Wow Me or GTFO

I'm going to rant a bit about Project Runway now, and then I'm going to tie it in a bit to my feelings about Top Chef, and then I'm going to wonder if I should go back to watching neither of them and just sticking to the recapper's blogs as I did for S5 of both. Suitable warning: This is extremely long. If you don't want to read lots of words, don't clicky:

Dear Lifetime, or B/M, or whomever,

Look... I know with the lawsuit and the move to LA (and thank goodness you rethought THAT bit) and all you had some trouble getting judging consistency this season. I get it. But you could've at least gotten either a) more regular substitute judges and b) someone to guest judge in the final episode who was not just Yet Another Model Who Judges by What She'd Wear. Seriously, Cindy Crawford? You couldn't get another designer? Or another fashion magazine person? Or something?

I'm not sure how much of the judging to blame on the move and lawsuit and how much is going to represent a change in the series yet, but I hope it was almost entirely the first and not the second, because if this represents a change in policy (and yes, I know that Michael and Nina are back next season and smart of you to make that public, but read on) you're going to lose a lot of people, especially if the producers interefered with the aufings (and I'm pretty darn sure they did). Heidi is a great hostess. I like her in that role. A lead judge? No. No. No. I can't say that enough times. No.

Just as importantly, you need to make sure the judges are using the same criteria to judge as the designers are using to design. In at least half the challenges, this was clearly not the case, based on both the short version and the extended version of judging. The judges clearly had a different idea of what some challenges were about, and I think that between that and the inconsistent judges, several designers were kept or kicked off that should not have been.

Also, for Heaven's sake, please get some better challenge ideas, and stop making the challenges hinge on the tiny amount of sketching, shopping, and construction time. Once in a while cutting those is fine. All the time? No wonder so many things were 'safe' in design!

I know it's too late for S7 which is, I gather, wrapping up filming (or maybe even done except the finale?), but I hope you are smart enough to have people out there sampling the popular PR blogs so you can hear the feedback you so desparately need.

Sincerely,

wtsims

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Now, onto last night's... well, totally expected but still disappointing result.

Let me just copy & paste what I said over on Project Rungay, because I probably couldn't come up with something better (or, alas, shorter) right now if I tried:

Overall, it's not that I mind them judging by the body of the work in the last challenge. It's that I fundamentally disagree with them about who had the better work.

Althea's stuff really did very little for me overall... and several times she was safe off or in the top for stuff I flat out disliked. I outright hate the braless tank top thing that she did several times, and while a well-placed tank under certain jackets could work, I think she mostly had the wrong jackets for that. And last night's dress was... I mean, you'd think she'd have seen the construction problems earlier and either rethought (with two days to do it she had time for once) or... something. I don't know, maybe it was too late once she bought the fabric. But it's not like last night was an exception; she consistently had construction problems. I know they only have so much time to work with, but that has gotten more than one designer aufed.

Meanwhile, while Gordana had some things I was less than in love with, she also had some things I adored, and while I will not disagree with anyone who wants to say her designs are not exuberant or eye-popping, I don't personally find that a flaw. I like subtle. Her construction was generally good or excellent, her aesthetic was visible to me (and I'm really kinda boggled that there are some people to whom it was not), and this particular dress is not only an amazing interpretation of her inspiration image, but wonderfully made and, in my opinion, totally beautiful.

Between the two of them, I think she's the stronger designer, not just the person with the better dress last night. I know opinion plays a strong part in fashion, so I know I won't always agree with someone else's (or anyone else's, in some cases), but in terms of the show, as well, I'm still not quite sure what happened.

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It's not that I completely dislike Althea or anything. I mean, I think she might be able to do some good stuff with more time, although she, like several others, is definitely much more ready-to-wear than some designers in the past of the show have been... though I note I don't have an issue with that, as clearly there is plenty of room for it in the fashion world, and certainly that's where the bulk of the market is, if not necessarily the bulk of the money. But even if I think she's a perfectly acceptable designer, in terms of what we got to see on the show, I still think Gordana was better. And in terms of the actual show's requirements, I definitely think Gordana had the edge with her construction skills. You could argue that Althea took more risks with multiple pieces and such, but in the past that's always proven to be a bad idea if the designer couldn't back it up with making them all work, and the multipiece looks used some really simple tops in any event.

I know a lot of people who don't agree with this. This is just my opinion. But my opinion is what counts when I'm deciding whether or not it's worth my time to watch a show, and this was not the only bullhockeys of the season. Epperson's auf didn't help. Shirin's auf may've come on a bad day for her but when it comes right down to it, if they were taking past looks into consideration (and some days they clearly were), she should have stayed. And while in the cases of Ra'mon and Nicolas I wouldn't call their aufings bullhockey, I would call them perhaps misguided, given later results. Which by themselves wouldn't matter but when put with the rest it's really just another example of the issues.

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Now how does this all relate to Top Chef? Well, it's this: It seems like this year, both TC and PR cast a lot of people, arranged a lot of challenges, and edited shows all for maximum drama... instead of just having it happen naturally and letting us and the contestants focus first on the actual creative work. I know that reality shows wouldn't be reality shows without some drama, but in these two shows' cases in particular, the audience is there for the mix of drama and creative display. Move too far into creative-only and maybe you'll lose a few people, but move too far into dramaland and you will tick off the people who are only marginally reality-show watchers and more "reality show about subject I like" watchers... like me.

I stopped watching Top Chef partway through S4 because the asshole factor was too high and the judging was inconsistent. It led to me not watching S5 at all. I came back to S6 because I wanted to see more about cooking. I stopped watching Project Runway partway through S4 because they weren't holding my interest and I couldn't stand Christian's personality, and the judging wasn't thrilling me that season either, and I skipped S5 because I just didn't care enough. I came back this season because, again, I like the topic.

And now both seasons are disappointing me, and I wonder why I bothered.

So... yeah. Next season? Y'all'd better both wow me. Or else I'll just go bug my apartment complex (from whom I get my 'cable') to add Food Network to their mix every day until they do and stop watching both shows in favor of just some plain old creativity without the drama.