It is a bit early for 9's, and welcome by the way Serenity.

I do think Ashley will improve and be a contender. There's not a lot of improvement some of those top girls can achieve, they're already at a high level, so he'll catch up. I think he might win it actually. Just on first impressions. And considering he only had half a week of training, his American smooth was fabulous.

Not a duff year for me, or at least not yet.

Ashley has a chance as long as doesn't go on and on about his baby.

Sohpie's dance was definitely the best dance of weeks 1 & 2, and as the judges had already awarded 7s and 8s, they had no option but to give her 9s. If anyone had danced even better they would have had to give 10s. One of the problems of giving too higher marks too early.

It was also one of the best Charlestons we've seen, though it's a dance that divides opinion. I think the judges mark it differently to the other dances, putting more emphasis on interpretation and characterisation..which Sophie got just right.

I'm not finding it dull at all this year. The celebrities are mainly a likeable group, no massive egos..except Julien and I dont think he'll be around for much longer.
Im enjoying it so far. That may change if the judges start showing clear favouritism towards a particular contestant, but so far, so good.

It's still early days to judge whether the series will be a duff but I certainly wouldn't think it was just because the final five might be all female.

Indeed. I don't understand why that is an issue.

Specially since Ashley IS a contender (he is not hopeless, mediocre for week 1 and but third on week two considering his circumstances is pretty good).

Well exactly - the final five isn't my worry, it's what we're going to have to sit through to get there that concerns me. I'm not sure how many times I can summon up interest in Ben moving at the speed of continental drift or Dave walking around yelling BOOM. And they're both clearly going to be around for a while.

It's why Series 9, whilst the Final Five is probably my favourite ever in terms of personality (if not quite in terms of dancing), will never be amongst my very favourites. Because we had to sit through Robbie Savage and Anita and Russell and Bloody Lulu and Audley to get there. (Honourable mention to Nancy, obviously).

Very early days but lots of promise along with the odd duffer, some serious sucking up to the newsreader but that's not her fault - usually starts much slower than this, should be good.

It could turn out to be a good year.

Oh no I think it's shaping up to be a corker this year. No obvious winner and some potential dark horses. I'm keen to see how far the hairy biker gets!

It's really interesting to see how different peoples perceptions of different series are. For instance, I thought last year sucked, as did series 9. This year I'm so excited I can't tell you! I don't even care if there is a lack of strong males, I'd be perfectly happy with and all girl final.

To attract the "non-dance" viewing element, so necessary to increase the viewing numbers to beat X-factor in the ratings war, which has become so important to the BBC, they have to select a spread of well known names, regardless of their fitness or ability.
I don't get that interested in this until the John Sergeant and Russell Grant nonsenses are out.
Some of the choices will never look like ballroom dancers and for me always cut a comic figure. Maybe that's the intention?
But then, "that's entertainment."

I'm loving this year. At first I was a bit sniffy about the line up because I thought so many would be terrible (and admittedly I still grit my teeth when Julien and Vanessa are on as I find them very grating ) but actually they are all so eager to learn and the pairings are having such fun that I am finding it really enjoyable to watch. The scoring and judges comments are a bit 'wtf' but I'm choosing to ignore the judges this year after the criticised everyone's technique but Lisa's last year. (<-- that is a sweeping statement so please don't take time to find examples to prove me wrong!) Plus, extra week of Claudia = winning.

There were 4 dances that were barely recognisable on Sat. because the celebs had not mastered the basics or the character of the dance. I want to see dancing not strutting, walking,standing still, acting. I want the dance to flow. I think that is probably a larger number than usual who are not yet dancing in my view.

Can I ask which four they were? The only one I didn't know was Mark's salsa. Oh and I thought Julien was doing a paso, but there were definite steps in there.

Mark
Dave
Vanessa
Julian?

I have to say, I like quite a few of the front runners, Sophie, Natalie, Susannah etc. Also quite like Rachel. But I've also warmed to a few of the less obviously good ones like Mark, Fiona and Deborah and even Vanessa to some extent

I thought last year was one of the most boring of the lot. There was nothing wrong with the dancing mind you, but with all the Louis-love going around, the winner was obvious as soon as you knew he could dance a bit.
It had some great dancing, but as a competition it was over very early..bit like The Premiership, which also appears to be a lot more open this season.

I think, let's be honest, there's only been 1 wipe away season, and that's series 7.

In every other season, even if the best dancer didn't win (I think very strongly here of season 3, when SOMEHOW Darren Gough got the trophy from Zoe and/or Colin!) they've not been poor dancers, Natasha, Jill, Mark, Alesha, Kara were definitely the best dancers of their years, Darren went on a "Journey", and although Tom, Harry and Louis weren't the runaway strongest dancers in their year, they weren't exactly bad dancers and deserved their places in at least the finals that year!

So, we say we have, reasonably, 5 very strong potential winners in Ashley, Sophie, Natalie, Susanna and Abbey. So long as it's one of them who wins, it's not a bad year, as a good dancer has won it.

The fact there was one good dancer in season 7 of Strictly Come Soap Stars and she finished 3rd, and the next best thing lost out to a comedy duo in the final? Let's be honest, it wasn't the best was it?

Vanessa was obviously doing a waltz, not very well I grant you, but it was recognisable as a waltz.

I also think Dave's was recognisable as an AS, it was ballroom with lifts, it was all it could be.

Oh I wasn't necessarily agreeing with the OP, I was trying to guess who he meant.

I know hun, I racked my brains, what little there is, and I could only think of Julien and Mark.

We have Natalie and Artem - which is a surprise pairing. Artem's choreography and Natalie's dancing and you should have something good to watch each week.
Abbey seems to be a good mover and has high potential which Aljaz so far is looking well capable of getting her to.
Susanna seems to already know how to dance but maybe without the scope to get a lot better but should reliably do well each week and Kevin has the ability to get the most out of her.
Sophie is a bit harder to categorise but it wouldn't be a surprise to see her getting to a similar level as Abbey and Brendan will use all his skill and experience.
Fiona seems to be the next in line of the ladies and has Anton. I would expect they will get reasonably far and go out on a latin dance.
Deborah is firmly in the learning to dance section and seems to be doing OK. It will be interesting to see how she progresses and if Robin's choreography changes to suit her.
Rachel is the beautiful tomboy geek with a cheeky personality who has been clumsy all her life. Potentially a journey like Darren Gough if Pasha finds potential in her and can bring it out. Rachel should stay in long enough to find out.
Vanessa is in the maybe trying to learn to dance section while struggling to survive. James is in the suck it up and make the best of it section, which he seems to do OK in. For some reason I detected a strange communal kindness from the judges after the Waltz?

Ashley is the best of the men and could make the final if he gets enough training time. Training time allowing, we may find out how good Ola is with a contender.
Patrick has enough to allow Anya to show what she can do and its hard to tell yet as to how far they can go.
Mark can actually move well. I think Iveta was disappointed to get Ben, but Mark is allowing her to show that she has choreography skills other than just teaching to dance, so I think actually people will like and appreciate her more with Mark than they would have with Ben.
Ben is a nice guy with a campaign to promote. He would have liked to have danced with Robin? I'm not sure he is mentally invested in competing and learning to dance though he is putting hours in. Kristina has a crick in her neck this year again but giving it a good go.
Julien might be able to learn to dance. Maybe not in the world he is currently in. I have a big question mark over how good Janette can train and choreograph - especially in ballroom.
Dave. His only chance of staying in is the 'funny' route, but he would seemingly like to learn to dance. He might stay in for a while, but the series isn't long enough for him to learn to dance well. I hope that Karen increased her ballroom experience since last year but I may not be capable of detecting that from training Dave. They are a great pairing and I have always liked Karen because she gives 100% and has a quirky goofy character.
Tony - shouldn't have passed the medical but he tried his best, had a little dance ability and Aliona did well in how she gelled with Tony and taught him.

I think its an interesting bunch with some good pairings, so should be good - especially if the producer will avoid foisting music choices on the pros and let the pros use their skills fully.

So far the VT's have been better and ITT has been good so far. The programmers for the graphics on the screen wall are good.

Last year was not too bad.