Looks like I picked a good week to go on vacation, what with all that patriotic claptrap. The clips they just showed looked like a hot mess. Not that every week doesn't look like a hot mess. This week is Guilty Pleasures, and Hanson is here to kick things off with "Mmm Bop." I love this song and I kind of love grown-up Hanson, but the sound is terrible on this version. I can't hear anything. The vocals are turned up way too loud and you can't hear anything else but drums. Tony and Lacey come out to dance along, and they are soon joined by... I guess the pro troupe? I still don't recognize any of them. I like that oldest Hanson, and I dig that he always wears a suit nowadays. It does freak me out that all of these Hansons have like three kids each now, because they still seem like young men to me. Which I guess they are. But they're also dads. I see Lacey still hasn't dealt with that hair situation. That's a shame.

After a quick preview of tonight's show, they cut back to Tom and Brooke and I'm thinking, "Why are they still here? Shouldn't we be at a commercial?" And then they introduce the stars and pros. Oh yeah. They haven't come out yet. It feels like the show should be half over already.

Kirstie and Maks will be dancing first this week. They did well last week in that no one fell down or lost articles of clothing (by accident), but Kirstie wants higher scores. Her guilty pleasure is Britney Spears. So, Kirstie and Maks are probably doing it, right? I mean, why wouldn't they? Do we have a consensus on this yet? Maks has to give Kirstie a pep talk in rehearsals about not overthinking it and just feeling the dance, and she seems to improve. Will she be able to hold onto that feeling for the real dance for the judges? When the actual routine starts, she does well but not great. There is a lot of content in the first two-thirds of the dance and Kirstie handles it well, but then there's a long part where they just skip around the floor that I kind of hate. Overall, it was adequate but nothing to write home about and it didn't take advantage of their chemistry.

Judges? Len thinks Kirstie has never fulfilled her potential until now. Bruno thinks Kirstie made the dance look easy. Carrie Ann thinks that Kirstie, like Britney, is back. Scores: Carrie Ann 8, Len 9, and Bruno 9. Kirstie and Maks are thrilled beyond measure with the 9s.