I really need to catch up on programs since I took a break from following figure skating, but just out of the programs I've seen recently:
Ladies
Wakaba Higuchi, "Skyfall" - there's real intensity and personality in this one, makes me believe that she has what it takes to be a Bond girl, to say You may have my number, you can take my name / But you’ll never have my heart. Her feelings are right there with her on top of the ice and she absolutely embraces them. It's just one program but by the end of it I feel like I know her.
Kaetlyn Osmond, "Sous Le Ciel De Paris" - it just feels like maturity and charm oozes off of her here. The beginning pose, the absolute height and distance of the jumps, the dark mystique of the costume and makeup, the little wink and cock of the head when she lands the jumps. It's so effortless to believe that she's either an artist or the playful yet cultured mistress of a salon in Paris.
Men
Yuzuru Hanyu, "Hope and Legacy" - I admit I'm terribly biased towards anything with the emotion of hope in it, but Yuzuru's worlds performance was something else. Coming in trailing, skating to music about hopes and dreams, landing every single one of those jumps from the opening 4L to a second half 4S3T, being absolutely flawless - I was touched by just how impossible that should have been and how gracefully and perfectly he executed it. He is the king. Every time I get to that hydroblade and layback Ina Bauer I wanna cry a little.
Patrick Chan, "Hallelujah" - the touching part of this program for me is exactly how many times he screws this up. Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah is by far my favorite and compared to all the others it's just so darn resigned and lonely. And it's not a cry that you hear at night / It's not somebody who's seen the light / It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah. Patrick's loved this ice fiercely and been devastated when he lost in Sochi - he's not on the top anymore, he knows this, there's nothing he really can do at this point - yet he's still there, still skating, still going for that 3A even if he's going to double it twice, still the baffled king composing Hallelujah. There's just so much love. It's like Stephane's Ne Me Quitte Pas from Vancouver, I just want to hold on and not let him go.
Pairs
Sui/Han, "Blues for Klook" - So. Much. Style. The hairflips, the arm movements, the ohmygodwhat twists and throws, the almost careless running crossover steps, the whole vibe of "we're cool and we own it." I dunno man it's just all the small things building up together and I'm just like I cannot. I really didn't think another Chinese pair could surpass Shen/Zhao in my eyes but they just went ahead and did it.
Sui/Han, "Bridge over Troubled Water" - What a nice contrast style-wise to BfK. And god, their musicality kills me. The Chinese forums talk about how they're making pairs competition more "ice dance-y" and I can certainly see it - something in this program (the tenderness and chemistry?) reminds me of Virtue/Moir's Symphony No. 5 (don't remind me of how neither V/M nor S/H are actually romantically involved...) There's a wistfulness, and a trust. And I feel it to my bones.
Savchenko/Massot, "La Terre Vue du Ciel" - of course, don't think anyone's getting away without mentioning this one. Not gonna lie, I think I actually prefer their Worlds version of this - something about the blue/purple in the background not being as glaring as the darker purple from the Olympics, I think. In their Worlds version Aliona was seeking, almost angelic in those statuesque lifts where she was reaching. Their twists are probably the best in the world, the delicacy of her movements are sweet and subtly heartbreaking in their innocent music celebrating the Earth in the Anthropocene. And then when the singing comes in and the pace picks up... you can almost hear how much they both love and want this. I'm such a Chinese pairs fan but this is still my GOAT pairs FS (for now?)
Ice Dance
Virtue/Moir, "Moulin Rouge" - I've already written a 10+ thumbs up comment on this and I'm also writing an original story to this what am I doing. Anyway. Just gonna copy over a sentence from that thing I've been writing. "The curtain folds. The tension escalates. Spin into death spiral, into orbited eclipse, into burning alone through charged squall and annihilating kiss."
Papadakis/Cizeron, "Moonlight" - I really think the difference between MR and Moonlight comes down to personal taste. One's fire and the heart of a galaxy burning up in a supernova, and another one is the stillness of the glacier under a bright winter night. Do you crave connection, even if it leads to destruction, or do you crave solitude, even if it'd bring about loneliness? MR allows the lovers to be together for an hour before they part ways forever. Moonlight allows the lovers to, I suppose, always gaze at each other across time, but always remain all too aware of the asymptote.
I'll miss Patrick SO MUCH!!! :sad4:
Even Tara and Johnny were mesmerized by it. 
