I LIKE THE WAY YOU MOVE
Two words: Glorious Trash. I mean that in the most complimentary way. If you happen to have the same disposition as a Victorian duchess you might want to grab your smelling salts because I'm sure this programme will have you swooning.
The concept? A group of professional dancers attend a 'mixer' which is a room with a bar where they meet a load of 'rookies' aka people who can't dance...they're basically all sexy Mr Beans: good looking but can't do a body roll, you know what I mean? Once the professional dancer has found a rookie who is 'their type on paper' they go off and sit around a villa for six weeks doing nothing but gossip about each other until a recoupling-nope wait sorry my bad that's Love island I'm getting confused. Let's start again, once the dancer picks their rookie they practise a dance routine for a week and then perform it to a live studio audience where four judges then give them a score out of-nope, that's Strictly Come Dancing dammit my bad again. I Like The Way You Move is a combination of these two iconic shows.
The dancer picks a rookie to be their partner and they have a day to practise a dance routine before performing it to the hosts: Made in Chelsea star Jamie Laing and professional dancer Kaelynn "KK" Harris along with a guest judge who changes each episode.
The judges aren't just looking for a killer performance though, they're also interested in the CONNECTION between the pair. I'm serving you eye contact (tick), passion (tick), trust (tick), heavy petting (...also tick...just need to clear my throat and dab my brow with some cold water...I'm not blushing my ancestry just includes Elmo, he's my great Grandfather on my Dad's side...ok fine I'm blushing). The couple with the least convincing connection are sent home. However, the 'mixers' are ongoing so the professional dancers have an opportunity to put it bluntly 'kick their rookies to the curb' and swap them for someone else.
I thought this was a clever concept for a dating show because the BBC have really embraced the idea of the 'Strictly curse' and through this programme they've moulded it to their own benefit because the couples are MEANT to use dance to find love rather than allowing dance to become a scandalous side dish to infidelity.
The downside of being a show which is a similar concept to Love Island and Strictly Come Dancing is that you can compare it to them more easily. There wasn't enough drama for it to be better than Love Island and they didn't have long enough to prepare the routines for the dances to be better than that seen on Strictly Come Dancing. This isn't to say that some of the dances weren't very good though don't get me wrong but the show as a whole just lacked a little 'UMPH.' I'll forgive it because it's only season one.
I suppose the main criticism of this show is that we just didn't see enough of the characters in it. The series as a whole is only eight episodes long and in that time I don't think we are able to explore all of the individuals in the show in great depths. I would have liked to see why some of the professionals became dancers and why the rookies want to learn to dance and find love. The competition element was a little too much of the main focus of the show, in my opinion the contestants were interesting people and deserved more of a spotlight. Nevertheless, it's a good watch and hopefully season one is a good warm up for the show finding its feet for a killer season two.