Tuesday, March 27, 2007

America's Next Top Model (Cycle 8) - 8x04 "The Girl Who Changes Her Attitude"

Even though this cycle has entertained reasonably well, this episode in particular has undermined or violated some basic reality tv rules to only minor consequences.

First, this episode tried to humanizeour villain du cycle Renee when they showed her resolving to change her attitude -- an alleged change that prompted the episode to be named after her -- because of how lonely and isolated she feels, and because she's so stony broke that she wanted to pawn off this episode's reward. Actually, this whole cycle has worked double-time to make me feel bad about laughing at certain of these girls -- either that or I'm wising up to ANTM's tricks of picking an assortment of dim-bulbs.

Second, they eliminated Felicia. Maybe it's true that she really hasn't been all that in her shoots lately, but Felicia also had at least an ounce of wry self-awareness which would've been refreshing in the midst of all these delusional girls. And shewas lighthearted and nice enough to (try to) teach Jael how to dance, and so we lost more than just another baby Tyra, but we lost a girl who could've risen to become America's Next Top Model – Cycle 8's heroine.

There's more here to think about once I recover my intelligence.

"Recover."

Indie rating: Jesu - "Dead Eyes"

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