Oholibamah

Yes, I hate even typing this, but Michelle, Helen and Fabio were my Top 3. Helen's doesn't seem to be a popular choice, and I agree that her execution on the sleeves was a little... droopy. But the overall sillouette was actually hauntingly romantic. I just hate that she was responsible for it. Michelle and Fabio's didn't scream "party dress", which is why I do think Dmitry deserved to end up in the top - his was the most party appropriate - but I really loved their use of design and color. Most human beings exhibit a range of emotions and sides of their personality under different circumstances. I think Kate has been remarkably consistent in her "I am a fluffy pink Disney Princess who found my perfect DIsney Prince, but I will cut you if you cross me" approach to the world. I still really like her, but I have long since accepted that liking Kate is a party of one. And for the first time in PR History, she actually deserved her elimination. Gunnar's dress was uglier and more poorly constructed, but Kate shirked the parameters of the challenge and deserved her punishment. Even if she can argue that she used a colour, she was specifically instructed to make something that was colourful, which she clearly didn't do. Based entirely on design concept in a vacuum, Kate's dress would have ended up somewhere in the middle. But when you factor in construction and challenge parameters... it was a huge miss. I was disappointed with all of the designers, actually, for only using one colour. I was hoping when I heard the challenge - "to make a colourful party dress" - that we'd see a Mondo or Dom-esque attempt to blend colours and patterns in a unique way. Instead we got a parade of red dresses with one the colour of puke thrown in for effect. I found Justin's dress remarkably hideous, which I feel bad about because his inspiration was quite lovely. But it looked like somebody had projectile diarrhea on the front and back of the dress. This was discussed a few years ago on the TWoP, and the consensus seemed to be that you pronounce the beginning like "Mary", but then shift to "Marie" for the second syllable. But Alyssa's pronunciation on everything is so tortured and bizarre that I will forgive her for missing this particular subtlty.

Yes. This is one of the first and by far the most successful time in Survivor history that I have been completely blindsided right along with the players. It didn't help that my boyfriend, who had already watched the episode, was egging on my comments about Jeremy's OTT winner's edit, but it was completely unexpected. I actually rolled my eyes at the editors throwing in what I thought was a last-minute red herring to give an alternative to the obvious Reed vote. Even as the votes were being read I thought I was watching some weird vote-splitting voodoo that would still result in Reed going home. But nope. I still hate these people and will probably only half-watch when/if Natalie gets booted, but the post-merge has been fairly interesting thus far.

This is a good point, but still out of pace with the praise it always gets. I wanted to barf when I saw Fairplay using it to campaign for his own inclusion in the HOF To me Fairplay's only great moves were creating the rift between Darrah and Lill and leveraging the outcasts to their full potential. He had good game instincts but would probably never be able to actually win. His game is like a caricateur of Rob C.

The whole "dead grandma" thing bothers me to no end. It was for Reward! And it's not like it made anybody throw the challenge for him! I don't understand it constantly getting listed as a "great move", I don't understand it catapulting Fairplay to "HOF" status, and don't understand why it's even still discussed. It was a stupid non-strategy designed to get airtime and nothing more. If he had behaved like Elisabeth the entire season and then whipped it up out of nowhere, then maybe I'd find it a little slimy. But he was a disgusting, creepy asshat the entire season. I don't know, I get why people would have a moral issue with it, especially if they have the burden of a deceased grandparent (although she seems like the kind of lady who finds it hysterical, so I won't do too much outsider-judging). But I just hate giving him the satisfaction of thinking he is such an evil genius for something so silly. I love it for the simple fact that Sandra's reaction was epic. But that's about it. And it isn't even unique, because Sandra is always epic.

If Jon, Jaclyn and Natalie vote for Keith and Missy, Baylor and Jeremy vote for Reed, then the best strategy is for Reed, Keith, Alec and Wes to vote out Jeremy 4-3-3. Maybe they didn't trust Reed to go with the plan, but the opposition only had 2 options: split the votes or go flush. If they split the votes, then they should try and win by numbers. If they vote flush, then putting 3 votes on Reed will not sway the vote and one of the 3 of them is going home, possibly with an idol in his pocket. In either scenario, occum's razor dictates that they should have thrown their 3 votes at a member of the opposing alliance, preferably whoever Reed agreed to vote against. It appeared like the vote would have been 6-3-1 had Missy et. al not flipped, sending Keith home with an Idol in his pocket. So while I understand his thought process, he misplayed his cards and potentially alienated an ally. Baylor and Missy are hopelessly moronic, and Jaclyn and Jon are playing erratically, but I still prefer them to Alec, Keith and Wes who I find absolutely revolting. They remind me of the Amoeba Boys from PPG and it is disturbing. The best scenario is that Missy et. al and Keith et. al Idol one another out of the game and forget all about Reed and Natalie, who end up in the Final 2. Because, really, they are the only players even remotely likeable or strategic at this point. There's nothing fuzzy about it - destroying another's property is blatantly allowed, filed under Holly v. Dan, Russell v. Jaison and Sandra v. Russell. Stealing personal belongings has also happened (Naonka v. Fabio), but when it comes to Idols the producers intervene (Amanda v. Danielle, Spencer v. Woo, Bill v. Colton). I really see no problem with going through people's stuff. It happens almost every season. Would I want it to happen to me? No, but it's happened so often that I would know better than to leave important shit unattended.

I always took "grew up on a tugboat" to be a loose way of saying she spent a lot of time around one as a child. But I don't recall her exact wording, so in her crazy mind she may have legitimately lived on one, Heidi.

Can we change the Thread Topic to "Dmitry Quotes"? He really isn't any nicer than Michelle and seems to get no shit for it, but he is hilarious.

I feel like I just watched an episode of the Twilight Zone. Firstly, I disagreed with 5 of the 6 "matchup" winners. The only one I agreed with was Dmitry v. Gunnar, but even then, they were both so safe and bland that I would have had them both smack-dab in the middle. Benjamin's was awful. His print looked like a referee uniform and the fabric looked like stiff upholstery fabric. The pointy bodice was gross and I hated the way the dress moved. I couldn't believe it beat Helen's look which, yes, was kooky and weird, but showed vision. For ONCE Helen broke out of the exact. same. fucking. sillhouette. that she does in every single challenge (sheath evening gown or crop top and pencil skirt) and I thought it had whimsy and a sense of humor. Helen's would have been in my Top 3 and Benjamin's in my Bottom. I love her, but Sam's dress was some hot buttered ass. "I love this dress. It just looks really raw." Uh, yeah. Hi. Alyssa? That's because it isn't finished yet. I have watched every season of PR, but never before have I been so flabbergasted by a look being placed in the Top. Even if it HAD been well-made, the way the sequins were tacked onto the front was clumsy and hideous. This was my choice to go home. Michelle's was an absolute snoozefest, and should have joined Sam and Benjamin in the Bottom. I don't even remember enough about it to justify my reasoning, I just remember thinking there was no way Michelle could have made it unless she had been lobotomized. This is obviously a controversial opinion, but I loved Chris' look. The ripped "t-shirt" vibe made it look deliciously, borderline trashy and badass, while the shape and tulle at the bottom kept it just dressy enough to keep it this side of "couture". It was a little strange, yes, but I had it in my top half of what was shown on the runway. I also loved Fabio's. From the front, it looks like a beautiful, pristine white dress. I love the surprise of the straps/harness and pants in the back. I thought it was stunning. Justin's was very boring. Far and away, without question, the strongest faceoff was Sonjia v. Kate. That said, while I am happy for Sonjia's win, Kate's was my #1 on the runway. It looked luxe and skewed "wicked" without being a cheap costume. I loved the use of the purple tulle on the shoulders and the "tree" shapes along the bottom of the skirt. The leather bodice was also a nice touch. Both Kate and Sonjia pulled off a lovely mix of various fabrics that gave their looks a nice texture. Overall, I had Top 3 Kate (W), Fabio, Helen (Sonjia would replace Helen if not for the "Faceoff" aspect) and Bottom 3 was Michelle, Benjamin, and Sam (E). I guess my point is that if we're not going to see luxe, pitch-perfect gowns like Austin and Michael's "Night at the Opera" gowns gliding down the runway, then I at least want to see some creativity and something different. For me, Helen, Fabio and Chris should have been rewarded for thinking outside the box, since it's not like the rest of the pack churned out anything spectacular, Sonjia and Kate excepted. I think Ariel was the worst guest judge I have ever seen on Project Runway. Her critiques were nothing more than "it's a pretty dress", and even that was filled with "I don't knows" and "justs" and "whatevers". It's like she was struggling to even have an opinion. I think I will blame her for the topsy-turvy runway results.

When the topic comes up, I simply must pipe in that I think Terry is one of the worst strategic players ever cast, let alone to make the Final 3. Anybody who predicates their strategy on "win Immunity" deserves to have to balance on lillypads against a 120-pound soccer player. The worst part is that if Osten hadn't quit, their single best challenge competitor, Darrah, would have been next to go. She excelled in the Individual challenges, but if you pay attention during the tribal challenges, she is a beast.

The issue isn't so much that chauvinistic things were said, and Jaclyn is not upset that she is not being approached for conversations or strategy. The issue is that their "Jon is calling the shots and Jaclyn will do whatever he says" mentality is indicative of a deeper chauvinism. I wouldn't want to be in an alliance with people who think of me as a brainless appendage, either. I didn't like that Jeremy et. al were saying that these things should not be done around women specifically, but the basic realities of life don't inherently involve burping, farting and spitting within another human being's personal space. Some people are fine with it, and Keith, Wes and Alec are more than welcome to continue doing so. But they also need to understand that other people - women AND men - may not enjoy being around it. I know I for one would not be a fan of it in such close quarters with people I've known for 3 weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if Baylor subscribes to this idea of being a pampered princess, but I don't recall Jaclyn complaining about this. Jaclyn's issue with the men was that she was not being treated as an equal to Jon. There is sufficient footage to back this claim, considering the guys would not shut up about how she would do whatever Jon said. Jon and Jaclyn were on the same team, along with Baylor, Alec and Josh. But I can see couples being split (i.e. Reed/Josh) based on where they'd fall in the natural desirability order. This explains why Natalie was on a team with all men since she is most likely of the females to be chosen first.

Now that Tyra only does 1 cycle per year, this isn't a bad idea. This Cycle already has more episodes than a standard old Cycle (which usually ran 13 episodes twice a year). It seems reasonable to stretch out these new annual Cycles to 17 or 18 episodes. Next week will be episode 13, which means a possible episode 14 and 15 for 5th and 4th place. Finale episode 16, Reunion episode 17 and bam.

I just finished a 2-day marathon of Under the Gunn. I spent the entire time anxious for some shit to hit the fan and for Anya, Mondo and Tim to show themselves as the heinous, evil, irredeemable bullies they've always secretly been. But it never happened. Or I was watching edited-down episodes. Or maybe there was a reunion that wasn't available for streaming? Needless to say, I am confused. This word "bullying" has become so hijacked by any circumstance of somebody not being particularly liked or treated like a queen that, IMO, it detracts from some of the truly unfortunate shit that people go through. Through my eyes, a handful of Natalia's peers thought she was weaker than some of those who had been eliminated. The show spliced in out-of-context shots of said people laughing. We got one confessional apiece from Asha and Michelle saying Natalia sucks. We also got one from Sam and Oscar saying she is creative. This is such garden-variety Project Runway "drama" that I just can't get on board for this outraged pearl-clutching on Natalia's behalf. Was this taken from a story written on FanFiction.net? Nothing I saw from Mondo or "Arya" even remotely approached bullying or talking shit (which my personal definition requires more than simply pointing out a professional weakness). In the context of the show's format (which, admittedly, has problems) they have been charged with overseeing the work of a small group of designers. I see nothing wrong with them backing their own designers, or disagreeing with a decision of the judging panel. My only moral qualm with this entire storyline was Mondo questioning the judges to their face, but even then the show's format doesn't make it entirely clear whether Mondo/Anya are meant to be seen as peers of the judges or subordinate to the judges. Certainly on Project Runway Tim is seen as an equal, so I can't entirely take Mondo to task for openly questioning the panel. Although I guess it was just "like" they were busy rolling their eyes, so actual footage showing this is not necessary. I was not fond of Asha's behavior during this particular episode. That said, I would not label it as particularly "hideous", especially given that Natalia has her own limitations that would make her frustrating to work with. I don't think it reflects well on Asha that she shut down given the challenge of working with a different designer's approach, but Saint Oscar had a similar initial approach with Natalia, did he not? Granted, I have not followed any of the media about the show nor any post-show interviews. However, within the show as presented to me, I saw no evidence of Tim being "constantly mean" to Natalia. He admonished her at Mood for being late. Once. She herself admitted this was due to time management issues. Asha's boarish approach to selecting fabrics likely contributed and was not fair, but Tim appeared to be focusing on Natalia over Asha because it was Natalia making excuses and attempting to keep cutting fabrics. Mondo was correct: stop making excuses. You have the fabrics you have, now make it work. Was his motivation for saying this fueled by his frustration with Natalia remaining in the competition, and a desire to protect Asha from blame? It's likely.. But his approach with ALL of the designers at this stage of the competition was firm, and I don't think his criticism - that excuses are not productive - was really all that heinous and illadvised. Nor do I think it's Tim's job or even Tim's right to "stop" Mondo and Anya from questioning a designer's abilities - which, really, was the extent of their "shit talking". Certainly Tim has questioned designers abilities even during his "golden era" - that's the job of a mentor - and even if Mondo/Anya were not specifically assigned to Natalia, an analysis of her talent/abilities/weaknesses is an important component of mentoring their own designers. I'm not saying they skated through the season without an ounce of pettiness. But this discourse surrounding how absolutely terrible they all were makes it sound like Mondo, Anya, Tim and all of the designers stood around the water cooler making fun of poor, innocent Natalia, hooting and hollering about how awful she is. This was simply not true. The judges were consistent in their application of Vision over Construction, right til the very end. Michelle was eliminated despite her strong construction skills for a lack of consistent vision. Nicholas was called out on his construction and eventually eliminated, despite the judges' positive response to his vision. Natalia, too, was the beneficiary of this approach. Her Beach Materials garment was announced safe first because of her strong POV, her Day to Evening look almost won despite her poor finishing, and her Steampunk look almost won for her ideas despite otherwise being a simple - albeit stunning - black dress. I suspect it's Asha who was seen to be constantly defended for her "Vision", but she was placed in the bottom for this a handful of times, and was only in the top with poor construction once, and that was for the "real woman" challenge which did not have a strong showing overall. I really liked Natalia, but the grumblings about her place in the competition started around the same time I myself was questioning why she was still there. She turned out 3 solid looks in a row, but was deservedly eliminated for her hideous pink dress. IMO, tons of designers from the Mothership have been treated far, far worse than Natalia and were much less deserving of the shit they got. Costello, Gordana and Season 11 Amanda immediately come to mind. I thought Anya was a great mentor, precisely due to her "good eye".

I was stuck with Julie in my Survivor pool since all of the other women were snatched up first. She was turning out to be a pleasant surprise, but color me very disappointed. This happened in Tocantins when Tyson won the first IC after the merge, but there was no TC due to Joe's medevac. Personally, I don't think he should get to keep it since winning guarantees you make it through the current round of play, which Keith did. People may have strategically thrown the challenge knowing that people typically don't flip at 6-6, with the intention of trying to win the following week. Having Keith automatically have Immunity the following week would be just as unfair to the other 10 players. MMV, but I pronounce "Jaclyn" and "Jacqueline" differently. It's subtle, in a similar vein as "Erin" v. "Aaron", and probably doesn't matter anyway since I'm sure her family calls her "Jackie", but the difference exists.

Jeffrey made it to Episode 6, and was the original source of the "Winner's Immunity" theory. He inexplicably survived the Cocktail dress challenge over Melissa immediately after his poor showing in the Insect challenge the week before. He was spared elimination for his inappropriate School Supply dress in a non-elimination week, and then somehow won the Bonnie and Clyde challenge for a shapeless gray box that he called a coat. He was finally shown for the door for his laughable Marge Simpson dress.

I loved the challenge in the first All Stars where they designed a costume for Godspell. Mondo's and Austin's offerings were absolutely stunning (Mondo's being one of my top 10 alltime PR designs), and everybody else did a passable-to-good job. Unfortunately, I am suspecting they will just have to design anything they want around and come up with a story about how their "Girl" fits the Wicked/Good binary. But we will see!

This is a very good point - it took Keith forever on set to turn out a photo that was, in the judges' mind, on par with Will's, who only needed 3 frames. Will also had a higher Social Media score, but it was the challenge - something extraneous to the photo - that put Keith on top. Which underscores the downside of the new scoring system. In old cycles, this would have been taken into account when devising a call-out order. Now, the hamsters are militantly pegged in 1 through 7 based on pure numbers. There's no wiggle room for rewarding/punishing how well a model actually performed. (Unless you're Lenox and Tyra wants to give you a 1. So it's been done.) I actually get why the other hamsters dislike Chantelle. However, next week looks absolutely brutal for the poor girl. Keith comes across like a total douchewad, and I am cringing at the thought of Yu Tsai not being respectful of Chantelle's completely reasonable request to not be called "Panda". We will see if it's just a misleading promo, but I am prepared to see firsthand why Chantelle has developed that tough outer shell.

It's bizarre, because HMC speaks in this exact, affected, sickeningly sweet tone on Pretty Little Liars. Maybe they had the same bad acting coach on Charmed. LOL. I had it in the bottom, especially over Chris and Michelle. The last two dresses have looked the same. That said, she doesn't actually trot out the hyperfem girly-girl aesthetic that often. I would count her Flower Dress, Glamping Dress, HP Print Dress, Yogurt Dress and Parachute Dress as part of this aesthetic, but that's still only 7 designs out of her 20ish that have appeared on the show. I am fine with her wanting to advertise for the reality of her business, and actually think it's pretty smart. That said, my favorite Kate is when she tries something edgy and unique (Miranda Lambert, Wallpaper, Bowties, Sombrero) so I will be disappointed to see a barrage of white bridesmaid dresses, even though I liked hers this week. My top 3 tonight was Fabio, Justin and Gunnar. But I did also quite like Jay and Kate's looks.

I was scrolling through Rate the Runway for Season 8 and picking my favorites and least favorites for each challenge before finding out who designed what. My favorite look for the Marie Claire challenge was Nicholas' plum capelet and pencil skirt look. I thought it was super cute, but hadn't remembered until I checked that it actually got him eliminated. So I agree, the early rounds were a bit of a headscratcher this season, although not as much so as the finale.

Working as part of a design team is such a common thing in the fashion world that I don't mind it. It certainly doesn't require an entire "edition" dedicated to it, and they often come across as heavyhanded attempts at stirring the pot, but they make sense in theory. I loved the Storage War challenge in Season 13, and the "design a line" based on something as wide open as "uptown" or "downtown" is a pretty straight-forward, bullshit-free challenge. I get that people don't need to see Kate every other season, but I find the vitriol directed at her personality ridiculous. She is one of the most benign people they've had on this show, and I'll need a little more than whatever she did at the reunion as evidence otherwise.

Having Michelle share the same television waves with Helen is doing absolute wonders for her image. Michelle may be mean and abrupt, but she is still on the spectrum of functional, tolerable human beings. Jay also wasn't as wretched as I recall, so I am still giving him the benefit of the doubt. Benjamin, OTOH, is even more insufferably obnoxious than I remember. My blood pressure requires that he go home ASAP. I'll allow her to return until the point where she gets eliminated in a solo-elimination for actually having the ugliest thing on the runway. Twice now she's been ejected as second-from-the-bottom in double eliminations for designs that are bland and uninspired, but far from the worst thing up there. Richard and Daniel's gold prom dress monstrosity and Alexandria/Justin's HP Prints were all more deserving of the auf, IMO. That said, she could have been sent packing this week with no complaints from me. Patricia's was weaker overall, and I really hated some of the separates on the men's team, but Kate's was really nothing to write home about. A big disappointment, because I loved almost everything she designed in Season 12. If she keeps turning out stuff like that, she should be sent home quickly. However, I am hoping to see her in my ideal F6 with Chris, Sonjia and Samantha, with a repeat Fabio v. Dmitry F2.

I actually really love a lot of Kate's designs. Her Miranda Lambert and Heidi gowns from Season 11 were stunning, and I had her as my winner for the Bowtie, Yogurt, Athleticwear and Carnival challenges. She was also the driving force behind her team in the Wallpaper challenge, IMO. The S12 finale is the first and only time I was a little sour on her personality, and even then I didn't find her that bad. She was delusional thinking Alexandria was any harsher on her peers than anybody else, and coming to the defense of the odious Helen is never a good thing. But I am still pleased at the thought of a season full of her designs, and I am hopeful that she will tone down the meangirl act.

I don't know what it is about Fashion Week that trips so many designers up, but it feels like the most consistent designer week-to-week rarely clinches the win in the finale. I would argue that Kara, Daniel V, Mychael, Emilio, Mondo, Christopher, Bradon and Kini were the odds-on favorites going into the finale (deserved or not), and some of them spectacularly messed up, while the rest just narrowly missed out on the top prize. IIRC, Irina and Anya are the only two that were most consistently winning/on the top who ended up winning their seasons. Korto v. Leanne and Michelle v. Stanley were pretty evenly matched going into the finale.

Well, that was embarrassing. Shei was robbed. More and more it's looking like the spoiled F3 of Keith, Adam and Shei may be a reality, but more and more I am dumbstruck by how Lenox and Will do not end up there with Shei, instead.

I'm still waiting for a hamster named Suzuki Washi-Tashi. Huge thumbs up on Eugena. She ranks very favorably on my overall list. Michelle edges her out slightly in the photograph department (although Eugena's Matador and Halloween photos are two of my favorites from the Cycle) to claim the top spot, but I loved Eugena's wittiness. If the twins were not in the cards, she would have been a more satisfying alternative than what we ended up with. Your run-down of Cycle 14 outlines exactly what contributed to my ennui and eventual dismissal of the season. Week after week the most beautiful girls were being sent home left, right and center, starting with Gabrielle and ending with Tatianna, with Simone inbetween. Even obnoxious Ren deserved a few more weeks for her Nude shot alone, especially over the likes of Angelea, Alasia, Brenda and Anslee. Yeah, it wasn't quite fair to lump Jaclyn in with the crazies. I also liked Monique, Nicole and Dalya from Cycle 16. My problem with Jaclyn is that she never quite elevated herself from being a "character" in the same way that my favorites usually do. She was adorable and likeable, but falls into the same category as C8 Kathleen, Brandy, Chris, Jade, Norelle, etc.: they rank high on my list because they were hilarious or endearing, but they don't quite pass the "would I be friends with this person" test, or in some cases had questionable modeling abilities. In Jaclyn's case, the only photo of her I liked was her Maniacal Makeup photo.

Sweet P's denim look is one of my favorite designs from S4, but MMV. It's flattering and chic. Week to week she kicked Christian's ass, IMO. But I did slightly prefer Christian's final collection for his over-the-top showmanship.