Strictly Week 2 (Saturday show)
Oct. 1st, 2017 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI know Tess was “sad” someone will be voted off, but it will mean that there are only 14 couples next week! Considering that the show was 800 hours long in Claudia time, I thought the running order was quite clever. They tried their best to intersperse people who had got worse in the switch with Aston weirdly getting the second spot, Charlestons and improvers. The last five were good and in that last third we had drama!, fun!, quieter romance, liveliness and DRAMA!!! I think the X-Factor got even more pummelled already.
Costumes – Tess’s strapless trousersuit was blah, Claudia’s dress was black and would have been better if the skirt hadn’t been lace, Shirley showed them up, but Darcey won again because she wore colour. I will try to talk more about the pros and celebs’ gowns/outfits. I liked a lot of the lighting concepts for routines, some of the VTs were about family, bringing the pros who hadn’t been to work, and lots of them were silly. I think Richard gave the best lampshading.
To the routines (I made notes!):
Chizzy (nice colour for the gown) made an excellent case for not giving the celebs the foxtrot as their first ballroom. Craig commented that there was too much musical theatre, but you can’t blame Pasha. Still, I shouldn’t be thinking ‘oh, I want to see her tango’ while watching her foxtrot. She was one of the disappointments – maybe a little too early to say that Latin is her thing, but it looks like it.
Aston (his and Janette’s outfits were SO busy, ech) caused a ripple of shock at being put in this slot, right? I then clocked ‘salsa = lifts?’ and thought it was too early. But the routine was mostly great, with some excellent bits. For me, it maybe needed a little more flow, and you could see that things went awry with the lifts at the end, but they’re probably hoping he’ll reprise it in the finals (but will he??? We shall see.)
Susan, her legs (well, they made an impression – the costume was great) and Kevin did the first Charleston of the series. Once again, she sold it, it was FUN. Sure, there were moments where the contrast with her pro hurt her, but Shirley offset Craig in the scoring.
I was wondering why they’d made such a thing of the spin in Charlotte’s VT, as surely it’d make her more anxious. It felt like the routine was always too much for her – the lame acting before they got into it made me wonder why they didn’t just walk into the routine? There were bits that suggested it could have been good, but it really wasn’t. We got our first Brendan defence of his partner of the season, but there was little consoling Charlotte. If this bad performance and her relative anonymity don’t get her booted, which would be a shame, could they please put her in a colour next week?
Joe was another disappointment. I shouldn’t be thinking ‘well, his quickstep will be good’ when watching his tango. I thought Bruno’s critique, for once, was most on point. The most worrying thing is that Joe clearly thought it had gone really well. No, Joe, not really.
Brian’s cha cha felt like it was an improvement on last week, as he did seem to have more positives, although I suspect a lot of that was that it was a more infectious, show-offy dance. His outfit was meh, but the colours of Amy’s fringing were fab.
Gemma’s gown was strikingly sophisticated in colours that shouldn’t work like they did on a gown like that. More importantly, it was a very nice waltz. It got a little more careful when she was in hold, bit there was lost of promising stuff. I thought the floor sweep was unnecessary. It was nice to see her smile, and she should be more confident after this. Aljiaz speaking Northern is a gift.
I was fuming that they’d given Richard (or anyone) an American Smooth before he’d done a ballroom with no lifts, but although he’s likeable, it was a case of ‘oh dear.’ Australian rough, indeed, and under-rehearsed, it looked like. And like several other people (mainly men), Dianne had to wear brown and it was so not flattering.
Ruth was so much better in the Charleston than last week. I was genuinely impressed because of the speed of it. (Anton was absolutely going for it.) She is going to go through so many hairstyles and hairpireces by the time she’s done on this show. (Reluctant point to her husband for ‘Hello, Brendan’ to Anton. And Anton seems to be trying really hard and succeeding in bouncing off Claudia – retirement plans for some sort of presenting gig?)
Simon was okay when the routine was basically him presenting the lady, then it got more underwhelming for me than the judges, then the thing with the hands went wrong and the ending was tense and off, yes? I liked the classy setting and the decision to build it all up, but I wasn’t feeling it, and literally went ‘Oh yeah, Shirley’s from Liverpool’.
Mollie looked great and was much better (I spent the whole VT going ‘Tallulah is a flapper name, not a tango temptress,’ Mollie’s thought processes aren’t impressing me much). We haven’t seen a lady tango before (have we?). Interesting that the judges got strict about the lifts now (given last week, but probably it was because of last week).
Jonnie got another on the nose song (nameswise, that’s him, Susan and Mollie, yeah?). He really, really went for the jive, which was another fast one. Massive improvement scoreswise, bringing him back up to where I think Oti expected him to be (heh).
In one of the earlier ‘coming up’ VTs, Debbie had wittered about how to impress the judges in the VW. The answer was obvious, a few ballet bits, well within her wheelhouse, and to do the dance well. Oh, boy howdy, did she. It was beautiful. I watched it with an ‘I can’t believe this is week 2’ smile. Room for improvement? How she plays off Giovanni, but he was even happier than Aljiaz had been earlier and it’s perfectly understandable.
Davood got the first quickstep and managed not to make the obvious observation. He showed great lightness of foot, but I mostly agreed with the judges about the choreography. He’s good enough, especially if you allow for the lack of background, for them (Nadiya) to have the confidence not to turn it into a striptease.
And then we ended on Alexandra’s paso, and it was her paso, despite the state of Gorka’s shirt, I could not keep my eyes off her. She owned it, owned it, owned it. You could only just say who the pro was (which is great partnering from him after great teaching and great choreography). Such drama, such quality. GAME ON. And they have fizzing but sweet choreography (one hopes neither of them has SOs to be bothered by it. AHEM.)
I didn’t take in the scoresboard properly, and I’ll be relieved when we return to one dance determining positions while there are a gazillion of them. Debbie and Aston were consistent (as were other less good dancers,) but Alexandra had owned the night so comprehensively that it felt weird that she wasn’t right on top.
Otherwise, Shirley has settled in (warmth, concrit, weak spot for Liverpudlians, occasionally mad scoring, a few more weeks of learning to cope with Bruno). The celebs seem to have bonded. Claudia was clearly concerned that we were seeing her forehead (why? It seems perfectly normal) There was no need for her to be given the attention-seeking madness behind her.
Costumes – Tess’s strapless trousersuit was blah, Claudia’s dress was black and would have been better if the skirt hadn’t been lace, Shirley showed them up, but Darcey won again because she wore colour. I will try to talk more about the pros and celebs’ gowns/outfits. I liked a lot of the lighting concepts for routines, some of the VTs were about family, bringing the pros who hadn’t been to work, and lots of them were silly. I think Richard gave the best lampshading.
To the routines (I made notes!):
Chizzy (nice colour for the gown) made an excellent case for not giving the celebs the foxtrot as their first ballroom. Craig commented that there was too much musical theatre, but you can’t blame Pasha. Still, I shouldn’t be thinking ‘oh, I want to see her tango’ while watching her foxtrot. She was one of the disappointments – maybe a little too early to say that Latin is her thing, but it looks like it.
Aston (his and Janette’s outfits were SO busy, ech) caused a ripple of shock at being put in this slot, right? I then clocked ‘salsa = lifts?’ and thought it was too early. But the routine was mostly great, with some excellent bits. For me, it maybe needed a little more flow, and you could see that things went awry with the lifts at the end, but they’re probably hoping he’ll reprise it in the finals (but will he??? We shall see.)
Susan, her legs (well, they made an impression – the costume was great) and Kevin did the first Charleston of the series. Once again, she sold it, it was FUN. Sure, there were moments where the contrast with her pro hurt her, but Shirley offset Craig in the scoring.
I was wondering why they’d made such a thing of the spin in Charlotte’s VT, as surely it’d make her more anxious. It felt like the routine was always too much for her – the lame acting before they got into it made me wonder why they didn’t just walk into the routine? There were bits that suggested it could have been good, but it really wasn’t. We got our first Brendan defence of his partner of the season, but there was little consoling Charlotte. If this bad performance and her relative anonymity don’t get her booted, which would be a shame, could they please put her in a colour next week?
Joe was another disappointment. I shouldn’t be thinking ‘well, his quickstep will be good’ when watching his tango. I thought Bruno’s critique, for once, was most on point. The most worrying thing is that Joe clearly thought it had gone really well. No, Joe, not really.
Brian’s cha cha felt like it was an improvement on last week, as he did seem to have more positives, although I suspect a lot of that was that it was a more infectious, show-offy dance. His outfit was meh, but the colours of Amy’s fringing were fab.
Gemma’s gown was strikingly sophisticated in colours that shouldn’t work like they did on a gown like that. More importantly, it was a very nice waltz. It got a little more careful when she was in hold, bit there was lost of promising stuff. I thought the floor sweep was unnecessary. It was nice to see her smile, and she should be more confident after this. Aljiaz speaking Northern is a gift.
I was fuming that they’d given Richard (or anyone) an American Smooth before he’d done a ballroom with no lifts, but although he’s likeable, it was a case of ‘oh dear.’ Australian rough, indeed, and under-rehearsed, it looked like. And like several other people (mainly men), Dianne had to wear brown and it was so not flattering.
Ruth was so much better in the Charleston than last week. I was genuinely impressed because of the speed of it. (Anton was absolutely going for it.) She is going to go through so many hairstyles and hairpireces by the time she’s done on this show. (Reluctant point to her husband for ‘Hello, Brendan’ to Anton. And Anton seems to be trying really hard and succeeding in bouncing off Claudia – retirement plans for some sort of presenting gig?)
Simon was okay when the routine was basically him presenting the lady, then it got more underwhelming for me than the judges, then the thing with the hands went wrong and the ending was tense and off, yes? I liked the classy setting and the decision to build it all up, but I wasn’t feeling it, and literally went ‘Oh yeah, Shirley’s from Liverpool’.
Mollie looked great and was much better (I spent the whole VT going ‘Tallulah is a flapper name, not a tango temptress,’ Mollie’s thought processes aren’t impressing me much). We haven’t seen a lady tango before (have we?). Interesting that the judges got strict about the lifts now (given last week, but probably it was because of last week).
Jonnie got another on the nose song (nameswise, that’s him, Susan and Mollie, yeah?). He really, really went for the jive, which was another fast one. Massive improvement scoreswise, bringing him back up to where I think Oti expected him to be (heh).
In one of the earlier ‘coming up’ VTs, Debbie had wittered about how to impress the judges in the VW. The answer was obvious, a few ballet bits, well within her wheelhouse, and to do the dance well. Oh, boy howdy, did she. It was beautiful. I watched it with an ‘I can’t believe this is week 2’ smile. Room for improvement? How she plays off Giovanni, but he was even happier than Aljiaz had been earlier and it’s perfectly understandable.
Davood got the first quickstep and managed not to make the obvious observation. He showed great lightness of foot, but I mostly agreed with the judges about the choreography. He’s good enough, especially if you allow for the lack of background, for them (Nadiya) to have the confidence not to turn it into a striptease.
And then we ended on Alexandra’s paso, and it was her paso, despite the state of Gorka’s shirt, I could not keep my eyes off her. She owned it, owned it, owned it. You could only just say who the pro was (which is great partnering from him after great teaching and great choreography). Such drama, such quality. GAME ON. And they have fizzing but sweet choreography (one hopes neither of them has SOs to be bothered by it. AHEM.)
I didn’t take in the scoresboard properly, and I’ll be relieved when we return to one dance determining positions while there are a gazillion of them. Debbie and Aston were consistent (as were other less good dancers,) but Alexandra had owned the night so comprehensively that it felt weird that she wasn’t right on top.
Otherwise, Shirley has settled in (warmth, concrit, weak spot for Liverpudlians, occasionally mad scoring, a few more weeks of learning to cope with Bruno). The celebs seem to have bonded. Claudia was clearly concerned that we were seeing her forehead (why? It seems perfectly normal) There was no need for her to be given the attention-seeking madness behind her.
