"I am a designer. Feel me."

Oh kittens, maybe we've been watching Project Runway for too long, but the "homeward bound" portion of the finale was boring. Gasp! Did we just type that? Could it be that the PRGayBoys are ... over it?

Ha. Not on your life.

Of course we love the show and considering there is no one on the planet who's had more to say about PR than us, we think it's safe to say that we're still firmly in the "obsessed fanboy" camp.

It's just that - remember the other day when we were defending Santino and we said that personality drama was the lifeblood of reality television? Well, that's still true. Now remember when we said one of the few times we get annoyed at reality show drama is when it's too contrived or too producer-created? That's still true too. Holy cow, is it ever.

Of course it's a great idea to travel back to the finalists' homes to get a little backstory and see where they live. We've always loved these episodes. It's just that this season, it seems to us like the producers were working over time to produce tear-jerking backstories where none existed.

Actually, that's not quite true. As these things go, there couldn't possibly be a better story than "My seven sisters and I grew up in a Laotian prison camp and now we live in a McMansion in Houston, Texas!" And maybe that was part of the problem. Chloe had a story that would have been rejected by Lifetime Television for Women as being too unbelievable. The other two designers simply weren't going to live up to that but god bless them (or more likely the producers), they tried.

Let's get this out of the way first: it can be a shitty thing when society considers you an outsider. It's also really difficult to move to a new city with no money and big plans or to be a young gay man in a small town struggling to find your way. We're not denying that these things are hard; but trying to package them as extraordinary stories is a little ridiculous.

With Santino, you got a kindler, gentler version. He was clearly trying to do some damage control after the episodes aired and we have to say, there was definitely something endearing about seeing him so humble. On the other hand, the "walking into the sunset with Tim" sequence was nauseating. You weren't "homeless," you slept on a friend's couch for a couple months until you could get back on your feet. Stop trying to make it sound like you were under a bridge somewhere shooting up with Anthony Kiedis. And what was the point of having Tony Ward there if we can't look at his ass? That's the whole point to Tony Ward.

With Daniel, we just had to laugh. "It was really hard for me to be gay, and here's a bunch of pictures of me modeling different hairstyles to illustrate it. So sad. (pause) Let's go shopping!" Besides, are you really going to enter the fashion world of all places by touting yourself as the gay one? Time to rethink that one, Daniel.

Again, we're not minimizing what in all likelihood were truly painful events in their lives, but when you put them out there as "Here Is My Pain," then it gets a little heavy-handed and eyeroll-inducing. We don't think the designers had it in them to come up with this as a plan. It was more likely the producers pushing them to come up with something they could use. And honeys, when the producers leave their greasy fingerprints all over our tv screens we get cranky. We couldn't even enjoy the required shots of Tim pretending to drive!








[Screencaps: projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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