S09.E14: Movie Magic - Part 2

[Tara Ariano]

A winner is crowned in the conclusion of the two-part Season 9 finale. But first, the finalists finish work on their characters for the short films they're making with director and creature designer Patrick Tatopoulos.

[Taeolas]

I really hope that the judges get to see the short films BEFORE the models are presented. Given the challenge, how they show up (and move) on screen is a key element that should trump seams showing after the filming is done. 

[diebartdie]

That was a very exciting finale! My fav won, all is right with the world :D

[End Table]

I smiled from ear to ear about Nora winning.

 

I would so watch that movie! 

 

I like how they didn't set us up for an old 'switcher-aoo' setting up a different winner. Love this show!

[Mindymoo]

I was so happy for Nora! Her looks were the most cohesive, she made the best use of her time, and she delegated responsibilities the most effectively. I was worried they were going to give it to Evan, and I really wasn't that impressed with his overall film and makeups. Ben's was good, sans the victim of course. But yay for Nora, she worked her ass off all season and clearly deserved it.

[Zanne]

I didn't love it. The movie portion made me think we had our next three SyFy epics lined up for summer.  They all had the same look and feel as a typical SyFy offering. The sound effects were amped to the max. In the quarrantine one, as she was walking across the desert it sounded like someone was crunching a bag of potato chips in my ear. Makeup was okay, didn't love it or hate it - except purple girl. She looked pretty leprous considering she was supposed to be a beauty makeup. I think FaceOff needs to take a longer break so people have time to graduate (or attend) makeup school before applying for this show.

[Frozendiva]

Congratulations to Nora!

She was professional, managed her time well, let her team members do their job. Courteous to the film crew, anticipated changes.

Ben's purple woman did not work. No beauty there except for the top of the face.

I thought Evan maybe had a chance with his re-do.

All contestants were gracious at the end. No egos, no sour grapes. All won in some way. Their lives changed for the better, they all learned things about themselves and their talents. Conducted themselves with a rare class not found on many reality shows.

I also enjoyed seeing Glenn in regular work-type clothing and casual in his plaid shirt.

Was hoping that a new season would maybe start in March.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Frozendiva

[GaT]

Since I expected Nora to win, I feel good about it. I thought the 3 films were kind of crap though, isn't Patrick supposed to be a big time director?

[Crazy Bird Lady]

I thought Nora deserved to win, although I obviously wasn't as enchanted by her giant bully character as the judges were.

[Iguana]

Congrats to Nora. She was clearly the best on the final challenge and was consistently in the top during the season, and deserved the win.

I was puzzled by Ben's problem with the mouth area on the beautiful sacrifice. There didn't seem to be any texture or enhancement on that part of the appliance. When he had such trouble with it, why not just remove it and paint over the models skin?

Did they say they would be back in January with a new season? That seems awfully soon. While I love the show no matter what, this seasons contestants as a group just did not seem to have the talent and experience of previous seasons. I don't know if the talent pool is getting shallow or if this was an anomaly, but I worry that there is just not that many qualified and willing people left out there. I don't want the show to keep recycling past contestants, but I don't imagine there are huge numbers of interested people capable of doing special effects make up that haven't already applied for the show.

[LadyMustang65]

We were all so happy for Nora in our household.  It took us a while this season to settle on a favorite, but Nora was it, and we were thrilled she won.  We thought overall she did the best job, including how she worked so well on set anticipating what they would need and making sure they had it before they asked.  She's been consistently good all season.  I felt bad for Ben because that third character just was not good.  I also wondered why they didn't just take the piece off and paint.  I didn't like the 'priest' character as much as the judges did, but I did like his 'creature.'  That gooey stuff on his back as he sat up was a nice touch.  We were kind of afraid Evan would pull out the win.  As much as I thought his first pass sucked, his final three creations were all really good.  I wasn't crazy about the claw hands on the fully involved beast, but they needed claws because of the scratches on the wall.  But I thought the rest of it was good.  The female was much better than the first pass, and the guy chained to the wall was light years better than his first attempt.  I suppose we couldn't really have argued much against a win for him because his final product was good, but we just felt that Nora should win because she pretty much started where Evan ended up and deserved credit for that.  So we're very happy with the finale.  I loved seeing the short movies.  It was very cool, and I'm sure it must have been a real treat for the contestants to see their work on screen. 

 

We were also surprised to hear that the next season would start in January.  I was thinking more like March.  Do they do 3 seasons a year now?  Because it seemed like there was  one over the summer as well this year.

[Reishe]

This was by far my favorite finale, allowing the makeup crews to act like actual film makeup crews, and putting makeup to the test of film.

 

To those who are underwhelmed by the production quality of the mini-films: this is really just an extended screen test. It's not like they have the time or budget to write full scenes, do multiple takes, or add polished post-production, and I don't think anyone expected cinematic excellence. They served to show the makeups on film in actual film lighting, and in a story context. I thought everyone's characters (Ben's girl character aside) looked much better in context than they did in-studio, Veiny Girl in particular.

 

My favorite part, however, was the Final Three holding hands in front of the judges. I'm a sucker for bonding and solidarity among the contestants.

 

I do agree with everyone else that they are trying to cram too many seasons in a year; the contestant pool just isn't that deep. That's probably the suits making the decision to squeeze as many golden eggs as possible out of this goose while it's extremely popular and while the judges and the Westmores are still willing and available to participate, knowing it will have to end at some point.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Reishe

[Bella]

Congrats to Nora. She was clearly the best on the final challenge and was consistently in the top during the season, and deserved the win.

I was puzzled by Ben's problem with the mouth area on the beautiful sacrifice. There didn't seem to be any texture or enhancement on that part of the appliance. When he had such trouble with it, why not just remove it and paint over the models skin?

Did they say they would be back in January with a new season? That seems awfully soon. While I love the show no matter what, this seasons contestants as a group just did not seem to have the talent and experience of previous seasons. I don't know if the talent pool is getting shallow or if this was an anomaly, but I worry that there is just not that many qualified and willing people left out there. I don't want the show to keep recycling past contestants, but I don't imagine there are huge numbers of interested people capable of doing special effects make up that haven't already applied for the show.

 

I agree with all of this, and really, Ben screwed up massively on the third character. The appliance wasn't going to add anything anyway, and it ended up severely detracting from the character. He should have left it off and done a straightforward face paint. This also speaks to the need for a Plan B, which every designer should have in the back of his or her mind in case something goes wrong. We often see these quick pivots, but Ben clearly didn't have a back-up plan here. 

 

Anyway, I was happy for Nora. I liked her work and I liked her. I also worry about where the show is going to get new contestants with strong skills - unless the show itself is spurring people to train for a profession with a limited number of jobs, which is a whole different conundrum.

[rasalas]

I agree with all of this, and really, Ben screwed up massively on the third character. The appliance wasn't going to add anything anyway, and it ended up severely detracting from the character. He should have left it off and done a straightforward face paint. This also speaks to the need for a Plan B, which every designer should have in the back of his or her mind in case something goes wrong. We often see these quick pivots, but Ben clearly didn't have a back-up plan here.

 

Not only that, but Ben messed up by having Jason almost entirely responsible for that character. That made no sense at all. Ben must have been scared off by the idea of doing a "beauty" makeup, so he assigned it to someone who he thought was best qualified. But do you want to trust your fate to the person kicked off the show the earliest on your team? That showed poor leadership and management.

[Phebemarie]

Was Ben the only one assigned a straight forward beauty makeup?  I hope next season, if they consider a similar finale, that all players have the same requirements.  Throughout the season, I don't think many of the contestants expressed a lot of happiness when they were asked to do beauty makeup.  

[Primetimer]

Three monster mini-movies lead to one champion. Finally!

Read the story

[Jesse]

I smiled from ear to ear about Nora winning.

 

I would so watch that movie! 

 

I like how they didn't set us up for an old 'switcher-aoo' setting up a different winner. Love this show!

Me too! I was really nervous, since Nora had been such an obvious front-runner the whole time. 

 

Since I expected Nora to win, I feel good about it. I thought the 3 films were kind of crap though, isn't Patrick supposed to be a big time director?

You can only do so much in a few hours -- did they even do multiple takes on anything? The films weren't the real point, anyway -- like Reishe said, it was more a test to see how the makeups did in real-world conditions. 

 

Whatever weaknesses we perceive these contestants as having, I can't fault them for their teamwork or commitment.  It is their attitude that will provide them a good base for continuing on in their careers, whichever direction it takes them.  Whatever they lack in technique, they can learn, but there is a lot to recommend them as a group.  Norah has been my favorite for a long time, so I was pleased to see her win.  I would like to see Scott come back and have another chance, but I don't know that it is possible.

 

At the end of the game, I am still pleased with this show and look forward to the next one.  I hope they keep the idea of having a movie short finale...that is the best way to show how the contestants work under real life conditions on a set.  And I have to admit, no matter what I think of him as a director, I could listen to Patrick talk all day long (yes, I am shallow). 

Yes to all of this. They seemed like a great group and I bet they all work. And yes! re: Patrick.

 

It does really feel like they are running out of contestants, though -- but maybe if they frame it more explicitly as being for up-and-comers -- recent grads, hobbyists, etc., it could still be interesting to watch. 

[leighdear]

That was the most satisfying ending and winner for a reality show as I've seen in a long time!  Though both Laura's win in season 5 and Dina's win in season 7 made me happy too.  

 

I kept waiting to see even a tiny bit of "sweetie" interaction between Patrick and Mac, but no dice.  Both professionals to the end.  And I usually dislike French accents, but for Patrick, i'd make an exception.  *LOL*  

 

Looks like we'll be back here in January for the next cycle, so see y'all around campus!  

Edited October 28, 2015 by leighdear

[diebartdie]

I thought it was really weird Ben was carrying on about how he had already painted his priest character so all he had to do was focus on little details while Jason was over there ruining the beauty makeup. Why was Ben being so utterly oblivious? Look at Nora, she's finishing her giant, she's supervising Meg and Jasmine, she's telling Ricky to fix her a sammich, she's putting more fake dirt on her characters, she's composing a fresh blog post, she's doing everything, full control. Now look at Evan, his entire team so on point, doing exactly what needs to be doing, well oiled machine there. Now see Ben, oblivious Ben not even realizing this incredibly vital makeup is being chewed right straight to hell. Sorry Ben but YOU really screwed the pooch on that one.

[Ketzel]

I thought screen-testing the makeup was a brilliant idea for a finale, although I have to admit I burst out laughing when Nora's desperately fleeing character fell into the water and then whistled for her rescuer like she was calling a dog.

 

Did I miss Patrick telling Ben that his beautiful victim had to be of the same alien race as his other characters? Because if  he did, where was her domed head? And if he didn't, why not produce a beautiful human victim and avoid the need for facial prosthetics completely? Just making a beautiful model look beautiful seems to be the consistently hardest thing for most of these contestants to do, so I'd guess he'd have gotten big points if he'd pulled it off. That whole series of design (and supervisory) choices was just bad, imo.

[Lorimac]

Teen-Age Son threatened to boycott FO if Nora did not win, so even bigger sigh of relief when she did win because otherwise who would I watch with?  Anyway, she did seem the clear winner after last week, but I was a little worried when Evan seemed to be getting his act together (finally) (again).

 

But the thing that impressed me was that at the end of Nora's shoot, there was a big group hug with the models and you could see her personally thanking each model and each team member, whereas Evan just hugged his team, and Ben just kind of wandered off.  No disrespect to Evan and Ben, but her actions showed Nora is a class act.  People will want to continue to work with her if she fosters this kind of team-driven working environment.

[Maelstrom]

That was a lot of fun! I'd love it if they could do mini films for every finale - it makes so much more sense to put the contestants in a real-world film set than the microcosm of the FO stage.

 

I had figured Nora had the win in the bag, but I'm so happy she won. She really worked her butt off for this, and IMO merited it on sheer force of will alone. And how great is FO compared to every other crappy reality competition to see the three finalists holding hands and being so genuinely happy for the winner? I still think they should cut down to one season per year, just to give the talent pool time to fill back in, but this show is still miles above the rest in quality. Well done, Show. And well done, Nora!

 

Evan really surprised me last night - I'd kind of discounted him considering how off the mark his designs were in last week's ep, but wow. He really pulled it together. Loved the redesign on the captive, and I thought he was smart to utilize the model's (Matt?) own features a little more. And speaking of, it was really nice to see the models we've watched for how many seasons have more of a chance to act and sink their teeth into things, so to speak. And I have to confess that I would love to watch a tv series or movie based on Evan's characters - Quarantine Zone the Series!

 

Ben, as noted, really missed the boat with the third character. I don't know why he wanted full facial prosthetics on a beauty character anyway - she's a model, she's pretty to begin with. Give her a small brow appliance if you feel the need and then grab the eye shadow and start beautifying. And not to sound mean, but I felt all season Jason was one of the weaker contenders. Why give him sole responsibility for the newly-added, untested character? Did Ben ever come over and see how he was coming along?

 

Not one of their strongest seasons overall but I really enjoyed this finale challenge, and the contestants as always seem like thoroughly decent people, which is one of the best parts of this show compared to other reality shows (I'm looking at you, Skin Wars!)

 

January has been when they come back for the new season for several years now. Too soon IMO, but clearly they don't need to listen to me. The preview made next season look rather monster-heavy, hopefully it's just a trick by the promo monkeys and the challenges will be as varied as this season's were. See you guys in January!

 

ETA - According to Wiki, Face Off has always premiered its first season of the year in January, with the second season of the year starting in July or August. And season one was the only time they did one season per year - they've been doing two per year ever since the second season.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Maelstrom

[Monty9]

 

Maelstrom

Loved the redesign on the captive, and I thought he was smart to utilize the model's (Matt?) own features a little more

 

 

Yup it's Matt i.e. My Boo (Kidding..... Sort of... Kinda.)

[Quilt Fairy]

I enjoyed everything about the finale, except for one thing: it was very monster/zombie/alien heavy. Now you might argue that that's mostly what they're going to be needing in the "real" world, but I prefer these guys be challenged and out of their comfort zone a little more. Hey, next time how about a potential Tim Burton movie? That would be a real test. Can you spell "whimsy"?

Edited October 28, 2015 by Quilt Fairy

[Kaoteek]

I'm pretty meh about that finale. Not meh about Nora's win, mind you - her creations were clearly the best ones - but meh about the Tatopoulos shorts, meh about the overall quality of make-up & prosthetics works, and meh about the overall season.

 

I'm glad Nora won, she was likeable (all of them were), but to be honest, the talent level really seems to be slowly, but surely, going down with every passing season.

 

(also, kinda annoyed by "Evan, your third character needs to be.... a big ugly monster ! ; Nora, your third character needs to be... a giant ugly monster ! ; Ben, your third character needs to be... well... a pretty, tiny princess offered in sacrifice. Good luck !")

[Richness]

Ben and Evan continued their high and low position switch all the way through the final. That makes six episodes in a row where they've alternated back and forth like that. Evan's work was so much better and much improved in this episode. However, I felt Ben's resurrected ancient alien was the best looking creature of the night among all three teams. Too bad the pretty, pretty princess victim was not, and was so bad.

 

So I guess congratulations are in order for Nora. She's a nice lady that has been the most consistent throughout the year. While she only had one win and one low compared to the guys, she's been safe or in the top looks most of the time. At least there wasn't a melt down / panic in this episode. While she recovers from them well and soldiers on, they were getting annoying in previous episodes. The tears this time were tears of joy from having won. I liked her personally, but I'm not really sure I was rooting for her to win. However, shame on Nevil for disparaging Groot like that, though I did think it was the weakest of the three.

 

Otherwise, Glenn was pulling off his best lumberjack impersonation while screening Nora's photoshoot (and that's OK). Or at least I assume that was Glenn since he wasn't in his usual gothpunk. I was surprised they bothered with the special effects for the films. I noticed the birds in Evan's and the bugs in Ben's, but nothing for Nora's. Maybe hers was good enough that it didn't need embellishing. Like others, I really appreciated this for a final challenge. Hopefully it returns.

 

Also having Ricky back threw me for a loop. Something about his appearance makes me think hobbit for some reason. Then during the show, there was a commercial that featured Peter Pan, though I've forgotten what the commercial was advertising. Anyway, I thought that Pan was Ricky, and thought he had suddenly moved in front of the camera instead of behind. Oh well.

 

Did they say they would be back in January with a new season? That seems awfully soon.

 

We were also surprised to hear that the next season would start in January.  I was thinking more like March.  Do they do 3 seasons a year now?  Because it seemed like there was  one over the summer as well this year.

 

As Maelstrom pointed out, January has always been when the winter/spring season starts. He did a perfect job of explaining that this has been the way it's always been. This seems to surprise people every year, when that's the way it's always been. I continue to be baffled by the confusion over this (both here and on TWOP when it was around). However, that's different from those who feel they're exhausting the talent pool by having two seasons per year. I'm not sure if I agree with this, or support them dropping down to one season per year, but I at least understand that feeling. It's the exclamations of an early start that baffle me.

 

But the thing that impressed me was that at the end of Nora's shoot, there was a big group hug with the models and you could see her personally thanking each model and each team member, whereas Evan just hugged his team, and Ben just kind of wandered off.  No disrespect to Evan and Ben, but her actions showed Nora is a class act.  People will want to continue to work with her if she fosters this kind of team-driven working environment.

 

There's no reason to believe that Ben and Evan didn't also show appreciation to their models. However, it works better with the story narrative to show Nora being more personal since she won. It's all very clever editor manipulation by a reality show to make the viewers more comfortable or happy with the winner. That's not saying that Nora is not a great person, only that it serves the show better if she's liked more.

 

With that said, I really don't think Ben made for good TV with his nerdish, awkward, and soft-spoken personality. I doubt he provided much for the editors to go on. Nor is he the touchy-feely/hugging type. Besides, after his creeper character that drew upon so much of himself, I'm not sure I'd want him to be either.

 

Bottom line, I continue to enjoy Face Off, and am eager to see the next season.

[Vicky8675309]

This was my least favorite season but I'm glad Nora won.

[starri]

Every time I think this show has scraped the bottom of the talent barrel, they come up with Dina, or Emily (even if she didn't win), or Nora.

 

I was really concerned going into the episode because like a lot of people, I thought Evan was getting the Winner's Edit.  First to compliment him:  he improved the make up a lot, and I loved the Captive character--the two different colored eyes really popped on camera.  But I thought the Wanderer was pretty meh, and while the Creature looked a lot better when it was revised from its original form, I still didn't think it was that great.

 

Ben has seemed like a nice guy on Reddit, and he's put out some looks that I've liked, but I didn't really care for any of these.  He's just never really clicked with me.  Nice job on the one makeup, but even without the flawed application, the female character was not great, and I didn't see a bishop's mitre in the Priest character, I just saw the exact same thing he put out for the Star Trek challenge.

 

Nora's tree guy looked flat-out amazing on camera.  Best makeup of the challenge, and probably of the season.  Doing realistic tree forms has been one of the harder things that we've seen on the show over the years, and to not only be able to pull it off, but to pull it off to that level, was, to channel Neville, really impressive work.  Big goofy smile on my face when they announced the name.

 

For every way this season could have gone wrong, they've had a lot of really fun, and different challenges.  See everyone in January.

 

ETA:  Am I the only one that thought that Nora's Ally character looked like Patrick?

Edited October 29, 2015 by starri

[CherZ]

This was my least favorite season but I'm glad Nora won.

 

Yeah, wasn't thrilled this season. and very unhappy with a lot of it (Scott going home, WTF?) but happy it was Nora who won.

[Zanne]

While Nora's was technically a good makeup, it resulted in cognitive dissonance for me. I just thought it didn't ring true a tree with massive flesh tearing teeth existed. A tree is not a carnivore. I think it would have rankled less had the victim been more tree-like. Then the appearance of a dangerous tree at the end would've felt earned. I don't know. Nothing leapt out as awesome this year.

[Frozendiva]

Yeah, wasn't thrilled this season. and very unhappy with a lot of it (Scott going home, WTF?) but happy it was Nora who won.

 

The applicant pool wasn't as strong this season. No real stand-out or someone special like a Dina, or Laura, or Anthony. Nora, with her good work ethic, team skills, management skills was the best and is probably the most hireable for future assignments.

[sourpickles]

I haven't commented in a couple of weeks, mostly because I had nothing new to say, combined with apathy towards this season as a whole. I'm really hoping once I take some time and then watch it again it'll seem less mediocre. I've done that with every show I watch, from Top Model to Top Chef to Ink Master. I thought Ben might win, but Nora got a lot of screen time this season so I wasn't surprised. Congrats to her, I hope she has a long and distinguished career. See ya'll in January!

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Did I miss Patrick telling Ben that his beautiful victim had to be of the same alien race as his other characters? Because if  he did, where was her domed head? And if he didn't, why not produce a beautiful human victim and avoid the need for facial prosthetics completely? Just making a beautiful model look beautiful seems to be the consistently hardest thing for most of these contestants to do, so I'd guess he'd have gotten big points if he'd pulled it off.

I did not understand this AT ALL.  What was he trying to accomplish with the facial prosthetic in the first place if he wasn't going to continue with the domed head thing?  I kept looking at the prosthetic and trying to figure out what it would have looked like, if it had turned out the way he wanted.  And I STILL couldn't see it.

If he'd just done a really first class beauty makeup on the model's actual face he would have been better off.  I still think Nora would have won, but Ben's victim was the only poor makeup in the whole finale.

 

ETA:  Am I the only one that thought that Nora's Ally character looked like Patrick?

I didn't. but boy Mr Rat did. I kept thinking that Patrick kind of looks like her dad , especially around the eyes and nose.

[needschocolate]

It always bugs me on reality competition shows when contestants say they deserve to win because they "want it more" or they "worked harder than anyone else."  I don't think anyone on Face Off has ever said that...about themselves, but Ben said something similar about Nora - something like "I am happy Nora won, she worked harder for it."  Face Off always has the nicest contestants.

 

While Nora's was technically a good makeup, it resulted in cognitive dissonance for me. I just thought it didn't ring true a tree with massive flesh tearing teeth existed. A tree is not a carnivore. I think it would have rankled less had the victim been more tree-like. Then the appearance of a dangerous tree at the end would've felt earned. I don't know. Nothing leapt out as awesome this year.

 

Your post got me thinking -- if a tree is a vegetarian, would it be a cannibal?

[hincandenza]

Haven't been commenting much this year, but I'm kind of disappointed with the winner, similar to last year.  At least last year, Darla could arguably be said to have the better finale costumes in that episode.  This year, given the judges feedback, I'm not sure what metric was being used: purely the makeups?  On-camera look? Skill with working on set?  Time management?  Etc?. 

 

For me, based solely on the makeups as we saw in the final movies, I'd have ranked the finale output as Ben, Evan, then Nora.  Ben's had the most cohesive theme and feel, and that "Cro-Magnon alien" was spectacular.  Evan surprised me because on-camera, his looked great and felt like something we'd actually see in a low-budget movie (right up to the Troma-style infected monster).  By comparison, Nora's "bait" looked sloppy, her tree creature was weird and plastic looking, and the relation between the characters didn't make much visual sense.  Compared to Ben's 2/3 of epicness (did he basically lose entirely due to that beauty makeup?  Because his creature was without a doubt the best creation), or the surprise of Evan's final output, Nora's was very weak and bland to me: no real concept, ot cleverness, and mediocre execution... which honestly, I think defined her season.

 

I'm confused by people saying here this was Nora's to lose: go look at the season results.  Sure, Ben had a couple of low weeks, but he won 4 times- to Nora's once and Evan's twice- and had other top looks appearances.  His best was head and shoulders over anyone else this season, which makes Ben- Deputy Dawg expressions and all- the "Emily" or "Dina" of this season, not Nora. She never really wowed me, and was safely in the top quarter of contestants, but that's about it.  And as an aside, it's a shame Syfy's web designers don't make an option to filter/sort photos so I can see for example every look that a contestant did  that season, on a single page.

 

Given Nora's little soundbite when she won about having only recently graduated from that makeup school... I'm a *little* skeptical that there wasn't a thumb on the scale for a graduate of whatever this school they affiliated themselves with to be a winner.

 

Every time I think this show has scraped the bottom of the talent barrel, they come up with Dina, or Emily (even if she didn't win), or Nora.

[...]

For every way this season could have gone wrong, they've had a lot of really fun, and different challenges.  See everyone in January.

[...]

ETA:  Am I the only one that thought that Nora's Ally character looked like Patrick?

 

I totally thought the new monster in Nora's scene was like an albino vampire Patrick!  I laughed when I saw that, because I figured it was some unconscious projection from the stress of that finale: her big bad monster was... the director. :)

 

Lastly, whatever complaints I have about some of the talent level, and some of the judging outcomes, this show continues to excel at small but interesting tweaks to the format.  I do love some of the new concepts they've been trying: this show does a lot to improve while still making it fun, watchable, and good-natured.  The 1-hour bottom looks gimmick to get into the finale worked for me, I hope they use that more, and this two-part finale was fantastic in its structure: what a great way to really put the finalists through their paces, test their chops, and ultimately judge it on the only thing that matters, which is how it looks on-screen.  So while January is awful soon, which means they've already shot it, which means they aren't giving themselves time to hear and react to feedback from a season in time for the next... it's not like I won't still watch.  This is one of the few shows I've kept up with since I canceled my cable and went to online-streaming only.

[Linderhill]

 

For me, based solely on the makeups as we saw in the final movies, I'd have ranked the finale output as Ben, Evan, then Nora.  Ben's had the most cohesive theme and feel, and that "Cro-Magnon alien" was spectacular.  Evan surprised me because on-camera, his looked great and felt like something we'd actually see in a low-budget movie (right up to the Troma-style infected monster).  By comparison, Nora's "bait" looked sloppy, her tree creature was weird and plastic looking, and the relation between the characters didn't make much visual sense.  Compared to Ben's 2/3 of epicness (did he basically lose entirely due to that beauty makeup?  Because his creature was without a doubt the best creation), or the surprise of Evan's final output, Nora's was very weak and bland to me: no real concept, ot cleverness, and mediocre execution... which honestly, I think defined her season.

 

I'm confused by people saying here this was Nora's to lose: go look at the season results.  Sure, Ben had a couple of low weeks, but he won 4 times- to Nora's once and Evan's twice- and had other top looks appearances.  His best was head and shoulders over anyone else this season, which makes Ben- Deputy Dawg expressions and all- the "Emily" or "Dina" of this season, not Nora. She never really wowed me, and was safely in the top quarter of contestants, but that's about it.  And as an aside, it's a shame Syfy's web designers don't make an option to filter/sort photos so I can see for example every look that a contestant did  that season, on a single page.

this, I completely agree.  Yes, Nora is a very nice girl but I never thought she lived up to the potential everyone seemed to expect from her.  I really didn't like her first character, the woman at all.  Bland, ugly and generic.  The tree character, yes, plastic and cartoony.  Its too bad that Ben didn't keep track of what was happening with his female character.  I definitely think it was the fumble on her that lost the competition for him.  I was surprised at how much I ended up liking Evan's looks.  He really pulled it out despite his slow start.

[Richness]

I'm confused by people saying here this was Nora's to lose: go look at the season results.  Sure, Ben had a couple of low weeks, but he won 4 times- to Nora's once and Evan's twice- and had other top looks appearances.  His best was head and shoulders over anyone else this season, which makes Ben- Deputy Dawg expressions and all- the "Emily" or "Dina" of this season, not Nora. She never really wowed me, and was safely in the top quarter of contestants, but that's about it.

 

 

I think Nora wins the popularity contest simply because of her personality. I enjoy seeing Nora (except when she's crying and/or melting down), whereas watching Ben depresses me every time. He just doesn't have a good screen presence. Evan is somewhere between the two, but he suffers from the beard=evil / hipster look (not that I agree with it, as I found him rather handsome). It also helps that Nora's low look was earlier in the season, with plenty of time for people to forget, whereas Ben's were more recent. None of that really indicates why the judges chose Nora though, and I couldn't venture a guess.

[90PercentGravity]

I thought Evan's creature looked like Sloth had a baby with Swamp Thing. Sloth Thing.