Enough time

Tonight is the premier of season 7 of Project Runway, and I know that David Dust is so excited he's already peed his pants a few times.

I have been watching Project Runway since day 1, or season 1, I guess I should say. I happened to see a commercial for it while watching something on Bravo and made a mental note to watch it. I did, and I really liked it. It seemed new and fresh. Maybe part of it had to do with the fact that I do not sew or design clothing. But the show just seemed different, and I liked that the characters were "characters". That was season 1, the season Jay McCarroll won, the season that got everyone talking about Project Runway.

Since then there have been 5 additional seasons of Project Runway, and many other similar design/reality shows, including Design Star, The Fashion Show, Sheer Genius, Top Design, and Launch My Line. None of them even approach the greatness of Project Runway, but that's just me.

And although Design Star and Top Design are about interior design and Sheer Genius is about hair design rather than fashion design, the format is the same: a pool of contestants performs in themed challenges that result in weekly eliminations. Another uniting factor about all these shows is my frustration with the amount of time we, the TV audience, has to view the final products.

It seems that more than enough time is devoted to explaining the object of the challenge, shopping for supplies, and watching the construction of the item, be it a garment, hairstyle, or room.

There is always plenty of time for 'confessional' interviews where the contestants talk about how they feel about the challenge and the other contestants.

There always seems to be a crier on every season who is emotionally overcome at least once in every episode.

And every frickin' week we are introduced to the same judges, as if we'd forgotten who they were from last week.

But the the part of the show devoted to actually showing us the finished project is, like, 3 seconds.

Seriously!! In a 60-minute episode of Project Runway with up to 12 contestants/models we are treated to about 18 seconds of the models wearing the finished garments on the runway, COLLECTIVELY! That means 12 'looks' in 18 seconds.

Now, I don't know about you, but I would really appreciate a little more time to view the finished garments/hairstyles/rooms before hearing the judges' comments.

Sometimes you hear a judge mention something about 'poor construction' or the lack of a finished hem. These are things we literally do not have time to see!

With an hour long show you'd think they could give a little more time to showing the results. Maybe shave off a few seconds by NOT showing the crybaby in every episode. Shave off a few more seconds by NOT introducing us to the same judges week after week. Shave off yet a few more seconds by NOT showing the contestants brushing their teeth in the morning!

Yes, with a little bit of shaving here and there, I think we could manage to piece together perhaps (gasp!) 5 whole minutes to view the 12 'looks' on the runway.

What do you think?

Crush du Jour: Tober Brandt