two about what he's missing. And his dance this week was much better.

So enough about the petty squabbling about who's better among these fine dancers. Let's get to the important stuff: the Team Dances!

I loved this team dance, from Team Nightmare. Exquisitely done. Every person performed well. Great concept, great music, well done.

They also received a perfect score from the judges. (They performed first.)

Team Who Ya Gonna Call? didn't meet their high bar.

So, for the first time in ELEVEN seasons, Derek's team did not win the Team Dance!!!!

It was quite an evening, all in all.

I really want to echo Derek's stated sentiment, that all of the people who work on the costumes, hair and makeup for this show really deserve to be commended. These costumes and props and sets and everything going on here were just first-rate, the highest caliber.

Could have really done without all the smoke machine nonsense, but other than that, it was amazing.

Lastly, for the past two weeks, Leah Remini has replaced (as in stood in for, she's nowhere near as good) Erin Andrews as cohost. Mostly it's been good. (I can't imagine Erin being willing for Tom to sling her over his shoulder in a Dirty Dancing parody thing. Quite funny.) But I really wish someone could tell dear Ms. Leah to STOP hitting people in the face with a microphone. She did this the last time she cohosted, and it's not only annoying, it's abusive. She needs to STOP IT.

MICHE'S FAVORITE DANCES OF HALLOWEEN WEEK, Week 6
1. Alexa and Mark (paso doble)
2. Carlos and Witney (paso doble)
3. Bindi and Derek (Argentine tango)
4. Andy and Allison (paso doble)
5. Alek and Lindsay (Viennese waltz)

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