Well, I'm chagrined. ( And that's being restrained )It's been difficult for me to sort out all of the things that weren't sitting well with me, but I'll try to put it all in order.
It's completely bizarre that G/P should have the bronze medal. I heartily concur with everyone who's pointed out the very noticeable difference in their abilities . Generally speaking , up to a certain degree , it's a fine thing when a choreographer can accentuate the skaters' strengths while down-playing any weaknesses they may have..but there's a point beyond which it can become too much smoke and mirrors , and needs to be called. I feel we're seeing a case of that with G/P ..and the judges are
supposed to be able to see through it , not swallow it hook , line and sinker.
That a team who have been together less than a year should wind up only 11 points behind the 5th place couple in the world , and only 17. 48 behind V/M ... simply defies belief. ( We're
not talking about the dance equivalent of Volosozhar and Trankov..Our eyes
should tell us we're not even looking at the equivalent of Chock and Bates. ) 100 for that FD..ought to be embarrassing.
You can say ..
Oh well, they can't go to world's anyway , so no harm done..but I don't know how R/H, P/I and even O/W might feel about that. ( more about O/W later..)
G/P are definitely being pushed and politics are being played , we just don't know
exactly by whom. But it's all too obvious. We saw the propoganda campaign begin immediately when C/P split up. I don't know how large a movement it is, or who all is involved . I don't know if those who are pushing them think they can target W/P for next year.. I would
hope W/P would be out of range because of their well deserved international recognition. ( Remains to be seen )
But the other 3 teams I've mentioned might miss out on international assignments ... and perhaps even funding next year in the case of O/W.
G/P's SD was lacking in latin feeling , sprinkled with little details evoking other dance teams' current SDs ( a bit reminiscent of of C/L here , a bit reminiscent of P/B there )..not wrong exactly , but tacky...and to me they
don't benefit by the comparison. They may well have benefited from skating so early , when they were surrounded by lesser teams..but it's the judges job to
not over react. Their expression was superficial..A broad facial expression with this movement, or that ,or when passing the judges , but it didn't seem like the dance was causing their expression. ( This is also noticeable with R/H , whose SD may have been a little overscored, as well IMO ...but nothing like G/P 's was )
Thinking of those 3 teams, R/H ,P/I and O/W ...I have more to say ,that I'll have to say tomorrow,
but for now, I just want to say that O/W really suffered by the maddening splitting of the competition for TV. There was slightly less than 2 points separating 4th - 6th , and of those 3 couples , their FD scored highest.. but there were hours between the time the judges saw them and the last flight , not just an ice flood... For the fans ,unless people were watching skatebuzz , O/W weren't seen at all . So here's the link..It really was an excellent Sr. debut.
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/19912126
ETA; Thanks,
wasabi 
..and wrestle with my wordpad a bit..and I'll be back in business.
