Say what? Maxi up front and cat suit in the back?

While I’m normally a pretty cheery person, I’m giving fair warning: I’m about to go on a mini-tirade here, in case you’d like to tune out.

What the hell is going on this season of Project Runway? The judges/producers/magical elves behind the scenes have done everything possible to mess with the quality of the show. This week the lead-up to the finale was supposed to show how the designers had worked tirelessly on beautiful collections and Tim would be stunned during the home visits. Wrong. While the show used to give the designers 12 weeks to complete their collection, this season had only five.

Let’s talk about that for a minute That means they come home from the most exhausting, burnt-out period of their lives, then need to immediately come up with a new concept, sketch ideas, find fabrics and materials, order them, pattern all the items and begin sewing nonstop to create the most important collection of their lives. Oh, and catch up on the weeks of sleep they’ve missed and maybe even say hello to a family member or two. Five weeks sounds reasonable right? (? sarcasm)

So by the time the designers make it back to New York to show the judges their three-look preview, it was no shock to me most weren’t done and the collections looked a little haphazard. Viktor had some cool prints and a beautifully tailored warty jacket with the same texture as the pumpkin sitting on my porch, Anya’s beige pieces felt blah and unlike her. I dug Kimberly’s color palette, but the styling and a bubble butt skirt were frightening. Finally, Josh’s collection had a disco dress from the front and bad, bad cat suit from the back. My eyes are still burning.

With that mix, it’s not a huge surprise the judges pulled a shady move. No designers were eliminated. Why is that shady? Because I feel like the judges are really favoring Anya and sort of side-stepping rules for her. In general, I agree I often think she has the coolest taste, but if you can’t get it together, then should you get a second chance that others don’t? Or has reality television just made me grumpy? We’ll find out this Thursday when the winner is crowned.

Or maybe winners.

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