Poor, dumb, Joe

I always get concerned when people blithely dismiss what Tim has to say, because he often seems to know how the judges are going to feel about a garment. I cringed at Joe’s confidence in his design, in the face of so much serious criticism. Even if he wasn’t willing to listen to Tim, he really should have been concerned at the way the Mean Girls (Kenley and Jerell) gleefully mocked his suit. Would they have done that to a piece that could be considered strong? Doubtful. They were so confident that his design was hideous, and that alone should have made him go back and make some changes.

Kenley seems to be all about trashing people, and it’s hilarious that she has the nerve to talk about anybody else having a limited vision or talent, when she’s clearly making the same thing over and over, too. She has no room to talk, and I like that Heidi sort of called her out on that. The mean girl in me thinks that it will be very satisfying to see what happens when Kenley and Jerell end up turning on each other. That expression on Kenley’s face when she didn’t win was definitely a step in the right direction.

AND WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT MESS ON JERELL’S HEAD??? Dear god, that man is nuts. I can’t believe that he allowed himself to be photographed for a national magazine wearing that crap. It looks like a vine attacked his hair. I hope that gets photoshopped out.

I don’t usually remember what happens in the previews from one week to the next, but I find it amusing that everybody’s commenting on how off the mark Kenley is. I also think they even showed a bit of one of her overly defensive responses, coupled with Tim telling her to ditch the attitude and sarcasm, and I seriously just cannot wait.

Other thoughts:

I kind of loved Nina’s “I will say no more” to Suede. Maybe she’s also sick of his tendency to speak of himself in the third person and knew enough not to engage him in conversation.

Will Korto ever win? I think that her consistent excellence seems to work against her; maybe the judges have come to expect amazing garments from her, and they’re not as highly valued as they might be from another designer.

It seems to me that, in their individual interviews, this group of designers is more likely to focus on the other designers than themselves. I guess a lack of self-absorption is nice, but they don’t ever have anything nice to say about the competition. It gets a little difficult to see such negativity every week. Where’s the love??

Blayne, I get; Terri? Not so much.

Ah! So this is about the episode of Project Runway that aired on September 10. I wrote most of this while I was watching the show for the first time and then finished and forgot to publish it!

The challenge this week was to create an avant-garde outfit based on the astrological sign of one of the two designers on the team. Just judging by their reactions upon being told the theme, I sort of doubt that a lot of these people understand what avant-garde means. And I think that Tim understands this. I think the producers are kind of evil geniuses, so their idea of having people who lost work with people still on the show is pretty hilarious. The tension in that room must be almost unbearable. I would hate to be Keith. Poor Keith. He just never catches a break, does he?

Kenley and Emily are so annoying together. Kenley by herself is a lot to take, and giving her a sidekick in her cockiness is not helping matters. What are you so chipper about, Emily? When this is done, you go home. Suede must have been really really stressed out. He forgot to use the third person when talking about himself. For this reason, and this reason alone, I will acknowledge his existence today.

I am not impressed with Kenley’s outfit, and the way that she gets so defensive whenever the judges off any criticism makes me cringe. 1) It’s totally unprofessional to argue with people who are offering their opinions on your item and 2) sometimes I respond that way to criticism, and it’s humbling to see how immature and ugly a reaction it really is.

I felt that a lot of the items made for this challenge were pretty fugly, and I guess I’m biased because she was hilarious and talented, but I’m bummed that Terri had to go home. Also, her items consistently received very high marks, and even if they were disappointed by her outfit and her inability to play nice with Keith, I think she was deserving of another chance. Blayne has been making weird and unflattering outfits almost from the get-go, and I think that he was being kept around for entertainment value, until the producers realized that everybody has a really leathery friend whose brain has been fried by the tanning bed. Being tanorexic is not entertaining for more than 5 seconds (although Blayne’s stock did rise when he unironically called Stella “leatherface”). I didn’t get Jerells’ dress at all, and though that Leanne should have won. I guess they didn’t want to give it to her three times in a row. Leanne makes great clothes pretty much all the time now, and I think that this is her competition to lose.

Dream on, Jumpstreet!

Yay! Veronica Mars is getting way better. I’m more than halfway through season 1 now, and we’ve gotten to the point where Logan is a much friendlier psychopath. He’s still nuts, but now he uses all those psychoses for the good of the people he likes. It’s pretty great. I really always loved the Veronica-Logan pairing, and it’s great that they spent so much time subtly altering his character so that, by the time the two of them got together, it wasn’t jarring and unexpected. I contrast this with the way that the Chuck Bass character was rehabbed rather quickly by the Gossip Girl writers. I actually adore Chuck now, but it’s not believable how the guy who tried to rape two girls in the first episode is somehow now this hardened, but secretly sweet, sorta-hero. Also, the VM production values have increased appreciably (now, when characters travel by car, the scenery they pass is real), which is definitely adding to my enjoyment.

Dated!

I started watching my Grey’s Anatomy season 2 dvds and was really struck by a lot of things. The first was that the show used to be really good. Even in the midst of that goodness, I noticed that watching episodes one after the other revealed patterns that were not obvious when the shows were spread out over a whole season. The writers seemed to like some lines a lot, and used them in various episodes, giving them to different characters. The Izzy/Denny story line seemed even less probable this time around; what would make them fall in love so quickly, and why weren’t stronger measures used when Izzy’s actions were revealed? Why weren’t the police called? Something that big couldn’t stay a hospital matter.

Derek was really indecisive, and his wishy-washiness really angered me a lot. He wanted to have his cake and eat it, too, and now I see why other characters considered him so insufferable. I still feel for poor Mer, though, and don’t think that she was as annoying as other viewers find her. A lot of crappy stuff happens to her, and it’s not usually her fault.
So that show has held up reasonably well. But then I finished with Grey’s and decided to watch Veronica Mars. I got hooked on that show after having heard so many of my friends rave about it. I’d spent 24 snowy hours of a blizzard watching all of those episodes, and then the first half of the second seaon. So when I popped in the first dvd of season 1, I was prepared to be bowled over all over again. While the funny lines are there, the acting is off and the really low production values are kind of glaring. There are green screens for everything, including every car scenes. The supporting actors are often pretty terrible. The videography is cheap-looking. So I don’t know if I wasn’t into noticing things like that back then, or if I just didn’t care. I sort of think I didn’t notice.

With both shows, it’s fun to watch characters evolve, and to see little things that I forgot happened. I had remembered that Veronica and Logan hadn’t gotten along in the beginning, but I hadn’t remembered that she and Weevil hadn’t been pals to begin with, either. It seems to me that Grey’s has aged better, but that probably has to do with a more polished cast and way higher production values. Also, VM is so steeped in teen culture, which changes so quickly that even things from last year can sometimes seem dated. Paris Hilton guest-starred in one of these episodes, and now she’s not even relevant as a punch line.

STELLA!!!

It’s kind of funny that I got traffic last week based on my post about Keith. I’m strangely flattered that, of all the people out there snickering at Keith, a blogger at the SL Tribune found it in his heart to single me out. I doubt that any New York sites are clamoring for my take on Stella’s exit, but I’m going to give it to you all anyway.

The loser: I thought that Stella’s earlier outfits were really interesting, and I’m sad that the quality of her work decreased so appreciably. Also, I like the way she says “leathuh.” Have you noticed that the last three people eliminated had been in the bottom two the week before their departure? Or was it four? There was the boring “surrealist” person who I refuse to look up and she went home at some point in recent memory, so I’m just going to say four here. So at least the judges are paying attention to who isn’t bringing the awesome. If pattern holds, I guess Joe might be out of here next week, but his previous work was was kind of all over the place in quality, so he might bounce back and end up winning the challenge.

The Winner: I was happy for Leanne, because at the beginning of this season I couldn’t figure out which one she was, and now I recognize her before they put her name up on the screen. Progress. Plus! Her dresses are really cute and I would wear some of them. Not the one that won tonight, though; I am an Amex cardholder, but I’m 99% sure that dress would not look any good on me. Also, she’s funny, and the previews for next week make it seem like she was kind of pissing off Kenley which, in my eyes, can never be wrong.

Everybody else:
A lot of people are getting sick of Terri, and I guess she may be more annoying than they edit her to seem. But two of those people are bitchy Kenley and bitchier Jerell, so what does that mean? While I’m not sold on her being annoying, I do find it easier to see what the other designers mean when they talk about her not having many looks. Everything she makes is excellent, but all really similar. I wonder if the judges are going to mention that soon. I think that if it all hadn’t been so well-executed, she would have had problems before this. They don’t usually let designers coast on the same design for this long even, so she may be overdue, or maybe her stuff just isn’t as similar as I think it is.

Korto makes me really nervous, because during the runway shows she gets heaps of praise and doesn’t seem at all happy with it. What does it take to make this woman crack a smile? She’s often really excited and hopeful about her designs in the workroom, but not so much later on. I wonder how much enthusiasm helps your case, and whether she isn’t doing herself a disservice with the extreme stoicism. Blayne isn’t as orange as he used to be, and his designs have also improved as the show has progressed. I believe that these two facts are related. I refuse to give Suede any serious thought until he stops using the third person so frequently.

Dr. Horrible: No False Advertising Here

I have tried several times to watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I don’t like it. Initially, a funky internet connection was to blame for my inability to get through a minute of it. Then, we got a new router. And I still wasn’t enjoying it. I try to support Joss Whedon because he created Buffy and I will forever love him for it, but UGH. I hate this show SO MUCH.

I’m done with it for tonight, but I’ll try again to watch it some time before I go on vacation, because I know that it will soon not be available online for free anymore, and I am definitely not paying for it.