Friday, January 15, 2010

Project Reinvigorate

Last night Project Runway returned looking to make amends for its universally disdained LA season that ended what felt like 2 days ago. And there were certainly some improvements already made. Michael and Nina were both back, as they will continue to be for the rest of the season. That's already a big step up right there. The show continually drove in that it's back in New York, from returning to the Atlas Hotel to announcing the challenge in Central Park (with a little stage on the pathway. Not sure why).

But aside from those obvious fixes, the overall vibe I got from the premiere is still meh. While the new crop of contestants at least don't all look like they had intended to audition for The Real World like last year, there's not really anyone immediately jumping out yet either. Sure, there's the crazy physical therapist who likes to design for herself. At least she's something new. There's the requisite obnoxiously arrogant one, whose near-win probably just fuels his fire. And a girl who cries. All the time. Seriously.

Most promisingly, the people on the bottom this week weren't THAT bad. Though the ones on the top weren't that good either. Seems to be yet another season full of people in the middle. Of course, unlike on Top Chef, it sometimes takes awhile for the frontrunners to emerge. But I said that last season too and look what happened. Plus, Nicole Ritchie as the guest judge may actually be a step down from Lindsay Lohan last year. What happened to leaving the LA image behind? I'll stick with it for a little while, but it's looking like a change in location can't hide the fact that this Runway is just not fashionable anymore.

2 comments:

Kara said...

Good review, as always. I must say, it was very refreshing to see people use COLOR again, so for me, this season is already much better than last season with its awful taupes and beiges and blacks. There was HOT PINK on the runway!

Zander said...

Fair enough, though I realized the next ep is tonight and I have no memory of anyone from last week. I've also realized that since I started watching Top Chef, even good Project Runway hasn't interested me so much. Food is just inherently better than fashion.