Anything goes/boxing clever
Dec. 1st, 2013 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessStrictly – Musicals special
I was amused by how little they gave Anton to do in the opening number. Poor celebs, next week, they’ll be called on to do so much more than wafting their arms and coming up and down stairs, although who’d have thought, when Abbey stumbled down the stairs...
Craig’s grand entrance is the point in the show where Bruce really should be welcoming the judges. He could still give the first couple a breather by welcoming the orchestra and singers after the big first one, (although Tess is always better at that) because he isn’t contractually obliged to do a ‘joke’ for them.
I had a brainwave this week, what if Tess were ill? HOW WOULD BRUCE COPE WITH CLAUDIA? Not that I want Tess to be ill, but I would like to see it.
Anyway, on to the dancing at this point of the good top six and Mark, the dance-off survivor being left: Patrick and Anya’s Charleston was so, so, so breathlessly zippy. I was mostly impressed with his keeping up, because his performance level, style and characterisation were in the bag, and thought it was an excellent Charleston – we’ve had some gooduns this year.
I also thought that Natalie and Artem’s American Smooth was wonderful, but (and this is inevitable because it was choreographed by Artem) I could sense Len’s mounting rage at the lack of dancing in hold as iy went on. For me, this was the kind of dance Artem should have saved for the finale, where you can get away with that stuff (although given she’s only third on the leaderboard, Natalie’s popularity may be tested this week). But considering that it’s an epic song and not one that you’d think of dancing to naturally, a really enjoyable routine. I feel a tiny bit bad for not wanting to vote for Natalie ever for all the pleasure her dancing has given me.
Fun, of course, is the phrase for Mark and Iveta’s dance. Only Ola and Ashley came close in the dressing up stakes. Darcey and Len flannelled, but Craig and Bruno paid him the compliment of praising him for more technique and criticising him for technical deficiencies. Considering that was a samba, he did really well.
Am I sticking to the right order?
A thoroughly lovely Viennese waltz from Brendan and sophie, even if by the end of it, you were more impressed with Sophie for not throwing up after all that turning. She was clearly loving it, which is always infectious.
And then, probably my favourite dance of the night too (but because they were top, I didn’t feel the need to vote), that salsa. I was in a good mood because of how Aljiaz had thrown himself into the seventies karaoke – seriously, at the end of the VT where Abbey was talking, I was watching him in the background, out of focus, still giving it some welly (as per Len). He’s ridiculously good-humoured. I don’t know if maybe there was a bit of unfair judging as to the disco vs. salsa ratio, but what they did, they did brilliantly, it worked with the song and the lifts really worked. I may have made very loud noises at the emergence of Craig’s 10 paddle.
I wonder if the producers will feel, at their debriefing meeting, that they may have come up with the wrong dancing order.
As with Artem, Ola’s choreography was a little predictable, but not in as good a way. I thought Ashley looked precarious on the carpet, and so decided to ignore the arm-wafting at that point. (But flying carpets and cars and giant disco balls, plus some backing dancers drafted in – they went for the musicals theme.) Still, he did well, especially given that it was the rumba, and getting the same score feels almost unfair.
Kevin had been looking a little worried in the background all show as we’d had so many good numbers. I was trying to look a little more at people’s feet during the show, and erm, yes, although the quickstep = joy and Singin’ in the Rain’s Good Morning = joy and Susanna/dancing (with Keving) = joy, the feet weren’t quite right. Craig had boxed himself in by giving Patrick an 8.
The question is who is going to join Mark in the dance off, which comes down to popularity (though Abbey, Patrick, Mark and, arguably, Ashley upped their level, while Natalie’s level is always great, and the weakness, by her standards, of lifts isn’t really a weakness at all). The other question is will they freak out and make so many mistakes that the judges will be forced to save Mark again? It’s amusing that it isn’t the audience vote keeping the weakest dancer in – it’s the judges who insist that Iveta gets to show off her mad dancing brain and Mark gets to lose a few more pounds.
And is the Strictly celeb trending on Yahoo! significant?
Atlantis 1.9 Pandora’s Box
They threw a couple more mythical elements into the blender. I was resigned from the preview clip at the end of the last episode to this being the episode where Medusa was turned. I am miffed that female characters are basically excluded from the gang on this show.
The opening made me sad – the Medusa/Hercules development made me sad, although Rooper and Addy play them beautifully and although I’ve got quite a soft spot for May-December romances, it doesn’t include nice, resourceful girls and lazy, lying sots. Because of course he hadn’t paid off his debts.
Enter Anton Lesser playing a delicious baddie. We didn’t see much of him, but quite enough to know that he shouldn’t have Pandora’s Box. I really liked the voice of the man who played Persephone’s servant as well.
I will also blame Hercules a little for being thoughtless in how he protected Medusa at the end, after sticking to the job of going to get the box and listening to Jason when he was being sensible so well. After all, Pythagoras managed to pick up a jug and use it as a weapon quite well, which made me chortle.
Oh, the reason for her being cursed could have been worse – it was after all, curiosity that did it and the power of the strike>Ring/strike>Box rather than her lurve for Hercules and there was some decent foreshadowing. But I am still sad, and I’m not looking forward to how the rest of it will play out – saving her vs. Atlantis, Jason vs. FX.
As the episode started, I thought they could have stretched it out into a two-parter. I liked that Cyrus returned, liked the way they had Pythagoras running back and forth like a cartoon character, liked that the Orcpion was a lady guarding The Box and not just a monster. There was quite a lot of things that reminded me of Lord of the Rings going on. But Jason doesn't know about Hades or Pandora's Box so much, but he does know Medusa's story? No, show, that is lame. I was also hoping we'd have something about Our Hero's father in the underworld.
Next week, a female character with a bow and arrow – I am excited about this despite knowing better.
I was amused by how little they gave Anton to do in the opening number. Poor celebs, next week, they’ll be called on to do so much more than wafting their arms and coming up and down stairs, although who’d have thought, when Abbey stumbled down the stairs...
Craig’s grand entrance is the point in the show where Bruce really should be welcoming the judges. He could still give the first couple a breather by welcoming the orchestra and singers after the big first one, (although Tess is always better at that) because he isn’t contractually obliged to do a ‘joke’ for them.
I had a brainwave this week, what if Tess were ill? HOW WOULD BRUCE COPE WITH CLAUDIA? Not that I want Tess to be ill, but I would like to see it.
Anyway, on to the dancing at this point of the good top six and Mark, the dance-off survivor being left: Patrick and Anya’s Charleston was so, so, so breathlessly zippy. I was mostly impressed with his keeping up, because his performance level, style and characterisation were in the bag, and thought it was an excellent Charleston – we’ve had some gooduns this year.
I also thought that Natalie and Artem’s American Smooth was wonderful, but (and this is inevitable because it was choreographed by Artem) I could sense Len’s mounting rage at the lack of dancing in hold as iy went on. For me, this was the kind of dance Artem should have saved for the finale, where you can get away with that stuff (although given she’s only third on the leaderboard, Natalie’s popularity may be tested this week). But considering that it’s an epic song and not one that you’d think of dancing to naturally, a really enjoyable routine. I feel a tiny bit bad for not wanting to vote for Natalie ever for all the pleasure her dancing has given me.
Fun, of course, is the phrase for Mark and Iveta’s dance. Only Ola and Ashley came close in the dressing up stakes. Darcey and Len flannelled, but Craig and Bruno paid him the compliment of praising him for more technique and criticising him for technical deficiencies. Considering that was a samba, he did really well.
Am I sticking to the right order?
A thoroughly lovely Viennese waltz from Brendan and sophie, even if by the end of it, you were more impressed with Sophie for not throwing up after all that turning. She was clearly loving it, which is always infectious.
And then, probably my favourite dance of the night too (but because they were top, I didn’t feel the need to vote), that salsa. I was in a good mood because of how Aljiaz had thrown himself into the seventies karaoke – seriously, at the end of the VT where Abbey was talking, I was watching him in the background, out of focus, still giving it some welly (as per Len). He’s ridiculously good-humoured. I don’t know if maybe there was a bit of unfair judging as to the disco vs. salsa ratio, but what they did, they did brilliantly, it worked with the song and the lifts really worked. I may have made very loud noises at the emergence of Craig’s 10 paddle.
I wonder if the producers will feel, at their debriefing meeting, that they may have come up with the wrong dancing order.
As with Artem, Ola’s choreography was a little predictable, but not in as good a way. I thought Ashley looked precarious on the carpet, and so decided to ignore the arm-wafting at that point. (But flying carpets and cars and giant disco balls, plus some backing dancers drafted in – they went for the musicals theme.) Still, he did well, especially given that it was the rumba, and getting the same score feels almost unfair.
Kevin had been looking a little worried in the background all show as we’d had so many good numbers. I was trying to look a little more at people’s feet during the show, and erm, yes, although the quickstep = joy and Singin’ in the Rain’s Good Morning = joy and Susanna/dancing (with Keving) = joy, the feet weren’t quite right. Craig had boxed himself in by giving Patrick an 8.
The question is who is going to join Mark in the dance off, which comes down to popularity (though Abbey, Patrick, Mark and, arguably, Ashley upped their level, while Natalie’s level is always great, and the weakness, by her standards, of lifts isn’t really a weakness at all). The other question is will they freak out and make so many mistakes that the judges will be forced to save Mark again? It’s amusing that it isn’t the audience vote keeping the weakest dancer in – it’s the judges who insist that Iveta gets to show off her mad dancing brain and Mark gets to lose a few more pounds.
And is the Strictly celeb trending on Yahoo! significant?
Atlantis 1.9 Pandora’s Box
They threw a couple more mythical elements into the blender. I was resigned from the preview clip at the end of the last episode to this being the episode where Medusa was turned. I am miffed that female characters are basically excluded from the gang on this show.
The opening made me sad – the Medusa/Hercules development made me sad, although Rooper and Addy play them beautifully and although I’ve got quite a soft spot for May-December romances, it doesn’t include nice, resourceful girls and lazy, lying sots. Because of course he hadn’t paid off his debts.
Enter Anton Lesser playing a delicious baddie. We didn’t see much of him, but quite enough to know that he shouldn’t have Pandora’s Box. I really liked the voice of the man who played Persephone’s servant as well.
I will also blame Hercules a little for being thoughtless in how he protected Medusa at the end, after sticking to the job of going to get the box and listening to Jason when he was being sensible so well. After all, Pythagoras managed to pick up a jug and use it as a weapon quite well, which made me chortle.
Oh, the reason for her being cursed could have been worse – it was after all, curiosity that did it and the power of the strike>Ring/strike>Box rather than her lurve for Hercules and there was some decent foreshadowing. But I am still sad, and I’m not looking forward to how the rest of it will play out – saving her vs. Atlantis, Jason vs. FX.
As the episode started, I thought they could have stretched it out into a two-parter. I liked that Cyrus returned, liked the way they had Pythagoras running back and forth like a cartoon character, liked that the Orcpion was a lady guarding The Box and not just a monster. There was quite a lot of things that reminded me of Lord of the Rings going on. But Jason doesn't know about Hades or Pandora's Box so much, but he does know Medusa's story? No, show, that is lame. I was also hoping we'd have something about Our Hero's father in the underworld.
Next week, a female character with a bow and arrow – I am excited about this despite knowing better.
