Crazy praise.Darlings, we don't know if you've heard, but it's quite possible, likely even, that the judges are all having nonstop crack parties on shooting days.
Exhibit A:
They praised this.No, really.
Unlike seemingly a lot of the viewers, we find Gretchen to be hilariously entertaining. In terms of talent, she's near the top, but nowhere as close to it as she thinks. Granted, while this season has been fun because of the cast of characters, the fashion side of things is seriously lacking, which means bland designers like Christopher make it this far and slightly better than bland designers like Gretchen get wildly overpraised by the judges.Still, she's had an interesting arc. She won the first two challenges, which caused her head to swell to Hindenburg proportions and made all the designers think she was a bigger threat than she is. After those first two wins, it's been mostly a steady decline. Putting on our theory hats, we propose that Gretchen's stunning runway performance after the team challenge tarnished her in the eyes of the judges.
But they still clearly think she's something, because they inexplicably seemed to like this. Oh, there were criticisms, but not the savaging that many of the other designers got.
Granted, sanity was momentarily restored when Nina had a moment of clarity and actually criticized this look, but for the most part, the judges all loved and that's a little cray cray.
This looks like the kind of print you'd see on cheap bed sheets. We listened to Michael and Heidi praise it and wondered if perhaps we were the ones that were cray cray. Are we just not seeing it? What the hell's so great about this big, awkward print? For that matter, what the hell's so great about this very basic blouse? Why was Christopher (rightly) criticized for his department store outfit while this got praised?How many times are we going to use the word "praised" in this post? We're starting to feel like we're in church.
And they, yes, praised, this ... thing on her ass! The hell? How is that flattering or pretty?
Look at the fit on those pants. Kors-a-tron 3000 searched his database and came up with the appropriate reference - Olivia Newton-John in Grease - and then, instead of using that comparison to point out how tacky and tight and shiny these pants were, he PRAISED them again, coming up with the Mad Lib of "disco earthy."
We've been at the receiving end of some viewer anger for not displaying the proper level of hatred for the agreed-upon villains of the season, but there's no denying that Gretchen has some sort of inexplicable hold over the judges. Sure, she's got a certain style to her work and we've liked some of it, but nowhere near as much as the judges did. If she was somehow tapping into the latest trends and getting them all worked up with how of-the-moment she is, we could kind of see it. But she's really not. Her clothes at their best are nice, wearable, and occasionally pretty. You could say the same thing about a lot of contestants over the years and yet we'd be hard pressed to come up with an example of one who got this much praise.Tim Gunn's Workroom:
Extended Judging:
[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com - Video Credit: myLifetime.com - Photo Credit: Barbara Nitke/myLifetime.com]
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Labels: Gretchen Jones, Project Runway, Project Runway Season 8, Project Runway Season 8 Episode 10
