S11.E01: Abstract Aliens

[ratgirlagogo]

In general I really HATE HATE HATE when reality competition shows feel the need to  bust out some New Ideas - when we in the audience already PREFER this show to others because of the ideas it already has!  But for once I'm cool with at least two New Ideas.  One being the Team Challenge Season that is endemic on these shows - it works much better on this one, as it would on something like Top Chef ( if, and only IF, they were to carry it throughout the season as they are apparently doing here) than it did on, ahem, RuPaul's Drag Race, since this kind of work is never done solo anyway.  And I think the alternating elimination weeks is also a good idea.    The other was the Never Before In Face-Off History green screen challenge.  Why DIDN'T they ever do a green screen challenge before?  This was a great idea.

On the dumb idea side - Mackenzie coming down in a helicopter.  Oh, for...... come on, she's Jeff Probst now?

[SherriAnt]

On ‎2017‎-‎01‎-‎24 at 9:09 PM, Maelstrom said:

George and his shorty-shorts

Ha! I was just coming here to talk about that! I actuallly love Team Truetron (sp?) so this is going to be fun.  Team BlueHair (I refuse to say Merwolf) was way better than I thought they'd be, they seemed a little flustered at first.

I liked that Mackenzie wasn't in another bandage dress, and I loved the colour and shape, I just wish it was a bit longer.

I am soooo happy this is back, now I just need Skin Wars!

Edited January 27, 2017 by SherriAnt
because talk about and say exactly are different

[Maelstrom]

20 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

And I think the alternating elimination weeks is also a good idea.    The other was the Never Before In Face-Off History green screen challenge.  Why DIDN'T they ever do a green screen challenge before?  This was a great idea.

I've long felt that an elimination every week often forced off people with actual talent, that I would've loved to see more from, just because they had an off week. And it's especially bothered me when they eliminate after the very first challenge (especially in most seasons where the contestants weren't familiar with the lab and the time constraints/show structure). So an elimination every other week makes perfect sense to me, too.

I'm willing to bet they've never done the green screen challenge before due to how expensive it probably is. It seems like cutting down to one season per year has given them a much bigger budget to work with, which is really a winning situation all around. I hope they bring the green screen challenge back in the future!

[starri]

13 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

I hope they bring the green screen challenge back in the future!

I'm not going to be surprised if, having invested in it, we see it at least a few times this season.

[Taeolas]

Is Green Screen all that expensive? Every studio in the country uses it for the Weather; and we could see the tech for live viewing it was pretty trivial (see also the weather in every studio in the country). I think Skin Wars has also used it before too (but I may be wrong). Considering the other challenges they've done (Underwater and Florescent/Glow in the Dark challenges), green screen is pretty trivial.

It's probably something that they use a lot but never really remembered it until some challenge designer pointed it out. Hopefully there weren't too many concussions from the facepalming-duh's when the idea was brought up. :)

 

And I agree, I hope it shows up more often both this season and next. Maybe 2, at most 3 more challenges with a Green screen would be perfect for this season. Cut it back to 2 per season in the future. 

[hincandenza]

5 hours ago, Taeolas said:

Is Green Screen all that expensive? Every studio in the country uses it for the Weather; and we could see the tech for live viewing it was pretty trivial (see also the weather in every studio in the country). I think Skin Wars has also used it before too (but I may be wrong). Considering the other challenges they've done (Underwater and Florescent/Glow in the Dark challenges), green screen is pretty trivial.

It's probably something that they use a lot but never really remembered it until some challenge designer pointed it out. Hopefully there weren't too many concussions from the facepalming-duh's when the idea was brought up. :)

And I agree, I hope it shows up more often both this season and next. Maybe 2, at most 3 more challenges with a Green screen would be perfect for this season. Cut it back to 2 per season in the future. 

Yeah, green screen is dirt cheap since you just need a backdrop/paint of a specific shade of green; the software portion at this point is such a solved problem that the top search results for "linux green screen" are articles reviewing the top 7 to 10 best free packages.  I think the face-palm theory is much more likely, but that's cool that the show still tries to shake things up and try new gimmicks while keeping the core of what makes it one of the best competitive reality shows on TV.

I liked this episode; I remembered a little more than half of the people I think, although some look a lot different since it's been half a decade.  I hope the team thing is kept for enough episodes to maintain the fairness we've been talking about (only doing eliminations every other week, based on both projects) but eventually ditched to be an individual competition.

I might have picked a different winner/top looks; I'd definitely have added the Cig/George patrician shrimp as a top look, because it was an amazing character that just oozed personality and character, used the green screen to great subtle effect, and looks like it stepped right out of a Pink Floyd music video.  And I might have given the win to either those two, or to Rachael and Gage for their skeleton shrimp, because it was also great (cheap) way to really change the silhouette, which is often the most difficult part of most costumes on this show that aren't supposed to be human. But really, all three of Cig/George, Rachael/Gage, and Keaghlan/Melissa excelled at using the green screen way beyond everyone else; I suppose with the body movement chops of Megan in that truly non-human shape was what put the winner over the top with the judges.

[Black Knight]

On 1/24/2017 at 11:30 PM, Richness said:

Glad to have my Face Off back. However, if you're going to do an All-Stars season, what was the point of making us wait a whole year? They could have done All-Stars in the Fall, and done newbies now.

This show's biggest problem was the rapidly depleting talent pool, and this way they have bought two years to replenish it instead of just one. The next newbie season ought to be a lot better than the last few.

Oh look, the top two were Megan and the model whom I'm not sure they've ever name-checked like they have Megan but puts in as much effort into selling the character.

Although they didn't have a top look this week, I expect that Emily and Tyler are the heavy favorites to win this season - at least, if the show sticks with the team concept the entire time. It could be that the competition gets narrowed down to one team, and then for the finale the team is split up to compete against each other for the grand win.

[PepperMonkey]

I love this show. Love that it's back.

Wish they could keep everyone all season long: maybe just do a points system so we could enjoy all of these characters and not have to see anyone go. I can't think of any one of these contestants that I don't like.

I'll be sad to see TWO people leave next week.

Edited January 29, 2017 by PepperMonkey

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

Face Off Makes A Trout Mask Replica For The Abstract Aliens Challenge In Its Premiere

An all-star season kicks off with teams of two making weird fish creatures.

[Nutjob]

I love Cig and George unapologetically. I got all happy when they showed George's hopefully weekly minute of goofing around for no good reason... I just hope he doesn't drag Cig down, because I recall he's not quite as talented.

On the opposite end, I was surprised at how poorly Evan/Ben did, then I remembered how it seemed like Ben was ALWAYS in the weeds during his season and barely squeaked everything out.

So glad this show is back!