Battle of the Blades season finale: the good, the bad and the snuggly
Last night, the Russians took top honours at the Battle of the Blades finale, and while we didn’t expect it, we couldn’t be happier for them and especially for our cyber-BFF Candace Cameron Bure. Val and Katia were the strongest pair from day one, and it’s nice to see that Canadian voters were able to get past Cold War hostilities and put the strongest skaters in the winners’ circle.
And, sigh, thus ends seven weeks of unabashedly Canadian entertainment. But before we go, can we just comment on some of the finale’s more bizarre moments? The men’s cowboy routine offered no indication that these hockey thugs have learned anything about grace during their Blades tour. And the women’s performance, starring Kurt “Mr. Big Stuff” Browning, was a bit of an affront. These women are Olympians and world-class athletes, so why were they reduced to a bunch of come-hither harem girls while Kurt leaped and lunged around like a self-satisfied sultan? In the immortal words of Joey Gladstone: Cut it out!
Thanks for reading, and see you next season. XO. The Good, the Bad and the Snuggly
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Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”
