The Hallowe'en theme got in the way of most dances for me.
Worst affected:
Kellie's Harry Potter theme - the school uniform was distracting, and far too much faffing with the table. The only reason for the theme was witches and wizards, but children? Didn't work.
Jay - like Steve last year, rendered nearly unrecognisable. How is a celeb supposed to show much performance through that amount of makeup?
Anita - costume (especially headgear) and character stuff made it style over substance.
Kirsty - stuck between vampire and Charleston.
Carol - how do you match that theme and rumba? Especially with that music.
Georgia - great tango, but for all the Ghostbusters stuff - problem when it's Ghostbusters. (Also, why were they both ghost and ghostbuster?)
Perhaps unaffected:
Jamelia - her jive would likely have been similar any other week.
Peter - it's the same dance every week, theme or no theme.
Katie - maybe she could have done a better paso in a non theme week, I'm not sure.
Helped by the theme:
Jeremy - his slightly uncoordinated dancing suited the zombie theme.
Helen - Aljaz cleverly worked her stiffness into a samba. It was overmarked, but at least that stiffness (please, Aljaz, no more shimmies) could be characterisation.
So there we go, 2 people who came out the better for the theme, everyone else dragged down. That's not a success. Yes, the costumes and makeup were impressive, but they didn't really help in many cases.