drmka9

I was really impressed with the amount of work they got done in such a short time span. I'd been a bit concerned about how each challenge could improve on the one before it, but the contestants really stepped up their game. Jake was the right one to go. His sculpt was only marginally better than Melissa's, and everything else on Melissa's seemed better. Ben's and Robert's creatures were both fantastic. For some reason, I think it'll come down to Robert or Melissa. I think Ben has more skills than Melissa at this point, but she's shown how capable she is of learning quickly. And both Robert and Melissa seem really comfortable with the people that could be their bosses. Ben still seems ill-at-ease. From the previews for next week, it looks like Brian will have more input into the design process or meet with the contestants individually or something. I'm looking forward to that, as every week he offers really helpful tips after-the-fact. If there's a second season, I'd much rather he be in the mentor role and have a rotating cast of judges.

That's a great point about Russ, and probably a big reason why I haven't liked him all that much. He did give me a good belly laugh, though: When he was talking about how he rigged his eye mech, he made some snarky comment about how delicate the servo mechs the other contestants were using and how they'd have to be careful not to break anything. And then promptly broke the arm on his puppet.

IMO, the issue with Russ is more his temper than his vocabulary or anything else. The people that Jim Henson hired could be pretty bawdy, but always pretty good-natured. Russ doesn't seem like someone that can stay good-natured when stressed out. After the Purple Vest of a few weeks ago, I shouldn't have been surprised by Brian's harness thing. And I'm pretty sure that that necklace is an all-the-time thing for him.

If you're interested in a lot of that stuff, there's a great biography of Jim Henson that was published last fall. There's a bit on Jim's personal life, but the vast majority is his career and there's a lot of technical info. Brian started working with his dad when he was 13 or 14, and he has a lot of stories in there. I actually think Brian's a bit wasted as a judge, in all honesty. I like him, but I'd much rather see him as a permanent mentor in the shop or something. He seems a lot more comfortable talking about that side of it, too.

I was sad to see Lex go, especially considering she took the brunt of the construction on herself. I don't think she could have come close to winning, but it really seemed like Jake should have gone home. He didn't seem to contribute a whole lot to their creature. At this point, I really don't see anyone challenging Robert. I think his weakest spot is foam construction, which (maybe incorrectly) doesn't seem as difficult to learn as the mech part of it.

The contestants have a bunch of different backgrounds. A lot of them have done foam fabrication and costumes without mechs. I kind of wish that Chaz had made it past the first week, as he did have a bunch of experience with the animatronic stuff. What I couldn't figure out, though, is whether the eye mechs were required or not. If they weren't an absolute requirement (and didn't seem to be, given how many didn't deliver), Ivonne could have just sewn the eyes of her creature shut and worked that into how it had died. Maybe stick a small servo in to still give some eyebrow-ish movement. I really enjoyed Donald Faison's part in the screen tests. I'm hoping more of the screen tests use actors (or other creatures, or whatever else they can come up with).

He works as a graphic designer, per his bio on the Syfy website. He's been doing fabrication stuff on the side. I think he just realized that he doesn't want an actual career as a creature fabricator. Some people find that turning a hobby into a full-time career drains their passion for it.

Looking at his bio, Josh is apparently a graphic designer for a casino and does some costuming/prop building on the side. I'm wondering if he found the reality of doing this type of fabrication full-time (especially at a quick pace) less appealing than the fantasy and just didn't want to say so.

Yeah, Farscape had a number of puppet characters. Brian Henson was really involved with the show overall, as well. I don't think Gigi's terrible as host, but it seems like very few people on the Henson side of things are all that comfortable being in front of the camera. The contestants all seem fine with it, funnily enough. There's a decent interview with Gigi where she talks about how quick the decision was to take the job and how much she's struggling with the judging/elimination aspect of the whole thing. I was sad to see Josh go, and kind of hoped it had been Russ instead. I'm amazed, though, that I still have about three people I can actively root for. That doesn't usually happen with a reality show.

The thing that stuck out to me about Daran's was that it didn't seem to fulfill the requirement of having a clear advantage over its human counterpart. I'm actually a little surprised that they didn't call him out on that, as it was laid out as a requirement pretty explicitly at the beginning of the challenge.

I'm glad Tina was eliminated, but I was much more sympathetic to her this week. She's obnoxious, but she also seemed to realize early on that she was in entirely over her head. It was almost a mercy elimination. Russ was a lot more likable, too. It's a big difference to see him happy with what he's working on and being allowed to do. And I loved the winner's (Robert's?) little statement that he had grown up loving The Dark Crystal and that it meant a lot for him to win. It has to be really gratifying for the Creature Shop people - especially Brian, who worked on a lot of that stuff - to see how indelible those creatures and films have been, considering how poorly they were received when first released.

I didn't like either Tina or Russ. Tina seemed like she'd be incredibly difficult to work with while Russ seemed perpetually gloomy. Just about every other thing coming out of his mouth was how whatever they were trying to do wouldn't work. It seems like they started with an 'easier' challenge to weed out the people that couldn't handle basic stuff. Based on the season preview, it seems like they'll get to the more complicated fabrication methods pretty quickly. I'm also hoping the judging picks up a bit. I like all three of them so far, but everyone (including Gigi and the mentor they brought in) seemed really stiff. While I'm pretty sure the Henson Company can't legally use Kermit for anything at this point, I found it kind of funny that the cameramen used the Kermit statue at Henson Studios for scenic transition stuff. Kermit's still there, even if Disney owns him.