Strictly Come Dancing

I thought it was a strong evening - I want to see a couple of the dances again. After thinking Louise was a bit over-marked in other dances, thought she was great at the Argentinian Tango - and fantastic choreography. Danny, Ore and Claudia all really good. Thought Judge and Ed had their best dances and Greg was back in form. Agree that Daisy and Laura may be in trouble, though their dances were fine. There was a bizarre tabloid front page accusing Ed of 'sexting' Laura - (he wasn't, it was a group What's App where he made a joke about rubbing Laura's ankle better or some such nonsense but tabloids never let the facts get in the way of a bizarre headline.) But I wonder if that might hurt either of them.

So which musical do we think Danny Mac will be headlining in a few months?

The spoiler *might* be in. I say might because it's not one hundred percent confirmed.

(The below spoiler is just the opinion on the result I've read, not the actual spoiler.)

Just caught up.

Danny - Back on top form again. Nothing much to say apart from I loved it, liked the theme and music and he looked...very attractive this week.

Daisy - Loved this too. Her best dance. Actually didn't mind the music, it suits the Viennese Waltz as it is the most sickly sweet dance. Definitely prefer her in ballroom.

Ore - Technically good for the most part but didn't do much for me. Think the show makes him out to be a better dancer than he is. His American Smooth was brilliant and his Jive was great (but overmarked), but the rest have only been good. He's not in Danny's league. Overmarked.

Ed - Well it was definitely his best dance technically but I'm bored by his comic performances and I'm even more bored by the performances like this one that he takes more seriously. He's just by far the weakest dancer and whilst I'm glad he's making the effort to improve, he's not going to be able to get to the standard of the others by the finale.

Laura - Yikes. The difference between her ballroom and her latin is quite something. Her Cha-Cha-Cha, Salsa and Samba have all been weak. Worst dance of the show tonight for me, although Giovanni is incredible at the Samba (LOVED his and Georgia's from last year). She's only really impressed me in the Waltz. Overmarked, especially from Bruno. (He's my favourite judge but I definitely don't understand his obsession with Laura).

Judge Rinder - LOVED. Loved the music, loved the dance, LOVED Oksana's dress (best of the series so far). This is the 'comic' act I want, one that can actually pull of a brilliant serious dance too.

Louise - Finally Louise! Personality! Storytelling! Not sure it deserves 10s but still really impressed and happy for her that she managed to pull some personality out of the bag as she seems like a sweet lady.

Greg - Eh. He's lovely and his ballroom is better than his latin, but I'm getting a bit bored now. He's not improving at the rate the others are and his facial expressions were far worse than Rinder's. Faraway dead eyes don't work for a Viennese Waltz Greg.

Claudia - Feel so sorry for these two in terms of their music every single week. Just because they're young doesn't mean we constantly need contemporary pop songs. However, AJ pulled off the best choreography he could and Claudia pulled off the best dancing she could. Thought they were really great. On another note, I get why people don't warm to AJ as he's a weirdly robotic Ken doll type of person but there's something about him I find really endearing and I think they make a lovely partnership. Maybe I'm just too weak for a pretty boy. Undermarked.

Only dance I've found worthy of a 10 this series is Danny's Quickstep (which didn't even get any, ridiculous). Claudia's Charleston and Ore's American Smooth come close though. I don't know what Danny's singing is like but if he's good, he'd be one of the few soap stars/reality TV stars that I'd be ecstatic to get in a musical. He has buckets of charisma and talent.

I think Blackpool is two weeks from now? Could be wrong.

Mostly I'm just happy that the show is back on form after two weeks of mediocrity. Thought everyone apart from Laura was either at their usual standard or better tonight.

If I were to rank them this week:

1. Danny
2. Louise
3. Claudia
4. Daisy
5. Judge Rinder
6. Ore
7. Greg
8. Ed
9. Laura

I don't think Anthony was bad, just injured so couldn't do as much as was needed.

Oti's definitely my fave along with Natalie. It also gives me an excuse to post this: One of my favourite dances on Strictly ever. (Yes I want Brandon's jacket but could probably only afford the collar.)

I love Oti too, and Natalie and Joanne both dance and choreograph ballroom divinely (Jo's unfortunate Tango in week 1 of this series aside). Janette is such an engaging dancer (and hilarious on her weekly backstage Youtube videos), but she just doesn't have the ballroom and Latin experience a lot of the others do and at times it is obvious. She's still one of my favourite pros though, and this week's pro dance is apparently right up her street. In terms of male pros, Aljaz is still my favourite - loved his Viennese Waltz choreography this week.

I like last night a lot more than Halloween - decent music for the most part, only Claudia got really shafted with a song that was just wrong for the Paso on so many levels. She still danced well though, and I'm liking her more and more even though I can't stand AJ. Even Ed surprised me this week - he is improving, I'm just not sure he can deal with a full 90 seconds of choreography, that routine had a lot of non-Quickstep filler. I liked everyone except Laura this week, and if that Samba had been a bit slower I think she would have done better. The only other one I wasn't totally convinced on was Ore's Salsa, but I know nothing about Salsa and rarely like them anyway.

In terms of who chooses the music, it used to be that the pros would put together a list of songs they'd like for each dance and then the producers would allocate from that. Now the producers decide and the pros are stuck with whatever they're given in terms of music and stupid theme.

Copied and pasted from the spoiler in my post last night:

Not surprised at Laura going. Been in the bottom two before and she was very weak tonight. Don't think she's consistent enough. Plus I knew there was very little chance of Daisy being bottom two after two very undeserving weeks there. I bet there was a big push back vote for her.

Mildly surprised about Ore, but I think his dancing is more appealing than him as a person, he's not got the charisma or likeability of a few of the others. Plus his dance this week was one of the least memorable.

Bored of all the women going now though. Ed or at least Greg next week please.

I'm also surprised about Ore - I think the only reason Daisy wasn't in the bottom 2 was because the judges scored her so highly (undeservedly in my opinion.) Also, samba and salsa often don't do well - they can look very messy. I think the right person left.

Personally, I think Ore comes across as a lovely person, if somewhat intense at times. He's definitely a contender for the final I would guess, as people like contestants without previous dance experience. Not something that bothers me whatsoever. My call for the final would be Danny, Louise (I think I'm right in saying that Kevin has always made the final?) Ore and Claudia - although there might be only 3 now due to the loss of Will?

I think tonight's outcome will serve as a lesson to the pro's. You're there to make your partner look good. Not yourself.

*coughGiovannicough*.

Talking of inappropriate music, did they say Ed is doing a salsa to Gangham Style next week...?
Just silly.

   'They' probably think it is time for him to go but it might not work out as 'planned'.