SCD *NO SPOILERS!!* Missing Johannes but the show must go on...

[Gooseysgirl]

New thread for 2nd Nov show

(But don't worry, I'm not voting yet. )

Every American judge that appears does exactly the same thing. They don’t know how to critique dance. No wonder DB wanted to go

Darcy Bussell was awful - dull and repetitive - and her voice made my teeth cringe.

Agree with Polkadots - Mike isn't so terrible but he's not at all comfortable, I feel for him as Katya is so madly intense it can't be conducive to enjoying the experience. And yeah, Karim is bland somehow - I thought the dance looked nicer in the VT rehearsal snippets than the show performance where it was so slick it just glided over the eyes without really registering.

Love your diagrams polka
Who are the best pros in your opinion and who is the best sleb this year technically?

Just caught up. Blimey, Shirley is bullying Emma. Very catty - referring to her beauty and then bringing her down in such brittle tones. Last year Kate, this year Emma. Glad to see Anton interrupt that.

And Emma/ Anton didn't deserved a 5, especially if Chris and Mike get 8s and 9s. No way. I really enjoyed their rumba and thought Emma had got the rumba move going nicely. Seems like a skilful dancer to me.

Anton talking over Shirley is doing a Brenda. Makes it easier for his haters to do the Emma would be better with AnyonebutAnton when he did a solid rumba with Katie. Lord knows what happened there

She only rehearsed for 2 hours a day and maybe not even every day, by the sounds of it!

Am sick to the back teeth of the AnyonebutAnton wailing if she's just. not. putting. the. hours. in.

Yes I noticed Karim was OTT with the heart hands.

Anton danced the Rumba badly himself, and the choreography was terrible, it was like someone doing a Rumba in an episode of Hi De Hi or something. So cheesy.

Mike is trying but he is just one of those people who cannot dance no matter how hard he tries, he's just awful to watch. I don't know how someone apparently sporty can be so stiff in his upper body. He dances like a ceramic garden gnome. Get him off my screen.

Anton’s rumba with Katie Dereham is one of my go-to Strictly dances (along with Harry and Aliona’s VW, which is still the all-time best imo). And I can’t bear Anton. So it’s not that he can’t do it.

The public often get blamed for turning these shows into a popularity contest but this year it's the judges. I thought they were there to critique the dancing only.

Shirley WAS unnecessarily mean to Emma, but I could have accepted that if she applied the same standards right across the board.

That eight for Mike was a travesty and a blatant attempt to keep him out of the DO and put Emma in. I actually appreciated Mike's effort but come on. That's never an eight.

Maybe a few complaints to the beeb about Shirley's bullying Of Emma will get them to tell her no more bullying.

I am not sure Mike actually is sporty. He has a 'have a go' slot on Breakfast and the point is he gets stuck in but is always admirably awful.

I like Mike as a presenter and he seems really nice. Not sure why others don't like him. But his dancing isn't good and it isn't even Ed Balls funny or Susan Calman joyous.

Someone in the Guardian comments mentioned that Saffron pronounces it "Shrickly" and omg they're right. Cannot unhear now.

SHE HAS TO GO.

That eight for Mike was a travesty

Absolutely! Yes he has improved and yes his last 2 dances have been better than I expected but not worthy of high marks.

I don't like the rumba much and obviously I have no idea what they (or any other dances!) are meant to look like but Emma B's one didn't look any worse than many I've seen. The only thing with the marking and saying Shirley is "bullying" her is that all the judges marked her consistently didn't they?

what does Saffron actually do? I really can't work it out.

She has a You Tube channel which basically means she has her personal TV channel. My DC all have people they watch on You Tube regularly in the same was we watch stuff on TV regularly.

They earn money via advertising on their channel.

I haven't watched yet, was out last night & home late but am just about to watch on iPlayer.

Sounds an interesting week! 🙂

This is the blurb from Saffron’s YouTube channel. Just a just a generalised influencer/personality. I don’t mean that in a rude way I just mean she doesn’t have a theme (food/beauty/travel...). I suppose it’s basically like a window into the most popular girl a schools bedroom which makes it feel like she’s your friend unless you think about it for too long.

‘Welcome to the official Saffron Barker YouTube channel! On this channel, you’ll find a variety of lifestyle, beauty, and challenge videos including routine videos, boyfriend and girlfriend videos, q&as, makeup & beauty tutorials, clothing and American hauls, and more! Make sure to subscribe and enable ALL notifications so you never miss a video! For instant updates, follow me on my social media accounts below.’

Just catching up with thread and one thing stands out; this series is below par somehow.... just... lacking something. I don’t know how else to put it. Maybe it’s because last year was so terrific (imho) but this year the judges - except for Craig - are unhelpful and uninspiring at best, scoring all over the place, the wrong person has gone more than once, we’ve had some of the ugliest, most unsuitable, irrelevant costumes ever, and the pros (some of them) acting up like contestants on the Apprentice.

What’s going on?

If this carries on they’ll have to rename the show Murder On The Dance Floor next season.

I agree about the costume this year. I think the BBC must have slashed the sparkle budget. Kelvin's outfit last night was soooo bad. I felt the top should have had sparkles all over it but somehow they forgot.

Oh God, Shirl's been liking some tweets. One that she liked ended with "It's time to give Anton the chop". It's Pissy Gorka all over again.

These people need to stay off Twitter. It's so unprofessional. You don't do that do a co-worker, regardless of how much they piss you off.

I think Shirley is getting a bit of a tough ride. She can be abrasive, and I don’t think she likes Emma B, but:

she wasn’t the only judge to give that rumba a low mark. Craig did also, and Motsi and Bruno only gave it a 6 (I think). Clearly it was not up to standard in anyone’s opinion, especially not for after the halfway point (the judges always get a bit harsher and ‘I expected more’ at this point, imo), and not from someone who they all expected to just be a it better than she has turned out to be.

she did start off by saying nice(ish) things. I think she was trying to say ‘I don’t really understand what went wrong - you look the part, you acted it well, you have some talent, but it didn’t come together’. Admittedly, she didn’t do it well (a mix of not liking Emma B, really being hacked off that they couldn’t even manage the basics of timings, and maybe her painkillers starting to wear off? Who knows), but it wasn’t helped by Anton chiming in and trying to shut her down. He didn’t start once she was laying into Emma, he started as she was saying the nice-ish bit. He was trying to stop her commenting further - I think he knew what was coming (namely that the timings were all off, which is crap, and that it just wasn’t up to scratch), and didn’t want to hear it (because it would show him up?). It wasn’t really the night to get into that with Shirley, I don’t think, she was clearly feeling tender and moving gingerly post surgery, and being rude and not letting her speak wasn’t a wise move.

I get that Emma B has a full schedule, but there’s a pint where that doesn’t cut it. The dances are hard to learn, if you want to do well, you need to have hours to devote to training (or have had extensive previous experience). Emma has neither, it is showing, and I do feel for her that as this year’s designated superfan she isn’t getting the experience she thought it would be - there doesn’t seem to be any friendship between her and Anton, her Eastenders schedule is putting paid to any chance she has. I think she’s feeling shortchanged and frazzled, I think Anton is feeling pissed off, for whatever reason, and it just isn’t working. It happens.

Do you know what, I have sat and thought and thought and thought and it's no good. I have forgotten who won last year.

Remembered as soon as I hit post!

Now to try and remember who came second and third...

thanks for the stuff about Saffron. how odd it all is. I must be getting old as this stuff seems such a non job to me.

I don't get why Emma is doing the show when she can't find the time to practice. maybe thats why Anton is a bit pissed. must be annoying to not be able to practice as much as you need too.