Oholibamah

Pleasantly surprised by the auf. I was watching with a PR-n00b who was rooting for Blake to go home and I remarked to her that they'd never send home someone who makes "good TV" over a dull lump like Jake. Thrilled to be proven wrong. Apparently Heidi's bras are just Elle MacPherson bras with the tags cut out. Heidi bought out the Intimates line from Elle. Kooan has some of my all-time favorite PR designs. I take your point, because no way were the judges ever going to appreciate his work, but I loved him. One of the issues with the Save (and there are many) is that the judges already account for a designer's track record, even if they feign the "next day you're out" mantra. The only time a "Save" would make sense is in the first 5 or 6 weeks where Tim may feel a designer didn't establish themselves in the eyes of the judges quickly enough but have a lot of untapped potential. In theory it could be used as a drama vehicle to eliminate a frontrunner and keep them in the competition, but it isn't even used for that! Thus far it's only been used to bring back middling designers and hand them a one-way ticket to Fashion Week. Heh. Ha! A 16-year old model on AusNTM used this word and all of the fashion "experts" were like WTF? TBH, I can't remember a time when a true frontrunner was sent home for one bad week. Maybe Alexandra or Ra'mon? The elimination order and judging is so manipulated by production that the few times somebody is sent home unfairly it's because the judges are trying to protect somebody else, meaning they are just cannon fodder and not a darling of production, anyway.

I would support Kyunghun as a Season 5 player. I'd be interested to see if he's talented or just lucky. I can't recall if he backed the proper horse in Season 1 on purpose or by accident, but I seem to recall he started betting on it early as a guess and then started to realize it was correct despite Kyungran protesting otherwise. And this time, he was terrible at the Minigames but listened to Hyunmin at a critical time. So he may be more a good luck charm than a true "Genius", but I'd like to find out. Other guests I'd like to see as contestants are Cordyceps and Yohwan's wife. I also loved the two female SNL members this week, but they are probably busy. I also loved that the guests had already played most of their part in the pre-game. I remember being really irked that the F3 guest for the 5:5 Game screwed with Kyungran regarding her birthday and got the impression she did so because she didn't like her. Snowglobe predictions: Dongmin: Jinho (allied), Kyungran (allied, screwed by KH), Jungmoon (saved by Dongmin multiple times), Yoohyun (frequently butted heads with KH, identified by him as Rebel), Junghyun (potential respect due to being older than KH) Kyunghoon: Junseok (nominally aligned, seems anti-Dongmin), Yohwan (allied), Yoonsun (didn't she leave her garnets with KH?), Yeonseong (didn't he also leave his garnets with KH?), Sangmin (I don't think he'll be bitter - he even kept saying "get to the end even if I'm gone". I also think him winning will retroactively soften the blow of being beat by KH) Leaving it 5-5 with Hyunmin remaining. He appeared much less close with Dongmin this season, and I can't gauge how bitter he'd feel about losing to Dongmin twice now. But I suspect he'd give it to Dongmin to make sure he didn't appear to be a sore-loser. Revised List (only small commentary on new additions because I should be doing homework): 15. Yooyoung v. Doohee (Blackout Game) (so fucking satisfying) 14. Yohwan v. Yoonsun (Laser Chess) 13. Jinho v. Gura (Indian Hold 'Em) 12. Yohwan v. Junghyun (Black and White) 11. Hyunmin v. Jongbum (Twelve Janggi) 10. Hyunmin v. Yoonsun (Same Number Hunt) (close match, and Yoonsun calling out Lady Dealer was hilarious) 9. Kyunghoon v. Sangmin (Betting Rock Paper Scissors) 8. Junghyun v. Hongcheol (Same Picture Hunt) 7. Kyunghoon v. Jinho (Double-Sided Poker) (disappointing, but I have to give props to Kyunghoon's hacks) 6. Yeonseong v. Yohwan (Tactical Yutnori) (lost a bit of novelty on the rewatch) 5. Jiwon v. Jinho (Indian Poker) 4. Yeonjoo v. Yoohyun (Invisible Maze) 3. Kyungran v. Yoohyun (Indian Poker) (greatest upset EVER. And clearly I like to see Yoohyun lose) 2. Dongmin v. Hyunmin (Twelve Janggi) (epic showdown, and love to see Dongmin rebound from S3 loss) 1. Dongmin v. Yeonjoo (Monorail) (forever and always)

But would somebody knock before entering a locker room? How did Hadassah manage during gym class? I think the issue comes down to Hadassah seeing the bathroom as a private place for one person at a time, versus Mamé feeling that this specific bathroom is a shared space. I got the impression that Hadassah is not accustomed to having to share something like a bathroom with other people despite this being an incredibly common thing in dorms, hostels, locker rooms, etc. Ultimately they both handled it so poorly that I'm not particularly on Mamé's side, either. In school I changed for gym class in a bathroom stall, so I'm not insensitive to Hadassah's discomfort. But I thought she was out of line to demand exclusive use of the entire bathroom while she's in the shower.

Carolyn's biggest weakness re: the Fan Vote is that she was kind of freaking awful until the very end. She redeemed herself, but not enough for me to vote for her. I also wonder if she was competing with Shirin for 1 female Worlds Apart slot or against Kimmi, Kass and Teresa for 2 40+ female slots. Was it ever directly said they had to take the 10 top vote getters? Over time I suspect people will remember her fondly and she'll be voted on if they did another fan vote. But she was negatively effected by recency bias.

Am I alone in thinking Hadassah was being ridiculous during ShowerGate? I spent my summer in hostels where the shared bathrooms - sometimes co-ed - often didn't even have frosted glass. I get that it makes her uncomfortable, but that's the reality of shared living quarters. I wouldn't have been pleased had anybody reacted toward me the way Hadassah did, although I'm not exactly justifying Mame's dramatics, either.

Well, this season is still godawful, so there's that. I still want a Lacey/Justin F2, but after this week I will gladly take Nyle as my F3, or as a replacement for Justin if he keeps bringing the snoozefest in his photos. Everyone else is just completely and utterly exhausting. Mikey is possibly the biggest douchebag ever, the constant caterwauling from Hadassah, Mamé, Bello and Devin needs to stop, and Courtney is making Lenox look like the Patron Saint of Confidence. Ashley has bought herself some time by showmancing Mikey, but she is boring and does not look like a model. I give her 3 weeks, tops, allowing for somebody else to screw up and for Tyra to finally realize that this environment is doing Courtney no good. I don't even know who else I can tolerate making it overseas. I am praying for a 7-way elimination and the next 7 episodes can just be Lacey, Nyle and Justin being normal and likable and doing actual model-things like go-sees and runway shows. ETA: Whitney never really had the proper plus-size body for modelling to begin with, but she wasn't looking very good this week... or maybe I'm still just bitter about Anya and Fatima.

A note to future players: select Kyunghun as your guest partner. He's 2/2 in getting his Genius player Immunity at F4. Hyunmin getting all the garnets at F4 royally screwed me in my pool. It gave my bf a one-time boost of 99 points, which I can't possibly come back from despite having done better than him the last few weeks. My team was Dongmin, Jinho, Kyungran, Jungmoon, Yoohyun and Junghyun. He had Hyunmin, Junseok, Yeonseong, Yoonsun, Sangmin and Yohwan. By all counts I should have had an easy win, especially if Dongmin clinches the big W next week. I will have to adjust the rules for Season 5, although I can't imagine another scenario where somebody has 99 garnets at one time. I really liked the How Much game, especially since the SNL cast was such a hoot. However, giving 4 points for Round 10 was problematic and put Dongmin in a no-win position despite leading the entire game. I've had my beef with him throughout the season, but I am really pulling for Dongmin in the F2. Yes, our resident "Titty God" has drastically improved this season, but his strengths have been largely A) lying, B) acting (which really weren't that different from his S3 and early S4 persona) and C) Death Matches. TBH, I can't imagine him getting this far in a season where the Death Matches weren't both repeats and pre-selected. I am hoping that with 2 new games in the Finals, Kyunghoon not being able to study religiously at home should negate some of the dominance he's been demonstrating in Death Matches. But we will see! Also, I should have waited before finishing my Top 10 Death Match list, because this season had a ton of real doozies. I always felt like the Matches in Seasons 1-3 were just formality and were rarely all that exciting. But this season I really enjoyed Yeonseong v. Yohwan, Kyunghoon v. Sangmin, Hyunmin v. Yoonsun, Kyungran v. Yoohyun, Kyunghoon v. Junseok and especially Dongmin v. Hyunmin. Junseok v. Yeonseong was also bizarrely interesting. I hope they cut the repetitive or overly player-influenced Matches from previous seasons going forward.

Of course all of them are women. Why did I expect otherwise?

If I heard 3 people basically colluding to call out one of my teammates as the "worst" on the runway, I would say something, too. It's one thing for people to decide individually that Ashley's was the worst (it wasn't), but Candice/Lindsey/Amanda were basically preparing themselves to throw Ashley under the bus. That is seriously fucked up, and Ashley deserves a chance to prepare herself for that. Candice took the lead because she's a micro-manager. She didn't provide direction, she didn't suggest themes or reference points, she didn't come up with a cohesive color story or inspiration, and it certainly didn't look like she was soliciting all of her teammates for an opinion. All we saw Candice doing as the viewer is trying to insert herself into people's design processes. I like Candice, but I don't think she was a strong leader this week. If I were in Ashley's shoes, I wouldn't cry or be personally offended, but I wouldn't necessarily feel empowered or welcome to offer my opinions or suggestions as confidently as I usually would. Some may say this is irrational, but when people are already talking over one another and not soliciting me for an opinion, I can see how not actually being chosen would compound into feeling like I'm not wanted there at all. Ashley seemed to be the only person on that team who understood that there needs to be a collective launching point for the collection, which is sad because that is not only Project Runway 101, but Designing a Collection 101. I am disappointed, because the first 4 episodes showed such a beautiful harmony and lack of drama among the women that was wonderful to see. But this week it all came crashing down. Was Ashley overreacting? Of course, but there was some definite Mean Girl clique behavior going on, and it was uncomfortable to watch. ETA: Amanda is one of the worst designers to ever make it through 4 episodes, let alone onto the show at all. I wish we'd kept Gabrielle instead. Good riddance.

These people are mostly all completely despicable. I may have to bow out early, which I've only ever done for Cycle 14. Lacey FTW, obviously. I can stomach Nyle or Justin. The rest need to go home immediately in a mass octo-elimination.

I can barely manage either of those things before a beach vacation or Halloween. Anybody with that kind of willpower needs to share!

This is why Jerri is such a hoot this season. Her attitude is literally "no fucks given!" from day 1, and it resulted in her most successful outing yet.

And end up like poor, stupid Matt? Part of Rob's evil genius this season is that his alliance got to witness Rob's first mafia hit on Matt, and even after he crawled out of the river still alive, Rob finished the job again. The "buddy system" made it so that nobody could strategize alone. Andrea can't propose a women's alliance to Natalie without Phillip present. Ashley can't try and get Grant because Rob is always with him. Ashley probably shouldn't even suggest a blindside to Natalie because everybody saw what happened to Matt when he considered the idea. The problem with Idols is that Rob only needs to be tipped off by ONE person and the coup is sunk, and whoever organized it is toast. Rob also understood "game trust". We can say in hindsight from the comfort of our couches that they are morons to believe him, but Rob made a convincing pitch to everybody on Ometepe why they were going to FTC with him. Andrea and Grant were part of his "warrior/most worthy" alliance, Natalie was his "Amber", and Phillip is Phillip. The only person who probably didn't buy it was Ashley, but she didn't have any options sooner than Final 4, and the very little she did to prepare for that (talking to Zapatera and being besties with Natalie) almost got her voted out sooner. Most importantly, Ozzy, James and Jason are embarrassingly stupid. Rob, for all his bravado, is actually very smart. I can't see him going home with an Idol in his pocket, and even if he did, he was coming back from Redemption Island, anyway. Redemption Island and the HII both ended at F5, so Ashley had the best possible strategy: beat him at FTC, whether she needs to win the Final Immunity or force a tie against Phillip (both good possibilities) to get there. Unfortunately Rob knew she would probably get the votes from Ralph, Steve, Grant, Mike and Julie to win and had done a good enough job at controlling Natalie that her plan didn't work. But I don't think she was by any means a "zombie".

While watching I hated Abi and quite liked RC, but everything RC has done since getting voted off has made me reverse my opinions on these two. I still think Abi is nuts, but she seems harmless, funny and kind of stupid. RC is just rancid and likely the beneficiary of a very good edit. I am not looking forward to having her back. Pete, OTOH, makes my skin crawl.

I can't be objective enough to see her as a bubble candidate, even if I make the casual/superfan distinction. She was a huge character in China and had a dynamic edit. She was definitely a shoe-in on superfan's ballots and is probably recent and memorable enough to have gotten filler votes from the casual fans. My guess is that she ended up 5th or 6th among the women.

IIRC, everybody knew he had a HII, he had a fallback position with Redemption Island, and the lack of Reward Challenges made it impossible for anybody to strategize with the opposing tribe. I have trouble coming up with any feasible plan that could have knocked out Rob sooner. IMO, Ashley had the strongest game that season next to Rob. She worked Zapatera for jury votes and was almost as good as Rob at puzzles - she was an inch away from winning the last IC and probably the game. Her only error was misreading Rob's influence over Natalie. I think she thought that even if Rob wanted Phillip as a goat, that Natalie would at least force a tie. I have a hard time coming up with any alternate strategy that Ashley could've used.

This is the most unlikable and unwatchable cast that Tyra's ever managed to scrounge together. And considering there is something called "Cycle 14" out there, that is a pretty hefty accomplishment. Everybody is either completely and utterly insane or barely exists. I guess Ashley and Nyle have made SOME positive impression due to their backstories, but they don't really look like models to me. In fact, almost everybody is either WAY too fucking weird looking or WAY too common and plain. Lacey and Justin are the only two who really strike any sort of balance, so I am rooting for a Lacey/Justin F2. FWIW, Cycle 6 of AusNTM is far and away the greatest season of any Top Model franchise I've watched. Every single elimination, photoshoot and challenge is perfect, the cast is extremely likeable and entertaining, and the winner is amazing. I thought this came across a little strange at first too, but part of his difficulty is that he can't express intonation or emotion in the same way he could while speaking or using his face. If it'd been me, I would've said "girl, I can't HEAR and you're sitting there complaining about your hair??" in a half-kidding-half-callout sort of way, which I don't think would have come across as self-righteous. While I agree that Tyra makes no sense, comparing fashion trends from over 10 years apart has flaws. In Cycle 6 they closed Danielle's gap only to widen Chelsey's nine cycles later. Heh. Without long hair Bello is just a short dude with pretty eyes. He needs the long hair to stand out.

Fucking yes. This needs to be true. My soul needs Cara Maria to finally win.

Monica was one of my most anticipated options on the ballot, but seeing how unremembered she is makes me curious how she made it back on the show. My theory is that the producers legitimately picked the top vote-getters but that the players were competing within small heats with each other. For example, the women may have been split into older/younger/old school/worlds apart, which means Monica really only needed to beat Mikayla, Stephanie and Natalie to make the top 3 "young chicks" along with Ciera and Kelley. Meanwhile, Kass and Kimmi won the 40+ vote, or perhaps Kimmi and Wigles won the early season vote, knocking out Teresa.

I actually love this idea. It's a subtle nod to my favorite reality show The Mole where a player can sacrifice money for the group in exchange for a week of personal safety. But it would be nice if some were at camp and some were at challenges.

I'm sure I've said more asshole-ish things than Kimonogate while brainstorming ideas. I was just lucky to not have them air on national television. I think she quickly realized her error and specified that she isn't advocating Pan-Asianism and instead just a style of clothing. It would have looked silly and offensive, but I can't blame her for suggesting it 5 seconds into their sketch time.

So much yes! I also loved Melissa and Alicia, and Gunnar grew on me by the middle of the season. Season 10 is probably my favorite season (narrowly beating out Season 7) which is why I can never quite get onboard with the "Lifetime sucks" argument.

Yes: thank you! It's Gia that she has been reminding me of but I couldn't put my finger on it.

He reminds me of a less obnoxious version of my least favorite Designer ever, Season 11 Richard. Let's hope Joseph doesn't stick around long enough to reach that level.

Some of my favorites (paraphrased because I haven't actually memorized them): Christian: ew, don't get bitchy. Uli: it's the kind of dress you wear to a party where you're gonna get really vaaaaasted. Laura: when you have 5 kids it's a slippery slope to sweatpants and minivans. So I don't even go there. Elena: my baby's name is asshole. Here she is! Terri: I ain't nobody's mama, I ain't got nobody sucking on my titties. Kenley: that's what I was going for, Hei-DI.