So much better than a satsuma?
Strictly Christmas Special
Fun group dance, with the pros jitterbugging or swinging away, with an upbeat jazzy Christmas staple from Jamie Cullen, and some nice ways to introduce the celebs, giving Anne-Marie the most strenuous choreography.
Enter TessnClaud, who seemed to have got the same memo as for the previous dance, in white and gold, but fortunately all the judges wore bright festive colours.
I doubt they were aiming for this reaction, but I cringed at the ‘Je t’aime’ bit of Fred’s VT. Set aside the messing abaht because Fred had to come down from the air and there was a table to dance on, and that was not a bad Christmas quickstep (the Christmas bit mainly means more props and lifts). I am not going to try to unpack the fact that they got a Frenchman to dress up as a turkey in a routine about the shortage of turkeys and what political subtext one could possibly derive from that. Dianne’s dress was nice.
Shirley mauled that catchphrase of hers, and, not for the first time, I noted the Christmas inflation. (Christmas meaning a generous spirit where - spoiler - Craig will only go down to the seven oaddke, and Anton will flash a two for a joke.)
I thoroughly enjoyed Moira’s VT, because she was so good natured. She didn’t go big enough with her salsa, so it came off as laidback, or ‘grooving’ as the judges put it more politely, but she was clearly happy to shake and shimmy. Iiiinteresting Anton backstory, but if I wanted to dance the salsa, I’d hold out for anyone else, and Aljiaz is lovely. Cameron only got to make a guest appearance. So the theme might be Moira Stewart likes having two men fight for her?
It feels wrong to type that about a National Treasure.
Anne-Marie, pre-show favourite: not posh, competitive and trying to dampen our expectations in the VT. It’s certainly not normal for people to be worrying about motion sickness with the cha cha, but anyway, she showed off her legs and her extension, and there was cha cha content. The judges really loved it. (Don’t mention Christmas inflation to Grazziano.)
Teeenuous Only Fools and Horses = Christmas argument, and bless Luba, who frankly admitted she didn’t know the show and was probably wondering why it was so popular when everyone talked it up, but she was very game about having to ‘play Rodney’ and produce a routine for yet another weak dancer that felt like something the show had left over from musicals week (maybe they’d planned it for Robert or someone who didn’t make it through), but the judges were kind, and David Jason reprising Del Boy was the best message to a celeb (what did Fred do not to get one?)
I know what I said about Anne-Marie’s VT being about lowering expectations, but Adrian’s was even more strenuous about it, and it’s not as if anyone had the same expectations of him as of a fit young popstar. Anyway, my main thought about their American Smooth Viennese Waltz was ‘Gargantuan Adrian dances tith with fairylike Jovita’ (my second thought was that there was a father dancing with a daughter vibe to it, perhaps because she was in Nutcracker Clara pink. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t sophisticated, either, judges.
BLESS Mel for doing the dance in that outfit, the pink was not flattering. Is that the way to treat a superfan, wardrobe? The quality of movement wasn’t exactly there in her street commercial, but the timing and detail mostly were and the ending was choice (Don’t tell Neil about Christmas inflation either.)
But please tell Gary Barlow he’s not a jazz singer. What he was trying to do with the tempo while honouring Paul McCartney and getting the audience to sing along and the movements? Let’s hope Jamie Cullen was wearing a mask to hide his grimaces if he was still in the studio for that. Fortunately, the pro dancers were marvellous.
I would have hesitated between plumping for Fred and Anne-Marie myself, although I thought Mel had done the most memorable routine, and not just because she’d danced last. And it was ‘Feliz Navidad’ for Anne-Marie and Grazziano.
It’s telling that the only celeb they bothered to give a lift to in the final group dance was her, and it was nice that the judges got involved AND got to dance over the credits given that restrictions stopped them for most of the series and gifted us the uber awkward last dances after the resuls shows.
So, that was my Strictly methadone.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/481224.html.
Fun group dance, with the pros jitterbugging or swinging away, with an upbeat jazzy Christmas staple from Jamie Cullen, and some nice ways to introduce the celebs, giving Anne-Marie the most strenuous choreography.
Enter TessnClaud, who seemed to have got the same memo as for the previous dance, in white and gold, but fortunately all the judges wore bright festive colours.
I doubt they were aiming for this reaction, but I cringed at the ‘Je t’aime’ bit of Fred’s VT. Set aside the messing abaht because Fred had to come down from the air and there was a table to dance on, and that was not a bad Christmas quickstep (the Christmas bit mainly means more props and lifts). I am not going to try to unpack the fact that they got a Frenchman to dress up as a turkey in a routine about the shortage of turkeys and what political subtext one could possibly derive from that. Dianne’s dress was nice.
Shirley mauled that catchphrase of hers, and, not for the first time, I noted the Christmas inflation. (Christmas meaning a generous spirit where - spoiler - Craig will only go down to the seven oaddke, and Anton will flash a two for a joke.)
I thoroughly enjoyed Moira’s VT, because she was so good natured. She didn’t go big enough with her salsa, so it came off as laidback, or ‘grooving’ as the judges put it more politely, but she was clearly happy to shake and shimmy. Iiiinteresting Anton backstory, but if I wanted to dance the salsa, I’d hold out for anyone else, and Aljiaz is lovely. Cameron only got to make a guest appearance. So the theme might be Moira Stewart likes having two men fight for her?
It feels wrong to type that about a National Treasure.
Anne-Marie, pre-show favourite: not posh, competitive and trying to dampen our expectations in the VT. It’s certainly not normal for people to be worrying about motion sickness with the cha cha, but anyway, she showed off her legs and her extension, and there was cha cha content. The judges really loved it. (Don’t mention Christmas inflation to Grazziano.)
Teeenuous Only Fools and Horses = Christmas argument, and bless Luba, who frankly admitted she didn’t know the show and was probably wondering why it was so popular when everyone talked it up, but she was very game about having to ‘play Rodney’ and produce a routine for yet another weak dancer that felt like something the show had left over from musicals week (maybe they’d planned it for Robert or someone who didn’t make it through), but the judges were kind, and David Jason reprising Del Boy was the best message to a celeb (what did Fred do not to get one?)
I know what I said about Anne-Marie’s VT being about lowering expectations, but Adrian’s was even more strenuous about it, and it’s not as if anyone had the same expectations of him as of a fit young popstar. Anyway, my main thought about their American Smooth Viennese Waltz was ‘Gargantuan Adrian dances tith with fairylike Jovita’ (my second thought was that there was a father dancing with a daughter vibe to it, perhaps because she was in Nutcracker Clara pink. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t sophisticated, either, judges.
BLESS Mel for doing the dance in that outfit, the pink was not flattering. Is that the way to treat a superfan, wardrobe? The quality of movement wasn’t exactly there in her street commercial, but the timing and detail mostly were and the ending was choice (Don’t tell Neil about Christmas inflation either.)
But please tell Gary Barlow he’s not a jazz singer. What he was trying to do with the tempo while honouring Paul McCartney and getting the audience to sing along and the movements? Let’s hope Jamie Cullen was wearing a mask to hide his grimaces if he was still in the studio for that. Fortunately, the pro dancers were marvellous.
I would have hesitated between plumping for Fred and Anne-Marie myself, although I thought Mel had done the most memorable routine, and not just because she’d danced last. And it was ‘Feliz Navidad’ for Anne-Marie and Grazziano.
It’s telling that the only celeb they bothered to give a lift to in the final group dance was her, and it was nice that the judges got involved AND got to dance over the credits given that restrictions stopped them for most of the series and gifted us the uber awkward last dances after the resuls shows.
So, that was my Strictly methadone.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/481224.html.