Season 13, Ep. 10: Through the Looking Glass, Part 2. 2018.08.07

[Frozendiva]

So long, Face Off. Don't be a stranger and come back for a visit or two or three.

[mjc570]

Wow, Walter's work was just awful.  I don't know if he really is as self-deluded as he came off, but I felt really sorry for him - such a sorry showing.  I know he had probably the weakest assistants, but he is the one who put them in the hole with his poor decisions.  I guess I'm not a good judge of this, because I thought his gingerbread general - that he himself gushed over - was pathetic.

I like Jordon a lot, and his grasshopper and fox were fine.  I was completely taken out of the Alice character by those huge hairy arms.  Why didn't he quickly trim that fur? 

I haven't been a huge Matt fan, but he really deserved the win.  His two original characters were great, and his Alice was the only one that looked at all decent.

My biggest surprise:  How well the movie came together.  Very cute.  Would have liked to have seen Mr. Westmore one more time. 

[Frozendiva]

Not hugely surprised that Matt won. He had the most time and the most positive feedback. He actually successfully attempted whimsy. Walter had too many setbacks, his work suffered, his team wasn't all that great, and Jordan's Alice went all a bit jabberwocky. Matt won fair and square.

I was surprised at how well the mini-movie came about and that it actually looked watchable!

Farewell for now, show. Hope you come back for a visit or two one of these days.

[Maelstrom]

So my DVR didn’t record this, and for once SyFy isn’t reairing it ad nauseam, so I’m not sure when I’ll get to watch it. Who won? Was it better than the rest of the season? I hate to see this show go out with a whimper.

It’s been fun everyone, both here and back on TWoP in the old days. Hopefully this won’t be the last of FaceOff and we’ll get to post about it again someday!

ETA: Matt won? Color me shocked.

Edited August 8, 2018 by Maelstrom
Crossposted

[Frozendiva]

It should turn up on SyFy at some point. Check the listings. Don't know if Canada's Space channel is available in the US/has geographical restrictions. Should be up there tomorrow. Are some of your stations available on demand?

[mlp]

I thought that Matt was the best all along so I was really nervous watching the ending after what FNS pulled last night.  Matt clearly (in my eyes anyway) deserved to win so I was relieved when he did.  This certainly wasn't the best season of Face Off so I'm glad it ended on IMO a positive note.  I will miss it.

[Token]

I have to admit that I've not been a Matt fan all season, but he did deserve this win.  His characters really were the best.  Jordan's were just okay and Walter's were a mess.

[Eliza422]

I know I should be concentrating on the makeup, but the woman playing Alice was a terrible actor. 

[Madding crowd]

48 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

So my DVR didn’t record this, and for once SyFy isn’t reairing it ad nauseam, so I’m not sure when I’ll get to watch it. Who won? Was it better than the rest of the season? I hate to see this show go out with a whimper.

It’s been fun everyone, both here and back on TWoP in the old days. Hopefully this won’t be the last of FaceOff and we’ll get to post about it again someday!

ETA: Matt won? Color me shocked.

I have Dish and it didn’t record either-this is odd!

[enoughcats]

When they were shooting the three scenes, I think the order in which they were broadcast was out of order. 

First may have come first, but Matt's wasn't second.  It ended after dark.  Walter's wasn't the next day, but was done second.  I don't know if this matters, but was it possible they gave Walter's rambling disaster more time. 

I think that the contestants had been told this was the last year because Matt (again, Matt) said something about his group being the last ever as he, his assistants and the models left the makeup studio.

Early this episode Matt said his makeup was whimsy with a twist.  You could have fooled me as he is only whimsical when compared with the usual monsterdemonvampirewalkingdead designers. But his use of those words combined with the word whimsy in the intro to the finale last week, pretty much wrote on the proverbial wall that Matt may not have been preordained to win, but his path was going to fit the layout of the show more closely than anyone else's.  

[Maelstrom]

28 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

I have Dish and it didn’t record either-this is odd!

I have Dish too - must’ve been a widespread glitch. So frustrating! Even though the show’s been underwhelming this year I still wanted to see it off.

[LittleIggy]

Walter’s Alice has abysmal. Have to give credit where credit is due: Matt’s characters were the best. Oh, and Megan acted the hell out of the Jester!

Yeah, Mr. Westmore should have been there. I’ll miss him.

[Quilt Fairy]

Walter's characters were definitely the worst, yet they were miles better than his original ones!  Jordan's grasshopper looked less impressive on screen, but his fox was an improvement.  Of these three, Matt deserved the win, but this was the least impressive FaceOff finale I've ever seen, and I've seen them all.  Usually the finale makeups blow me away.  If this season shows the best caliber of artists they can now get, it was definitely time to say goodbye.  

ETA: FaceOff usually re-airs the Tuesday episode late on Wednesday night.

Edited August 8, 2018 by Quilt Fairy

[GaT]

No surprise that Matt won, he's been at the top pretty much all season long. And goodbye show, I'll miss you.

[PhoneCop]

Not much of a sendoff, was it? No Mr. Westmore, not even McKenzie thanking the fans for watching all these years or some other kind of farewell. (She did on Twitter, but not everyone will see that.)

I'm torn. On the one hand, it's good they pulled the plug before it declined further, but on the other, I'll miss the way it was refreshingly free of a-holes (for the most part) and even in these later years it was a bright spot for me amid the doldrums of summer TV. I definitely wouldn't be mad if they revived it down the road, provided the talent pool refills or they come up with some iteration that works better than Game Face. Something with fewer monsters and more beauty makeups might be nice...

On balance, I'm fine with Matt's win. Didn't really see the porcelain in the one character, but not only did he have the best Alice, the jester was a clear winner even without Megan selling it.

[Toaster Strudel]

This may be my worst ever metaphor, but Walter's Alice was painted with all the subtlety of a 70s blow up doll (the type that was like a swimming pool floater) and somehow had fallen into a barrel of cake frosting.

I really loved Jordan's grasshopper, one of the best characters on the show, and the fox was skillfully fixed and looked great.  Snouts must be hard, and that one really worked. His Alice though... not good.

Congratulations to Matt! I criticized his Porcelain Prince for not looking like porcelain, but this week, they'd given it the proper glazed and it looked perfect.

[PepperMonkey]

I haven't watched most of the season when I found out (from all of you, honestly) that it was to be the last season AND, when I did jump on to see the first epi, when I saw who were the "all stars," I kind of lost interest.

Really sad for me that Face Off is ending. Agree with PhoneCop that this was a bright spot in the summer doldrums of tee vee. I guess I, deep down inside, knew it was declining, but still, yeah, a program that is mostly asshole free and people you can really root for without hating yourself in the morning.

I'll miss Mr. Westmore most of all. Nigel and Vee aren't far behind. Glenn, I like well enough, but I can take him or leave him. McKenzie was always jake with me also.

So yeah, I'm going to marathon this final chapter of a winter's day when I'm probably snowed in, usually for about eight months out of the year. If there's been any talk of bringing it back, for another season later, or even just for some specials, I'm a supporter of that.

So long, good show. You brought a lot of joy.

Edited August 8, 2018 by PepperMonkey

[Monty9]

7 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Walter’s Alice has abysmal. Have to give credit where credit is due: Matt’s characters were the best. Oh, and Megan acted the hell out of the Jester!

Yeah, Mr. Westmore should have been there. I’ll miss him.

I'm just going to have to Ditto LittleIggy here.

 

The only other thing to say is that I hope that FaceOff will continue, but if not, it's been fun y'all. Thanks for the snarky companionship. See you around the boards.

Edited August 8, 2018 by Monty9

[Evagirl]

9 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

So my DVR didn’t record this, and for once SyFy isn’t reairing it ad nauseam, so I’m not sure when I’ll get to watch it. Who won? Was it better than the rest of the season? I hate to see this show go out with a whimper.

It’s been fun everyone, both here and back on TWoP in the old days. Hopefully this won’t be the last of FaceOff and we’ll get to post about it again someday!

ETA: Matt won? Color me shocked.

I did record it (as I do most shows to avoid commercials).  When I watched it last night, I went directly to the last 5 minutes of the show.  Once I saw who won, I deleted it.  Matt was "ordained" by Glen to win from the get-go.  It was so obvious.  Yes, he's good at his craft but all the mooning and schmoozing over his work was over the top and left no suspense for the audience at all.  Glen should have down-played his worshiping to give us some drama over the outcome.

[Linderhill]

I wasn't nearly as impressed by Matt and Glenn was. The Porcelain Prince? I didn't see that as porcelain at all. Someone made of ice, yes, but nothing said porcelain to me. I used to work in porcelain (china and dolls) and yeah, nothing there. Glenn definitely needed to pull back on the overblown praise. (I'm still am baffled by that horrible purple, toothy chef thing Matt won with. All Glenn's harping on correct anatomy went out the door. I think Glenn's hideous Klingons from ST:Discovery have warped his judgement. There was no excuse for that travesty to win.) Since Glenn managed to foist his opinion off on the whole season, it really destroyed my opinion of him. (I still wonder at his rhapsodizing over that weird back fin on the vampire and the unoriginal Knifehead kaiju) I can only comfort myself with assuming that Vee hired Jordan on the spot for his painting skills. I saw that Walter was at SDComiccon so he's working somewhere.

[enoughcats]

Am I mis-remembering back to the olde, olde days when Glenn wasn't exactly well liked by many of us?

Then came a special in which he, Ve, and Nigel were the competitors, and Glenn's charity was the homeless cats (felines) of some part of a California city?  and how when he talked about that charity, all of a sudden I found myself liking him for coming across as a guy with empathy and a heart?

I'd like to have seen more of that Glenn.

[Omeletsmom]

15 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I have Dish and it didn’t record either-this is odd!

It didn't show up on my TiVo as a new episode. I had to manually set it to record the episode. 

[HurricaneVal]

Matt deserved the win.  He had the best Alice, and the Tin Jester was a brilliant and truly whimsical make-up.  However, I did not like his porcelain prince.  He looked like the albino villain from The Da Vinci Code with some scarring cracks and a funky hat.

Jordan's grasshopper was amazing.  I think he was the best character makeup from last night.  Head-to-head against the Tin Jester, and I'm not sure who would win.  I wasn't feeling the fox, that was really a secondary make-up.  The snout was pretty good, but the rest of him was just generic faux fur.  I was hoping he'd go with a more Pixar-ish Nick Wilde from Zootopia look, but maybe he thought that would be too derivative.  But the fox was kind of boring.  And his Alice?  Oh dear.  He had the worst Alice.

Walter.  Walter, Walter, Walter...  I have no idea what all the praise for his Ginger General was about.  I thought the face was a complete and monstrous mess.  Ugly and scary and the antithesis of whimsy.  I did not get gingerbread man from him, at all, whatsoever.  I really don't understand the praise, considering the off center and crooked wide slit of a mouth was even more reminiscent of the Jabba the Hutt character that was previously rejected than the original concept.  And the Baron Harkonnen arms were just recycled from the previous concept with really no effort to make them gingerbreadman-ish.  I really hated that make-up, can you tell?  I thought the lollipop ballerina was nicely done, but definitely an afterthought.  She was not a priority for Mr. monsterzombievampirebloodyhorndude.  I think he totally mentally dismissed that character as beneath his venerable monsterzombievampirebloodyhorndude talents.  I didn't mind his Alice, but I also don't think he spent much time on her either. 

 

Walter phoned the finale in.  Jordan only had one really great character.  Matt worked it--hard.  Matt deserved the win.  Now he can take his awful hair off my screen.

 

Farewell, Westmores, Glenn, Ve, and Neville. 

[PhoneCop]

21 minutes ago, HurricaneVal said:

Farewell, Westmores, Glenn, Ve, and Neville.

...and the models. The poor models always get overlooked.

One more for the coulda-woulda-shoulda list: I wish they'd brought Lois back one more time, but maybe she was busy.

[carrps]

2 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

Walter phoned the finale in.  Jordan only had one really great character. Matt worked it--hard.  Matt deserved the win.  Now he can take his awful hair off my screen.

 

Yeah, Matt's was the best of a mediocre lot. But that hair. Gah. I can't support a makeup winner who looks like he takes styling tips from Donald Trump.

[Suzn]

That was quite a weak finale to the weakest season they ever had.  I watched only because I've watched since the beginning.  Their "All Stars" weren't stars at all, just people who had failed to make an impact before and were still limited.  It sounds harsh, but the show went from imaginative and fresh to an endless parade of variations on monsters.  It was wonderful that it was free of manufactured drama and conflict - the contestants actually helped on another, but that alone could not make a compelling show.

I really don't know what they/Glenn found so wonderful about Matt.  Wasn't he the one put teeth externally, in odd placements - there was a time someone would be eviscerated for crap like that.

There were only two characters in the finale that I thought were good - the jester and the grasshopper; the fox wasn't bad. None of the Alices looked good and the prize for WTF was he thinking was the gingerbread man - just hideous.

Which brings me to Matt - I hope he takes some of his winnings and has that dead animal removed from his head.  That hair is so horrifying that I found it hard to look at him and was worried we would see even worse when a breeze would lift it and potentially expose the whole mess.  Can't someone tell him?

[mlp]

Quote

Which brings me to Matt - I hope he takes some of his winnings and has that dead animal removed from his head.

I keep pondering that.  Matt has beautiful eyes and I see intelligence there.  Plus he speaks well - modulated tones, good grammar, etc.  I think he's a smart guy so I can't understand how he can look in a mirror and not see how bad that hair looks.  Maybe it's because he's used to working with a population of "creative artists" who groom themselves to look bizarre deliberately.  Beats me.

[enoughcats]

8 minutes ago, mlp said:

I think he's a smart guy so I can't understand how he can look in a mirror and not see how bad that hair looks. 

Matt is from and lives and works in Austin Texas.  It's been decades since I've been there, but it's the most artsy fartsy city in Texas, even allowing for enclaves in Houston and Dallas. 

There was something I saw in a rewatch that has really bothered me: they told (?)Walter to simplify one of his characters because too much was going on.  We've heard that advice fairly often before.  Why didn't we hear it with Matt's jester?  There was so much stuff on her, that she dominated the scene not in a good way.  A simpler, cleaner costume arms and legs would have made her stand out just as much, without resembling a cluttered Victorian drawing room, all on one person.  

When the director told Walter that Walter needed to do something if he wanted to earn 100K, I would like to have heard what lead up to that.  My intuition says Walter was doing a push back at changing the things that he really liked about his first makeups and that the Director did not like at all.  But I could be totally misreading what went on.  Did anything come out of Twitter to explain Walter's disasters, etc.?

[frogzapper]

1 hour ago, Suzn said:

Which brings me to Matt - I hope he takes some of his winnings and has that dead animal removed from his head. 

Far be it from me to judge anyone else's hair (speaking as someone who has purple and blue hair :) myself), but for the life of me I could not figure out what was going on with that horizontal "seam" running across the back of Matt's hair! What was that?? 

I wasn't that crazy about any of the makeups in the finale, but I was rooting for Jordan since I liked the way he improved towards the end of the season and he seems like such a nice guy! Too bad the series had to end on such a "meh" note. Maybe they could take a break for a while then bring the show back again - I'd still watch. Hopefully the models have gone on to bigger and better things!

[Suzn]

37 minutes ago, frogzapper said:

Far be it from me to judge anyone else's hair (speaking as someone who has purple and blue hair :) myself), but for the life of me I could not figure out what was going on with that horizontal "seam" running across the back of Matt's hair! What was that?? 

 

It appeared that his his hair was combed up and over from that seam.  A couple of times the hair lifted away from his apparently bare scalp. I don't really rubber-neck at car wrecks, but this was a puzzle as to how it worked.

[Quilt Fairy]

1 hour ago, enoughcats said:

Why didn't we hear it with Matt's jester?  There was so much stuff on her, that she dominated the scene not in a good way.  A simpler, cleaner costume arms and legs would have made her stand out just as much, without resembling a cluttered Victorian drawing room, all on one person.  

Thank you.  I haven't understood all the love for the jester makeup or the model's acting.  Jumping up and down gesturing angrily isn't exactly Oscar-worthy. 

Edited August 9, 2018 by Quilt Fairy

[Zanne]

On 8/7/2018 at 9:02 PM, Madding crowd said:

I have Dish and it didn’t record either-this is odd!

Same here. I was very annoyed that I had to wait a day and then look it up on SyFy's website. My DVR also failed to record something else, so I'm hoping this is not some system-wide failure as Trial & Error is on tomorrow and I shan't be home. I can't miss that!

[strippedhalo]

I know they usually (always?) have help on the final challenge, but what's bothering me about this finale is that I don't have a sense of what Matt put into the winning makeups. Jordan's grasshopper was clearly Jordan, and Walter can take the blame for the gingerbread mess, but I'm not sure what was Matt's. Most of what they showed of the Tin Jester (the judge's favourite) appeared to have been done by Damien - I'm sure that it was Matt's vision, but I don't feel like they showed that. Maybe they did and I tuned it out.

I just felt like the teams were more overwhelming than usual, which is maybe just because I'm usually more invested in the finale, and it was hard to be this time when it was obvious that Matt would win. But I really felt like the teams influenced the outcome (Matt had far and away the strongest, Walter had the weakest and they dragged him down) more than usual, and Matt's team did so much good work - it just seemed like a shame that it was a solo win for Matt, when I don't know what Matt actually did. Other than lead, which I guess is important. (Again: I don't even dislike Matt!)

Also, I really hated the Lollipop Fairy's face and don't understand why everyone praised it. I didn't like Walter's frosting Alice, either. Sorry, Walter.

[carrps]

7 hours ago, strippedhalo said:

Most of what they showed of the Tin Jester (the judge's favourite) appeared to have been done by Damien - I'm sure that it was Matt's vision, but I don't feel like they showed that. Maybe they did and I tuned it out.

They showed Damien once when the Tin Jester was being praised, and he made some kind of gesture or change of expression, that, while being supportive, also looked like he knew that praise was really for him. Am I reading too much into that or did anyone see what I saw?

[Shannon L.]

I've only ever lurked here, but my DVR (through Dish Network) didn't record it either.  We were able to rent it through Amazon Prime, though, for $2.99. 

[Kaoteek]

Funnily enough, I really liked Walter's Ginger General 2.0 in all its goofiness and weird shapes. That said, his other two characters didn't work at all for me, so, that's that. None of Jordan's creations particularly worked for me either, and as far as Matt's concerned, I much prefered his Jester 1.0 to the overdesigned 2.0 version.

I'll miss this show, but this season, not so much...

Edited August 9, 2018 by Kaoteek

[Rammchick]

Maybe now Matt can afford a haircut.  Bye, show.  I will miss you!  And take care, fellow Face lovers.  It's been real.

[strippedhalo]

18 hours ago, carrps said:

They showed Damien once when the Tin Jester was being praised, and he made some kind of gesture or change of expression, that, while being supportive, also looked like he knew that praise was really for him. Am I reading too much into that or did anyone see what I saw?

I saw it! At the final panel when the judges were praising the Tin Jester, they had a shot of Damien getting a fist bump from the person in front of him (who I think was Graham). That moment definitely contributed to my feeling that the Tin Jester was largely Damien's.

[carrps]

1 hour ago, strippedhalo said:

I saw it! At the final panel when the judges were praising the Tin Jester, they had a shot of Damien getting a fist bump from the person in front of him (who I think was Graham). That moment definitely contributed to my feeling that the Tin Jester was largely Damien's.

Yes! That was it.

[Rammchick]

I'm sure they don't, but I'd love to know that the other Facetestants who were on the winning team were given something by the winner.  Especially if, as in this case, their work was so important to the overall success.  Like Matt said, "All you guys get 1K", or something like that.

Edited August 10, 2018 by Rammchick

[lynxfx]

I have Cox cable with a Tivo and it didn't record either. Probably won't bother tracking down the episode as it sounds like it didn't really blow anyone's socks off. Such a shame as this was one of the few competition reality shows that left the personal drama out and focused on the craft. It did get repetitive as the seasons went on, but I watched anyway. Was also fun to see a few creations show up at Universal Studios Hollywood during Halloween Nights.  

[Suzn]

12 hours ago, lynxfx said:

I have Cox cable with a Tivo and it didn't record either. Probably won't bother tracking down the episode as it sounds like it didn't really blow anyone's socks off. Such a shame as this was one of the few competition reality shows that left the personal drama out and focused on the craft. It did get repetitive as the seasons went on, but I watched anyway. Was also fun to see a few creations show up at Universal Studios Hollywood during Halloween Nights.  

That's what keep me watching.  It's a shame that the challenges stopped being creative and the talent pool got so shallow.