Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I watched the finale online with the Cal/Stanford game on the background, because the Cal/Stanford game was infinitely more interesting. I was a little worried, watching it as distractedly as I was, that I would miss the “thing” that Diana had noticed watching it when it aired. What “thing”? You will see
The Attempt at Drama
Due to the luck of the draw, or the producers telling Tim Gunn to visit Irina in the workroom first and then Althea, once again Althea was made to look like she was copying Irina. Because, you know, no one’s ever thought of smoky messy eye make-up before Irina.
Tim Kicks Ass
I thought Tim was going to kill someone trying to keep the runway show on schedule. Of course the real question is… which show was he trying to keep on schedule? Wha… what?...
The Most Distracting Thing Ever
Unless you’ve never seen Project Runway before, you know this season was fraught with legal conflict and was supposed to air much earlier in the year. You’d also know that when the designers showed at Bryant Park last spring, in order to keep the identities of the final three designers a secret, the designers did not appear during the show (and every designer from the season was backstage). This was all over the newspaper accounts of the show at the time.
So how was it then that they had the designers come out to introduce their collections and walk down the runway and have their families present? I asked myself that same question as I watch the runway shows perplexed by what I was seeing. Foolishly I had been expecting the show to acknowledge that the designers weren’t there during the runway shows. Instead, most of what we saw was actually taped without an audience at all. Then they did the show again for the public.
Did you notice how you never saw more than the first two rows of the crowd illuminated? Did you notice how obviously fake and canned the audience reaction and applause was? Did you notice that Althea was wearing Uggs?
I did, and it distracted the hell out of me. It was of course, this strange bit of editing that was the “thing” Diana had mentioned. Phew, I didn’t miss it watching Cal beat Standford.
Season 6 Designers
After interviewing a handful of real designers, they resorted to interviewing the “Season 6 Designers” backstage after the show. Because, you know, we wouldn’t have recognized them otherwise. (Ok, maybe I wouldn’t have recognized Ari Fish.) I was surprised they didn’t put “Season 6 Designer” under Althea, Carol Hannah, and Irina.
The Collections
To be honest, I don’t remember them that well. Irina’s all looked the same. I looked up at the football game for a moment and back down at the screen and only knew it was a different outfit because the model was different.
The Winner
Surprise, surprise, Irina won. It was perhaps the most inevitable ending to a Project Runway season yet. I don’t really know what else to say. I’m typing this as I’m about to watch the finale of Food Network’s Next Iron Chef, which has proven to be a much more enjoyable show than Season 6 of Project Runway. Hopefully Season 7 will redeem itself when it starts airing in January.
My fingers are VERY tightly crossed for a better season. I'm glad they are airing it so soon, I think it has the potential to save the mess they've made. If they waited too long, they'd completely lose their audience.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I can even bring myself to watch the finale. Thanks for taking one for the team!
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing was just too, too much. I found Irina's collection boring and, like you, could only tell one look from the next by differentiating the models. My suspension of disbelief went out the window with the "intros" as well. Too much. Giant ugh from me. Thanks for blogging the season, Alan. You made it more palatable.
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