‘Dancing with the Stars 23’ review: Terra Jole, Laurie Hernandez, Calvin Johnson take on Halloween
It’s Halloween time on “Dancing with the Stars“! Tonight, the remaining Stars are performing routines that are celebrating the best and creepiest out of the holiday, and hopefully this will prove itself to be really fun, engaging, and creepy in all the right ways. If nothing else, it’ll be a reprieve from some of the sappier dances for those of you who don’t necessarily love them.
We’re going to be focusing here on the solo dances more so than any of the other routines, so keep that in mind as you read on. We’re going to be updating this live with scores and so much more, so be sure to refresh the page early and often for some more insight!
Terra Jole and Sasha Farber – We have no idea at all why “Day-O” is a Halloween song, but at least it was fun! Unfortunately, what we’ve seen from Terra over the past few weeks is that we’re not sure she is improving as much as some of the competition’s best dancers. She’s solid and a great story, but can she top the leaderboard at this point? We’re not sure. Score: 24.
Laurie Hernandez and Val Chmerkovskiy – This was emotional from top to bottom, and we almost wondered if Val was a big fan of Gene Wilder based on how emotional he got before this performance of “Pure Imagination.” It was easy to telegraph a perfect score, but given how beautiful and striking a routine this was, we really don’t mind. Score: 30.
Marilu Henner and Derek Hough – It wasn’t a perfect dance, but at this point it’s gotta stink to get that 7 from Carrie Ann Inaba. The problem is that we get a sense that Marilu’s array of injuries are starting to get at her psychologically, at least in the sense that they are causing her to second-guess some of the decisions that she’s making. Score: 23.
Calvin Johnson and Lindsay Arnold – Dr. Bones is at his peak! This was far and away Calvin’s best dance, and it was another reminder at the same time that you don’t have to do something super-emotional in order to get a perfect score. sometimes, you can just be a hoot. Score: 30.
Ryan Lochte and Cheryl Burke – Hey, they did give a much better performance! The dancing was sloppy and the posture was bad, but we’d watch this incarnation of Ryan over the one we’ve seen the past few weeks any day of the week. Score: 23.
Jana Kramer and Gleb Savchenko – This jazz routine was a lot of fun, and while there were mistakes, they didn’t take away too much from the overall performance. We do think that this is precisely what makes this one stand out from the one we saw beforehand with Ryan. Score: 27.
James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess – This “Suicide Squad” inspired number was actually more of a pairing with James and Jenna Johnson, who stepped in after Sharna’s injury. Still, it was fantastic, and showed his commitment to go along with the choreography that was already there. Score: 30.
Results – Click here to see who is out!
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