Every season it seems to me that it is less about the dancing and more about the flashy performances. They need to get back to basics and the classic dances. I am bored of the stupid dressing up and throwing around stuff now.

Me too.
Audience hysteria and judges gushing over some mediocre dancing tonight.

tonight was all about the costumes and the dancing took a back seat, thank goodness its all over for another year

I agree, sometimes I can't even tell what dance they are doing

Tonight there was no dance that stood out for me. All the judges over mark constantly. Not about dancing all about the theatrics. Felt very frustrated tonight wanted more dancing.

When the dancing eventually got going, yes! Half as much content as the days of Real SCD.

To be fair, of the tangos, there were plenty of tango steps in Chelsee and Anita's routine. There were even recognisable paso steps in Robbie's routine. And there were jive steps in Audley's routine. I enjoyed Jason's QS too although it was a bit light on content when compared with other quicksteps.

We've always had the not so good celebs faffing around a bit and not doing proper steps, and I don't mind that too much really, since it is difficult for an average celeb to do a high content routine, but we now have celebs with potential who are not being stretched to do a proper high content routine (or even medium content).

The problem is that, sometimes it just doesn't pay for the pro to make the effort to teach the celeb proper steps anymore. Although I expect the general public to just vote for whatever they find appealing performance-wise, the judges should give credit to those routines which are high on content, but they don't.

(Which is why I can understand the reason Len is getting so bad tempered, since he is the only one who seems to care about that aspect. The other judges really don't care at all and so the pros get away with it. However he really hasn't dealt with it at all well in the last few shows because of the manner in which he puts his views across. He's just come across as truculent and childish. I thought he was a bit more successful in making the point hit home tonight. )

I commented to Mrs G tonight that a lot of the dances would have been at home as the Showdance. Which left me wondering - what will they do for Showdance? Will it have any resemblance to the 10 dances, or just be "faffing abaht"?

Too much posing, not enough dance content

Agreeing with the comments above. I didn't enjoy tonight at all, I want DANCING!! I thought the tangos and pasos lacked passion, drive and content. No "dance" stood out, and Alesha is really getting on my wick with these 10s. How can you give a 10 to a dance that had mistakes...even Jason admitted he fluffed. Ridiculous.

But thats a response to the voters not keeping the better dancers in, the votes going to joke candidates and the best dancers often not winning, or even making the final. They tried controlling what happened, but they got flack for the dance off and fixing the marks , and honest comments ,and suitably low marks, just saw bad dancers staying longer. Kara winning suggested that the trend had been slowed, but the powers that be seem to have decided to give in and make it an entertainment show, with optional ballroom dancing.

The problem this series is that its neither one thing or the other- and the marking is all over the place because the judges don't know and/or can't agree what they should be looking for. If the name of the game is entertainment, and you still lose marks for bad technique if you stick to technique, it makes sense for the pros to go away from the technique. If Harry can get more for many fewer steps and Russell and Robbie can get good marks for entertainment, you may as well follow them. If Jason is going to be stopped, you also have to ask whether it can be by a better dance - or whether it will only be by a better actor with a more exciting routine and a more attractive story or personality..

Some of the costumes were OK,
In that red outfit I thought Russell looked like a master...

A Routemaster bus!

While I enjoy both Strictly and DWTS, it is disappointing that Strictly is turning more into its American counterpart with far too much made of the costumes and props and I hope there are no more themed weeks yet to come!!

best quote of the day

In earlier series props were only really used by those who's celeb partners couldn't dance as a way of using up time, etc., but now they seem to be used by nearly all the dancers in all the dances, and - for me - have become really boring.

I would much rather see couples concentrate on producing a proper dance than playing with teddies in beds (Russell last week); or jumping up and down stairs or onto the judges table.

Either ban props except for one week of "Props Week" or let them be used only in certain dances, and get back to worrying more about dancing. Some of the most memorable dances throughout the series have been Jill's jive, Ramps salsa & Chris H's charlestone and not one of those resorted to using props.

But the dancers have no say in this, make no mistake they do what the producer wants them to do.
Their remit is to attract as many viewers as possible, if this means turning the show into a complete pantomime then that's what will happen.
Each year using the excuse "we're freshening up the show," changes are made towards that end and not always for the better.

I wouldn't argue with that for one minute, it's absolutely true. And judging by the viewing stats recently, it has been very successful.

But that doesn't mean we all can't still have our own preferences.Some people love the changes, some don't! That's life!