Fright Night VI

There's been so many Halloween episodes of SCD now its outperforming any other horror franchise. Unless you count the franchise of Anton hamming it up for all it's worth. Really enjoyed the opening number, you can't do Scooby-Doo every year and this one got the pros doing some great dancing. Fingers crossed this will be a relatively grumpy-free Halloween!

Edit: I wrote that at the start of the show. This was a very grumpy Halloween. Reader beware. 

One of the worst episodes ever. 

Katie and Anton
Surprised this got the death slot considering I was looking forward to this one; Anton always gives good paso and the music was actually quite appropriate. Also, a dance that's a bit camp and haughty is made for Katie, not sure about the sparkly bra though. It was a bit patchy though, flashes of great stuff but also a fair few mistakes. I think the mistake she made at the start threw her off for the whole thing.
I didn't think she did too badly. It's still completely unfair to penalise Katie for poor latin when it's a result of the fact her partner can't do it. Bonkers when you think about it. 


Kirsty and Brendan
Well this was rather odd, and I don't think it had anything to do with Halloween. Brendan flying around like the Count from Sesame Street was actually a highlight. It wasn't as if it was terrible and it wasn't as awkward as some of their dances, but I think the problem is that she's not a natural performer and the Charleston is all about performing. Also find it a bit odd Kirsty doesn't know how to roll her head on her neck, that's not even dancing.
She isn't the most coordinated. Nothing about this made any sense at all. The arrangement of the song was strange. I genuinely can't think of anything to say. I haven't even the will to make a funny.

Jeremy and Karen
Well this was always going to be a little...out there...and Karen somehow always manages to look like a fabulous zombie every year. As expected, this was half-Thriller-half-awkward-attempt-at-salsa but he did the whole routine with typical aplomb. I think I might always use the word aplomb to describe Jeremy.
Thank goodness for Jeremy. I'm not going to pretend this was anything like salsa, but Len hit the nail on the head when he said Jezza dances with an 'awkward charm.' He isn't the best dancer by a long way but he is inexplicably watchable. Sent a little vote his way again this evening. It's not because he's horrendously bad either, like Widdy or Judy, as I don't usually vote for those contestants. He's a highlight of what is becoming a very mediocre series. 

Anita and Gleb
Anita looks amazing, just toeing the line between glam and fancy dress. Gleb looks like a cut-price Baratheon. Thought this was a wonderful song choice, if you're going to do Halloween you might as well make a waltz bit more interesting with this atmospheric number. Bit too much out of hold for me, but excellently performed from Anita. All done whilst running the risk of taking Gleb's eye out.
Any awkward head movements surely can be accounted for by the fecking horns of hair. Lovely, haunting song choice and what I thought was a really good performance. I am convinced that Anita is being consistently undermarked now. She is more natural than Peter and Helen combined. 

Jamelia and Tristan
Jamelia has no idea how spoilt she is getting to do a jive to the Time Warp. With this song, you either do it totally crazy and chatoic, or deadpan and detached and she didn't really manage either. Not her worst dance by far, but she was obviously a bit lost and confused - possibly due to having to remember to run over to a wardrobe and all that nonsense. And totally overmarked, what was that about? 
I can't even remember this, sorry. 

Jay and Aliona
Jay has been cremated and I think that's going a bit far for Halloween week, don't you? No one had any idea what this song was at all, and it's super-creepy, but oddly appropriate for a foxtrot. And yes, there was a foxtrot-American Smooth in there somewhere, you could even see Jay's amazing lines under all that staging. If anything, it was a bit understated for Halloween - who would have thought?
Jay's musicality makes my heart skip a beat. It is as though he completely merges with the music as he's dancing. It's exquisite to watch. This performance was a tad forgettable however. The over-theming and strange costumes did nothing for it at all. 

Kellie and Kevin
Pardon my French, but this was batshit crazy. School's Out on it's own actually turned out to be a surprisingly decent paso number, but 10 seconds of Hedwig's theme and Hogwarts styling meant it was all forgotten. Also, Kevin is super-great at the paso, but I think he forgot about Kellie somewhere along the way, I was watching him and not her. And even when the judges openly doubt the theme you know you're in trouble.
Most tenuous theme ever. And when the judges openly have concerns about the concept, don't you think it's time to rethink the production?

Carol and Pasha
Does Pasha have a...thing for green? The theming gave them an epic amount of time for them to waste not doing any rumba, and you can understand why. She's definitely come on with her technique, but the rumba was always going to be step too far for Carol.
It was never going to work. 

Georgia and Giovanni
A tango to Ghostbusters, any sense of reason has gone out of the window, although at least it's got a good beat underneath it for actually dancing too. I am totally cross however that she was not dressed as Zuul, Georgia would have looked stunning like that instead of a weird 90s grunge thing. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this but I did, it had technique and lots of content. How odd.
I just spent the whole routine disappointed that we are not going to see Georgia take on an actual tango. 

Peter and Janette
Strangely enough, this was one of the few dances that wasn't overwhelmed by the theme. It wasn't especially foxtrotty, but I think these two would have done that exact foxtrot any week. Slightly odd song, but not the worst offender of the night by far. Peter's not done a lot of ballroom, and as expected he was a bit too blocky and harsh for it.
I had no idea what dance they were supposed to be doing. 

Helen and Aljaz
At this point, everyone on Twitter was super-grumpy and there was basically a SCD mutiny going on. And then this came on and I...quite liked it, it was actually pretty cute and lifted the mood a bit. Samba wasn't a natural fit for Helen but Aljaz seemed to put together a good routine for it. There was samba, there were even samba rolls and I'll count my blessings this week for that.
There is no way this was worth a whole five points more than Anita's performance. Nevertheless, it had some good parts in it and was Helen's best latin to date.