Written by: Phoebe Raven, CC2K Staff Writer

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It’s back, but is it still good?  I was a fairly happy camper when I found out a while ago that after all the legal drama between Bravo and Lifetime, Project Runway would finally be returning to the airwaves. I had always liked the show for its genuine creativity and invention, even though I knew that half the drama got created or dissolved on the cutting room floor. Project Runway is reality television after all, but within this genre I find it one of the most entertaining and least annoying shows.

I was less thrilled when I found out the show had been moved from the fierce New York City to the showy and fake Los Angeles. I was consoled, however, by the reappearance of all the people staples of the show. Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia are all back on board and rightly so. They truly make and break the show.

Having seen the Season 6 premiere last week, I can say nothing much else has changed either. The workroom for the designers in L.A. looks fairly similar to the one in NYC, the designers still shop at Mood and the runway looks exactly the same as always.
There is beauty in consistency. I was comforted by all these familiar things.

I did feel a bit “thrown in the middle” of the season, because we didn’t get an episode introducing all the designers and their journey through the castings. Instead we got bits and pieces of people’s history thrown into the episode here and there. I can’t recall if first episodes have always been as disjointed on the show, but this time around it bothered me.

Alas, you can’t blame the producers for the fact that we never really get to know the first designers who get kicked off, because if they focused too much one these individuals during an episode, they would give away the ending.
I didn’t think Ari’s design was worse than Mitchell’s, and I would have liked to see more of her kooky, wacky, out-there stuff (much rather than I’d see more of his boring usual couture), but that’s the way it goes on these shows.

I am excited for another season of Project Runway hijinks and I already have some opinions on the designers. Contrary to the judges, I didn’t doubt Qristyl’s “taste level” at all. I do, however, doubt the mental sanity of the person who came up with the spelling of that name!
I think Malvin is trying too hard to be like Christian last season. I believe Johnny is going to wig out on us a couple times more, but hopefully won’t crumble under the pressure (you go, man, keep on battling it out!). And I also believe that it is entirely impossible to predict the winner from the itty-bitty scraps of footage we have seen so far.

I will keep tuning in and try to get used to L.A. as the new backdrop for a show that embodies NYC to me.

I will though, save me the 30 minutes of Lifetime (pun intended) that is the companion show to Season 6 of PR, Models of the Runway. The first episode was dead boring, just a bunch of overly thin models talking about “walking the walk” and “giving it their all” and “rocking the look”. Can you say “unsubstantial” three times fast? I would much have preferred to keep the drama of the model eliminations on the regular show, because the real drama is between the designers stealing each other’s models and not in the “tragedy” of a model being cut, in my opinion.

In fact, I always loved Project Runway because the departures of designers weren’t made into big hooplas with tons of crying and extended goodbyes and accusations against the judges and the other contestants and so on. It gave the show some integrity (though who knows what went on behind the scenes?).

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to see if I can see my plan through that I have with every new season of Project Runway: sign up for a sewing class so I can alter my clothes to make them just the way I like it. Attempt Number 6 starts now.

 

 

 

Recommended Collisions with your Television

(combine at will, all times EST, only new programming listed)

 

Tuesday, August 25th
9 p.m.	Warehouse 13 (SyFy)
10 p.m.	The Cleaner (A&E)
	Rescue Me (FX)
	Saving Grace (TNT)
Wednesday, August 26th
9 p.m.	Leverage (TNT)
10 p.m.	Dark Blue (TNT)
Thursday, August 27th
8 p.m.	Project Runway (Lifetime)
10 p.m.	Royal Pains (USA)
Friday, August 28th
9 p.m.	Eureka (SyFy)
	Monk (USA)
10 p.m.	Psych (USA)
Saturday, August 29th
Sunday, August 30th
8 p.m.	Merlin (NBC)
9 p.m.	True Blood (HBO)
	Drop Dead Diva (Lifetime)
10 p.m.	Mad Men (AMC)
	Hung (HBO)
	Army Wives (Lifetime)
10:30 p.m.	Entourage (HBO)
Monday, August 31st
8 p.m.
9 p.m.	The Closer (TNT)
	Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC)
10 p.m.	Weeds (Showtime)
	Raising the Bar (TNT)

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