drmka9

I think Neville benefited from having to present two characters. I loved Ve's Queen, but didn't care much for the Rook. Similarly, I liked Glenn's King, but the Knight was too much of a mask. I don't think either of Neville's characters surpassed the Queen or King, but as a whole presented a much stronger front and better developed backstory. I also loved his "I'm trying to make a thing with a stick!" It was great seeing all three judges actually work, though. I had seen some of Ve's techniques in a DVD feature a few years back, but it was fun to see Neville and Glenn. While I like all three of them, I realized what puts me off a bit about Glenn when he's judging: He comes across like the kid left in charge of the classroom when the teacher has to step out for a minute, way too serious and 'in charge' about the whole thing. It was great seeing him let loose a bit. And I loved that just about everyone, including McKenzie, was out of their element a bit on this one.

I've only caught the occasional episode of the Bachelor/Bachelorette/etc, but in the few bits I caught with Brooks in Desiree's season, he seemed sort of calmly okay with himself. 99% of the people on the show seem to have weird confidence/ego/security issues and ultimately seem really fragile. I've never really seen that with Brooks, so he tends to stand out. But dude showed up looking too much like Leisure Suit Larry.

I'm interested in seeing how Neville works compared to both Glenn and Ve. It looks like Neville hasn't had a huge amount of experience in makeup and his educational background is in industrial design. I know that Ve has worked on films steadily for the past few decades and I believe Glenn has a good amount of makeup experience as well. Seeing what each bring to the table skill-wise should be fun.

The woodsman and the monkey were both really good. The woodsman was absolutely gorgeous, while the monkey is probably the best example of whimsical-creepy you could come up with. I liked the idea behind the scarecrow - especially the neon 'hay' they stuffed him with - they just went way too far with it. The shoulder thing they built for the costume didn't read at all, either. Sasha and Jason were just painful together. I don't think a more forceful partner would have changed Jason's mind at all, but I'm also finding Sasha's passive-aggressive 'whine about things I won't try to change' schtick pretty old. She can do great work, though, so I think the right person ultimately went home.

I think a lot of that is a holdover from 'The Day of the Doctor.' The War Doctor mentioned a few times that 10 and 11 were silly and afraid of acting mature or like grownups. Even though the Doctor doesn't technically remember those events, some sort of closure was attained and he now feels free to be older or more responsible.

Oddly, one of the things I adore about Nine is just how weird and traumatized RTD allowed him to be. Ten and Eleven both had a certain baseline faith in themselves from the very beginning that just isn't present early in Nine's run. Seeing them build to that, and seeing Nine progress to where he could really be the Doctor again, was amazing.

I'm not sure that it's ever been said, but it just seems like a missed connection sort of thing. The library - and the people saved in it - were from the 50th or 51st century, so Donna would never be able to meet Lee in her normal life. Donna's ending leaves me somewhat ambivalent. I hate it for her sake, as the character deserved a lot more, but people rarely get the good they deserve. I actually think it's decent writing, as it underscores what the Doctor learned from Donna: there are small victories. Just because he can't fix a situation entirely doesn't mean he shouldn't help at all. Pompeii has to burn, but that doesn't mean that a single family can't be saved. Donna can't be 'fixed,' but that doesn't mean her life has to be entirely miserable. I always connect it to (Eleven's) "Vincent and the Doctor," funnily enough, and it's part of why I tear up at the end of that episode. The Doctor realized, somewhere along his time with Donna, that even if you can't make the pile of bad things smaller, you can add a lot to the pile of good things. And, just for the hell of it: Donna Noble Exterminates!

Yeah, you generally don't get two distinct species merging through evolution. They can ultimately look similar to one another/develop analogous features (convergent evolution), but that isn't the same thing as crossbreeding. It's also worth pointing out that even when crossbreeding is successful, the crossbred animal is usually sterile and therefore not a new or distinct species.

Sasha's sculpt was pretty good, but the costuming just reminded me of that episode of Golden Girls where they end up taking roles in a production of 'Henny Penny.' Big bulky feather suit and stocking legs. The little girl schtick is obnoxious. I was also pretty impressed with Damien's work. I know the show focuses on when things go wrong, as that's where the drama is, but I would have liked to have seen how he laid a lot of the feathers and fur. He handled that really well, especially for not having worked with either before.

I'm actually like that with Ben Affleck. The first few times I saw him were 'Dazed and Confused' (his character's a bullying jackass) and some after school special in which his character started using steroids and became both an addict and incredibly abusive. I've never been able to warm up to him. I think Johnny Depp was exposed a bit in his post-POTC megastardom. It doesn't matter the role, he plays it with odd costuming, quirky mannerisms, and a dodgy accent. I still think he's a talented actor, but he seems too reliant on the same old crutches to build whatever character he plays.

I'm not sure whether the willow branches broke (or were breaking the rest of the prosthetics/makeup) or whether they were too heavy for the model to support. What's kind of telling to me, though, is that we didn't see much of their fabrication. Normally a semi-big deal is made about constructing and testing any of the heavier/bulkier apparatuses or prosthetics (like the fat suit of a week or two ago). We didn't see Drew or Cig do much of anything with the branches beyond building them, so it isn't surprising to me that they just didn't work.

The sad part is, her basic idea is kind of intriguing. There was a period of a few hundred years where Vikings invaded and settled in Ireland, so the thought of them really being an alien species invading unnoticed is kind of cool. The issue there is that Stonehenge was completed a few thousand years before any Viking invasion. A massive fuck-up on her part, unfortunately. One of the contestants last season got screwed in the wardrobe department, I remember. The planned paint scheme clashed horribly with the clothing supplied, and he didn't adapt the paint job to it at all. Everything wound up looking pretty bad and he wound up going home. There are times when Sasha seems really young. I know she's one of the younger contestants, but she really comes across as someone who hasn't worked in the industry at all.

I love that a lot of the contestants are doing brighter makeups, but the technical skill doesn't seem to be there for a number of them. Stella's alien was phenomenal. I felt bad that everything basically fell apart for Gwen, but she didn't seem to prioritize. Why work on the chest piece for hours if it'll only be covered up by the costume? I had Doc pegged as a bottom look from the time he said the Moai are known for their "fish lips" which isn't what I think of at all with the Moai. Unless I'm blanking on something, have they shown any of Mr. Westmore's conferences with the guy who worked with him? It seems like they're deliberately having him fly under the radar, or at least trying to under-emphasize his previous work. I don't think we even saw the judges' up-close look with his alien.

I was thinking he looked a lot like the Monarch, albeit a Monarch who decided to cosplay as Tracer Bullet. My other thought was Vendata, but I don't think there's enough physical similarity there.

"Wow, what did they sculpt it with, a hammer?" Neville, I adore you. It seemed like everyone had a really rough week. The tuna suit was the best of it, but there wasn't a whole lot of competition. I did kind of love Sasha's quick about-face, though. She went from wanting to be a good teammate to, when she knew they were in the bottom, immediately saying that the concept was her partner's.

They could probably set up a straightforward beauty makeup challenge with something like Look Good, Feel Better. LGFB is a program designed to help people with cancer learn how to apply makeup so that they feel like themselves again, hiding things like hair loss, discoloration, and faded features. I'm not sure how easy it would be to judge something like that, but I'd love to see the contestants have to come up with a new technique or trick that the program could use.

I guess I'll be the lone voice of dissent. I don't particularly like Hatred as a character, but I don't hate him, either. I do enjoy how much the dynamic's changed with him as the Ventures' bodyguard, though.

I really only started watching last season, so I have to ask: Is there normally a large proportion of "I'm a personality, not just a makeup artist" contestants? Last season's group seems pretty low-key compared to this bunch. It seemed like there was very little depth in the actual paint job. It may have translated better in person, as usually the judges are all about the contestants who shade and use a few tones. On camera, at least, it seemed like just a flat blue.

Okay, I've been holding onto this one for a long time: I can't stand Winnie Cooper. I like Danica McKellar and, as an adult rewatching The Wonder Years, I understand why they characterized her a certain way. But the overall whininess and wishy-washiness drove me crazy. And while I joined the masses in disliking the fact that Winnie and Kevin didn't end up together in the end, it wasn't because I felt they were right for each other. Those annoying kids deserved each other, and I felt sorry for anyone else that got dragged into relationships with either of them.

I haven't seen the film in a few years so I have no idea if my opinion would be any different today, but I remember being a little upset that Kevin Bacon wasn't nominated for Mystic River. I don't think his performance was necessarily stronger than either Penn's or Robbins's, but it certainly warranted a nomination. I'm kind of similar when it comes to costuming and makeup. Period pieces and high fantasy can be difficult, but I feel like they usually get all the awards for costume design and makeup. I love seeing subtler films get nominated.

The nostalgic in me would love to hang out in the world of Dazed and Confused for a few weeks. Old enough to have some independence, young enough to have freedom from most responsibilities. I'd hate to stay there long-term, but I wouldn't mind a visit now and then.

Apollo 13. 90% of the cast are people that I really enjoy watching, and it's great to see them working together. The effects don't overshadow the plot, and there's something great about a movie that doesn't really have a villain. Everyone's working together to solve the same problem and there isn't any shady conspiracy as to why the problem occurred. And Tom Hanks's deadpan "That's good thinking" towards the end gets me every time. Ghostbusters. I'm pretty sure I could recite it close to line-by-line at this point, but I'll still watch it every time it's on. Again, 90% of the cast are people I really enjoy watching. And the sheer number of sly one-liners or sneakily funny lines is kind of incredible.

Because they didn't mention the cash part of the prize until the finale, I'm wondering if it's basically enough to cover the expenses of relocating to LA. It'd leave the actual salary pretty high, and it would fit with how Jim Henson tended to run things. When he first started moving people to London to film the Muppet Show, for example, he made sure each person got the type of apartment they wanted and even negotiated rents.

I think the mouth on Melissa's creature killed it. Everything else on it was great. Overall, though, I think Robert had the better portfolio of stuff. I'm just glad Ben didn't end up winning. His "it's really hard to trust people when I know I can do it better than them" really made me dislike him. I'll 'fess up to having had a bit of a crush on him years ago, and a soft spot for him ever since. He's always come across as a genuinely nice guy in interviews and behind-the-scenes stuff.

This reminded me of an interview with Brian I read maybe a month ago. The production crew was apparently very particular about how they edited the talking heads. The specific instance he gave was Robert saying that the Henson Company was better than Disney, which they left in because it was something Robert had repeated and seemed to genuinely feel, as opposed to just saying it for screen time. It makes me think that they've been very careful about how the contestants have been portrayed, which is likely bad news for Ben.