Friday, February 28, 2014

Under the Gunn, or Doctor Who Is Not Really Steampunk

Sorry, but I watch "Doctor Who" and it's not really the best example of steampunk. There are some steampunk aspects but overall it doesn't really fit the bill. But then again most people didn't do steampunk OR avant-garde so there you go. (click for more)



So every time "Project Runway" does an avant-garde challenge the vast majority of people fail. They think "avant-garde" and decide that means a long train and a high collar. Or they just think they'll do something crazy and that'll be fine. I like the idea of steampunk just because I think it's cool and has a good element of fashion in it. The problem is they gave them a table full of junk and then some people thought if you made a dress and slapped some gears on it, you've got steampunk.

Really this episode's story is about Anya. All the mentors are tied with three designers left (HOW CONVENIENT) and Anya seems to regret getting rid of Brady and not Nicholas. I mean, she's "seeing more of him than he's seeing of himself". Whatever. You picked Nicholas and he hasn't used his second chance well. In fact he's been pretty crappy. Now you are second-guessing your decision. Now Anya's cranky because her team is not doing well. So she grumbles, and then is pretty critical of everything. And then there's this weird scene where Tim (who has agreed with Anya about Nicholas's work) comes in and tells Anya that Nicholas is eating lunch. In a weird tattle-tale way. At first I thought it was a condemnation of Nicholas, like how dare he stop working, which was dumb because supposedly the producers make you eat. But it seemed to be a warning so Anya could go in there and tell Nicholas to stop stinking up the place. I guess it's OK to be critical of your designers as long as you are not on the runway. Or, if you're Anya. Because while Nick was edited to look like a huge jerk for not believing in his designers, when Anya does it everyone backs her up. Was Nick's badmouthing Isabelle on the runway only terrible because it was the runway? As in, if he had only doubted her in the workroom no one would be talking about what a jerk he was? Or is it because Anya can do no wrong?

I found it suspicious that all the safe designers belonged to Mondo. Not that I thought they should win/be eliminated or anything, just that I always notice those coincidences. I liked Michelle's look, and so help me I even liked Natalia's gimmicky thing. It's steampunk, what can I say. And while Oscar clearly slapped a clock on a dress at least the dress was from the right era. Shan wins, and while I think he deserves a win and I don't object to his look I think there were better things out there. But there were also times when he should have won but didn't so I'm not too worked up about it. And once again Anya gets to pick who goes home. Why? Why is she the only one who gets to make that decision? Have all the other eliminations been between two people on different teams so they can't do it that way? I don't remember. But Nicholas finally goes home, which we all saw coming. When she was given the choice there was no way he was going to stick around to get a third chance.

What did you think? Did you think anyone even did something avant-garde, let alone steampunk? Maybe like me you suspect ComicCon has set the steampunk cosplay bar too high?

2 comments:

DianeP said...

Thanks for your recap, Toyouke, and I agree with you. Nothing much Steampunk on that runway. Sewing some gears to a badly done dress isn't Steampunk - it's gears on a badly done dress.

Are they taking turns making each mentor the Bad Mentor of the Week? Probably won't be Mondo though - he seems to be the chosen one this time.

Strange that four judges can't come up with a decision to eliminate anyone and have Anya make the decision for them. Did she actually decide or did they tell her who to eliminate? Perhaps the producers only know?

MoHub said...

I almost wonder whether Anya was being tested to see whether she would eliminate Nicholas, who had overstayed his welcome, or Blake, whose design was clearly worse.