See, I wasn't that fussed on Pamela's performance on the night, but that's probably because I found her VW deeply underwhelming and slightly irritatingly emotive, not emotional. Danced really well, but I just would have liked it twice as much without the pratting about at the beginning and the end. Whereas Kara did basically the only pro-celeb rhumba I've seen since Erin and Colin that I didn't find mildly embarassing at some point and Matt did possibly the only samba that I can remember being decent by a male celeb. And none of the showdances were showstoppers.
The more I think about it the more I'm convinced that the whole thing felt flat because of the format. The 'new' dances sort of disappeared into the black hole that appeared in the programme when Pamela and James left without doing a farewell dance. I can't see the improvement of four dances, with 2 not being performed by one couple, instead of the classic 'one really good latin, one really good ballroom, one something new as a filler (judge's choice, competitive VW) because we accidentally lost a competitor and needed to make you dance more to fill the time because there's only two finalists, and a showdance. When they reprised one from each discipline it meant that they were refining and improving something that wasn't dreadful to start off with and had enough time to get the showdances looking properly good so even Julian Clary managed something not bad (although, and I know it's strictly sacrilege to say it out loud, I actually didn't like Darren Gough and Lilia's showdance all that much) - I'm discounting the first series as I've only seen it on Youtube!
At least this year they actually planned it such that they had a (unnecessary in the end) contingency plan to avoid a 2 couple final. It'll be interesting to see what they change and what they keep for next year.
Btw, who else thinks that we should start a campaign for bobb as a competitor next year? Partnered with Lilia, naturally