jrlr

That pretty much sums up the whole crop of mediocre designers (with the possible exception of Sebastian) that have been creating tired, dull and completely forgettable looks this entire season.

Sebastian's look was elegant, beautifully executed and was original enough to stand out in this challenge - I think it should have at least been in the top 3. Sonja's wasn't much, but it was far better than the irritating Suzie Creamcheese's "shocking" use of pasties (Gawd, what a buffoon Hester is) or Bishme's fugly mess or Tessa's dull-as-ditchwater layers of drab. I liked Jamall's look a lot, and it was nice to see him finally figure out how to execute his vision so coherently. I'm afraid we may never get rid of "Look at me, PLEASE, look at me!" Hester, who AFAIC doesn't have an original idea in her head, but who seems convinced that she has re-invented the wheel every single week. I thought Brandon Maxwell's disgusted initial reaction to Hester's mess was the most honest thing to come out of a judge's mouth all season. . . but of course, he dialed back his honesty in time for the judging. Ugh.

Unlike most precociously annoying daughters on television, I've always though Maddie was a been pretty reliable and likeable teen character. I don't even mind the puppy love too much - although I hope it doesn't become an important subplot. But there's one thing about her this season that I find very distracting - she constantly keeps her head tucked down into her chest or her shoulder, even while speaking her lines. It's awkward and odd, and makes her look like a crane, is anyone else bothered by this?

She admits to 34, but she seems more like late-40s to me - a lot like uber-hipster Michelle on PRA, who also claims 34. Is there something magic about that number?

I agree. The fix seems to be in for the irritating and "special" Hester. Everything she makes looks like bad Lisa Franks from the 80s, and those talking heads with her in her idiotic costumes hurts my eyes and ears (that vocal fry is awful). Really? Plastic in the pants cut-outs? Wow, such INVENTION (not). This whole Hester thing makes the judges seem like they are stuck in the past, gushing over kitchy bullshit which isn't even original, let alone stylish. SMH big time.

Isn't it time for the whole manic pixie waif thing to go far, far away? I feel like it's been plaguing us for DECADES, and it's just tiresome - especially since all the girls (and I'm using girls rather than women on purpose) who are like this (and ugh! Erin showed up to "help" on all-stars) just try soooooo hard to be quirky that it's exhausting. Guess what? If you're truly visionary and offbeat, you don't have to scream it from the rooftops or radiate it from your sunshine overalls and silly glasses - it comes through in your work. And I have no idea why Hester was even in the top three. It was a checked tablecloth repurposed into. . . what? When the judges were oohing and ahhing over how each piece of it could be used/sold separately, I wondered if we were even looking at the same hot raggedy mess.

Agree with everything 100% I liked both top designs and was fine with the winner but I thought Renee's had an extra kind of sophistication and elegance. Clown girl needs to go away fast - it's time (for the judges) to realize that wearing whacko clothes and looking like a four year old who dressed herself is NOT a fashion statement or POV. What adult wants to look like a cartoon character?

Although I don't dislike Michelle as much as a lot of people, that dress was a mess, and it should have sent her home. Dmitri's dress was not formal enough for a "royal ball" but it was pretty and at least somewhat formal looking. Biddell's dress was the most interesting and the red was a wonderful shade, but it looked more runway than formal event. I must be the only one who can't stand Irinia (smug, sour and bitchy) OR her designs. Sorry, but you wouldn't get through the door to the palace wearing that trashy looking theatrical costume that would be more at home on the set of some 1950s musical (where she could just whip that "skirt" off and start high-kicking across the stage) than either a runway or a royal ball. How on earth did that read "royal" to anyone? I think her sewing skills are great and her taste level is Frederick's of Hollywood.

I'm not an Irina fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought she met the challenge better and more innovatively than the others. Michelle: meh. Bidell: meh. Christina was robbed - it wasn't a perfect "weather-change" outfit, but it was beautiful - and how TF are you supposed to design for "wind" anyway? Anthony Ryan needs to return to hicksville where he can chew straw and design all the impractical, ugly cheerleader outfits he wants. Dmitry, wtf? I live in Palm Springs and the last thing you would see anyone wearing here is a fugly, long-sleeved 1970s granny dress. The coat was hideous, too.

I just don't understand why Irinia is such a favorite. To me, her stuff (with the possible exception of this latest oversized coat-thing) always looks like well-sewn trash, bargain basement girly-girl crap you'd see in someplace like Forever 21. Nomatter how upscale her fabrics are, she always manages to make the result look cheap and tasteless.

Irina's oversized drape was such a nothing. If the "invention" can be metaphorical (like we're supposed to get "this dress turns you into a flying squirrel" for Irina's?) then why not send a dress trimmed with little wheels down the runway and call it a human trolley? I'm definitely in the minority here because I thought Michelle's carpet padding look was intriguing, and it actually did fit the challenge. Anthony Ryan's write-on-me coat was so incredibly unoriginal and uninspired, it looked like something you'd send a five year old to school in on a rainy day.

I actually live in Palm Desert, and this episode made me howl with laughter! You wouldn't believe how many 65+ women here really DO look like that (not being ageist, since I'm over 65 myself). The goldfish lips, the hair, the makeup and the rich, duller-than-dirt husband (loved George Hamilton!). The only slight innacuracy is that in real ife, the new husband of a preserved-in-formaldeyde 80 year old would be about 105, because a rich 80 year old man would have a 55-60 year old trophy wife.. I liked the season, although I thought the comedy was pretty uneven. And even though I love Lily Tomlin's comic genius, I'm getting really fed up with Frankie, who is becoming increasingly more annoying than amusing.

Botox, a nose job and maybe some sort of mini-lift - you bet he looks different! And kind of frozen.

Ha! Excellent!

How was Pullman creepy and evil in Malice? He was the duped pawn in a big-money insurance scam dreamed up by Alec Baldwin and Nicole Kidman - Pullman was the protagonist. So far this is better than the first season, but I'm getting really sick (here and in other shows) of the "we didn't know electricity was invented" relentless darkness. We get it, it's a dark story. But when you can't even see half of what's going on, it wears very thin. If I'm going to have to work at understanding what is going on, it should be because the story is complex, not because it was shot in the dark.

Apparently, so do I - I have no idea what clapping is supposed to trigger.

I really wanted to like this show, but it's impossible. Bad writing, inconsistency in every area of plotting and characterization, lack of focus and a lead who becomes increasingly unhinged and dislikeable - not exactly a recipe for success. If there is a message here about self-acceptance, having Plum become a member of a cult that kills people in order to show how "woke" she is is one weird message. What a mess, and what a disappointment.

I'm only 2 episodes in, so maybe she will grow on me.

I just added Britbox to Amazon prime and started watching Season 5. Loving it, but have to say I really don't care for the cub reporter woman, and wish we had Maddie back.

I'm still not sure if I like the show or Plum, but it must mean something that I'm still watching and still curious about this ever-expanding mess of a show. To me, whether she is bi-polar or just manic or whatever, in this episode Plum behaved like an adolescent in every way. The uncontrolled lashing out, the pure stupidity of spray painting the building in broad daylight in NYC, the neener-neener "I dare you to say something" attitude, and most of all the pure, 100% self-absorption all smacked of someone who is emotionally about 12 years younger than Plum is. Even the phsyical presentation - the slouching, fidgeting, shifting - is like that of a young or pre-teen whose mom is still telling her to stand up straight and smile. I get that Plum is not and has never been comfortable in her own body, but I thought this episode was pointing out just how emotionally arrested Plum is, and Joy Nash did a brilliant job of showing us that.

What do you mean? The fact that Joan was a hostage is no secret, is there something else?

Lousy ratings could be due partially to the idiotically haphazard scheduling of the show. I recorded (so I can ff through commercials) and watched the first 2-hour debut and then found the third on demand and watched that right after. This week they "aired" that 3rd episode which was available to watch a week ago. If they can't get their shit together to air this like a regular series they are definitely going to have terrible ratings.

Thank you!

What are BB and BCS?

Thanks for the correction - since I was a faithful L&O mothership viewer, I should have known it ran for 20!