Strictly final
Dec. 20th, 2015 04:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessShow one – top 4 (I may also be referencing the stuff on the red button after)
An excellent opening routine that depended on pin-point timing, but got away with it, brought nearly everyone in, fed our desire for behind-the-scenes access and lots of Gleb, and gave us impressive dancing in corridors. Wisely, Iwan and Anthony got little actual dance content. Ola turned up and the finalists had a big old entrance.
TessnClaud looked nice, but monochrome. As ever, the finalists were wearing their costumes for the top secret Judges’ Choice dances, making a mockery of the big mystery. Just film this bit before, or something, because it’s irritating. Every. Year.
I admit I didn’t remember those were Kellie’s tango clothes, but I was mainly thinking that the black and blue of Kevin’s suit didn’t go. Apt given they have been clashing all series. Jay upgraded to tails and Anton reminded me that wardrobe have been loving the paisley ties this season.
Jay danced first, and, predictably, the judges had given him the quickstep to do again. (But no-one bar him mentioned the quickstepathon.) As it was the lowest marked dance, because he’d gone wrong, fair enough. He did much better and there were glorious moments. I thought he’d just gone wrong at the end, but it sounded like there was a little more wrong than that. However, the general quality got him nines all round. AND NICE, END-OF-TERM Craig was in the house! (I started expecting 10s, but doubting Katie’d get a sniff of them.)
Mary Berry reading the Ts and Cs was a nice idea, but you could tell Claudia was internally twitching at all the time being taken up by her slow reading.
Georgia next, and Len started irritating me with his ‘do it exactly the same except with basic rumba choreography’ requirements. I wondered if the other judges had overruled him with the selection. I think this was probably where I disagreed the most with their picks, because it wasn’t that she’d gone wrong so much. Ah well, it was apt that the rumba made a final appearance in the Rumba Is Hard year. I thought Giovanni was more aggressively sexual (which did nothing for me), Young Miss Foote is still impressively flexible and we saw the first Trust Fall of the night. Again, straight nines because she’d messed something up. And yes, this is the night when the scores don't count, but they do in an intangible way.
Next, Kellie got the tango, and I really liked them going back to the first dance in lieu of something more obvious. It is a neat way of showing progression and, not that I really remembered it from the first time around, but it looked good. From the comments and the support in the Clauditorium, it looked good for scores.
And, like every single year, I yelped at Craig’s first 10. I don’t care what Darcey said on ITT on Friday, her standing up to deliver her 10 comes off as obnoxious. However, it was an impressive dance.
The judges kindly did not give Katie (AND ANTON) a Latin number, heh, can you imagine, but she was going to be offering up direct comparison with Jay, who looked to me like he had more difficult steps and having to lead. From what I saw, it was Props vs. Katie and Props won, poor thing, but apparently she went wrong again. Craig gave her a ‘you don’t deserve to be here 7’, Anton was outrageously entertaining, Katie’s husband’s suit was an abomination and the phone lines were now open.
I started voting for Jay. I also voted Jay every time that Len and Georgia annoyed me. After hearing that some child voted more times than there are weeks in the year on the Red Button, I am okay with this, for I did manage to keep under the number of months in a year. And I am the Bill Payer.
But Len was annoying - the prickly relationship with the studio audience continued. Kellie won this round, I thought, and I both liked the idea of forcing them all to do their first dance again and of having couples doing the same dance for comparison, for future reference, although I also appreciate the leeway for it to be about each couple's journey.
Next, Tess was all: SHOWDANCE. I hunkered down.
Let’s discuss the approaches: Jay and Aliona started by referencing The Spider-Man kiss (Maguire/Dunst version) – A+. And then, they did their compilation dance with added difficulties, which I, biased as I am, rather loved. Spins aplenty (called it). SMILING! Cool bits. I thought it was a clever song choice to do a dance with different styles and moods. They drew me in, unlike the grumpy judges. I suppose it was apt that we had judging commentary that was all about the choreography, AGAIN, as it's happened a lot this year, and Aliona rightly said that was her responsibility and Jay did the gentlemanly 'no, no'. I heard not a whisper of complaint about how Jay delivered the dance. Perhaps it drew you in more if you were watching it on TV and invested in them as a couple, but I thought it was one of the better ‘our journey’ routines, and even though choreography obviously colours your emotional response to a dance, critiquing the showdance on content (beyond how the celeb coped with it) seems a bit much. It seemed like they were hating on Jay and Aliona for dancing well instead of doing a Cirque de Soleil routine badly. Which is a long way of saying I resented Craig's eight. Possibly this is when it became Jay's fans versut the judges?
In the VT, Giovanni was clearly unprepared for how tired and emotional Georgia was (if anyone was doing a drinking game that involves a sip whenever someone cries, I pity their liver). They took another approach: ‘we’ve got a SECRET MOVE’, and, after all my whinging about his choreography, I think he got away with it. Blindfolding her was TRUST FALL writ large, and if the lift looked ugly, that was on Vicki Gill’s costume, though the colour was gorgrous and the dress had ridiculous amounts to do. Shoulder problems nixed the 10, but she inched above Jay. Thanks, Craig!
Then we had the third approach of doing a new dance, which has its obvious problems, in the week when they’re running on fumes, have a billion other commitments (on top of Kellie’s daylight job) when they’re rehearsing three dances. And it was another energetic one. But my, they did a good job arguing the case for the lindyhop’s inclusion as a regular dance (it’s a liftier Charleston!?) I’d been snippy because it looked ugly in training footage, but seeing the whole routine was exhilarating. Well, played Grimbsy and Kellie, who has been so strong where others have faltered. I felt they’d won these two rounds (not that it mattered much in the grand scheme of things) and they won me over to vote for them...once.
Anton went for the oldskool showdance approach with Katie. Big camp drama with paso/tango contents, lifts and, continuing the theme, THE trust fall of the night. I didn’t think Katie was as bad as Craig made out (he’d painted himself into a 7 corner), but she was the weakest. Excellent costume, though.
The Results show – and then there were three
We opened with the horrible bit, as I think of it every year, but this has to be live, so what else can they do? Right call, and Katie behaved like a gentlewoman, as expected.
Claudia went for colour! Tess went for trousers! I possibly preferred Darcey's dress, but I like that TessnClaud feel they can make these choices.
Cue the couples’ favourite dances. As ITT viewers already knew, Jay and Aliona controversially did not go for the jive that the people (as represented by Tess) wanted. After last night, I’m minded to agree with them. If he felt he couldn’t improve on it/Aliona worried he was likely to make mistakes, then better to choose something else. Also, unlike Georgia and Kellie, it was better that he was dancing as Jay and not Jay does John Travolta. It felt a little like they were dancing on their own terms, instead of the show’s trusted narrative. Anyway, he danced the paso so much more confidently, and yes, with inappropriate smiles at the end, but I loved it for the strength and shaping.
Let’s be real, Darcey is probably the most representative judge of the viewing public, by virtue being female. Calling him no. 1 (although her scores on the night reflected otherwise, but expecting consistency from Darcey is futile) was telling, as was the fact he’d never been in the dance-off. For all that it was sold as being the closest final yet (in a bid to get more people to call?), in the cold light of day, I doubt that it was. I think most viewers knew who they were going to vote for – the people who are legitimately swayed on the night, especially by the showdance, have to be in the minority. You’re not coming into it cold, and having two of the final dances be reprises admit as much. (Admittedly, I did mutter at the start of the results show that if Jay was dropped, I’d stop watching, and I’d have rather seen Kellie win than Georgia after a stronger night.)
Georgia and Giovanni did take the expected path by taking the dance that was her launching pad from good into contendordom and – I totally could be biased against them – I suddenly thought they could have done something other than force a 10 out of Craig for the Charleston, because was this performance really better than the first time? It seemed like she was a little more over-excited at times. (If they’d gone the Jay and Aliona route, couldn’t they have done that French Riviera samba or whatever it was?) She found it in her to cry some more at Craig saying he’d put her into a show of hers, which did lead to Claudia’s brilliant quip about seeing his shows first. <3 Claudia. But wasn’t that a tactical error? Aren’t you meant to be wanting to doing this for your partner/family, not to try to audition for the West End? Even if that’s what you’re doing (hi, Tom Chambers) never admit it. Anyway, she got her forty.
I can’t see what else Kevin and Kellie could have done (though I applaud Kellie for floating ‘Boom, boom, shake shake the room), however Karen Hardy’s critique on ITT that it was pretty much all side-by-side, when we’d just seen a Charleston so full of tricks and lifts, was at the back of my mind. BUT I chuckled sporadically throughout it, and they went for it.
Lots of padding in the VTs, as we looked over the past 700 years (according to Claudia) of the series. No commentary on how the men were swept away, but Jamelia's regular dance-off appearance got duly noted. I was so relieved that the returning celebs had changed for this show, because I’d been wondering why they’d made Peter wear his jive clothes.
Anyway, I mostly loved the celebratory routine, especially that they started off in the Clauditorium and used most of the studio. I thought there were lots of nice nods – and they did address Jamelia being booted too early. Helen and Anita could have had twice as much time (although I think Anita was clearly still processing her exit), and my biggest problem was the male pros' paisley (natch) shirts.
I don't remember when Ellie Goulding (not in great voice) turned up. It's a great little pop song. I think I'd have preferred it if it had been just Gleb and Oti, because by bringing Janette in, there was, inevitably, chucking her about. I hope Oti gets a decent dancer next year. Gleb must stay and Giovanni can stay. I would also love it if Iveta fills the Ola-sized gap.
We have no idea who came third and second, but despite all that happened on the night, or perhaps because of some of it, it was Jay and Aliona, and I think they were legit shocked. I was pretty chuffed. And I’m sorry, little girls who wanted Georgia to win, but a role in Chicago (if she can sing) will do her fine, and some day your ovaries are fully developed, you will understand. Tess kind of blew the gaff away in her reaction to their win. A lot of female viewers wanted to mother Jay, and eat him, and um, enjoyed watching him dance, and you could string together quotes from Tess, Claudia and Zoe over the weeks that voiced all that.
Kevin must be wondering what he has to do to win – I do think that, unfortunately, most of his and Kellie’s most memorable moments were mental/entertaining, rather than glamorous/sexy (I may be in a minority over their American Smooth), and despite a blinder of a final, they were Luka and Leia, not, if I may, Leia and Han. Things might have been different if Helen and Aljiaz and/or Anita and Gleb were in the final...
I switched to the red button, and Jeremy Vine was an excellent addition, in that his contributions were a thousand times more professional than most of the Friday interviewers they’ve had. Not that I’m dissing Zoe, like Claudia, I love her, and I thought she did a great job of celebrating and commiserating with the finalists. Craig’s comments about not wanting do decide who should win, when he basically ranked the couples by his paddles, made me roll my eyes.
As one member of the public commented, what will we do now? The Christmas special looks promising (no Bruce, but some Shirley Bassey). And if I watch it on iPlayer, as I suspect I'll have to, I can fast-forward Allison Hammond and Robin Windsor if needs be, sorry Allison.
An excellent opening routine that depended on pin-point timing, but got away with it, brought nearly everyone in, fed our desire for behind-the-scenes access and lots of Gleb, and gave us impressive dancing in corridors. Wisely, Iwan and Anthony got little actual dance content. Ola turned up and the finalists had a big old entrance.
TessnClaud looked nice, but monochrome. As ever, the finalists were wearing their costumes for the top secret Judges’ Choice dances, making a mockery of the big mystery. Just film this bit before, or something, because it’s irritating. Every. Year.
I admit I didn’t remember those were Kellie’s tango clothes, but I was mainly thinking that the black and blue of Kevin’s suit didn’t go. Apt given they have been clashing all series. Jay upgraded to tails and Anton reminded me that wardrobe have been loving the paisley ties this season.
Jay danced first, and, predictably, the judges had given him the quickstep to do again. (But no-one bar him mentioned the quickstepathon.) As it was the lowest marked dance, because he’d gone wrong, fair enough. He did much better and there were glorious moments. I thought he’d just gone wrong at the end, but it sounded like there was a little more wrong than that. However, the general quality got him nines all round. AND NICE, END-OF-TERM Craig was in the house! (I started expecting 10s, but doubting Katie’d get a sniff of them.)
Mary Berry reading the Ts and Cs was a nice idea, but you could tell Claudia was internally twitching at all the time being taken up by her slow reading.
Georgia next, and Len started irritating me with his ‘do it exactly the same except with basic rumba choreography’ requirements. I wondered if the other judges had overruled him with the selection. I think this was probably where I disagreed the most with their picks, because it wasn’t that she’d gone wrong so much. Ah well, it was apt that the rumba made a final appearance in the Rumba Is Hard year. I thought Giovanni was more aggressively sexual (which did nothing for me), Young Miss Foote is still impressively flexible and we saw the first Trust Fall of the night. Again, straight nines because she’d messed something up. And yes, this is the night when the scores don't count, but they do in an intangible way.
Next, Kellie got the tango, and I really liked them going back to the first dance in lieu of something more obvious. It is a neat way of showing progression and, not that I really remembered it from the first time around, but it looked good. From the comments and the support in the Clauditorium, it looked good for scores.
And, like every single year, I yelped at Craig’s first 10. I don’t care what Darcey said on ITT on Friday, her standing up to deliver her 10 comes off as obnoxious. However, it was an impressive dance.
The judges kindly did not give Katie (AND ANTON) a Latin number, heh, can you imagine, but she was going to be offering up direct comparison with Jay, who looked to me like he had more difficult steps and having to lead. From what I saw, it was Props vs. Katie and Props won, poor thing, but apparently she went wrong again. Craig gave her a ‘you don’t deserve to be here 7’, Anton was outrageously entertaining, Katie’s husband’s suit was an abomination and the phone lines were now open.
I started voting for Jay. I also voted Jay every time that Len and Georgia annoyed me. After hearing that some child voted more times than there are weeks in the year on the Red Button, I am okay with this, for I did manage to keep under the number of months in a year. And I am the Bill Payer.
But Len was annoying - the prickly relationship with the studio audience continued. Kellie won this round, I thought, and I both liked the idea of forcing them all to do their first dance again and of having couples doing the same dance for comparison, for future reference, although I also appreciate the leeway for it to be about each couple's journey.
Next, Tess was all: SHOWDANCE. I hunkered down.
Let’s discuss the approaches: Jay and Aliona started by referencing The Spider-Man kiss (Maguire/Dunst version) – A+. And then, they did their compilation dance with added difficulties, which I, biased as I am, rather loved. Spins aplenty (called it). SMILING! Cool bits. I thought it was a clever song choice to do a dance with different styles and moods. They drew me in, unlike the grumpy judges. I suppose it was apt that we had judging commentary that was all about the choreography, AGAIN, as it's happened a lot this year, and Aliona rightly said that was her responsibility and Jay did the gentlemanly 'no, no'. I heard not a whisper of complaint about how Jay delivered the dance. Perhaps it drew you in more if you were watching it on TV and invested in them as a couple, but I thought it was one of the better ‘our journey’ routines, and even though choreography obviously colours your emotional response to a dance, critiquing the showdance on content (beyond how the celeb coped with it) seems a bit much. It seemed like they were hating on Jay and Aliona for dancing well instead of doing a Cirque de Soleil routine badly. Which is a long way of saying I resented Craig's eight. Possibly this is when it became Jay's fans versut the judges?
In the VT, Giovanni was clearly unprepared for how tired and emotional Georgia was (if anyone was doing a drinking game that involves a sip whenever someone cries, I pity their liver). They took another approach: ‘we’ve got a SECRET MOVE’, and, after all my whinging about his choreography, I think he got away with it. Blindfolding her was TRUST FALL writ large, and if the lift looked ugly, that was on Vicki Gill’s costume, though the colour was gorgrous and the dress had ridiculous amounts to do. Shoulder problems nixed the 10, but she inched above Jay. Thanks, Craig!
Then we had the third approach of doing a new dance, which has its obvious problems, in the week when they’re running on fumes, have a billion other commitments (on top of Kellie’s daylight job) when they’re rehearsing three dances. And it was another energetic one. But my, they did a good job arguing the case for the lindyhop’s inclusion as a regular dance (it’s a liftier Charleston!?) I’d been snippy because it looked ugly in training footage, but seeing the whole routine was exhilarating. Well, played Grimbsy and Kellie, who has been so strong where others have faltered. I felt they’d won these two rounds (not that it mattered much in the grand scheme of things) and they won me over to vote for them...once.
Anton went for the oldskool showdance approach with Katie. Big camp drama with paso/tango contents, lifts and, continuing the theme, THE trust fall of the night. I didn’t think Katie was as bad as Craig made out (he’d painted himself into a 7 corner), but she was the weakest. Excellent costume, though.
The Results show – and then there were three
We opened with the horrible bit, as I think of it every year, but this has to be live, so what else can they do? Right call, and Katie behaved like a gentlewoman, as expected.
Claudia went for colour! Tess went for trousers! I possibly preferred Darcey's dress, but I like that TessnClaud feel they can make these choices.
Cue the couples’ favourite dances. As ITT viewers already knew, Jay and Aliona controversially did not go for the jive that the people (as represented by Tess) wanted. After last night, I’m minded to agree with them. If he felt he couldn’t improve on it/Aliona worried he was likely to make mistakes, then better to choose something else. Also, unlike Georgia and Kellie, it was better that he was dancing as Jay and not Jay does John Travolta. It felt a little like they were dancing on their own terms, instead of the show’s trusted narrative. Anyway, he danced the paso so much more confidently, and yes, with inappropriate smiles at the end, but I loved it for the strength and shaping.
Let’s be real, Darcey is probably the most representative judge of the viewing public, by virtue being female. Calling him no. 1 (although her scores on the night reflected otherwise, but expecting consistency from Darcey is futile) was telling, as was the fact he’d never been in the dance-off. For all that it was sold as being the closest final yet (in a bid to get more people to call?), in the cold light of day, I doubt that it was. I think most viewers knew who they were going to vote for – the people who are legitimately swayed on the night, especially by the showdance, have to be in the minority. You’re not coming into it cold, and having two of the final dances be reprises admit as much. (Admittedly, I did mutter at the start of the results show that if Jay was dropped, I’d stop watching, and I’d have rather seen Kellie win than Georgia after a stronger night.)
Georgia and Giovanni did take the expected path by taking the dance that was her launching pad from good into contendordom and – I totally could be biased against them – I suddenly thought they could have done something other than force a 10 out of Craig for the Charleston, because was this performance really better than the first time? It seemed like she was a little more over-excited at times. (If they’d gone the Jay and Aliona route, couldn’t they have done that French Riviera samba or whatever it was?) She found it in her to cry some more at Craig saying he’d put her into a show of hers, which did lead to Claudia’s brilliant quip about seeing his shows first. <3 Claudia. But wasn’t that a tactical error? Aren’t you meant to be wanting to doing this for your partner/family, not to try to audition for the West End? Even if that’s what you’re doing (hi, Tom Chambers) never admit it. Anyway, she got her forty.
I can’t see what else Kevin and Kellie could have done (though I applaud Kellie for floating ‘Boom, boom, shake shake the room), however Karen Hardy’s critique on ITT that it was pretty much all side-by-side, when we’d just seen a Charleston so full of tricks and lifts, was at the back of my mind. BUT I chuckled sporadically throughout it, and they went for it.
Lots of padding in the VTs, as we looked over the past 700 years (according to Claudia) of the series. No commentary on how the men were swept away, but Jamelia's regular dance-off appearance got duly noted. I was so relieved that the returning celebs had changed for this show, because I’d been wondering why they’d made Peter wear his jive clothes.
Anyway, I mostly loved the celebratory routine, especially that they started off in the Clauditorium and used most of the studio. I thought there were lots of nice nods – and they did address Jamelia being booted too early. Helen and Anita could have had twice as much time (although I think Anita was clearly still processing her exit), and my biggest problem was the male pros' paisley (natch) shirts.
I don't remember when Ellie Goulding (not in great voice) turned up. It's a great little pop song. I think I'd have preferred it if it had been just Gleb and Oti, because by bringing Janette in, there was, inevitably, chucking her about. I hope Oti gets a decent dancer next year. Gleb must stay and Giovanni can stay. I would also love it if Iveta fills the Ola-sized gap.
We have no idea who came third and second, but despite all that happened on the night, or perhaps because of some of it, it was Jay and Aliona, and I think they were legit shocked. I was pretty chuffed. And I’m sorry, little girls who wanted Georgia to win, but a role in Chicago (if she can sing) will do her fine, and some day your ovaries are fully developed, you will understand. Tess kind of blew the gaff away in her reaction to their win. A lot of female viewers wanted to mother Jay, and eat him, and um, enjoyed watching him dance, and you could string together quotes from Tess, Claudia and Zoe over the weeks that voiced all that.
Kevin must be wondering what he has to do to win – I do think that, unfortunately, most of his and Kellie’s most memorable moments were mental/entertaining, rather than glamorous/sexy (I may be in a minority over their American Smooth), and despite a blinder of a final, they were Luka and Leia, not, if I may, Leia and Han. Things might have been different if Helen and Aljiaz and/or Anita and Gleb were in the final...
I switched to the red button, and Jeremy Vine was an excellent addition, in that his contributions were a thousand times more professional than most of the Friday interviewers they’ve had. Not that I’m dissing Zoe, like Claudia, I love her, and I thought she did a great job of celebrating and commiserating with the finalists. Craig’s comments about not wanting do decide who should win, when he basically ranked the couples by his paddles, made me roll my eyes.
As one member of the public commented, what will we do now? The Christmas special looks promising (no Bruce, but some Shirley Bassey). And if I watch it on iPlayer, as I suspect I'll have to, I can fast-forward Allison Hammond and Robin Windsor if needs be, sorry Allison.
