Friday, January 31, 2014

Under the Gunn, or How Not to Be a Mentor

I fully set aside enough time to watch 90 minutes of show, only to discover that those 90 minute episodes were only for the beginning? The auditions, if you will. Whatever, sounds good. Sadly, what does not sound good is the feeling that the arbitrary, producer-dictated judging is in full effect. (click for more)



Do these people not understand the restrictions on this show? We've had now two different people trying to bend the rules on time limits. Last week it was Isabelle and sewing after time and this week it's Camila and Mood. I don't think I've ever seen anyone have to be yelled at by Tim Gunn in Mood. I get the metric system vs. English system thing, but only to a certain extent because I know a meter is roughly a yard. Very roughly, I know. But wouldn't that be close enough to buy enough fabric? Anyway, Camila extended that to her dress but not knowing yards does not make wrinkles in your dress because you can't sit in it. Eh, still not horrible.

It's a "red carpet" challenge. So you're telling me that Brady's fugly crop top and knee-length harem pants counts as red carpet? Not even to the Kid's Choice Awards. Camila's dress might be boring, but for red carpet I would take boring over ugly. Or Michelle's "let me put a shiny panel right over her crotch so it looks like she peed herself or something". So I don't like that Camila was eliminated because I think there were worse things.

I also hate the winner. Sam made glitter overalls with a too-narrow halter top and insane crotch. Seriously, ill-fitting high-waisted pants look crazy and these were overalls! Glitter overalls! How is that a winner!? I would much rather take Shan, who at least made a hot pantsuit. I would take that for red carpet. I love that the prize was "a celebrity" will wear the outfit "on a red carpet". I demand photos of what poor girl was forced to wear those horrible overalls out in public. But I guess they found another Danny V. so we must encourage the cute boy. Sigh.

OK, let's talk about Nick. I get that he was excited about red carpet because that's how he makes his living. But he went WAY too far. You can't tell your students how to cut their gowns or what to do. It looked unsolicited, like they didn't ask "How do I do this?" but he just told them what to make. And then all the gowns were boring. They were fine, but not anything that is going to win. Nick, stop doing that. I like Nick but he went too far into teacher mode maybe.

OK, thoughts? Am I too quick to assume producer intervention? Do you like Sam's look? No one has really caused any interpersonal drama yet, which is both good and slightly disappointing.

2 comments:

MoHub said...

I think Nick's problem was his failure to understand the difference between a teacher and a mentor. A teacher works with inexperienced students who may need basic training and is required to be more hands-on and demonstrative. A mentor works with people who already have skills and just need advice and guidance to get to the next level. I'm hoping Nick was able to move from teacher to mentor as the season progressed.

DianeP said...

Thank you, Toyouke, for the concise recap. I agree with you - Nick went waaay overboard helping his team. No way should he have been on the floor drawing, patterning, etc. Wonder if he was over-reacting to being everyone's third choice of mentor and wanted to make sure his people won? Perhaps his teacher mode took over this week - hope he can step back and turn into a mentor next week.

Mondo actually seemed to be a good mentor - suggestions from his own mentor? He and Anya sure didn't waste any time lashing into Nick's techniques. Makes me like them less.