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THIS. IS. PROJECT RUNWAY.
AND YES IT IS STAGED.
Hello, my children, Colleen is here and its time for a rage filled geek rant...at a REALITY SHOW. YEAH I KNOW, WTF???
In December of 2004, Bravo did something that I never expected to happen. They made a reality show that I wanted to watch. Before this I generally loathed Reality Shows and cursed MTV for starting the craze. As Patton Oswalt once said, what will TV NOT turn into a reality show? However the concept of Project Runway captured my interest...a competition for fashion designers where they have to make outfits...sometimes out of CRAZY materials...within a day or two, show it to the cattiest judges ever -Nina Garcia & Michael Kors, and it is hosted by mother fucking HEIDI KLUM! (who is also a judge). Oh and throw in a wonderfully elegant and well-spoken gay mentor, Tim Gunn, and thus Project Runway was born. Follow me and hear of the rise and fall of this once awesome show.
The Shadow Knows who strikes Fear in the Heart of all Fashion Designers.
Nina Garcia & Michael Kors
Now we all know reality shows are at least somewhat staged...but at first it seems the Producers were content to have the drama be focused on trying to make runway appropriate attire in a very short period of time and the judges ripping them to shreds. Of course there were personality conflicts and arguments and...my personal favorite...gay men breakdowns. But in general the focus was on the competition to get to Fashion Week in NYC, which is the single most important week of runway shows in the U.S. It started with 12-15 designers, the number vacillates from season to season, and each week one contestant is offed or auf'd (Heidi Klum, after saying sorry so and so you're out, she would wish each one Auf wiedersehen). The winner gets $100,000 and other stuff like starting your own line and mentorships, cars, technology suites etc, but the $100k was the one thing that never changed in each of the seasons. More importantly the final three get the greatest exposure that a fashion designer could get in this country -being seen by celebrities and the greatest talents in the fashion world at fashion week.
The episodes were filled with scrambling to Mood to get materials for the contestants' designs, making them, being critiqued by Tim Gunn, who is hysterically descriptive, often finishing at the very last moment before the elimination runway show. The models (who are also in a competition -the model who is paired with the winner of Project Runway gets a spread in a fashion magazine & $25k) then walk the runway in the designs, the JUDGING by the awful trio of Heidi, Nina, & Michael...along with a guest judge...and finally the winner and the loser are announced. As the contestants dwindled down the challenges got harder and crazier...and finally we are down to the last three...whom Tim Gunn would visit to look at their line (the three were given $8,000 to make them), give his critiques and finally its the final days before they show at fashion week...where they are often given an extra look to show and have mental breakdowns etc. And finally they show their lines. And the winner is announced after MUCH debate by the judges. And it was good.
Sorry that took so long... Anyway, while the show was on Bravo what I described was the focus of the show. The crazy challenges and the final reward. But then it moved to Lifetime and it became obvious that the casting had more to do with personality and far less to do with actual talent. For the past three seasons I have seen less and less great fashion being made and far more interpersonal drama that I could care less about.
This present season has been the most blatantly obvious of this change of focus. The talent has been horrendously weak and the cast had so many assholes in it that I often wanted to throw a shoe at the TV. And the worst thing...the worst thing...was how obvious it was all staged and how much they wanted to fuck with the viewers. If any of you bloggers have read my prior Project Runway Rants, you will know that I have been rooting with all of my soul for the much maligned Michael Costello...who was inexplicably hated by the majority of the cast. From the moment he won a challenge it was like everyone decided he was shit and needed to be gone. This was probably stemmed from the jealousy of the detrimental duo Ivy & Gretchen...otherwise known as the Cunt-Whore and Wretchen. Now as I know painfully well what its like to be an outcast, I wanted Michael C to get to fashion week so fucking badly...never before did I care so much.
Against all the nastiness & the assertions that he would be auf'd, he managed to get through each week of the show, until last night. Until the first part of the season finale. The last four, who consisted of Gretchen (grr), Andy (neutral), Mondo (the only one with actual talent) and Michael. They were told to show three pieces of their collection to determine who would be in the final three. And he lost. Even though his collection was far more elegant and expertly crafted then Gretchen's or Andy's. Not Mondo's though...its pretty much a given that he will win... And he had the single biggest meltdown of any auf'd contestant in the shows history. Usually the gay breakdowns are awesome to watch...this was just gut-wrenching and heart-breaking about how his family was going to take the news. I hardly was able to watch it.
Then I found this little article that basically was the death knell for me.
They had the last 10 designers on the show at Fashion Week...Why? Because the season ran into Fashion Week and the Producers didn't want the viewers to get Spoilers on who were the final three contestants. Which means Michael C's heartbreaking meltdown had to been staged. He SHOWED at Fashion Week...as did that evil evil evil evil evil cunt-whore Ivy. But I should have paid attention to what she said post-season "to all the haters -don't believe everything you see on television." So yeah. Fuck this show.
To be truthful I only continued to watch the show since it went to Lifetime because of Tim Gunn, because he is so awesome, & Michael Kors & Nina Garcia, because they are so brutal. Oh and Heidi Klum is always nice to look at. But during this season the judging has been often inexplicable. Even Tim Gunn said he had NO idea what drugs these judges were obviously on to explain why they judged the way they did.
Well I know the answer: The Producers wanted DRAMA. And not competition-based fashion drama, but the common denominator reality show drama of interpersonal conflicts. The show cared WAY more about the contestants' personality than their talent. And that's NOT why I watched this show. And this season has been so completely horrible to watch that not even Tim Gunn could save my interest in the show.
So Goodbye Project Runway. You should have stayed on the Bravo network.
