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Strictly Come Dancing

Started by Lisa Jesusandmarychain, September 23, 2018, 09:38:37 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

gilbertharding

I got my England spin bowlers mixed up just before the dance off, and so was briefly excited about it being Cat vs Cat.

Has Tuffers been on Strictly yet? Oh - 2009.

olliebean

I'm less bothered about Cat being eliminated, tbh, than about literally the most horrible, ugliest routine ever seen on the programme not being told to get in the sea.

machotrouts

Everyone was a bit underwhelming at Blackpool but the judges pretended they weren't to give the series some trajectory. That's the kind of thing I apparently feel qualified to say despite knowing absolutely dogshit all about dancing.

Ashley got the first 40 of the series, staving off another week of people waiting for her to appear in a shock dance-off. I know she literally is a dancer and it's not fair and all that, but I do think the crushing weight of public resentment is a sufficient handicap for her. She can't click a #strictly trend on Twitter without being faced with 1,000,000 tweets that just say "ASHLEY LITERALLY IS A DANCER... IT'S NOT FAIR AND ALL THAT".

Other 10s went to Faye – always seems a bit passive and lethargic, which makes her relatable but not much fun to watch – that paso doble was a great routine but she danced it like it was something that was being inflicted on her; Joe – his hair was so distressingly smooth it looked painted on, so he only got pity 10s because they mistook him for a cancer patient in denial; and Charles, who is inconsistent enough for me to quite like him. It'd be boring rooting for someone who's usually good. Some bold punctuation in this paragraph but that's just me.

Kate Middleton, I can't remember her actual surname but I think it had that sort of cadence, has been eliminated, and only 3 or 4 weeks too late. Still, amazing that Graeme has survived three dance-offs. Seems like he should be the likeable tryer who the public save despite not being technically that good, but nope, the judges pretty consistently like him more than the voters do. In fact, I've just checked the score history, and he's never actually been in the bottom two, not in any one week. Impossible and bewildering. Critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful, Graeme Swann. A dance-off assassin, like the Jamelia of this series, or the Charles Venn of this series.

Like with Danny, I'm quite surprised Lauren was able to survive plummeting right to the bottom of the leaderboard, because it feels like she's just barely done enough to scrape through every single week so far – usually bottom half of the scores, usually a bit boring to watch, only started getting good at exactly the point where it didn't seem like she'd be tolerated anymore. She'll probably be in a dance-off with Graeme next week, and Graeme will inexplicably win. This post is petering out now I'm afraid. I haven't mentioned Stacey, which is a shame. Well, bye

Norton Canes

Can't help thinking that to maximise viewer retention, the first and last dances should have been swapped. Ashley's dance was so blatantly there to finish the show on a THE FIRST 40 (it was even mentioned in Tess Daly's pre-scripted summing-up speech, there see I've proved it was premeditated) but as you say everyone knew she was going to get it sooner or later. Whereas, the only way to go from having Stacey Dooley astride a giant stick of rock is down hill fast, man.

olliebean

I don't think Oti is delivering the goods, choreography-wise; her and Graeme's dance this week wasn't horrible and bad like last week's but it was pretty dull to watch. What was it, theatre jazz? Seems like that should have given them scope to do something more interesting, but they didn't.

kalowski

I'm no celebrity, but theatre fucking jazz, man. I'd just say no.

olliebean

Who the fuck chose Eleanor Rigby for a Tango?

jobotic

Like the music to Stacey's one.

Jump Around though. Fucking Ada.

Norton Canes

Ashley is so gonna be dumped the moment she faces a public vote.

mothman

She'll get to the final but she won't win.

Norton Canes

Unfortunately it looks like she might take a few decent contenders out on the way.

olliebean

Betfair currently has Stacey as favourite, with Joe fairly close and the rest quite a long way behind - Faye and Ashley closest at 12/1 - which is probably a fair indication how the voting is going. Charles or Lauren out next week, I reckon.

machotrouts

I'm surprised Ashley was in the dance-off – not because I'm surprised she's unpopular, but because Lauren must have been at least close to top of the vote? Lauren, probably the second obscurest celebrity of the series after that lass who tried to have us believe "Capital Radio DJ" is an actual job, whose dance ability ranges from 'Competent But Dull' to 'Not Even Really Competent', is one of the public favourites?

Lauren, who came bottom of the leaderboard with a corpse-energy salsa, has worked as a salsa teacher. She's downplayed this – beginners' classes, only stood in for the teacher a few times, obviously wasn't the main thing she did for a living. I don't know anything about salsa, but presumably whatever she taught at those classes isn't a set of skills perfectly transferable to a Strictly routine (I mean, evidently). I've been going to what I am told are Argentine tango classes for 2 years, but whatever I do looks nothing like whatever they do on the show, and even if it did, I'd still be very bad at it. I mean, I'm not the teacher, but I do sometimes get called upon to demonstrate a move, on the weeks when absolutely none of the good dancers have turned up and it's just me and two strangers who wandered in by accident and can't walk two steps without falling over and howling in agony, and the teacher is forced to pick me out of desperation, sometimes visibly wincing that she has to do so... on those weeks, I'm the greatest dancer, and you can't take that away from me, you just can't.

Anyway, it feels like there's a bit of cognitive dissonance with the voters – whether the salsa experience actually benefitted her or not, if Lauren had excelled at it, she'd be getting called a "ringer" just like Ashley. It's like it's okay to have an unfair advantage as long as you're still shit. (I'm not saying that Lauren Steadman, who is missing half an arm – the half of an arm with the hand, at that – has an "unfair advantage" in Strictly in general, but surely this* was the week to get rid of her.) (*that)

It's reasonable to hold Literal Dancer Ashley Roberts to a higher standard, but viewers are wildly extrapolating personality traits from their own personal resentment – just search Twitter for "ashley smug". What most people think the word "smug" means, of course, is "I don't like this person, and they made any facial expression whatsoever". I first realised this around 2010 when, in the run-up to the general election, a Tory I know kept calling Gordon Brown "smug". Gordon Brown. A man whose face looks like it's dedicated a lifetime to trying to escape from itself. What I'm saying here is, you're a Tory if you don't like Ashley Roberts.

To be fair to Lauren, she only did the second worst dance of the night.



Should have had points docked for the heart alone.

olliebean

I reckon it's because she's not British, what with everything else going on at the moment.

Rolf Lundgren

Quote from: machotrouts on November 27, 2018, 10:27:29 PM
I'm surprised Ashley was in the dance-off – not because I'm surprised she's unpopular, but because Lauren must have been at least close to top of the vote? Lauren, probably the second obscurest celebrity of the series after that lass who tried to have us believe "Capital Radio DJ" is an actual job, whose dance ability ranges from 'Competent But Dull' to 'Not Even Really Competent', is one of the public favourites?

I wonder if part of her popularity comes from how harsh the judges are with her. The last few weeks I thought she did better than the marks she got.

The popularity of Joe Sugg continues to baffle me. He doesn't have any charisma and his performance is always stilted yet the judges fall over themselves to say how good he is. I'm sure he reminds Shirley of her son or something.

Ashley being in the dance-off gave her a bloody nose but that's about it. It was fun of the producers to leave her and Charles until last and I did punch the air when they said it was her. Well, metaphorically. Well, I was sitting on the sofa thinking that's a turn-up. There's no chance she won't make the final purely because the judges will always save her, as they should because she's the best dancer. 

Captain Z

Quote from: machotrouts on November 27, 2018, 10:27:29 PM
Lauren, who came bottom of the leaderboard with a corpse-energy salsa, has worked as a salsa teacher. She's downplayed this – beginners' classes, only stood in for the teacher a few times, obviously wasn't the main thing she did for a living. I don't know anything about salsa, but presumably whatever she taught at those classes isn't a set of skills perfectly transferable to a Strictly routine (I mean, evidently). I've been going to what I am told are Argentine tango classes for 2 years, but whatever I do looks nothing like whatever they do on the show, and even if it did, I'd still be very bad at it. I mean, I'm not the teacher, but I do sometimes get called upon to demonstrate a move, on the weeks when absolutely none of the good dancers have turned up and it's just me and two strangers who wandered in by accident and can't walk two steps without falling over and howling in agony, and the teacher is forced to pick me out of desperation, sometimes visibly wincing that she has to do so... on those weeks, I'm the greatest dancer, and you can't take that away from me, you just can't.

My experience of salsa classes sounds similar to your experience of tango. Before watching Lauren's performance just now I would have sniffily dismissed any salsa performed on Strictly as 20% actual salsa steps and 80% generic lifts, dips and tricks. Lauren's performance is actually the first time I have seen what i would call recognisable salsa elements from beginning to end (although admittedly I don't watch many episodes in full). I would say one of the problems is that there doesn't seem to be much chemistry from them as a couple, but perhaps most notably this is the first time I have ever seen a couple dance to something with a sensible salsa tempo, which unfortunately is slower and less energetic than usual. So in the world of social dancing I'm sure Lauren is a perfectly competent if not very good dancer, unfortunately that doesn't necessarily translate to performance dancing.

So evidently what I want from my Saturday night entertainment is bottom-of-the-leaderboard, functional-yet-dull performance art, clearly this show is not for me.

Twit 2

Christ, Tess Daly is a graceless, braying bint. Like a robot gone wrong. Let us hope someone puts her right.

kalowski

Quote from: Twit 2 on December 02, 2018, 05:10:11 PM
Christ, Tess Daly is a graceless, braying bint. Like a robot gone wrong. Let us hope someone puts her right.
She's got long arms like Mr Tickle. She's Tess Tickle.

machotrouts

Forgot to post in this thread last week. What I meant to say was, voted for both Charles and Ashley. Dance-off! Sad. Well, bye

MuteBanana

Quote from: Twit 2 on December 02, 2018, 05:10:11 PM
Christ, Tess Daly is a graceless, braying bint. Like a robot gone wrong. Let us hope someone puts her right.

Whats her husband up to?

machotrouts

I don't know what Lauren and AJ were thinking. That didn't look anything like the proper Nutbush City Limits routine.

kalowski

Quote from: machotrouts on December 08, 2018, 10:36:47 PM
I don't know what Lauren and AJ were thinking. That didn't look anything like the proper Nutbush City Limits routine.
Oh man that's funny

mothman

I had a horrible feeling for a minute that was going to link to the scene in What's Love Got To Do With It? which alleges that Ike Turner raped Tina during the recording of "Nutbush City Limits" (which is, unfortunately, also my favourite Tina Turner song).

kalowski

Quote from: mothman on December 09, 2018, 12:31:01 AM
I had a horrible feeling for a minute that was going to link to the scene in What's Love Got To Do With It? which alleges that Ike Turner raped Tina during the recording of "Nutbush City Limits" (which is, unfortunately, also my favourite Tina Turner song).
The joke would still have worked.

mothman


kalowski

It's funny how Ashley is clearly utterly fucking brilliant but she's going to get voted out first and that wire frame stripling of a bollock Joe is going to be voted winner.

BlodwynPig

Greatest tits. Hoo hoo haa haa

Britain today

kalowski

Clearly you could shit on the floor and get 10 in this final.

kalowski

Anyway, never mind Stacey's greatest tits, quick shot of Stacey's Dooley there!