The Good But Not Quite As Good:
The Flash chatroom here on BPR. I freely admit I was dubious about moving the party there because I'm on a Mac, and Flash is poorly implemented on Macs. (Comments to "get a PC" will be cheerfully ignored unless accompanied by a cashier's check or money order to cover costs, shipping, software, and installation.) But after giving it a fair trial, I was surprised and pleased to see it worked remarkably well.
With one caveat: The chat window is too small – it shows, at most, the last 5 comments. When Tbone or suzq shared a picture, it wiped all the comments off the screen. During earlier episodes when it was only the die hard regulars I could scroll back and catch up, but in later episodes, the chat was moving too fast and I simply missed a great deal of the discussion. Assuming BPR uses this code again next season, there's got to be a way to make a bigger window available, and yes, I'm willing to help test/investigate/etc.
The Bad:
The many, many uninspired looks that walked down the runway this season. So very few challenges provided even 3 top looks – it was patently obvious they grabbed just any old third look just so they could have a top 3.
The challenges. They were often unfocused and nebulous with Tim and the designers being given one set of criteria and the judges judging by some completely different list - see the "Jackie O" sportswear challenge or the resort wear challenge where black underwear was determined to be public daywear.
Almost all the challenges had a one day time limit , to the point where the designers knew that if they were given longer, they KNEW they were going to have to make at least one more piece. When even the designers can predicts what's coming, you know it's become trite and repetitive. If they gave the designers more than one day to design and construct a look it might actually wow the judges, and then what would they have to snark about?
The 90 minute format. With 30 extra minutes, I'd truly hoped to see more insight into the design process, how the designers approach these challenges given such short time frames, how they edit their visions when the time and money isn't available. At worst, I expected to have at least some of this time focused on the models, since they did not have their own 30 minute show this season.
Instead, we got "TEH DRAAAAAMA" and blatantly producer-prompted discussions about "FEEEEELINGS". I so wished I could fast forward through so much of this season because I DON'T CARE how you FEEEEEL about other designers and/or their designs. It's boring and manipulative.
And the models? They might as well not have existed as people at all.
The Judges. Now that the bottom of my jaw is recovered from being bruised due to the many times it dropped during the judging portion of the finale, I stand by my original comments: what were they smoking and where can I get some?
It's not so much that they liked Gretchen's final collection best as their rationale for doing so: awarding the win to her because "it's of the moment" and "women would wear these looks" is a 180 degree turn from the judging not only of past years but of the rest of this season. They dismissed Emilio's collection as too "ready to wear" as their rationale for not awarding him the win last year. So which is it, guys? You cannot have it both ways.
A special dishonorable mention goes to Mr. Kors for his repeated sneers at mall clothing and older women. Last I looked there's a store clearly labeled "Michael Kors" in the mall about a mile from here, not to mention a section in Dillards. And who do you think has the disposable income to buy designer clothing? Not most 20-somethings just starting out after college.
The Ugly:
Bunim/Murray and every last producer gets this entire category to themselves, because not even the worst hot mess plodding down the runway was even one quarter as ugly as the producers made this season. An incomplete list of their transgressions:
- They lied to us. I'm not talking about suspense, I'm talking about examples like the previews labeled as Episode 2 that showed sirens and accusations of cheating, neither of which happened in that episode (or in several others where they were also used). About the incident where the model had to drop out of the show, yet it was presented in the previews as another designer leaving. (And we had no idea who the model was, but I covered that already.)
- Ill-defined challenges, and more egregiously, obvious differences in Tim's criteria to the designers and what the judges were evaluating on.
- They silenced Tim for telling the truth.
- They decided what stories they wanted to tell and they didn't care if they actually happened or not, they were going to MAKE them happen.
- Their completely unsubtle manipulations to create the stories they wanted to tell, from clumsily prompted and edited "discussions" among the designers talking dirt about those not in the room, to bringing in the designers' families for no other reason than to heap more emotional stress on them to telling the judges what questions to ask (Nina to Mondo during the print challenge), it's like they don't want to be filming a reality series at all.
All of this added up to 90 minutes a week of intelligence-insulting TV. Which is, perhaps, the worst of their errors: the Project Runway audience is erudite. Many of us don't even need a dictionary when listening to Tim. We are not looking for emotional release; we're
looking for mental stimulation.
What's become very clear is that Bunim/Murray has no idea what this show is about. They don't understand that what made it so compelling wasn't DRAAAAMA and feelings and emotional torture. It was the creative process – seeing these minds at work, seeing visions take on a tangible form, seeing hurdles overcome.
So yes, looking towards the future, I am calling for new producers. Producers who understand what Project Runway is all about. Producers who acknowledge that while "no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public", that's not the way to get rich, especially when you have a property like this one. Producers with the kind of fortitude they require of the designers to stay true to a higher vision, and with the strength of character to make sure everyone is on board. Producers who understand that we're not tuning in to see people run each other down, because it runs us down with them. Project Runway is like the Olympics – the designers' success somehow also elevates those who observe it. Producers that aren't Bunim/Murray.
And finally, a new category: The Excellent. Created especially for the folks at BPR – those in the chat room, those writing recaps, and especially Laura K, Tbone, and The Scarlett (in alphabetical order), who made this show far more fun than it had any right to be.
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