trinityvixen | Sep. 14th, 2006

The designers of Project Runway clearly have a formula. Most reality shows do, to be fair. You turn on American Idol for the terrible auditions episode and to hear Simon Cowell be evil and mean with a British accent. Apparently, Rockstar's formula is to stretch a half-hour show to twice the length by constantly saying how amazing the contestants are, brah'. Project Runway's schtick is to have Heidi Klum repeat herself TWENTY F'ING TIMES and to make sure that Tim Gunn constantly hates just about everything he sees (note: people who are doing well in a challenge? Rarely talk to him for longer than five seconds onscreen). That's fine. I grind my teeth when Heidi Klum comes on to say "As you know, in the fashion world, one moment you're in and the next you're out," because a) if they know that, why is she saying it, and b) she says it at least twice per episode, but that's her thing because, really, besides verbalizing the judgment of the other judges, what does she have to do?

What I don't like? The champagne toast. I noticed this after reading some TWoP reviews and the reviewer was like, "Oh, yay, another toast." You know what really bugs me about that? One of the remaining contestants is a recovering alcoholic. Every time they toast, you can clearly see that his flute is filled with ice water, which, good for him. The fact that I think he's fucking hilariously evil aside, I feel for the guy because basically they're shoving his former poison under his nose every two seconds. No wonder he's so irritable all the time. Seriously, the champagne thing is a waste of time, meant to do nothing but celebrate meaningless milestones ("Hooray! Another episode! Drink!") and basically torture this one guy. If it's already a waste of time, and they know he's a recovering alcoholic, couldn't they do something else? It's one thing to denigrate the guy's clothes and his lack of range when it comes to design, but to sit and tempt him like that all the fucking time? Damn, I know he won't win, but I kind of want him to just to see what they do. I hope he breaks a champagne bottle open over Heidi's fucking head.

( Spoiler for last night's ep )