Thursday, December 15, 2005

America's Next Top Model (Cycle 5) - "Cycle 5 Reunion"

I'd try to find a picture of a trainwreck, but I don't want to spend too much energy on this abortion of a reunion special, which demonstrates through negative example how reality television thrives.

Having Tyra host the reunion? Horrible and uncomfortable television. First and least offensively, she clumsily segued from one girl to another -- no sense of continuity! More egregiously, she asked the girls probing questions when the format of the program (at least as much as I expected from it) called for fluff questions. Even more uncomfortable was how she rehashed the feuds that happened on the show: when talking to Kim about being picked on early in the show, Tyra basically called "so-called friend" Ashley deceitful. I like my schadenfreude okay, but that's too rich for me!

To compound the problem of having, you know, a MODEL giving her impression of Mike Wallace, the interviewees were, you know, KINDA STUPID. The girls tried gamely to articulate their responses -- actually no, I'm giving them too much credit. Outside of Kim (who looked much better because, OH MI GOD, she lost a bit of weight), they mangled the reasons why they weren't as bad as their depictions on the show. (Nevertheless, I was mildly surprised by how expressive Nik was. Of course, she still didn't make more than a lick of sense, though she seemed more effusive than Nicole, who again proved that an informal camera magnifies her personality and prettiness about 10,000%.)

Indie rating: F.U.S.E. - "Logikal Nonsense"

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