Reading the threads over the past few days (weeks even) I do wonder.

I do!

About ten million people do!

I'll have to see. When all the white lies ("dancing with you was the best experience ever") get mixed in with a few blacker lies then everything begins to look grey.

I didn't bother to watch last Saturday and haven't watched on catch-up. I'm bored silly with this season. Just give Jay the glitterball and have done with it.

That's two of us then?

And as a rule I am scared of spiders.

Yes but then I tend to watch it on demand on the iPlayer and I fast forward through all the annoying bits

I also don't get invested in it as much as I used to do when the show was new and exciting and actually involved celebrities properly being taught the rudimentary skills of various Latin and Ballroom dances enough to be able to perform a 90 second routine - some obviously better than others over the years.

I much preferred it when there were only two dances performed each week and you could directly compare performances but then I am a bit of dance nerd.

Love it to bordering on obsessive levels but do not always get chance to see it properly and rely heavily on YouTube. You don't know what you got til it's gone
In fact, it's one of the few things I do watch. Strictly, GBBO, Apprentice, Dr Who, Sherlock, Catastrophe. And TransParent back on 11 December.
What should I be watching?!

I have to agree with most of what you say there. I would rather they did the dances porpoerly to proper suitable music and without gimicks. However as the show has changed I have recalibrated my expectations and now just enjoy it as light hearted pantomime type fun - with spangles!

Yes, there is much to enjoy:-

* The professional dances
* The incredible amount of hard work the celebrities and their partners must put into each week's dance,
* The excitement of seeing how well the dances go on the night
* Claudia's quirkiness

Sadly there is also a list of things that irritate:-

* The egocentric behaviour and apparent inconsistent marking of the judges
* Tess' presentation style, especially when she talks over the judges
* The cloud hanging over the producers and their alleged manipulation of results.
* Having the results show broadcast on a Sunday rather than later on Saturday evening.

the positives more than out way the negatives ,

plus watching the beautiful Anita , giving it 110 % gusto every week
is a beautiful sight

I do An, but I do wonder why you've been spending days (weeks even) reading threads

Of course. There is always controversy, unpleasant though some of the fallout is, the intrigue is part of it in many ways.

I haven't really enjoyed this series. I prefer last year's series.

There's something you don't hear often...

Not specially but it has nothing to do with the weekend's shenanigans. I think it's the judges' scoring that has put me off more than anything else. I hate inconsistency and this particular series has provided too many to the point where it's almost gone into X-Factor territory, a show I abandoned years ago.

I watch mostly on catch-up now and usually only bother with the dances of the people I like.

i like the show. i think there's a lot of good dancers in it this year, even though i'd never heard of most of them. i actually enjoy it - is that allowed???

Point taken!

It used to be fun in here. Now it seems to be a new consipracy theory every five minutes.

I think so. But then I am weird. I don't mind Peter, or Jay, or Kellie, or Jamelia or Len.

Not wild about Tess mind you - but none of us is perfect!

I love watching someone learn to dance - I find Strictly the most exciting of the 'a competition to do a skill with one person leaving every week' TV shows. I get very invested in how well people will do and it's very moving when someone produces a dance you didn't think they had in them. I think it's more exciting because dancing is such a combination of skill and art and emotion, they are so vulnerable to looking stupid, people differ so much from dance to dance, and you have the relationship between the celeb and pro, which can be very touching.

It has always made me really cross though. I think because the celebs seem so exposed to ridicule if things go wrong, I find it infuriating when I feel they have been given something that couldn't work or if I feel the judges are being unfair. I'd love it if I didn't get so invested and didn't care so much, much better for my blood pressure - but then if I didn't get invested I probably wouldn't bother watching.

That's part of the fun. It'll all be forgotten (just like most of the contestants), but come next September we'll be ready for more.

But I can see your point, there has a viciousness to this year's postings. Don't dare mention the absence of a certain a red flower with rounded seed capsules on remembrance weekend, for instance

Its fun when you can take the micky out of them. Last night was fun unitl the thread was pulled.

I love it more than ever. I have really only found this section of the forum in the last 2 days and it's been a source of absolute hilarity Can't actually wait til next Saturday!

ETA i missed the thread that got pulled

Why were you pulled (so to speak) ?

I love SCD - But I think the by the looks of things the Glitterball is going to Anita and not Jay..

If you look back over the past few weeks - her momentum is growing strongly - she is strongly backed by her BBC colleagues (e.g. Dan Walker) and also being promoted heavily by SCD (Karen Hardy, supposed hand injury, being 'untrained', best production and outfits etc).
Don't get me wrong I think Anita is a very good dancer - she has not had to contend with the pressure some of the other contestants have to deal with e.g.Jay and Georgia with the unfounded tabloid tales, Peter with the recent controversy, Kellie dance-off and emphasis being placed on her shrieking habit and getting the most awful dresses.
At this stage I would like the BBC and SCD to stop the blatant favoritism and let the best dancer (male or female) win on their own merit and not because of media manipulation.