Strictly - Louise awakens

[zico]

I can't see a Reality TV board in Lemonfool, so posting in here for now - can you let me know if there's a more suitable place for this post? It's not exactly Pub chat.
(I've also posted a duplicate of this on TMF reality TV board, for this week & next week only).

No film or Halloween theme this week, so it’s back to a serious proper dance competition this week. Tess still only has one sleeve and a few straps to hold up one side of her pantsuit top. Claudia has overdone it on the eye make-up front, but her fringe is advancing nicely over her eyes. Our celebs are introduced - Ed and Katya’s snooker player outfits are particularly noteworthy, whilst costumes department are continuing their feud with Ore and Joanne.

Danny & Oti (Jive). VT footage shows Danny talking about getting it wrong last week and saying “we’ll learn from our mistakes”. Oti is clearly thinking “what’s all this about “our” mistakes – they’re your mistakes matey”. Despite Ed’s snooker clothes, it’s Danny that has a pool table in his routine which he uses to good effect, jumping on and off the table, doing jumps into virtual splits and being generally very impressive. It’s a fun routine too. Judges are very happy and he gets his first 10’s (from Darcey and Bruno) to score 38.

Claudia gets Chas’n’Dave to strum banjos and sing the terms and conditions, which is a confused mess. Bizarrely their mouths keep opening and closing like stranded goldfish for about 20 seconds after the music stops. Chas’n’Dave are every bit as entertaining, musical and charismatic as they were back in the 80’s. They don’t look any older either.

Daisy & Aljaz (Viennese Waltz). For this routine Aljaz is a market trader so of course he has to get behind a real market stall in rehearsals. We start with possibly the first vegetable stall ever to feature in Strictly, a song “Daisy Daisy”, and they have a sickly saccharine routine including pretending to ride an imaginary tandem at one point. Daisy dances it OK, but it’s not great. Craig talks about messy little shuffles at first, then unexpectedly changes tack and says it was brilliant. Darcey wants Daisy to elongate her neck, and says Daisy has a beautiful aura. When someone says your best feature is your area, you know you’re in trouble. 34 for Daisy.

Ore & Joanne (Salsa). Ore has a blue shirt and white trousers, Joanne has a dress made up of multi-coloured offcuts. Some very impressive lifts here, but Ore is a bit stop-start, and can’t get his hips to move fluidly, which is pretty essential for a decent Salsa. Messy choreography, and it’s all rather boring, apart from wondering whether the lifts will work or not. Seems like Joanne is trying to make the dance around what Ore can actually do, but I’m expecting “not your dance” comments from the judges. Will Craig decry the lack of Salsa content? Of course not, but he does bemoan the lack of figure 8 movement in his hips, but says everything else was great. Bruno goes overboard even for Bruno (and that’s saying something) talking like an adoring Ore superfan. Did they watch some different dance to the one we just saw? Len & Bruno give Ore 9’s for the standard overmarking and Ore gets 34.

Ed & Katya (Quickstep). OK, not snooker players, but Laurel and Hardy – the lack of a moustache threw me off the scent. They dance to “Help” which gives the judges some easy lines if it all goes wrong. Clever routine from Katya here to cope with Ed’s lack of fitness, including some slapstick bits such as Ed carrying a wooden plank (no, not Judy Marray) and Katya ducking. This isn’t half bad by Ed who’s managing some tricky footwear and even showing a smidgen of a glimmer of style. Enjoyed that. Craig says he’s actually improving. 27 scored so they’re almost guaranteed to be bottom, but Ed’s fanbase should keep him in.

Laura & Giovanni (Samba). The samba is usually a tricky dance for celebs and Laura seems to be forcing it a bit, rather than being naturally fluid. Having said that, it’s a pretty good effort from her and she’s really trying. Strange bit at the end where Giovanni does loads of spins across the floor, and all Laura is left with is simply one step forward and pointing at him – unfortunately she wobbles a bit. Craig points out a messy bit at the start, but is fairly complimentary. 7 from Craig, 9 from Len to score 32.

Judge & Oksana (Quickstep). We always have at least one Fred & Ginger tribute in Strictly, and this is the first of the year. The Judge is wearing a jacket with tails and this Hollywood-style performance is a real delight, with Oksana is a Ginger Rogers type dress, lots of good content and he’s obviously having a great time. Judges are divided here. Bruno takes him to task for his “trout pout” and Craig hates his open-mouthed grin, while Darcey and Len say how great it is to see someone obviously enjoying themselves. Bruno says something sensible (for once!) about Judge never holding anything back in reserve. Len says he was expecting Fred and Cringe, but got Fred and Ginge, causing Fred & Ginger to spin in their graves once again during the Strictly season. 9 from Darcey for a total of 33.

Louise & Kevin (Argentine Tango). In rehearsals, Louise giggles as she tells us she is so not serious and sultry. She avoids giggling in the routine itself, throws some really great dramatic shapes and shows just how good she can be if she gets involved. Not exactly steamy, but very impressive. Judges are obviously delighted, Craig gives her 9 and it’a 10’s from the others for 39.

Greg & Natalie (Viennese Waltz).Traditional rehearsal Viennese waltz narrative is all about how this dance involves spinning and it’s all very difficult and you can feel a bit sick. Greg brings his wife and kids in – too soon Greg! You should save them for the semi-finals at least. They start on a chaise-longue, and Natalie has choreographed a dramatic routine with Greg’s trademark intensity and miracles of miracles, we get a non-boring Viennese waltz. Craig compliments Natalie on her exceptional choreography and they get 8’s all round to score 32.

Claudia & AJ (Paso). AJ says how the paso is his favourite dance. A bit surprising as this is the dance where the bloke has to look like a strong, macho, manly, passionate and dangerous bullfighter. They’re both dressed in pink and AJ somehow looks younger even than Claudia, reminding me of the 9-year olds that Strictly bring on occasionally for the intro dances. Claudia breaks into a smile here and there and doesn’t arch her back much, but as usual, it’s all competent enough and rather boring. Len says the routine was too powerful, while Craig loves her powerful it was. 33 for Claudia.

Not a duff dance in sight tonight, even from Ed, but a few favourites underperformed tonight while the weaker dancers upped their game, to make it all very tight at the top, and it’s a very open competition unless someone has a huge fan base and will win regardless of what they do (if this is true, please don’t tell me!). I reckon Laura is a certainty for the dance-off, with Daisy or maybe Ed joining her. Louise was a revelation tonight, but I doubt it will last, and she’ll probably coast again for the next few weeks.

Results show

For the opening group dance we find ourselves somewhere hot and steamy where boys wear dodgy shirts (apparently it’s Cuba). Central dancers are Oti and mystery bearded back-up bloke, and Oti really struts her Cuban stuff. Darcey looks fab-u-lous in a super fitted sparkly red dress and an Audrey Hepburn hairstyle. Tess has a blue dress with no shoulders and scissor cuts down the front.

Scary music time – Danny is through, Daisy (!) she’s surprised and very happy, Greg (screaming and jumping from Natalie) then Ore is in the DDO in the first big shock of this year. However, emotional Ore has clearly been warned in advance because he just nods in acceptance and takes it well when chatting to Tess. Bruno’s advice is to do exactly what he did first time round as it was so perfect and he’s so wonderful and it’s a travesty of justice that Ore is in the bottom 2, so Ore’s obviously has Bruno’s vote no matter what the other person does in the DDO.

Gary Barlow comes. He’s only doing one song as he doesn’t like anything too taxing. He has one eyebrow fixed at 45 degrees and the other one dangerously close to his eye. According to Mrs.Zico this is from the new Calendar Girls musical.

More voting results and Louise is through, Ed (to Katya’s shock, resulting in more jumping and screaming), Judge (who graciously kisses Oksana’s hand) and Claudia is last to be saved, so Laura is in the DDO, and obviously leaving the competition, given how much the judges like Ore. In a fair contest, this one could be really close, as there was very little between them first time round. Ore follows Bruno’s advice and does exactly what he did before. Laura however does a LOT better than in her first dance. No obvious mistakes, she’s more fluent and really sells it well. She should go through, but there’s no chance of that. Craig says one couple danced the best they’ve ever done, but the other one was the dance of the night (huh? Louise isn’t in the DDO) so he picks Ore. Other judges follow suit and Laura is out. I didn’t like her that much, but she’s done well with a tough dance, and is very gracious about going out.

I have a feeling the great British public might decide that was all just a little bit unfair and Ore could become a regular visitor to the DDO unless the judges start giving him 11’s.

[Clariman]

Thanks Zico and welcome to lemonfool.

This board is fine for now. I've sent Stooz my suggestions for an extended set of boards. If implemented 'as is', it will include a "TV, Theatre & Films" board which should be ideal. In the future, we can split boards or expand them with sub-forums if one set of topics is suffocating the others.

Keep it up. I read your reports most weeks on TMF.

Clariman

[dionaeamuscipula]

Ed's dance was competent this week rather than entertainingly goofy. While his improvement is to be admired, it may mark his death knell in the competition.

Once again one of the pros choreographed some moves which were seemingly designed to show off the pro rather than the celebrity, and once again the pair went out of the competition. Other pros need to take note.

Its beginning to look like a shoot out between Danny and Louise for the glitterball. Guess which two celebs of those left have the most pre competition dance experience?

DM (also doubling up)

[dionaeamuscipula]

DM (also doubling up)

It seems, by the way, to be perfectly in order to post identical material both on TLF and TMF, since copyright in the material remains with the author. On TMF you are granting them a non-exclusive licence. I can't find a statement on TLF on copyright, but it is IMO unlikely to differ significantly from TMF.

DM