I didn’t have the same excited buzz with the final as I’ve had with other episodes. It was a bit flat and nothing wowed me except Jeanette and Alijaz (dance of the night right there!).
Rose is a worthy winner of course but they did her no favours in the final. Very sweet routines - hated QS first time around (costume, acting sections and dance) and although performed well I didn’t like it any more the second time. CC was great but I felt it lost the specialness knowing what was coming with the silence. Show dance was blah. Lovely lifts and sweet dancing but dull. Also was strangely let down by the massive prop Gio has been promoting - it was some stairs. Didn’t the show dances use to have amazing settings and moments. Also Rose has just a cheeky fun side and I don’t think they captured that at all in the final. I actually preferred a John purely because his pirate routine was fun and I loved the energy of their show dance (and the song!) Rose is probably a better overall dancer (or at least Gio showcases her better than Johnannes showcased John).
The final would have been better with AJ. Just her dance choices alone would have brought a bit of liveliness and fun to the evening. It was all too intense emotional etc. It’s lovely that the 3 couples have formed such close bonds. Dancing together clearly amplified friendships but I found every interview more and more cringy. They were all just too emotional and ott for me. The crying - omg just make it stop!! The only one who I forgave crying was AJ as she had good reason but the others, yes have a little blurb in one interview either but then give us some real chat and happiness not all this sobbing. John have a shout out to AJ but I think Rose should have mentioned her too. Like all calm down about the emoting and hyper emotions and just talk normally!!
Filler wise I think it was okay. I’d have preferred to have seen a great pro dance. Why don’t they do a big dance routine on the final night?? They just had that bit at the beginning to introduce the celebrities but not a true pro dance.
The group dance was fun. I suppose it’s quite hard to included everyone’s memorable moments in one dance and ensure everyone is shown. I did think it off that they didn’t even mention Tilly at all. Rob I can understand as he withdrew for health reasons and that was acknowledged at the time so didn’t expect to see him back except in old footage. Tilly however was in quite late and voted out in normal way. If you don’t read the papers sm you’d be wondering what happened to her and if there was a story there. A quick mention of her by T/C would have been nice.
Tess is fine. I don’t understand the hate for her / she’s not the most dynamic but then her role is to basically do the links and kee the judges comments on time and see the couples off up the stairs. Claudia is the one with the “freedom” to add lib and draw info from the couples. She is a better presenter anyway but she also has a different role to Tess on the show. I liked both their outfits but Tess didn’t seem final worthy - something sparkly would have been better given what she’s worn in series. I loved Motsi dress. Really interesting and suited her. Wasn’t as keen on Shirley’s - nothing wrong with it but I’ve seen her dress and hair looks my much better. Anton needs to calm back down to his early/mid series self. He’s fun and I much prefer him to Bruno but he’s at risk of becoming a characterture of himself shortly I’d he keeps going the way he is. Craig is my favourite still. Only sensible judge with that 10 paddle.
Overall I loved this series. I really liked a lot of the couples (not you Tom! Not you Greg!) and looked forwarded to the show each week. The end wasn’t worthy of the night hat the series had been though. For me it would have been better with AJ (although I think Rose would still have won).