Brevity is the soul of wit, Shakespeare says.
For this post at least, I agree.
Ice dance: short dance
Elena Ilinykh/Ruslan Zhiganshin - Very enjoyable to watch despite the bobbles by Mr. Zhiganshin.
Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier - Watching them skate after Ilinykh/Zhiganshin really highlights Gilles/Poirier's inferior speed, knee bend, run of edge, etc.; the comparison to Torvill/Dean's iconic paso doble doesn't help either.
Maia Shibutani/Alex Shibutani - They need to leave Marina Zoueva for someone who can actually give them decent choreography, work on increasing their speed and power, and politick for them.
Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron - The burden of increased expectations appears to lie heavy on the shoulders of this young, very talented dance team.
Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje - The judges are quite possibly trying to anoint them as the next Virtue/Moir with these scores at the GPF; I am somewhat troubled by this.
Madison Chock/Evan Bates - While I can admire Chock/Bates' proficiency at hitting the levels and the technical difficulty of their elements, what they are doing is not ice dance per se.
Men: short program
Yuzuru Hanyu - Why are people saying that Mr. Hanyu is overscored here--every element aside from the 3Lz-3T was very strong, the base value is insane, his performance was great, and this program is by far the class of the field: I personally would have given Mr. Hanyu at least 9s in CH and IN (note that this is coming from someone who has been mildly horrified by the inflation of Mr. Hanyu's marks since the 2013 Grand Prix Final).
Sergei Voronov - I don't understand why people are saying Mr. Voronov is underscored here: he landed his jumps and received credit for them--it's not the judges' fault he has non-existent transitions, choreography, and interpretation as well as mediocre skating skills and footwork.
Takahito Mura - At least the triple axel was nice?
Tatsuki Machida - This Ladies in Lavender short program feels like a rather contrived re-tread of his (superior) East of Eden short program from last season.
Javier Fernandez - The British Eurosport guys said it all: "Javier Fernandez is a lot different from the guy we're seeing out there right now"; it was disappointing to see Mr. Fernandez completely give up on the performance after the mistakes--he needs to take a leaf from Elena Radionova's book and sell that program no matter what.
Maxim Kovtun - Remember how Severus Snape is described by Harry Potter as swooping around like a giant, over-grown bat? That's exactly what Mr. Kovtun reminds me of when I see him flap his arms and hunch around dressed in head-to-toe black while determinedly ignoring the music of Bolero that coincidentally plays in the background every time Mr. Kovtun is skating his short program this season.
Bravo, Morozombie. Succinct and brilliant observations, especially on the men's event.
ReplyDeleteThis was great. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteToo many fans are pissed about there not being a bigger penalty for falls, while ironically within the same breath, foaming out the mouth on how "Skater A's program was so empty. I wish they would account for artistry; not everything has to be about jumps". Poor skating fans haven't quite figured out the paradox, unfortunately. I swear some of these people flip flop more than their favorite's edges on jumps.
ReplyDeleteHaha I couldn't agree more about the Russian men. Sergei reminds me of a mix of Brian Joubert and Plushenko with even less artistry, maybe a bit of Florent Amodio too. A lot of arm raising to the crowd while standing on two feet and whatnot.
ReplyDeleteI think many people are just used to Yuzuru being overscored, so when he actually earns those high score for skating well, they continue to believe that's it's inflation. Although a lot of people are also very blind to the inflation he has received in the past (I'm part of the Yuzuru facebook fan group and everyone there bashes on people who say he is overscored, I think because they are just very much in love with him).