SCD '24 #8 The One Where Karen Came As A Car Wash (NO SPOILERS)

[EineReiseDurchDieZeit]

KEEP DANCING

Late to this thread, but my two-penn'orth:
JB was shocked to be in the DO rather than pissed off, I think. I suspect he suffered from people diverting votes to Punam and Sam. He and Amy are a bit 'cute' together, which may make him less memorable too.
Paul was given repeated short straws for dances. Doesn't seem fair on him and, particularly, Karen who I'm sure has had more than her fair share of duffers.
Pete's dance was exactly what you'd expect from a non-dancer doing a rumba. I like him; he makes me laugh, and I like how he's found himself falling in love with dance and been surprised by it.
Jamie: I didn't get it. Terrible onesie, didn't like the choreo, didn't get any sense of mood or drama. Not much Spanish line or artistry that I could see. As someone on an previous thread said, he's like your little brother dancing.
Liked Montell but I think CC is a joke really.
Felt for Sam; she was right, it could have been a real magic moment. I think she's a trouper though and will come back strongly.
Liked Punam but I do feel the criticism was fair and constructive; she DOES need to 'turn the volume up'. I feel that there's a script of Jamie for the final and Punam out asap, reflected in her low or maybe just realistic scores and his ridiculously high ones.
Wynne: couldn't get past the dreadful costume. I love Katya's one-act-play choreo, but even she couldn't quite save this one for me. Overmarked.
Shayne: I barely remember it already. Why is he so unmemorable? I think the judges are overmarking him.
Sarah: appalling wig, more Jilly Cooper than anyone at carnival or in Italy. It was quite amusingly camp, but also a bit 'upright' and British, like Margot Fonteyn doing a samba.
Chris: a coup de theatre by whoever came up wiyh the choreo (I assume the pro and the producer between them). He is so very musical. Amazing.

Halloween week dances from the Strictly FB page.

Who's ready for a spook-tacular Saturday? It's going to be frightfully good! Time to reveal our Halloween Week #Strictly routines 👻 🎃 Montell & Johannes Cha Cha to Love Potion No. 9 by The Clovers
🎃 Punam & Gorka Tango to Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics
🎃 Sam & Nikita Jive to Time Warp by The Rocky Horror Picture Cast
🎃 Sarah & Vito Argentine Tango to Ready Or Not by Fugees
🎃 Tasha & Aljaz Samba to I Like To Move It Move It by Reel 2 Real
🎃 Chris & Dianne Samba to Stayin Alive’ by The Bee Gees
🎃 Jamie & Michelle American Smooth to The Addams Family Theme by Vic Mizzy
🎃 JB & Amy Foxtrot to Dancing In The Moonlight by Toploader
🎃 Pete & Jowita Viennese Waltz to That’s Life by Frank Sinatra
🎃 Shayne & Nancy Paso Doble to In The Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg
🎃 Wynne & Katya Salsa to Canned Heat by Jamiroquai

I am guffawing at the thought of samba to Reel to Real. Haven't heard that song in around 30 years!

They have given Punam a song that has been used too recently again! I like Punam, but she really needs to up her game to stay on the competition.

Michelle will look amazing as Morticia. Hope they won't dress her as Cousin It or Wednesday and Jamie as Pugsley or Uncle Fester!

I feel Stayin Alive has been done to death as well.

Not sure how I feel about AT in a themed week, especially Halloween at that!

Montell doing Latin should be epic! She has the moves!

Well what a load of crap those music choices are

The music choices are so tired.
Having said that, I'm looking forward to Montell and Johannes – great song – Sarah and Vito – super-moody AT incoming – and Pete and Jowita as long as he can sort his frame out and find some musicality.

Is Aljaz going to be dressed up as King Julian?

They are not very 'Halloweeny ' song choices.
Maybe one or two , but the majority won't make much sense.
That's life is a classic number , but not spooky ?

xsquared I remember Matt Baker and Aliona doing a Halloween Argentine tango to Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell. It wasn't bad but Aliona got her heel caught in her dress towards the end, which scuppered things a bit.

Thanks for posting that, xsquared.

I am looking forward to it. 👻

No idea who’s likely to be unsafe. I suppose JB will get the usual post-DO bounce.

I like Montell, and Pete is growing on me so I’m hoping for decent dances from them. I had never heard of Pete before SCD - every year someone I didn’t know prior, becomes a favourite of mine. It happened with Hamza, Faye and Rose, too. Montell, I knew about as a fan of athletics.

I would also like to see Punam receive good comments/scores and get another week or two. She’s so joyous.

Liked Punam but I do feel the criticism was fair and constructive; she DOES need to 'turn the volume up'. I feel that there's a script of Jamie for the final and Punam out asap, reflected in her low or maybe just realistic scores and his ridiculously high ones.

Agree that the criticism of Punam's dance this weekend was mostly fair, but the scores were not. She was competent and lovely, just needed to put more expression in. Craig's 4 was nonsense, and I thought Shirley's 5 was also a little low. 6s were realistic for me; she'd still have been low down the order with 24.

Absolutely agree that Jamie is totally overmarked!

I know! That's one of the reasons I think they want her gone. I think 5s and 6s would have been fair.
Shirley also said the equivalent of Len's 'you come ahht and you give it a go' drivelling on about the VT and how sweet Punam's son was etc. She could have given her more actual feedback. Call me paranoid, but I do feel like there's an agenda.

I wonder whether Punam is managing to get sufficient training hours in on top of her GP job?
With the exception of the Bollywood routine, her dances always seem to lack the "polished" feel to me. Her VW had potential but I found myself telling her to keep moving to maintain the flow. There was too much hesitation for me.

My impression is not that she's short of training time so much as lacking a bit of confidence, and that she just isn't the performing type. I don't think the judges said she made mistakes, just that she was a bit underpowered, or words to that effect.

He came across well, so interesting that they do a kind of speed dating before being paired up then the celeb and pro can express a liking for who they would like to be paired with.

Yes, it very much feels like there's an agenda. Like their weird comments about Jamie being in the final in week two.

What would the agenda be, though? None of the past winners that I can think of have suddenly had a massive BBC career off the back of it?

I don't think there's an agenda. Having said that, others are definitely marked far too high. I like Jamie but the Paso wasn't a 10 for me, nor did the salsa deserve 9s from the week before.

Of all the females left, Punam does stand out as being a less confident performer than the others. She just needs that same energy and commitment in her performances, she had a few weeks ago. I hope she manages to recover it, especially as people have been voting to give her another chance.

Jamie: I didn't get it. Terrible onesie, didn't like the choreo, didn't get any sense of mood or drama. Not much Spanish line or artistry that I could see. As someone on an previous thread said, he's like your little brother dancing.

He's just like Joe Sugg. All lanky and no shaping.

Don’t get Jamie at all and if he wins will be horrified

Punsm is a GP with no performing background/ even the sportspeople are used to going into a public arena and giving it their all. No wonder she’s challenged - I think she’s doing really well

He won't win!
He isn't popular at all.

It's still too early to predict who the final 4 will be.
Sarah has been in the bottom half of the leaderboard and can easily end up there again.
Tasha will almost certainly be in the final even of she's in the dance off.
Chris is super popular and has already been predicted as having the glitter ball in the bag, but I still think he can end up bottom of the leaderboard in semi final week and be in the dance off against a technically better dancer than him, who is less popular, probably Jamie!

I am 100% sure that Chris and Dianne will never be in the DO.

They've got the public right behind them.

You can't be sure of that. The most popular contestant can always be in the dance-off if there are no ties on the leaderboard and the permutations fall against them, although up until December it's really really really unlikely.

If someone drops out, so the semi final
is only four contestants, and if Chris is bottom of the leaderboard with no ties then at that point it becomes really difficult for him to escape the dance-off, however many votes he has.

With five contestants in the semi final then he might well make it through.

But alternatively the GBP might get bored after 8 weeks and stop voting for him. Stranger things have happened.

Joe was really shit. I still can't understand how so many people liked him

I agree with the 5s and 6s. She was plesantly competant and I think particularly with her professional background she performs decently. I've seen far worse performers by this stage. It was also a subtle dance style to perform to. I find her more engaging in character than some of the other dancers. She gets the enjoyment vote from me.

who is Joe?