Ketzel

I'm the same way, but that's because the humans have all the power in these situations, and the cats (contrary to what they themselves seem to believe!) are essentially helpless.

Yes, Carl comes off as really immature - the bubble blowing in the chocolate milk at the bar was pretty obnoxious. (Although I laughed when Miguel joked about drinking a manly appletini with 3 cherries.) I'd bet that up close, Carl's costume was a mess and I'm not surprised it didn't do well in the judging.

The Cam and Sachi episode was unique in that the couple did decide to give Hilary more money once they saw that what she had to spend wouldn't get them anything close to what their wish list was. Although I heartily agree that Hilary did more harm than good to that charming little house. I hope that nice porch she converted didn't have a view of the shore. And she removed a fireplace? Yikes! In the winter by the water, a fireplace would be a very attractive feature. But I always wonder why, when Hilary finds the inevitable emergency repair that will wipe out a big chunk of her allocated budget, she doesn't make a stronger pitch for more money from the homeowners. While they are raging at her for being unable to remove knob-and-tube fire hazard wiring from the whole house AND give them a new four piece bathroom, why does she never point out that they apparently cannot lose anything by giving her more money? Because, according to the show, at least, every single one of her re-designs increases the value of the property by many thousands over the money spent. EVERY SINGLE ONE. Giving her more virtually GUARANTEES they will end up with substantially more equity in their home. So if they list it, they get the money spent back, plus more, and if they love it, they have gotten all the work done that they wanted, and a better value in the event they decide to borrow against it or sell it in the future. I am assuming they were living in Toronto on the shore by Lake Ontario. The show is filmed in Canada, and the couple said at the beginning they had returned home to live close to family after living on the California coast. and they bought their lake house sight unseen because it was too much trouble to keep flying across country with a newborn to househunt. So that was my best guess at their location.

But Riley, the FIV+ cat, wasn't being attacked by Mia. Mia was the one at risk of being bitten. I thought Jackson was referring to a bite from Riley being a "death sentence" for Mia because she would then be infected with FIV. But it's clear that Jackson knows that although the virus will gradually undermine an n FIV+ cat's immune system, with proper vet care, a cat can live for many years in normally good health. So for Jackson to describe FIV as a "death sentence" is an overly dramatic description of its effects, and one that plays into the negative myths and rumors about FIV. And didn't the couple say they had Riley first and then Mia "came along?" I remember thinking they must have taken in a stray, rather than setting out to adopt a second cat from a shelter.

My vet says the virus is transmitted by saliva basically "injected" into the tissue of another cat via a deep bite, not by casual interactions like grooming, sharing food, or sharing a litter box. As long as Rile and Mia are either neutral about each other, or become better friends, Mia isn't in danger from Riley's FIV. Guy-whose- gag-reflex-was-too-sensitive-to-clean-the-box is going to get one HELL of a surprise when he has to change his newborn. Heh.

Not!Miley was definitely a little manic in her presentation, I thought. And don't forget she seemed to be threatening us with a dad dance. I was surprised and relieved that it didn't happen. I've been looking at Mary Poppins battle videos on YouTube. Here's one from 2012. She's so good, maybe a little too subtle in her movements to really get the crowd into it, but the technique is very strong, imo.

The French dancer, Mary Poppins, was just wonderful to watch, and her audition got exponentially better when Fik'shun joined in. I'd forgotten how much charisma he has, and his technique has gotten even better. The two of them were a joy (and it looked like Cyrus and Legacy were a little jealous that they hadn't had the idea of crashing her audition themselves.) It almost (but not quite) made up for having to watch Justin Bieber doing whatever it was he is doing on the show. I don't know because I muted the TV and walked out when he came on. I thought the theme of the night must have been "fantasies come true," what with (1) the trainee from the Joffrey getting a big nod of approval from Fabrice and a promise that he'll know who she is the next time he sees her in the hallway; (2) the dancer from Wichita getting to battle with Cyrus, Fik'shun and Legacy; (3) the ballet dancer from last season getting a warm welcome and a ticket from the panel; (4) plus a few others I can't recall right now. Genuinely heartwarming in a way this show isn't, all that often. (Oh, I know it tries to be, but too often the tugging at the heartstrings is so obviously manipulative that it just makes me grumpy, not all "awww.")

Nineteen years old, emotionally scarred by his alcoholic mother, enabled in his unhealthy habits by his father and completely unable to face the reality of what a pro sports career would mean in terms of both the work involved and the changes it would make in his life, I'm not even a little surprised that Ty was the one who backed out. I'm more surprised he was persuaded to apply for the show in the first place. He may have been holding on to the fantasy that he would be a rich and famous athlete someday. but faced with what it would really take to get there, he couldn't cope. Too bad for him, because he did seem to have marketable talent. That whole scene with the father figure who promised to get him a contract if he lost the weight, yadda yadda - I didn't believe it for a second. First of all, the guy called himself "a marketing agent." Marketing agents promote products and industries. Sports agents represent athletes in negotiations. And why put him on camera and agree to work with him and THEN do due diligence on his bona fides? The producers didn't even google his name first? Bleh.

That was quite a final challenge. I was very impressed with Brian's final one-on-one advice session with the finalists. I was especially impressed when he flat out told Ben he had to be more collaborative, and if he just did "the Ben show," he wouldn't win. It's been so clear that the contestants were being judged on attitude as well as skill, and that Ben was consistently falling down on that attribute. And even after Brian's perfectly clear warning, Ben was still moaning to the camera about having to let go of controlling every aspect of his creature himself. I thought it was ironic when it turned out one of Ben's big mistakes was missing the big gap at his creature's neck, and when he tried to defend himself by saying he had been inside the creature, testing it, Brian simply said, "You have to look in the mirror." Obviously, Ben didn't have anyone else looking for weak points while he did the testing. And, personally, I had a big problem with his story about the last embryonic creature. I kept thinking - if he's the last of the race, who is he going to reproduce with? I mean, if there's only one of a species left alive, it's over, isn't it? Unless the species is capable of asexual reproduction. Yes, I think too much. Melissa was funny and capable, as always. It was nice to see her pleasantly surprised by the skills of the guy who was eliminated first. I also thought it was kind of great of the show to give him so much screen time being effective and creative (although it did make Lex disappear). I bet that did something to ease the sting of being the first one to go. I hoped very much she would win and I thought when Brian was toting up the areas in which each designer excelled that she was coming out on top. My one regret for her is that she wore that tight horizontally striped dress. She's a zoftig woman, and that dress made her look like a barrel. So unflattering. But I'm OK with Robert winning. Even if his special effect didn't actually work. He made other creatures that I thought were really good, and he's a nice guy who I think will make a success of his career.

I've worked with personalities like Ben's in a creative setting. When new to the job, they arrive expressing excitement and a willingness to be part of the team. Within a week or two, they've made up their minds who is "above" them (in terms of skills and authority) and who is "beneath them" (in terms of skills) and their behavior alters accordingly. They create bad feeling, they are subtly (or not so subtly) disrespectful to the ones they've judged and found wanting, they tend to become argumentative, and they make all kinds of trouble for the collaborative atmosphere. And they are nearly always wrong about their relative skill level. I do hope I am wrong about Ben, because he is talented, but that's definitely the vibe he is giving off, imo.

I loved this challenge. It was great to see individual work, the premise was really interesting and the results were charming. I especially appreciate when the judges in a show like this actually judge by the same criteria the contestants are given to work with. (I'm looking at you, Project Runway.) (Oh, and at you, Ben.) I wonder if the criticism that a creature is too cartoony or too Muppety is a shorthand for known characteristics that should be avoided, unless the brief specifically calls for an exaggerated-in-a-childish-way creature.

I think Marcus understood Dan's reaction to Greg's challenging him when he was re-pricing the wine, but I don't think he approved of it. I think Marcus also understood why Dan was behaving that way and would have preferred a less confrontational/more courteous push-back from Dan. I noticed that when Dan looked to Marcus for support, Marcus didn't actually say or do anything to back him up in challenging Greg; he just didn't intervene on Greg's behalf. And after Dan had his say and clearly felt validated by Marcus' not objecting, Marcus quietly took Greg aside and did some ego-soothing.

Can anyone explain to me the point of the dance performance? It was incomprehensible to me on the screen - all the lights and lasers made it impossible to see what the dancers were actually doing, and the camera work didn't help at all. If the idea was to see if the makeup and appliances could withstand being part of a video dance shoot, I wish they had (a) explained that at the beginning and (b) used it as a judging criterion. Otherwise, it seemed to me like random filler with an added bonus of potentially triggering epileptic attacks in the audience.

Too much shouty, runsy, belty singing, a lot of it off-key to boot. The effect is to take all the music out of the singing, imo. "Just Give Me A Reason," "Rolling In The Deep," "Magic Man," "Angel of the Morning" are songs that have strong melody lines that these singers ignore in favor of vocal pyrotechnics that I find irritating at best, and downright painful at worst.

I thought it was pretty unfair that Rashad got nothing after winning the vampire challenge (except "Surprise! There's another half to the challenge!"), while the winner of the werewolf challenge got right into the finale. If they are going to do a 2-part challenge again, they either need to let the designers know it in advance, or else figure out a way to give the winner of the first part some prize or some advantage going into the second part. But at least I thought the right 3 made it to the finale in the end.

Tim on the Finale : It should have been Sam or Asha, in his opinion. Blech.

Tim basically tells Rachel Ray that he, Jen, Rachel Roy and Zanna had made up their minds in advance who was going to win UTG, but Neil and Heidi didn't have the same history, had very strong opinions and basically over-ruled them. Here's the interview:: Link It's the segment called "Where Does Tim Gunn Shop For Clothes."

Thank God that travesty of a competition is over. The moment when Jen and Zanna were kowtowing to Asha about her incredible creativity made me slightly nauseous. I honestly don't think either of those women should ever be allowed anywhere near a situation where fashion judgment is required. I do think that NPH and Heidi were probably the controlling opinions in the room and I am glad that resulted in Oscar taking the win. I was afraid Tim questioning his "taste level" at the beginning of the show was a bad omen. And please, PR, no more eighties fashion revival. If I see one more bare midriff, jumpsuit or projectile shoulder line, I am going to swear off all fashion TV and spend the rest of my life dressing exclusively out of the LL Bean catalogue. (It's OK, I'm from Maine.)

I missed this episode last night, so I was spoiled when I sat down to watch it this afternoon, and boy was that not good for my blood pressure. Every time someone dramatically moaned into the camera about the last! chance! to! make! it! to! the! finale! I rolled my eyes so hard, I think one of them came a little loose. What unmitigated bullshit -- was this supposed to be a twist to surprise the audience? Oh, you viewers think you've got us figured out, we producers would never let a mentor be eliminated before the finale, and look, as you suspected, both the designers belonging to Mondo are there in the bottom! And now, instead of cutting the finalists down to one from each of the mentors, the Big Twist is - we won't eliminate either of Mondo's designers! See what we did there? What they did there was further undermine the completely crumbled integrity of this "competition." And if the women playing the "judges" in this show don't appreciate how this show is damaging their reputations, they are fools. Jen, Zanna and Rachel have come across as unprofessional, wimpy, clueless and indecisive, none of which are useful attributes for competition judges, or women who aspire to powerful positions in the fashion world. Listen, Sam, I'm sorry you were bullied as a child, that sucks. Being pushed to the point of suicide is awful. But I don't believe designing a fugly outfit inspired by a cartoon suddenly triggered you, and I think pulling those experiences out to try and manipulate the competition process is a dick move. Even worse because the show made it seem as if it worked. (See paragraph 2 re: wimpy judges) Yuck to the whole thing. I don't even care about the clothes at this point. I guess I'm glad I was spoiled, because Lord knows what it would have done to my blood pressure to think Asha was finally getting the auf she deserved, only to find everybody gets to stay! Woo hoo!

Can someone explain to me how Shan's client could be so extremely allergic to sequins that she has to come all over faint with hot flashes, and then break out in hives hours later? What were those sequins made of, radioactive waste? Honestly, girl, gulp a couple of antihistamine and deal with it! This is the most depressing final five I could have ever imagined in a Project Runway context. Sam and Blake make ugly boring dresses (and I still can't tell them apart.) Shan remakes his toxic sequin number and produces a polka-dot dress that has mis-matched seams and looks like a bag of fabric cinched at the waist. Asha stuffs her client into a too-tight hoochie dress with a prominent pot belly. The only one who did anything worth calling "fashion" was Oscar and he isn't the winner? Ridiculous. And while I am venting, I wish they would stop calling this the "Real Women" challenge (although it's a step better than calling it the "Ordinary Woman" challenge, I guess. Are the models supposed to be unreal women? Just call it the "Client Challenge" and stop implying some category of human females is either not normal or too pedestrian for the fashion world. This show is such a disappointment and I am ready for it to be over. Just give Oscar the prizes and let's get back to Original Recipe PR.