Tag Archives: Elimination

March 25, 2009 · 1:21 am

Project Runway Canada Season 2 – “Episode Nine”

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“Gimme Shelter”

March 24th, 2009

When three people left in the first episode of the season, this was an inevitability: it was almost required that there would be some kind of twist where people could gain the chance to come back into the season. It was even something they did last season: finalist Marie-Genvieve was eliminated after a particularly erroneous garment, but then returned to end up clearly better than most of her competition.

However, the difference in Season 2 is that, to be entirely frank, there wasn’t anyone who felt like they particularly needed to come back, people who went home for reasons that weren’t quite true. While an argument could be made foy Baylor, that isn’t who the producers brought back as the designers head into this week’s challenge, and it’s really hard to get excited about Jason and Genevieve coming back into the game when the designs they were eliminated on were, well, deserving of elimination.

So while the show is perhaps justified in using this as a big “A-ha” moment, it’s all backwards: rather than people we missed returning to create some sort of karma, it feels like we’re being punked. And, I don’t like being punked, and neither do the designers who get sent home in the wrong fashion.

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Tagged as Adejoke, Avant Garde, Camping, Canada, Elimination, Entertainment, Episode 9, Fashion, Final Four, Genevieve, Gimme Shelter, Iman, Jason, Jessica, Kim, PRC, Project Runway, Rachel Roy, Ready to Wear, Return, Season 2, Second Chance, Shawn Hewson, Sunny, Survival, Television, Twist, Unfair

March 22, 2009 · 10:02 pm

The Amazing Race Season 14 – “Episode Six (India)”

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“Alright Guys, We’re At War!”

March 22nd, 2009

The worst kind of Amazing Race leg are the ones where nothing happens: the good teams are good, the annoying teams are annoying, and everything goes according to plan with the weak teams lagging behind and the strong teams rocketing forward. On the surface, this could seem like one of those episodes, where the leading teams don’t really change and where the outcome is one we could have predicted before the leg began.

But there’s been some subtle changes that have made this a better race to watch, and this leg continued that trend: teams that seemed to fade into the background before are becoming more distinct, while a team that was once impossible to watch has become more charmingly than frustratingly annoying. It’s not that the poverty and chaos of India immediately makes teams more likeable, and there’s a few instances of Ugly Americanism, but something about these teams are making them a really competitive and interesting group to watch.

So, despite nothing major going down, a building leg for the race.

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Tagged as Alright Guys We're At War, Amazing Race, Camels, Deaf Dancing, Detour, Elephants, Elimination, Episode Six, India, Jaime and Cara, Jaipur, Jodi and Christie, Kisha and Jen, Luke and Margie, Margie and Luke, Mark and Michael, Mel and Mike, Phil Keoghan, Pink City, Poverty, Roadblock, Speed Bump, Tammy and Victor, Ugly American

March 1, 2009 · 11:13 pm

The Amazing Race Season 14 – “Episode Three (Romania)”

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“I’m Not Wearing That Girls Leotard!”

March 1st, 2009

The major change that we’re getting during this season of The Amazing Race is that there is no rest for the wicked – while before there were often legs which were constructed so as to require no planes at all, staying within one city or one country for a second leg, this year they’re mixing things up. Just as quickly as the racers had flown into and raced around Germany and Austria, the teams were back on a plane to Bucharest, Romania, and off for another leg of their adventure. It’s something that is going to catch up with teams very quickly, the spectre of killer fatigue preparing to play an even more substantial part in this race than in years past.

Unfortunately for one team this week, though, it’s not early enough yet for this to start to happen. And when it comes down to flying at the start of the leg, there are various problems that can crop up, and when things add up just wrong for you the leg isn’t going to give you a chance to catch up – there’s no suspense in this one, and it’s a sad story for a team that really didn’t deserve to go home at this stage.

But this isn’t to say that this is a momentum killer for the season, in fact quite the opposite: there is still plenty of heartwarming moments from Mel and Mike, finally a chink in the armour of too perfect Kris and Amanda, some redemption of sorts for two all-female teams who proved they’re not quite as incompetent as we first thought, and one team even gives the editors a freebie to be able to make it seem at least theoretically competitive. It’s a very even field right now, and despite the unfortunate loss there’s a lot to look forward to.

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Tagged as Brad and Victoria, Coffins, Deafness, Detour, Elimination, Episode 3, Gymnastics, Gypsies, I'm Not Wearing That Girls Leotard, Jamie and Cara, Kisha and Jen, Leotard, Luke and Margie, Mark and Michael, Mel and Mike, Mike White, Phil Keoghan, Red and White Markers, Roadblock, Romania, Season 14, Tammy and Victor, TAR, Television, Third Leg, Vampires, Vlad the Impaler

February 18, 2009 · 12:19 am

Project Runway Canada Season Two – “Episode Four”

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“Re-Fashioning the Houses”

February 17th, 2009

One thing that Project Runway Canada has been good with this year is designing challenges that are actually just that: a challenge. This week, the designers are placed into teams of three in order to complete quite the task: not only do they have to design a three-piece couture collection, but it has to be a collection inspired by a famous fashion design house, and their looks need to be made out of vintage clothing from Preloved. As a result, it’s the ultimate challenge: they need to work together, they need to make something high class out of not so high class fabrics, and they have to show a knowledge of the design world in which they desire to operate. Oh, and they have to present themselves as a designer, because they always have to do that.

Unfortunately for Project Runway Canada, their aspirations for these designers are quite considerably higher than their actual talent level. Only two designers seemed to really earn a passing grade from the judges out of nine, and the other seven were varying degrees of epic failure when it came to meeting the multiple requirements of the challenge. It was like there was one requirement too many for all of them: either they didn’t work well with the other designers, or they failed to make their own stamp, or they didn’t know who their famous designer was (yes, someone failed even this part of the challenge). I admire the show for its high expectations, but I really wish that they had a crop of contestants that was all living up to that potential, as opposed to a bunch of also-rans fighting for the scraps of the top designers.

At the very least, though, one feels as if the judges make the right decision in the end: while they take into account all of the challenge’s factors in the end, it’s the person who most married poor design with poor perspective who got sent home.

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Tagged as Adejoke, Baylor, Brian Bailey, Couture, Design, Elimination, Entertainment, Episode 4, Fashion, Genevieve, Iman, Jessica, Kim, Ottawa, Preloved, Re-Fashioning the House, Reality TV, Review, Season 2, Sunny, Television, Valentino, Versace, Vintage, Yves Saint-Laurent

February 13, 2009 · 12:12 am

Season Premiere – Survivor: Tocantins: “Let’s Get Rid of the Weak Players Before We Even Start”

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“Let’s Get Rid of the Weak Players Before We Even Start”

February 12th, 2009

Every year of Survivor is in search of two things: a gimmick and a character. These are the two things that have made seasons that could have been weak into something very fascinating, whether it was the introduction of Exile Island or even the Fans vs. Favourites format that didn’t feel like it should have worked but resulted in a very engaging season.

In terms of Survivor: Tocantins, this really isn’t a season about any gimmicks: while the show tries to start off with a big shocker, the game itself is its usual self, the location similar to what we’ve seen in past seasons. Instead, it’s going to be a question of whether or not there is enough character at play here, whether we can get the kind of intrigue that we got to see last season in Gabon. There, though, the intrigue was driven almost entirely by people making highly emotional decisions, something that cannot be predicted or manufactured.

But that isn’t going to stop the show from trying: from the word go, the show wants this season to be about first impressions, about baseless accusations and judgments that are not close to reality and instead ask them to cast aside actual human interaction in favour of cheap shots. As a result, I’ll provide my own fairly baseless first impression: there is no sign here that this season will be able to expand the show’s usual structure, and while I think there are some characters worthy of some interest I’ll just unilaterally decide that it’s going to be a pisspoor season.

And then I’m going to watch it anyways – I’m not all about first impressions, and I think even the show is aware of this.

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The Amazing Race Season 13 – “Episode Eight”

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“I’m Like An Angry Cow”

November 16th, 2008

As far as basic human capacities go, thinking logically and reading comprehension appear to be the first to disappear when people go on The Amazing Race. Last week, Kelly and Christy finally saw their inability to read clues (or even think that what they were doing made absolutely no sense) prove their undoing, getting sent home to leave five teams standing. And while Nick and Starr and Toni and Dallas seem to be mostly capable of avoiding these particular concerns, and Ken and Tina’s few reading mistakes can be explained (but not excused) by the tense nature of their relationship, the two teams that find themselves at odds with these basic human capacities are the ones caught in a battle of who’s headed home.

The result of that battle, ultimately, is the one that feels right. At this stage, so close to the end of the race, I’m concerned with one thing: having teams in the final three that, if they win, I will not want to throw things at the television. And, if that’s our barometer, then this week’s episode has us on the right path (even if there’s one more team to go).

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