You may remember a while back I did episode recaps of ABDC on this blog, but I don't do them anymore. I have been watching the current season and so far I'm not liking it. I'll just get to the points right away.
- If Its a Season of the Superstars, why did you already did all the big names in previous seasons. I understand its the current crop of artists in the game, but the show pretty much did everyone that changed the dance game. Let's see if I remember all the artist-specific challenges throughout the show's lifetime.
Season 1 - Michael Jackson
Season 2 - Janet Jackson, Missy Elliott
Season 3 - Britney Spears
Season 4 - Beyonce
Season 5 - Lady Gaga, Usher
So far, the artists that only made sense this season were Black Eyed Peas (the crowd interaction was kind of sick on that episode compared to most episodes) & likely Rihanna this week. Weezy & Ke$ha only episodes??? Really??? I know they have songs crews can dance to, but what have they done to the dance game? Sure, the same thing can be said for the other artists that have been used for the season, but if you're doing a "Season of the Superstars," at least do artists that actually matter in both music and dance. I wished MTV went back to the original format by doing random challenges again, but surely after five seasons they had to change things up again and sometimes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Oh, a Nicki Minaj week up soon??? WTH!!!! Actually, a Chris Brown week really makes sense now as I'm actually surprised they haven't done him yet especially early on in the competition
- Voting system still feels inconsistent - still very popular contest-y
Throughout the course of the show, we seen crews getting peaced out earlier than they should because of the votes and crews staying when they deserve to get eliminated. Yeah, tapings are done in LA and hip-hop dance is pretty much a West Coast dominated thing, but please can we get someone from the other coast to win this thing for once. Honestly, this season has the biggest chance of that happening with Phunk Phenomenon being the crew to beat right now, but I have a sneaky feeling one of the remaining West Coast crews will take it. Let's be real people... Instant Noodles are not that good (especially compared to b-boy crews that were on the show and actually won the thing), but of course they're from SoCal and they're going to repped a lot in the votes no matter whether they do well or not. At the end of the day, the most versatile crew will win the whole thing (look at past crews that won it) so don't expect a "specific-style" crew like Street Kingdom to win it according to my observations of how the show goes which is why Phunk is my pick to win this season with I Am Me going 2nd.
- Gimmicks!!!!!!
Another reason this show sometimes suffers is the concept of "gimmick" crews. I do give this season credit of getting rid of the gimmicks right away with that pole dancing crew, but shout outs to my man D-Trix (the new judge of this season) for putting these crews on blast when he has to. Even last week, I didn't mind him putting Iconic Boyz on blast with his comments because the "kids only crew gimmick" is starting to kick in. Even though I was on the bandwagon after their first performance, they fell off the radar to me. I don't see them winning the competition, but damn they're still doing a good job as I hope they shatter my "gimmick" view away. The same thing can be said for Street Kingdom to a certain extent, but krumping is a specific dance style and as voting went by, the viewers still don't understand krumping completely along with their BEP performance was not that good.
That's pretty much it regarding my dislikes for ABDC Season 6... I'm still gonna watch the rest of the season to see how things pan out, but good thing they took a year off as they should stick to that after this season is done. With all the big name crews we known for years making that big step and established themselves thanks to the show like Jabbawockeez having their own Vegas show, its pretty refreshing to see crews the dance world hasn't really been exposed to have their chance of stardom, which is one redeeming factor this season is interesting.
