S01.E04: Fight for Your Life

[RealReality]

2 hours ago, nb360 said:

Yes, so compared to Josh -- who refused to grovel -- Troy came off less ... I'm not sure of the right word, "dignified."

And that....was a shitty look for this show.  I won't get too far into the weeds, but the optics of a white man being able to retain his dignity, while a poor black man grovels and gets sent packing......is just not good.  It didn't make me feel good.  

What troy sent down was a mess.  So I cannot fault them for sending him home ...but that wasn't good.  Particularly since they went out of their way to show him earnestly working while the others drank wine and saying that it was do or die.  Normally that would set up a come from behind underdog win.  

[staphdude]

On 4/5/2020 at 9:16 AM, Corgi-ears said:

I fucking hate the judging format.

It's not even the criterion -- "we're not just looking for a great designer, we're looking for the next global brand (that Amazon can exploit)!" -- that I mainly have an issue with. I do detest this kind of neoliberal bullshit in which people become "brands" and commodities, but this is the world we live in and at least the show is upfront about being indentured to this kind of late capitalist logic. 

But as this ep made clear, the show and judges have a reality show notion of what it takes to be a brand, and what it is to show "fire" and "passion." And in turn, they seem to take that to mean dramatics and hysterics. They clearly wanted Troy (and in the last ep, Josh) to carry on and speechify and give them a reality TV moment. Troy is a black man in America, and in the last ep told us that he grew up poor without a dad, and with a single mom with whom he still lives in "the projects in Harlem." And he has no doubt worked hard to become a teacher at Parson's. And this judging panel of well-off, privileged people -- acting on behalf of Jeff Bezos, who obviously would miss the million dollars -- has the cheek to sit there and demand that he show them how much he "wants it." Not by living his life the way he has, but presumably by some TV-friendly act of grovelling, pleading, and begging the judges to give him another chance. It was Tyra "we were all rooting for you" Banks-levels of bullshit.

Troy chose to join this fashion roadshow and face the criticism of a panel of judges be they buffoons or the most dignified fashion experts. Everyone has an experience that shapes them and it is hard when a panel f strangers essentially negates those experiences by giving a superficial critique of hastily made items. Again don't put yourself in that position.

On 4/6/2020 at 2:32 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

My issue with the entire concept of this episode/challenge is that as a customer and viewer, I don’t care how much passion you have. Just make good clothes (or conversely, don’t make ugly clothes). Your level of passion makes no difference to me when I’m selecting what looks good.

I have the same feeling when I watch cooking competition shows. If I’m out in the dining room, I don’t care how much passion/love/fire you have. I just want to eat something delicious.

It would be better if they said that the passion or fire could be expressed in the lengths they go to creating well made and unique designs. It is a design compettiton but so much is rather pedestrian. I do not want the traditional reality litany of sob/pseudo inspirational stories.

[Josiemae]

On 4/3/2020 at 9:15 PM, leighdear said:

Check out "The Great Pottery Throwdown" on You Tube that qtpye recommended in the last episode thread.  It's brilliant!  I'm already on Episode 3 of the 1st season.  Really fun & creative.....

Thanks for the suggestion!  I need something, anything, to replace this show. Waaaaay too much Heidi for one thing.  Plus the hideous music is far too loud, that mean Naomi person can hardly put a sentence together, and the designers "begging for their lives" is a cringe-fest. Big fat fail, Amazon. 

[sasha206]

On 4/3/2020 at 8:06 PM, leighdear said:

And it looks exactly like all the other things she's designed so far.  And she had the nerve to say that Megan's color-block asymmetrical top was a common design?

Bitch, please......

Next week is Street Wear?  Wanna bet she's going to have a loose, droopy jumpsuit or sloppy separates with lots of visible stitching and long strings hanging all over them?  Worn with sneakers too. 

Minju, the Korean woman from "Next in Fashion" did the same loose, billowy, ballooning type dress almost every challenge, and got showered with compliments every time. 

I don't get how some designers can keep sending the SAME looks down the runway show after show and never get slammed for it.  Mind boggling. 

YES! 

I was not a fan of Minju from NIF either.  I don't understand it other than they are tapping into the culture for some reason, the fashion judges think this is edgy and hip.

Ji Won's design made the model look fat.  If it's making the model look 50 pounds heavier, I sure wouldn't want to wear it.

Meanwhile, the winning look, is only going to look good on a tall skinny model. However, I was glad he won just because I hate one notes like Esther who use black who think that makes them edgy or powerful.  It's fucking boring.   Just like Sabato's one note flowing dresses.   I did think Esther's would be more flattering than most of the looks.

 

 

[Eolivet]

On 4/2/2020 at 9:52 PM, Ashforth said:

Well, doesn't that sound rather "Project Runway." hmm.

And no surprise this was the most hustle we've ever seen out of the designers. As other posters remarked before, what gives Project Runway its urgency is the deadline, the responsibility on the designers to rise and fall based on their own skill set. That's what drives Project Runway, and it's what I thought this snooze-fest was in desperate need of. Sabato snapping at Troy over a sewing machine. Will making pants for the first time. Troy making a dress in less than an hour. Thank goodness the show realized -- for one week anyway -- there's no conflict, no story in "oh, my seamstress shall sew it for me." That reality competition shows are supposed to be full of adrenaline.

I feel the same way about excess Tim and Heidi as I did about Boston Rob and Sandra on Survivor last season: they're only there because your contestants are dull. If the show hadn't cast so poorly, it wouldn't be leaning so heavily on its existing "personalities." Or maybe it would, but it wouldn't have to. As it was, I had a moment of "there's a Troy?" last episode and "there's a Rinat?" this one.

Maybe that's part of the problem: it's hard to develop strong rooting interests in mostly unremarkable characters. And therefore, much harder to invest fully in the show that features them.

[sasha206]

4 hours ago, Eolivet said:

And no surprise this was the most hustle we've ever seen out of the designers. As other posters remarked before, what gives Project Runway its urgency is the deadline, the responsibility on the designers to rise and fall based on their own skill set. That's what drives Project Runway, and it's what I thought this snooze-fest was in desperate need of. Sabato snapping at Troy over a sewing machine. Will making pants for the first time. Troy making a dress in less than an hour. Thank goodness the show realized -- for one week anyway -- there's no conflict, no story in "oh, my seamstress shall sew it for me." That reality competition shows are supposed to be full of adrenaline.

 

This is totally what ruins it for me.  I want to see them do it from cradle to grave, not hand it off.  It is a reality show after all.  

To me, it's like watching a Top Chef knock off where the chefs come up with the recipe and hand it off to a chef to finish it.

 

[Ashforth]

I found it interesting that after a number of comments in the thread for the previous episode about how low energy this show has been, this episode opened with Heidi complaining to the designers about the low energy level and launching into a PR-style, short time high pressure challenge. 

Interesting, since Heidi and Tim left PR because they wanted to do it their own way. And their own way led them back to doing it PR's way. 🙄

[RemoteControlFreak]

Am I the only one cringing nearly every time Heidi is on screen?  Her "look at me!" demeanor is distracting and we don't need her screaming about everything from fencing to the fact they're going to Tokyo.

She needs to take three giant steps back and let the designers and their work be at center stage.

[kirklandia]

I found it less painful to watch covered-up-Heidi fencing than 
Moulin-Rouge-Heidi dancing.

To me, it sounds like they have been shopping at the same bargain-basement knock-off foreground-music store as HGTV and the Food Network.

[Silver Raven]

I thought Jonny's dress was ugly af.

Joseph keeps reminding me of Darren Criss.