SCD: It Takes Two

Some random comments from Monday and Tuesday.

- I'm not a fan of this new magic button they BBC have found for their recaps. You know, the one that makes people go reallyfast and then s l o w r i g h t d o w n. . . .

It's a bit odd. As is the glowing rays of light eminating from variouos people they've decided to go with.

- I hadn't quite twigged until Saturday that we were having another two weeks of separate boys/girls competition. It doesn't seem very fair as there are a number of boys who are considerably worse than any of the girls, the bottom group of which are all at much the same level.


... that's about it. I'm away from tomorrow until next Monday. I maybe will have internet access to post about Strictly, but I might not. I do get to watch the dancing with my mum and my gran though, which will be fun.

SCD Week Two : Results

- Well. WELL. The Anton fanbase has done rather poorly, haven't they? I can't believe they kept him and Kate in for all those weeks last year and then failed to keep him in when he had someone half decent. Anton was so sad. Although he has been annoying me recently, what with his constant TV appearances and his whole confident gentlemanly act has tipped over into smugness, a bit, which I didn't like. But he was so sad!

- We nearly had a Lisa-Jodie dance off which was all I wanted. Jodie did really well in the dance off. We might have gotten rid of Brendan. Bother.

- The new professionals dance was very very weird. I didn't really like it. Hayley really bores me. Brian is okay. I like Ch/Kristina.

I have no more comments that aren't just repeats of everything I said before, re: Bruce. Oh, but I liked Tess' dress.

Strictly Come Dancing: Week Two

Sorry I'm a bit later with this, we had a friend up for the weekend. Luckily they were also a Strictly fan so we settled in happily on Saturday night, with Strictly and Chinese takeaway, as is rapidly becoming a habit.

Jessie and Darrren
Well, she was much better than I thought it would be - she didn't deserve the bottom, at least not alone.

Matthew and Christine
I love Matthew. He is so sweet, and he loved Alesha and he bought Carol flowers and he was just lovely. I don't actually remember much of this dance, except that it looked quite flowing and stuff, and that Matthew sang along to the song and I couldn't concentrate on anything else except the adorableness of that.

Lisa and Brendan
Oh God, I can't believe they keep Brendan. I can't believe he's just allowed to be awful and make people cry and be all over them *shudders* and still be in the show. I hate that they are pretending he has changed this year, which they do every year and then he will get to about week five, and his partner won't be able to do something and he'll be awful, and they come on ITT and be all, 'oh no, it's fine, hoho' and AHHHH.

Anyway. Lisa didn't look brilliant, she looked quite uncomfortable in the dance. She's in the dangerzone, points wise, so perhaps she will go home.

Jodie and Ian
She's taller than him in heels. That's not good. But she was remarkably graceful. I think latin might break her, which is sad, because I love Ian. They need to stop finding him taller and taller people now.

Heather and Brian
Brian proved he could choregraph - I really liked his routine. Heather was quite good when she relaxed, but did vary between that and looking utterly terrified. Hopefully now she's been through it once, she can start going for it. She did a half-flare (I recognised a step!) which earnt some points from me, because I always get confused on those.

Gillian and Anton
Well, she was okay. Perhaps my theory that Anton has forgotten how to teach is wrong. Maybe. She wasn't very flowing and graceful, and she did cling to Anton a bit, but she managed to keep up with him, and seemed to remember the routine.

Rachel and Vincent
She was quite good, complicated hand moves and things but... it seems really mean to compare salsas and foxtrots. Foxtrots are impossibly technical and awful. And I hate to sound like Len (Oh so much!) but for women, once you've learnt the salsa rhythm, the basic steps and how to let the man lead -which is quite tricky, I admit; it's knowing when she keep your arms tense, and how and when to relax them so the man can lead you through stuff- BUT once you've over come those hurdles, all that twisty arm stuff requires very little concentration. You can just sort of go with it and let the man lead you around, if your basic footwork is good. Compared with Heather and Brian, who did alot of work seperately, it's not so impressive.

Cheri and James
Cheri was magnificant. Beautiful. The bright green was a bit... well. But she was graceful and elegant and all of that stuff that is good in a foxtrot.

To be honest, it was all bit meh, really. My comments on each dance are quite short. I would probably ranked them as follows:

Quite Good: Cheri, Christine
Goodish: Rachel, Heather
Sort-of-okay: Lisa, Jessie, Gillian, Jodie

I want Lisa to go home. Or maybe Jodie. Mostly Lisa. It will probably be Jessie, although presumably the Eastenders and the Darren fans will unite to keep them out of the bottom two, given that they are in bottom place. But who knows?

The Boys' Dance

Oh, they can choreograph a meregue! Remember last years weirdness? This was a thousand times better.

-Bless John Sergant! He did quite well, I thought, they we did start looking at Don&Lilia a bit too early, presumably his solo bit went a bit wrong?
-Gary Rhodes looked marginally better. He just looks so uncontrolled... if he made his steps slightly smaller it would look a thousand times better.
-I really don't think Andrew Castle can dance. He looks incredibly stiff and awkward.
-I love Erin, even in her silly cheerleader outfit with her funny hair. It looks like Austin might just manage latin, though possibly not as good as his ballroom. We'll see.

Some Random Comments

SHUT UP LEN. Stop talking over the other judges to object to their opinions. THEIR OPINION COUNTS AS MUCH AS YOURS. Stop courting public favour. Blahblahblah.

SHUT UP BRUCE. Really, he needs someone else to write his jokes. Or he just needs to stop talking to us inbetween bits. And stop telling us which bits where funny WHY AREN'T YOU LAUGHING? Don't beg for laughs, it is just annoying. (Also, the comment about Nancy's was inappropriate and awful.)

Tess's dress was sort of normal! Huh. Also, the foxtrot dresses were not as ugly as I expected! Admittedly Cheri was dressed in bright glowing green and Gillian had some weird enormous flower on the front of her dress, but Christine looked brilliant and I don't remember what Jodie wore, so it can't have been too awful. How are we supposed to recognise foxtrots if the dresses are normal?! The world is mad.

Jill Halfpenny was in the audience! I'm so glad she's going to dance. :)

The nice chinese place are still doing thick noodles not thin ones. I AM SO SAD.

TV: ER

ER bosses hope for Clooney return. His spokespeople are denying it though.

Frankly, I'm amazed that ER is still going. I watched religously from season 5 to 8, then went back and watched the earlier seasons as they were repeated. I lost track of it after seaosn 8, catching bits and pieces... until recently I noticed they were showing the latest seaosn on E4. Season 13. Thirteen! Or was it fourteen? A silly number, anyway. I went a bit mad and bought all of it on DVD and watched it all in an embarrasing short amount of time.

But I love ER. I love it in many different ways. I love the characters and stories of seasons 1-4, the quiet moments playing in wheelchairs interupted by awful tragedies, the complicated politics of medicine and the nurses and the paramedics and the desk clerks and the silly decorations and the patients who came back episode after episode, season after season. I like the characters and much of the plotlines of seasons 5-8, the increasingly audience grabbing stories, Kerry being gay, Abby being great, Carter growing up. I love the madness of seasons 8 onwards, in all it's drama, soap-opera-esque style. I even love the endless characters I don't understand who come and go like... things that come and go quickly. I love that Neela was just depressed from about the minute she arrived until... well, as far as I have seen. (I think I have missed a season out.) She wants to be a doctor. No she doesn't. She wants to do something else. She ends up being going back to being a doctor because she can't do anything else. She's in the wrong speciality. She's tired and alone and tired and alone.

I got a bit obsessed with Neela.

I don't know how the returning characters will work. By my estimation (and my ER watching has been spot and out of order for the last few seasons) only Abby and the nurses will recognise Carter. Oh, probably Pratt. Is he a person? Dr. Greene is dead. And also boring. Why do we have to have a flashback? A flashback that won't be filled with the characters I loved. If Doug Ross returns... only the nurses will know him. Will he bring Carol and/or the twins with him? It could be fun.

Despite the fact that it has become a sort of parody of itself, it's sad to think of it ending. But also a bit exciting. How will they end it? I hope close down the ER, after the eight million storylines they did about it over the years. I'd like that.

I'm creating an ER label in case I feel the need to comment on the last series. You never know.

SCD : It Takes Two (Monday&Tuesday)

Monday

- New hair. New ceiling. Longer credits. It Takes Two is back!

- The new ceiling makes me want to duck.

- Aleeeeeeeshaaaaa! And Matthew! Adorableness.

- Blah Len, blah. I think Craig can give ones out IF HE WANTS TO. If you can't give them out, why do they exist? Pah. PAH.

- What was Claudia wearing? She looked very very thin. It was all a bit odd.

- They proved Erin was the best teacher with numberical proof. PROOF.

- No clips? Whatwhatwhat? Clips are the only time we get to see Erin!


Tuesday

- Much better clothing today Claudia.

- The new ceiling still makes me want to duck everytime we see it.

- John Sergant is the most adorable thing that ever lived.

- Training clips! Oh, why aren't people allowed to dance in jeans and t-shirts. It is clearly the best thing ever.

- Erin! Laughing and smiling and dancing.

- The comedians were good and made me laugh lots, though I can't remember entirely at what. "Len - 6, which means 2." Yes, so true! I love it when Claudia's guests recognise the travesty of Len's scoring system. Remember John Barrowman? He turned out to be great last year.

- Clips! Oh, Erin! Playing? In training? What happened?! Awwwww.


In conclusion: Love Erin. Love Claudia. Hate Len. Good.

Strictly Come Dancing: Week One Results

I hate that we have to wait a whole day to get the results now. HATE. Also, I hate that we have to see the two worst dances again. Why did the BBC think this was a good plan? I moaned about this last year. I promise not to moan about it (too much) this year. But oh my god. So many things I would fix about the results show if I had the power. So many things I would fix about the whole show, come to think of it. Starting with Bruce and ending with the judges.

But anyway.

ALESHA. MATTHEW. Dixon&Cutler return for another round in the ring, and we get to see their training. Oh, the happy memories. FellowStrictlyWatcher and I had a bit of a reminisce. Remember her laugh? Remember how she wouldn't stop talking? Remember when she wore a stunning dress and he couldn't concentrate on the dance at all? Oh, they are super.

The professionals danced: you could tell it was a Foxtrot from the ugly dresses. There seemed to be a medieval princess theme. Certainly an Anton/Erin creation; their dances rarely have couple doing solos, and are much more about people dancing in unison or in... I want to say rounds. Like singing. Also, Erin danced with Matthew. (Aww.) And Karen seems to have abandoned Brendan in favour of Matthew, which is completely understandable.

Then the group dance. So much incompetence, so little floor space. Watching the professionals attempting to steer their celebrity into the right place was just hysterical; Austin was boogieing away, John was laughing, all the lifts seemed to go wrong. On the plus side, Jessica Wallace looked alot more confident than she did last night. Yay?

Claudia had a chat with Tess and OH! HER HAIR. She looks like a grown up! It's a bit odd, but quite, quite pretty. I did always think that Claudia would turn into one of those beautiful older women, and it seems like I was right. It's going to take some getting used to, and I'm glad to see she is still as silly as ever. "Not just saying castle, that would be weird."

Bruce talked for ages and ages and ages with Bette Midler, for no apparent reason. Did they have some extra time to fill or did he just get distracted? It was all a bit much, wasn't it? Then she sang, very nicely, but really, the wing gesture was the highlight. The wind beneath my wings. Get it? WINGS. Then Ola and Jordan came out and danced a rumba. It's always a rumba. Usually Ola&James or Darren&Lilia, and occasionally Ian&Camilla. It's just sad how little ballroom they have in this section, by which I mean how little Anton&Erin we have.

Results

... and finally to the point of the show. I'm glad Gary and Karen were saved, because going out in the first week two years in a row is a bit much. And John didn't end up in the bottom two! Mostly, the bottom two were the ones I'd have picked.

The dance off:

Phil and Flavia: he did smile for a minute at the begining, but then he went completely wrong, so he was back to the slight grimace of concentration. Overall it was about the same as the first time.

Don and Lilia: the section in front of the judges was better, but he completely messed up a section later on... he did smile alot more than Phil and he seemed more relaxed than the first time.

I would have saved Don and Lilia, I think overall. I don't normally agree with Len, but this early on in the competition, I think enjoyment and entertainment are bigger factors than ability, if only because the level of ability is so low. I can't imagine Don and Lilia lasting much longer though.


Next week the girls are doing a foxtrot and a salsa. Week two used to be rumba and quickstep, didn't it? How odd. Oh well prepare for the typical ugly foxtrot dresses. At least they gave us some warning. Plus, we get a whole week of Claudia before then.

Other Saturday Night Viewing

Fellow-Strictly-Watcher, who I may shorten to FSW from now on, claimed to have heard of a show where celebrities have to stand by a swimming pool while a wall comes towards them with a person-shaped cut out in it and they had to make the shape of the person. Had I heard about it? she asked. No, I said. I think you were dreaming.

Half an hour before Strictly started, she called me downstairs. It turned out she wasn't dreaming. It's called Hole in the Wall, and is summarised by the BBC thusly:

Dale Winton hosts a series in which two teams of celebrities, captained by dancing star Anton Du Beke and cricket legend Darren Gough, must try to force themselves through various crazy-shaped holes in giant moving walls.

Clad head-to-toe in tight silver lycra, there's everything to play for, as failure results in a head-first plunge into a swimming pool. The wall shapes get harder and travel faster as the celebrities get wetter.

Yes, it is as insane as it sounds. Insanely brilliant. We could only imagine that someone pitched it as a joke, not expecting it to be made into an actual show.

The shapes seem nearly impossible. The lycra is unflatteringly brilliant. Or brilliantly unflattering. Sometimes they have to work together, which they pretty much always failed at. They had guest "stars," who were a troupe of can-can/burlesque style dancers. The four of them plus Andi Peters had to go through a wall together, the shape of which was cancan dancer, with a leg up. In other words, they had to form a line of cancan dancers. Apparently a line is a difficult concept. They all went in the water.

Anton seems to be continuing his campaign to be on TV everyday, in any capacity. Darren Gough wasn't annoying but I still don't like him.

Next week will apparently have Vanessa Feltz and Vic Reeves. It seems like good pre-Strictly tv, the sort of thing to put on while you get tea ready (or make the phone call to the takeaway), nip to the corner shop for chocolate and/or wine, and speculate on what Tess will be wearing.