You are correct mrsjamin but the scores are lower due to the judges starting out lower this series - the whole Shirley reboot thing - look, we're putting the strict back into strictly with the marking except if you're from Liverpool so I am not sure a comparison can be made as such because the scoring has been all over the place this year. What might have got sixes or sevens in previous series has got a five.
All that said, I'm not seeing 'journeys' as such this year. Joe has been like Nic goodfilmbadfilmCage, good dance, bad dance. Gemma is being pushed as developing but has had a similar trajectory: good Charleston, great paso then middling couple of weeks. Aston/Alex/Debs are consistent but no room for a journey there. Ruthie is learning the routines anew each week but doesn't seem to be improving her overall technique/applying what she has previously learnt (maybe that's impossible unless you learn them in a certain sequence, a dancer would need to tell me).
Halloween week is usually my favourite week but, pro dance aside (poor Rev missing that one) this year was decidedly meh...
I personally blame the music choices which were dire.
It's one thing squeezing routines to music to tie in with competitors' surnames week one (wake me up before you agogo, anyone?!) But squeezing in Halloween themes when there are at least a dozen tracks they have never used before gives me the rage.
Jonnie - no hip action (not solely down to prosthetic/Amy Purdy's cha cha in week one is fabulous). Pirate theme annoyed me, he could have done a POTC theme for movie week or pirates of Penzance in musical week.
Ruth - absolute ringer for Elizabeth Montgomery - sadly, compared with Jason and Kristina's QS, poor timing and technique
Simon - on a hiding to nothing. Music not great unless he had actually killed Karen at the end (!) and I really do wish we had seen Brian this week instead
Gemma - looked uncomfortable. Would have looked better in leather trousers and black top aka Buffy. The song was poor and she looked heavy/lacking in her kicks and flicks.
Joe - "oh no, what's this?" Me: What IS that? Rolling around on floor, fast turning without decent frame (maybe just me) and a bit where Katya grabbed him that, character driven or not, just looked ugly. Over marked.
Mollie - looked amazing. Could have done a catsuit and something to Love cats/Black cat with legs like that. I normally dislike her and AJ but thought they were great with a theme that actually was Halloween. So they then get 7s.
Alex - not sharp enough, need a techie on here to tell me about pointed toes/heel leads etc but not her best
Davood - just auto corrected to devoid. Like Greg's nonrumba it was fine as a nonrumba. Clutching to thin air is a metaphor for the waste of space that is his pro's choreo this year. I think she will be replaced in series 16.
Susan - uncanny resemblance to Vanessa Feltz in that wig. Awful theming/music mismatch. They should have binned it.
Debbie - Hated her costumes, both of them. Hated the lifts and end pose. They need to stop trying to make Frankenstein happen. It was bad when Past had to do it, Gio was only a marginal improvement. They could recycle a pier last week and lockers this week but they couldn't recycle Ed's dragon for Susan?
Aston - Have said it before, a paso works best with a Spanish theme and authentic music. I hate rock Pasos, I just think it's wasted choreo. Nirvana + Strictly, there's a reason why it's not been used before. A grunge paso was grudgingly best of a bad bunch but if you wanted non Spanish music I can think of better tunes.
I need to change my name to bah humbug, I just felt tricked rather than treated.