I still have not entirely concluded that Pete Nikolai is 100% right about Project Runway, at least as it being the best single season in relaity history. I think it will have to stay in my mind for the next couple months before I give it that, but it is, at the very least, a strong contender. The more I think about it, the more I am sure that Jay McCarroll is the greatest reality show contestant of all time. Some things that Project Runway has in its favor:
1) the right conflict went the WHOLE season--usually the villain or some half of the great conflict disappears early, i.e. Rupert goes out as one of the first individual immunity weeks, Omarosa barely makes the top 10. For all that I don't enjoy about Wendy Pepper she provided great plotlines the whole time. The entirety of the audience enjoyed watching Jay rip on her and the finale was a great opportunity for Jay to prove his humor wasn't mindlessly cruel. It also complicated our hatred for Wendy by the Kara Saun shoe disaster, which was so incredibly weak I can't even describe it. She wasn't just a whiney Omarosa, but at least once per season, she had something not stupid to say.
2) the show was funny--while obviously there was alot at stake, besides Wendy's daughter's picture-mustache situation (which relates to the above complication as well), never did this show get way over serious. I mean, Wendy cried when Jay and Kara Saun were running late, but it was hilarious, not presented like the people on Big Brother who haven't seen their families for 40 days. The conflict on the get-together episode was awesome and the person who stormed off was on the show for like a week and not very interesting, which meant we didn't have to care if she was all pissy. Reality TV that doesn't always make itself life or death is good.
3) the right character won--if you don't watch alot of reality TV this may not be such a huge shock, but its a big freaking deal. I can't imagine anyone who watched this show and wasn't cheering for Big Gay Jesus by the end. He was my obvious favorite from the first moment I turned Bravo on back in December. While it was nice that Rob and Amber had final 2 or that Eva pulled it out, but its not the same. Jay was the coolest, from beginning to end. He wasn't the technically proficient robotic winner week in and week out that Kara Saun was.
I hope the second season can stick it up, that it doesn't go all Dream Job on the bit (the third season of which I won't even glance at) and follows closer to the ANTM model that its obviously based in. Heidi Klum still bites it in comparison to Tyra Banks not to mention that the catch phrases (I mean, "Wendy, you're out" doesn't compare to "Kelly, congratulations, you're still in the running towards becoming America's Next Top Model") the prizes ("a mentorship with the Banana Republic Design Team" gets smacked by "a photo shoot with world famous fashion photographer Gilles Bensemot") and the judges (Nina Garcia vs. Nole Marin, how's she gonna beat his little dog huh?) are all leaning huge in favor of ANTM. Regardless, the three factors above all tilt towards Jay over Norelle, and thats a hard thing for me to say.
So I am in Vermont, after like a seven hour drive yesterday which included a one hour stop at Target, for reasons that, while still very cool, are entirely bizarre to me. We did make pretty good time and managed to beat everyone else up here though I drove all but 67 miles of the journey (Steve Perry) this is not something I am likely to repeat on the way back to Asschester. Today apparently features 5 more JV-Novice debates, and as excited as you might imagine I am about that prospect, I would literally rather make one of those little clacky desk toys where you drop the one silver ball and it makes the one on the other end fly up etc out of my balls then listen to two more of these. At this point in the season all the kids I am judging should be sucking it up and debating varsity, but this weekend being NDT quals saps that idea so instead its just low-level varsity debaters mucking their way through complicated arguments they sort of understand. The exception to this being of course, my round 2, which featured the Cornell "masochism" affirmative.
I put that word in quotes because its the oddest definiation of "masochism" i can possibly imagine. I will explain it further later on, but now I must go to round 4. 4:00, round 4, on floor 4. Thats some scary hullabaloo!
Peace,
MB-K
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