S13.E01: Face Your Fears 2018.06.05

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

In the season premiere of Face Off, twelve of your favorite artists return to the competition with a twist: this time they're battling.

Promos:

 

 

[Frozendiva]

I only recognized a few of the contestants from previous seasons. No one is standing out so far. Too many.

 Nice to see the judges again, and Mr. Westmore.

[Maelstrom]

Doug Jones, yay!! We love you!

OK, so this season is off to a... start. Not liking the “battle” concept - didn’t they learn their lesson after last season’s disastrous team challenge? These one-on-one battles leave it open for unfair results such as both makeups in one challenge are excellent yet one has to lose, while another challenge has two crappy makeups where one is rewarded. Disappointing.

And seriously, Kelly won?! I remember her from her previous season, and I wish I didn’t. She is just as nails-on-a-chalkboard irritating as she was before. And apparently I’m blind or stupid because I really don’t see how her mess of a makeup (that in no way resembled an egg) was better than Matt’s tinkerbell. WTF, judges? And here I was hoping she’d be the first to go.

I remember just about everyone from their previous seasons, and there are a few I’m glad to see again. Also nice to see Matt, Megan and Nayeli again, even if they were covered in,pounds of foam latex. And as always, it’s nice to behold Glenn’s hair again. It’s frequently one of the most creative and outlandish things on the reveal stage.

[enoughcats]

Positives:

Doug Jones and our three judges.  

The models, all of whom I recognized even if I don't know their names.  Some of the guys are so darned handsome ....words fail.

I don't know the movies that the figures were supposed to fit in with....anybody got a link with lots of pictures?

Not positive:

Project Runway All Stars has taught me to be skeptical every time an "all star" group is named. 

Kelly and her loud and vulgar mouth....is this the beginning of an arc? (Hope not)

Hated the fast intro of contestants with photos they had done...wish there had been more explanation of why the previous designs were what they were.  I'll probably rewatch that with lots of use of pause. 

Hate the intro chatter, much of it silly or too much "this time I'll be different" because it almost all sounds alike.

BUT, I'm so glad it's back, if only for a while.

[LittleIggy]

Doug Jones! ?

I think Ben should have won too. His Tinkerbell was exquisite and very Del Toro-esque.

The woman with the stretched out earlobes and the nose rings made me ?. Why do people do that to themselves?

[mlp]

I was so happy to see this show back (although also sad it's the last season) but a bit dismayed by some of the people they're calling all-stars.  A few of them were anything but.  I didn't see season 1 so I didn't remember Jo.  She's just gross.  I remember Kelly as ranging from so-so to hot mess.  I didn't begin to understand what the judges saw in her piece tonight.  It didn't call "egg" to my mind in any way at all.

I was glad to see McKenzie back to her usual beautiful self after whatever she was doing with her hair and make up on that other show.  And I was very happy to see all the judges.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

First two shallow but unrelated observations: I don't like the shade of blonde that Mckenzie has right now and I was totally cracking up when the camera pulled back to show all of the contestants in front of Emerson and everyone but Graham was wearing black or really dark colors.

I'm not a fan of this head to head format because if two people both do a great job, they should both be in the top. Similarly, if two people do a terrible job, they should both be in the bottom. The one kind of good thing is that (at least in this episode), we didn't get everyone doing the exact same thing, but that could be done every week without the battle royale format.

I was really surprised that Michael didn't tell Mel that the eyeballs in the hands thing was less homage and more straight up copying. I did like the way she made the gumdrop teeth, nose, and eyes.

I had to laugh that Walter was so convinced that his makeup was SO much better than Kelly's and then Kelly won. I thought that Kelly's was the clear winner between the two. The concept was much more interesting and it was better executed.

Kelly's Tinkerbell looked like a rubber mask. It was like a flesh colored Scream mask with a closed mouth.

I really liked Matt's design. Even if I hadn't known what the challenge was, I thought it was a really interesting character and very well executed.

[Darian]

I got excited every time I saw Emerson (I went to the Boston campus for grad school). I love this show so much. Not sure about the battles but it's so good to have the show back. 

Sometime during fabrication, the shape of Walter's Humpty Dumpty head made me think of Sloth from The Goonies and even though it didn't really end up looking similar, I still kept seeing it. 

[sourpickles]

Oh, so many comments I agree with, too many to reply to.  So I'll do my thing....my husband made fun of all my notes, and the Gherkin is back watching with me this season! (He's out of school).  Of all the ppl. on S1, I do not remember Jo.  Those ears though....I guess we should be happy there are no bull nose rings this season.  Yes, I get the not quite All Stars, but I did remember everyone and was pleased to see them again.  Matt, get a larger suit size.  Kelly still reminds me of Lita Ford a bit.  And Damien of Vince Vaughn back in the day.  I love Doug Jones.  What a class act.  I was in love with the theme till I realized it was a real loose interpretation (to me) of Fairy Tales.  MY guess is that the ones that were chosen were the ones with the most potential for makeup.  As always, the judges and I almost disagreed on everything...I didn't like any of the ones Walter/Kelly and Jordan/Mel did.  I liked the Captain Hook they dissed.  Little Mermaid, oy.  I'm unsure when the Gingerbread Man became a legit fairy tale, but there was some gothic moments there.  Ichabod and Mr. Toad is one of my fav Disney movies, so I'll let it go.  No pun intended.  And did GDelToro pay to have his name mentioned so many times or sponsor the show?  I would have preferred another Burton go round.  Glad to see the models, so happy with the judges back and.......THIS IS FACE OFF!

[Rammchick]

Really?  The last season?  Although it's obvious that there's a limit to the number of potential facetestants for this show, it's still sad.

So how will people be eliminated?  If someone doesn't do well this week but does well next week, are they still out?  Is it a points system?  That wasn't clearly explained.  But welcome back, show, and welcome back, Face Friends!

Did I miss something?  Who's Emerson?

Edited June 6, 2018 by Rammchick

[Monty9]

sourpickles

Quote

..my husband made fun of all my notes,

He is wrong. I support you and your choices.

I did like most of the contestants they brought back. The 2 person team season had more favorites but I was happy overall with the choices. It was great to see Doug Jones who, if they could get him, should be the permanent 4th chair. Also I am such a Guillermo del Toro apologist that I watched the entirety of "The Strain" (his fx series). So this challenge was great for me. I wish I knew more of the models names (note to self: rewatch spy episode, it listed a lot of them) . I mean I know Matt but he's my boyfriend* after all, he'd be insulted otherwise.

*totally not true.

electric boogaloo

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I'm not a fan of this head to head format because if two people both do a great job, they should both be in the top.

Very true. I loved both Gingerbread men but was meh on the Captain Hooks.

mlp

Quote

(although also sad it's the last season)

Producers! That is such bs! Do something! Fix it!

[sourpickles]

30 minutes ago, Monty9 said:

He is wrong. I support you and your choices.

I intend to show him this tonight!  HA!  I think what got me was that Fairy Tales/GDT did not mesh as well as previous challenges....I mean, you really couldn't compare The Strain (great BTW) to the Gingerbread Man.  Unless the GM eats people, randomly, in the middle of the night.  I am happy about the contestants, and really appreciated the honesty some of them had...."hey, the jobs aren't going so great so....here we are!".  I'd rather see some ppl. I haven't seen in a bit, because, let's face it (puns again!) there are only so many times Laura or Rayce or whoall can come back.  I'll take what I can get.  As long as some keep calm and great makeup.  I did feel like while they were filming this, they didn't know it was the last season, I'm still so sad!  Doug Jones is awesome no matter what.  I like this head to head stuff much better than the teams thing so far...Let's see what you have!! 

PS, since we had KC hang out with us before, maybe you could hook us up with some Matt comments Monty ;)

[Lugal]

So Face Off is back.  I think they're stretching the definition of all stars here.  I guess cause the top people like Laura, Anthony and Roy all are too busy and couldn't come back.  These all seem to be middle rank people, but I will admit there was some I missed and am happy to see again.

Not a fan of the battle royal concept, for reasons other people said, because two great makeup on one battle and two horrible on the other, unless the judges say, you both failed this challenge and you're both going home or something.

Speaking of which, I can't believe Kelly won over Matt's Tinkerbell or Jordan's gingerbread man.  She's just as irritating as she was in her previous season.

[mjc570]

If they were bringing back facetestants, where's Robert? He was always so entertaining.  I thought the winning look, Humpty Dumpty, looked a lot better from the back, more egg-like.  I also was SO tired of all the GdelT references, should have started a drinking game. 

Despite that, so nice to have the show back - it's always so nice to see the thoughtful, expert judges - and Mr. Westmoreland!

[Taeolas]

I don't mind the face to face competition style because everyone on the show is doing it. So when you have 2 great makeups face to face, or two horrible makeups face to face, it wouldn't make a difference in the end; the better of the two good ones might have a slightly better chance at winning the round, and the worst of the two bad ones will still be up for elimination. 

 

Plus the advice from the judges is usually very spot on; if they really like a makeup they let you know even if they have to put you in the 'loser' bracket. Ditto if they really don't like the makeup, you'll also know even if you end up in the 'winner' bracket. 

 

I suspect if a pair was really that good or that bad, they might come right out and say there is no winner or no loser. Really I don't think I have a problem with this style, even if it does mean double eliminations every two weeks. 

 

As for the makeups, none were particularly wowing to me, but I might be getting more immune to them as time goes by. Great to see the models back, and hopefully they'll have more to work with coming forward. 

[WearyTraveler]

16 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

The woman with the stretched out earlobes and the nose rings made me ?. Why do people do that to themselves?

 

Far be it from me to tell others what they should do with their bodies, but, it was incredibly distracting.  Every time she was on camera, especially when she was wearing the hoops that let you see through her earlobe I couldn't see anything else but her ears.  It was better when she was wearing the solid accessories, but I still looked. Perhaps I'll get used to it as the season progresses and I will learn to ignore it. She must really, really like it because it takes a lot of dedication to extend the earlobes that much.  And, I suppose that unless you have cosmetic surgery to cut out the stretched skin and reconstruct the lobe, that is a permanent feature.

 

11 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I was really surprised that Michael didn't tell Mel that the eyeballs in the hands thing was less homage and more straight up copying.

THIS!!!! I was flabbergasted that she got away with it!

4 hours ago, Taeolas said:

I don't mind the face to face competition style because everyone on the show is doing it. So when you have 2 great makeups face to face, or two horrible makeups face to face, it wouldn't make a difference in the end; the better of the two good ones might have a slightly better chance at winning the round, and the worst of the two bad ones will still be up for elimination. 

I feel the same, plus, these judges are not shy about changing the rules if they think something is unfair.  They have done it in the past.

[slaterain]

I was surprised that Mel skated by with no criticism aired - the edit completely skipped her?!? I wanted to hear them say something about the straight up copying. Hers was way too literal in my opinion and not much creativity. I like her so I hope she makes up for it in the next round. 

I don't mind the battle royale set up because (as some have already stated) you still get the top look in the top and the worst look in the bottom. Unlike in teams where a killer makeup can be completely dragged down with the team and not get a chance for the winning spot. 

[HurricaneVal]

I'm on the fence about the face-to-face nature of the competitions.  I like it on the one hand because it is interesting to see two different interpretations of a particular character.  It is most interesting when the two are extremely different interpretations, like the Gingerbread Man makeups from last night.  It is least interesting when the two makeups are kind of similar.  I am very unsure about how the whole double elimination thing will go, I'm afraid that will get in their heads and undermine their performance on the second week.

Yeah, the eyeballs in the hands thing was pretty much copying, but I thought the gingerbread man was holding the eyeballs, they weren't mounted in the hands so that is a bit of a difference.  I'll give that a pass, considering a gingerbread man's eyes are rather removable.

Derek's Captain Hook looked less Del Toro to me and more Flying Dutchman half man/half sea creature crewman from the <i>Pirates</I> movies.  In fact, the head piece was so reminiscent of one of those characters, I wondered if he should be called out for straight copying.

 

Edited to add:  I wonder where else they will take this?  What other competitions will come up this season?  Now we're doing aliens!  You two, you get a desert planet...you two get a water planet... etc.  I hope it cuts down on the "I know!  I'll be unique, and I'll make a zombie space alien/monster/fairy/witch!" crap we've been getting in past years.  I hope the zombie craze is done...

Edited June 6, 2018 by HurricaneVal
Thought of something to add.

[ratgirlagogo]

Great to have this show back even if it's for the last time.  Doug Jones!   Was this filmed before The Shape of Water came out?  Nobody mentioned it at all.  Also we didn't get introduced to all of the contestants, unless I missed something.

The hard challenge was Captain Hook, I think, because the Pirates of the Carribbean films have actually done a lot of amazing hybrid pirate/seacreature makeups and I bet even Del Toro himself would have to really work at doing something unique there.

I loved both Mr Toads! although apparently the judges found them both pretty meh.

7 hours ago, Monty9 said:

Also I am such a Guillermo del Toro apologist that I watched the entirety of "The Strain" (his fx series).

So did I!   Although I don't think The Strain required apology, not overall, though I know a lot of people didn't care for it.  The best parts of it were so good! even though  the bad parts (ZACH) were so bad.........

5 hours ago, mjc570 said:

I thought the winning look, Humpty Dumpty, looked a lot better from the back, more egg-like. 

That's true - from the front I did not see "egg" in either of the Humpty Dumpties although I could see why they liked Kelly's - it was just an interesting makeup on its own.  But I preferred Ben's Tinkerbell.

Since I've been marching in or at least attending the Coney Island Mermaid Parade since it started I love mermaid makeups.  Graham's was obviously miles better and the fish/human reversal was a brilliant idea.  I think Sasha could have done better by going more in a dying mermaid, almost Mermaid In A Manhole direction with her wheelchair mermaid (I've seen HUNDREDS of wheelchair mermaids in the Mermaid Parade over the years).

Liked the idea of the half-eaten Gingerbread man but he didn't look moldy to me.

Edited June 6, 2018 by ratgirlagogo

[SherriAnt]

I wrote down my initial thoughts, and they stayed the same throughout.

I only remember a few of these people......Does Jo look completely different? I don't remember the giant iridescent ear plugs, or the strange choice of facial tattoos. What is with Matt's hair? The grey is fine, but that matted greasy looking deep part was awful. Was Kelly one of the blue hair girls? I vaguely remember 3 or 4 blue or purple haired people over the years, but not their faces. Sasha looks befuddled, like this is her first day with other artists. 

DOUG JONES!! Yayyyyy!

Edited June 6, 2018 by SherriAnt
Mackenzie desperately needs a new styling team. Enough bandage dresses and Barbie hair!

[sourpickles]

1 minute ago, SherriAnt said:

Was Kelly one of the blue hair girls? I vaguely remember 3 or 4 blue or purple haired people over the years, but not their faces. Sasha looks befuddled, like this is her first day with other artists. 

I think she had lavender hair the first go round.  Also, Keighlan had bright  blue hair and brows.  Melissa had blue as well at some points.  Sasha should be more with it by now, maybe she's just spazzy.  But you can't beat Lois telling her to pull her socks up.  To this day, it is one of my fav moments.

1 hour ago, WearyTraveler said:

Far be it from me to tell others what they should do with their bodies, but, it was incredibly distracting

Yes, this.  Less bull nose rings though.  But yeah, that's all I saw too, and I didn't even remember her.  I think it'll be less obvious as the season goes along.

[SherriAnt]

13 minutes ago, sourpickles said:

Keighlan had bright  blue hair and brows.  Melissa had blue as well at some points.  

I remember Keighlan! I always had the impression that everything about her, from the spelling of her name to her technicolour eyebrows to her talking heads was a well thought out performance. She never once seemed natural, compared to Melissa, who seemed to forget her hair colour wasn't real, and just got on with it. 

[sourpickles]

1 hour ago, SherriAnt said:

I always had the impression that everything about her, from the spelling of her name

I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, I've been in education and have a child in elementary school...there are WAY too many kids with designer names.  My son has four Addylins....all spelled different, Addylyn, Addylin, Adylin, Addelyn.  Just in that grade, and we are not a large school.  I feel bad for these kids when they hit fifty or so. Don't get me started on Caitlin.  Or Jessica.

[enoughcats]

3 hours ago, sourpickles said:

My son has four Addylins....all spelled different,

Very OT, in New Orleans for quite a while, identical twins were given names pronounced the same way, but with two or three letters different.

6 hours ago, slaterain said:

I was surprised that Mel skated by with no criticism aired

Weren't the editors showing the Del Toro Pan's Lab. creatures with eyes in its hands?  The tan on tan color?  And there's a p interest page that implies that Doug Jones was IN that costume, so, if true, that makes me wonder why he didn't call her on that. 

In the intro, the editors used a lot of the 'pretty' makeups, and the interesting/not horror makeups.  Was that just to lull us into watching because they think that everybody wants to see more horror stuff? 

[lynxfx]

Seems like people are taking the head 2 head results way too literally. This is Face Off. Just because you lose a head 2 head doesn't mean you will be up for elimination. The fact that they singled out only two as the bottom looks shows that. There are no point systems. The judges will make the call after the second makeup and decide if you are going home even if you won the first head 2 head. This format is also good in that you won't automatically get sent packing if you have a bad week. You will always get a second chance to prove yourself. Lose two in a row though and you probably don't have a strong case for not going home.

I've watched every season but still had a hard time remembering some of these people. Also noticed that most came from later seasons. Guess a lot of the early season folks are either out of the biz, or fully employed in it.

Disagree with the winner. Myself and my wife thought the Tinkerbell was better even though it had a lot of influence from Pans Labyrinth. But not as much as that Gingerbread Man. 

Sad that this is the last season but they do seem to be running out of ideas. Hoping they go out with a bang. 

[WearyTraveler]

One thing I found disappointing was that the first thing almost every artist thought of was eye related.  Hide the eyes, move the eyes, take the eyes away... I found myself wishing for a bit more creativity in the design.

I thought Tinkerbell was better than Humpty, however, Tinkerbell was very Pan's Labyrinth and Humpty was more original.  But I also thought Humpty was much better in profile and from the back than from the front.  I can see why the judges awarded Humpty the win.  I thought Kelly was too much, though, personality wise.  Always making an over the top gesture about "fighting" with another contestant, and so on.  It seemed to me she was trying too hard.  Hopefully it was a one-off due to the excitement of coming back and it won't be a permanent thing.

I got frustrated with Mel during her original season because in almost every talking head she talked about a problem, something going wrong, some issue or another.  It was just exhausting to the point that it felt like she was whining all the time, and I just wanted her talking heads gone. It seems she has changed for the better and  I hope it's for real.

Black eyed mermaid was the clear loser for me.  Not only was the sculpt way too rigid for that type of design, but also the artist didn't do a good job with the empty eye sockets.  She just painted them black (dark grey, actually, if my screen is to be believed) and we could still clearly see the model's lids and eyelashes. They didn't look like empty eye sockets, they looked like painted eye sockets.

I thought the crocodile Hook design was very original, and was looking forward to the execution. The sculpt was really good but, unfortunately, as the judges pointed out, the artist went overboard and crammed way too many design elements on it. That was a pity.  I think if he had managed to execute the idea better, he could have been in the top, or even the winner.

[HurricaneVal]

I"ve been thinking more on this head2head thing, and I think I'm ultimately OK with it.  Yes, there is a winner and a loser in each pairing, and there is potential for one pairing to be two excellent jobs, and one pairing to be two shitty jobs, and a winner and a loser will have to be chosen in each case.  But I agree with a previous poster--the judges are not shy about offering their opinions on the makeup jobs, so whoever is the loser in the stellar pairing knows they did a good job, and the winner in the bad pairing is aware their makeup is not all that great.

[Token]

I thought this was an All Stars season?

[enoughcats]

McKenzie repeatedly called it an all stars season.  Which dripped with irony after Kelly said in at least three different ways after she was announced "winner" that she had never won a single competition in her previous time.  

[call me ishmael]

Someone upthread pointed out that they probably couldn’t get the real all-stars because they are all working too much.  If this is really the final season then they should have brought back all the winners or only finalists if they wanted to claim it was all-stars.  I can’t say that i was particularly excited to see any of them and nothing this week changed my mind.  I hope it picks up.

[Nutjob]

Quote

What is with Matt's hair? The grey is fine, but that matted greasy looking deep part was awful.

It looks like an extreme comb-over to me, as in... he's balding on top. I found it almost as distracting as Jo's piercings, to be honest.

[Annalyn]

Yes - Matt's hair! Glad it wasn't just me! That comb-over is BAD! As if it's fooling anyone - when that part is almost to your neck, LOL! But for me nothing and no one is as irritating as Kelly!

[morakot]

On ‎6‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 9:46 PM, LittleIggy said:

The woman with the stretched out earlobes and the nose rings made me ?. Why do people do that to themselves?

I'm just watching the show now and HAD to come here to comment on how absolutely distracting (and not in a good way) those earplugs were. The pig rings are bad enough but these are so unappealing. (Yeah, yeah, I'm old.) She didn't have them before, did she? I think I would have remembered.

[diebartdie]

She had them the first season just not as extreme (although I would still consider this to be extreme)...

 

[morakot]

Those seem so restrained, they might be pearl studs.

[LittleIggy]

On 6/6/2018 at 11:51 PM, enoughcats said:

Very OT, in New Orleans for quite a while, identical twins were given names pronounced the same way, but with two or three letters different.

Weren't the editors showing the Del Toro Pan's Lab. creatures with eyes in its hands?  The tan on tan color?  And there's a p interest page that implies that Doug Jones was IN that costume, so, if true, that makes me wonder why he didn't call her on that. 

 

No implication necessary. Doug Jones was the Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth (as well as Pan).

[sourpickles]

Jo's ear plugs should have their own page on here, or meme or something!  And here I thought it was just me that first night........

[Token]

I don't understand why people do that to their ears.  It's just grotesque.  And you can't go back once it's done.

[DEL901]

20 minutes ago, Token said:

I don't understand why people do that to their ears.  It's just grotesque.  And you can't go back once it's done.

But you can go on Botched and stretch out your 15 minutes of fame.

[sourpickles]

5 hours ago, Token said:

And you can't go back once it's done

I swear I saw a show once, not like a reality thing, where they explained how you could undo the ears thing.  But not the neck thing.  That would kill you.  maybe it was National Geographic. 

 

5 hours ago, DEL901 said:

But you can go on Botched and stretch out your 15 minutes of fame.

HAHAHAHA!  I JUST got that.

Edited June 12, 2018 by sourpickles
Brain goes slower than fingers.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Face morphs:

 

Clips:

 

Edited June 20, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo