Just when you might have thought 2020 had killed off the Halloween theme, it's lumbered back from the dead once more. Mwhaahha! The opening number felt like a bad omen, I didn't get it at all and thought it was oddly twee. Saying that, the judges all looked amazing, with an extra shout-out to Anton perfectly cast as the Riddler. He's full of surprises this year!
I hate Halloween Week so much I used to get a free pass not to blog the show. But I'm feeling particularly moany this year so let's go...
John and Johannes
This got us off to a nice start; cute outfits, not too much theming and definitely recognizable as a quickstep. Bad Moon Rising is practically its own Halloween genre now (there's been 11 shows after all) but it worked for these guys. Very good frame and hardly any gapping too. It didn't set the world alight, but John should be happy with how his ballroom is progressing.
If I pretended to watch it through a magic lens that got rid of the theme, I actually quite liked this. Three couples are really starting to stride out ahead of the pack and these two are part of that. I liked the song for a quickstep. Tick. There was actual quickstep in it. Tick. But we need a huge, spectacular breakthrough number from these two now.
AJ and Kai
You wouldn't think a Medusa-themed VW to Arianna Grande would work, but oooft this was great! These two deliver week after week and this was such a fun spin on the usual VW format without sacrificing technique. Great routine from Kai (in guyliner no less), he's proving to be a very interesting choreographer. Also, I normally think a floor-spin is a bit of a time-waster but that was a spin and a half and actually added some drama to the dance.
And very, very rarely a dance is so good I actually forgive and forget the theme. If I'm a sucker for anything at all on Halloween Week though (and that's a push), it's a dark VW. I really liked this. I think they could put AJ in dressing gown and ask her to line dance to the Hits of the 70s and she'd still make it look fabulous.
Dan and Nadiya
I was DREADING this dance all week, what a theme to get lumped with. Saying that, the costumes were much better than I was expecting, slightly-mad West End show rather than cheap fancy dress shop. Also, against all my better judgement, I genuinely enjoyed it! There were jive moves and kick and flick sections, Dan was never going to be amazing at the jive, but I thought he had a good stab at it and was in time for the whole routine. One for the kids I think, but they could vote for it in droves.
Oh dear. Dan's actually turning out to be a decent dancer so this kind of thing is a bit of a slap in the face. There was no need to throw him hurtling into the realms of Scott Mills/Ann Widdecombe territory. I think he'll manage to scrape through to next week and if he does, I hope there's a dapper redemption ballroom waiting for him...
Rhys and Nancy
There is only one War of the Worlds Paso and that is bonkers-awesome Pixie and Trent in Blackpool pretending they were on Game of Thrones, sorry guys. Saying that, they didn't go too overboard with theme, it was a proper paso, but in dusty Victorian outfits. It didn't blow me away, but they'd clearly worked hard on the Spanish line and partnership of the routine, I agree with Craig though, he was pushing it a bit too hard at times. Is it enough to save him from the bottom 2?
I feel he could do really well if he could just stop powering through ahead of the beat. I thought last week was a bit of a breakthrough but it looked to me like there were real timing issues with this one - he was just ahead for too much of it, and Nancy looked as though she were struggling to match him.
Sara and Aljaz
Speaking of Game of Thrones...and here we have Aljaz in bondage gear! Apparently this was Couple's Choice, but it looked like a paso with extra twiddly bits to me. I would say it was a victim of theming, but I didn't think that was possible for CC - it was more baffling than the lobster jive! I do agree she's better in hold rather than out, but it might also have been a bit of a step too far performance-wise. I really hope Sara's chances don't suffer because of this.
Has there ever been a contestant who has rollercoastered up and down the leaderboard quite like Sara? I don't quite know what this was but it wasn't good. Aljaz's reaction/guilt breaks my cold, hard heart though.
Rose and Giovanni
Well done giving Rose an ice queen dress that didn't make her look like Elsa from Frozen, plus Gio rocking the guyliner, it's what you want from Halloween. This was a wonderful tango, the theming clearly gave her something to work with and her sharpness was spot-on. Great in hold and out, she's bringing us surprises and improving ever week. I didn't even mind the Ed Sheeran song! Plus these two are such a delightful pair, will Gio be dressed as a lizard at some point before the end of the series?!
These two bring me joy. I have no more to say.
Tilly and Nikita
I asked in week 1 whether Nikita was going to be dressed like a lothario from Grease and they seem to have run with that theme most weeks, even with a Halloween number! This was my surprise of the night, I loved how they played up the kitschy song and it was pure cheeky cha cha. Maybe a theme really helps Tilly? Plenty of content too, straight legs and they'd done work on the hips, I think this was my favourite of Tilly's so far.
I barely saw any cha cha content. What was there was nicely danced, and Tilly is progressing well. But choreography-wise, Nikita is not impressing me.
Adam and Katya
I was quite intrigued by this number, Katya always goes big for Halloween. I wasn't expecting her to climb out of a piano in a pair of massive trousers though - so extra! I think it might have been a bit much for Adam, he seemed to lose it in the second half, but it was a ballroom improvement on that messy messy quickstep back in week 2. The whole thing was a great watch, but it was more about theme than his actual dancing. It does feel like he's lagging behind the leaders a bit now and needs a smasher of a dance to get back in the game.
He started off so well! I was like, YES, this is what we have been waiting for ... and then it descended into the realms of lacklustre. It actually has been my favourite of Adam's dances so far, however. He has been grossly over-marked on occasion, but his score was deserved this time. And whilst I am not keen on too much theme, I actually thought the concept and choreography of this dance were very interesting.
Judi and Graziano
Nice to have Judi back, but this was the worst week for trying to shoehorn in a dance for the previous week. The CGI graphics have been ok this series, but it was just annoying in this. The timing was good and there was cha cha content, but it never really got off the ground. I feel really bad for Judi because the odds were stacked against them, but it didn't work and had come just after Tilly's triumph of a routine.
Ah, you could tell Judi wasn't firing on all cylinders but I was so glad to see her back. The dance had rhythm, good timing, real cha cha content and the beginnings of some good technique. But it lacked energy. I preferred the choreography to Tilly and Nikita's.
Tom and Amy
It's hard to follow a tango that got the first 40 of the series, but Tom and Amy came out and attacked this for all it was worth! And in actually quite scary costumes, I wouldn't have expected Amy to look so good as a demon, it must be the cheekbones. It was clearly a tango, but I felt like it was fighting to be a paso at times. It certainly wasn't bad and was packed with content and a more confident Tom, so hopefully it's a step in the right direction.
It had the design, concept and music of something that should have been huge and epic. But it all felt rather small. It wasn't bad. It wasn't great. I'm still waiting for Tom to have his Rachel-Stevens-Rumba breakthrough dance.
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