I Totally Love This Show

Part Two

Project Runway Rules!

There are many reasons to love Project Runway and if you've never watched, you have to tune in.  This show about making clothing is appointment television and it's one of the most fun hours of TV out there.   Competitive Reality shows at this point are pretty much all the same.  You get the same cast of Fame Whores doing their best to get to the end to win the pot of money.  The big difference with PR is that the contestants have talent and talented people tend to be interesting to watch.

Every week, the contestants are issued a challenge where they have to make a garment, show it on the Runway, and then it is judged and someone is sent home.  At the end, the final three are sent home for three months to prepare a whole collection which they show at Fashion Week and a winner is subsequently chosen.  The winner receives money and a car and the notoriety to build their own fashion business.

The challenges are always interesting (or bordering on absurd depending on your take) from making clothes out of items from the grocery store (Austin Scarlett's corn-husk dress was a standout) to making outfits for each other's mothers and sisters.  The designers are given a limited time and budget to make their creations and the process is always fascinating.  While in the work room, they are also mentored by the wonderful Tim Gunn who looks like an elegant gentleman and sounds like Snaggletooth.  He is polite and his calming manner is so unlike anyone on Reality TV that it almost seems strange whenever he appears.

The cast of each season has been very watch-able: creative people being creative in a pressure-cooker atmosphere makes for riveting television.  Also, fashion is a field that attracts "individuals" so the cast of every season has had its share of Big Personalities.  Usually about half the cast is queer so instead of having a token gay person, this show has a bunch of gay guys with a "token" straight guy thrown in.  Put this many high-strung homos together with other artists and it can get really bitchy.   And bitchy always makes good TV.

I find most Reality TV judges annoying, useless and they tend to detract from the goings on for which we've tuned in.  On PR, you get the host/judge Heidi Klum who, aside from being gorgeous, seems to know enough about fashion to not be in over her head.  Plus, her helium-voiced delivery comes with a German accent and when she says things like, "It looks like she's pooing fabric," I dare you not to laugh out loud.  Nina Garcia, the editor of Elle magazine, knows her stuff, can be haughty and is the stern-but-gracious taskmaster judge.  When she gives a designer her kiss signature kiss-of-death, "I was bored," or "It was boring," you can see them wither away on the Runway in front of your eyes.  Michael Kors, the American sportswear designer is the other judge and is funny and bitchy.  Absurdly spray-tanned to a golden orange, chunky and full of quips like, "Your model looks like Shirley Mclaine playing a hooker with a heart of gold," or "She looks like a french maid going to a funeral," Kors delivers amusing and "helpful" comments for all the designers.  Easily one of the funniest moments in the show's run was when his look-alike mother showed up as a guest judge.

Currently in its fourth season, Project Runway has also spawned Project Runway Canada.  Hosted by Iman and following the same formula as the American version, PR Canada was almost as fun as the original.  Because the judges, aside from Iman, were boring and most of the Designers weren't great, PR Canada could easily have been a big fat bore but was saved by the the slightly loopy but super talented Marie Genevieve Cyr and eventual winner Evan Biddell.  I was worried about  Canadians being too polite for Reality TV (I expected lots of "sorrys" and "excuse me's") but luckily Biddell rose to the occasion and played to the cameras.  This guy was talented, funny and slightly combative with his fellow designers but when he showed his final collection, a fashion star was quite possibly born.  The only thing missing was Iman saying, "Eh" at the end of her sentences.

The designers on PR have been some of the most entertaining people on TV you'll ever see. From Santino Rice's "Tim Gunn and Andre at Red Lobster" riff (YouTube it!) to Laura Bennett's discovering she was pregnant for the fifth time ("I'll just throw this one onto the pile") these aren't your average Reality TV people.  This show, for the most part, attracts the funniest, bitchiest, most clever people to populate a TV screen in quite some time.  These aren't conniving Survivors or manipulative Models.  These people bring artistic talent to the table that other shows are missing and the frothy mix of fashion, competition, judging and bitchery is why I totally love this show.