On this page
01The take
Spring 2010.
The credentials were there — the season's weakness was that nothing surprised anyone.
02The shape of the season
A rhythm worth tracking.
Season ten assembled a cast heavy with performance credentials — musicians, Olympic athletes, and entertainers whose physical backgrounds compressed the learning curve from the start. The early choreography was accomplished. But a cast that arrives nearly ready sacrifices one of the format's core pleasures: watching someone figure it out. Eleven episodes gave the competition a clean arc. The season sits at the base of this stretch of the canon for delivering the format reliably.
03Where it sits in the canon
The #12 slot.
Slot #12 of 16 in the Dancing with the Stars Editor's Canon. The seasons on either side show what I ranked it against.
No spoilers. Every page is reviewed before it goes live.
06Also appears in