"Project Runway" -- of jocks and queens

According to straight guy Joe, a superfluity of queens is responsible for stirring up drama on "Project Runway" this season.

Sadly, that was the wittiest quip of the night.

As much as it pains me to say this -- especially if there is a remote chance my beloved Tim will ever read these words -- this season is looking more and more like a pre-dumbdown before the show moves to Lifetime.

Case in point: The painfully gormless long-arc setup from Blayne's gross tanning obsession to the Olympics theme to the "bronze medal" jokes.

I'm bored with the conceptual recycling, too. Sports figures, again. The designers have also been to the supermarket again; designed from New York snapshots again. The one new idea so far this season was "green fabric," and it played like what it was: the least objectionable idea to bubble up from history's most vacuous brainstorming session ("Eco-friendly is so HOT right now! Let's run with that!")

And then there's the fact that they've begun to cast cartoons. The best "PR" contestants, the Santino/Sirianos, are lovable, talented nutjobs. This season, we have Suede (and Anderson Cooper's Stella imitation). No lovable; no talent: Last night's bungled run at the U.S. team's opening ceremonies ensembles, with guest jock/judge Apollo Ohno, was just ... nutjob.

Dark days, Tim Gunn, dark days.

Comments

[Ron H.]

Ross, are you serious with this review? How does the move of PR to Lifetime mean that the series will now need to be "dumbed down?" As if it was a brain trust in the first place! We're talking about a fashion design show here, not a quantum mechanics competition. Are you saying that Bravo is a high-minded, intelligent network? The same network that runs countless hours of mindless fluff like "Date My Ex: Jo and Slade," "Flipping Out," "Work Out," "Shear Genius," "Top Design," "Million Dollar Listing" and endless versions of "Real Housewives?" Get real! Bravo stopped being an arts and culture network years ago. It is now little more than a slicker (and gayer) version of VH1. As far as the Olympics theme of this episode, blame NBC. They own Bravo. This episode aired the same week that NBC will begin its very expensive Olympics coverage. It's called corporate synergy and, rational or not, NBC is forcing all hands on deck (heck, they're even airing women's soccer coverage on that crappy Oxygen network). This is the final season that Magical Elves will be producing PR. Next season, Bunim/Murray takes over when the show moves to Lifetime. There would be no logical reason for the current production company to do ANY prep work (smart, dumb or otherwise) for the show's impending move to a new network and a new production shingle. It just doesn't work that way. I'm sick of people whining about the Lifetime deal. Snatching PR was a smart move on the part of Andrea Wong, the new President of Lifetime. She did great work with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Dancing with the Stars" when she was head of alternative programming at ABC. She's a smart and savvy programmer. I have no doubt PR is in good hands with her at the helm of Lifetime. The problem with this season is the pool of designers. They are whiney, self-centered, pig headed and, with a few exceptions, pretty limited in their abilities. It's one tragic runway show after another this season. As for "straight guy" Joe, I'm glad they finally gave him some screen time. It is mind blowing that out of 13 designers, he is the ONLY ONE who thought to put "USA" somewhere on his outfit. Hello...it's an Olympic Opening Ceremony challenge. Duh! As far as his "too many queens" comment is concerned, I couldn't agree more (and he was clearly being tongue in cheek)! Too many bitchy queens spoil the runway. There's Blayne bitching about his tan, Daniel falling to pieces every time he gets a challenge he doesn't like (which is every week), Jerell loving himself and making some of the most God-awful messes in the bunch and, of course, that wretched Suede who insists upon talking in the third person for no reason. That's a whole mess of grating queens and NONE of it has a damn thing to do with designing. At least Keith is there to remind us that being out in fashion design doesn't also have to mean being immature, bitchy and obnoxious.

[David Fowler]

Joe may be a homophobic asshole, but sadly, I can see his point. I hate to think that all the breeders out there are taking these ragingly unpleasant Nellies (Keith being the exception) as the gay norm. The tanorexic moron Blayne puts my teeth mightily on edge, but it's the airheaded, ultra pretentious Suede that gets the booby prize. Every time he refers to himself in the third person I keep hoping the biker chick will hammer a grommet through his tongue. The show's taste has always been extremely questionable and that horrendous tutu that he somehow actually won with a few episodes ago only confirms it. The thing looked like "Attack Of The Peppermint Mummy Ballerina"....a travesty.