America's Next Top Model: British Invasion (Cycle 18) - (18x05) "Beverly Johnson"

Tyra's trans-Anglophonic escapades broaden out to our polite Northern neighbors, which lets me make a whole different set of easy jokes, including:

• Mr. Jay notes how the show has never participated in a real Fashion Week before, and after Toronto Fashion Week, they still haven't.
• Only in Canada could Mr. Jay launch a "successful" fashion line.
• Any time CNTM is mentioned = lols.

All the Canada-related lolz somehow involve Mr. Jay -- I smell a theme.

But let's not lose sight of the real issue here: ASHLEY. A TOP MODEL NATION MOURNS.

See, the two Yanks aren't the least bit moved, whilst the two Brits look like frightened kittens. Maybe one of them -- Kyle -- is just catatonic with grief?

Concerning Ashley, it's bad enough that the show is taking a week off (for a One Tree Hill finale -- how long has that show been on? Seriously, like 12 years?), it's bad enough that we'll never get to hear more of her accent (the Scottish pronounce "hippy" like "happy"!), but the notion that we'll never get any further installments of the Ashley 'n Sophie Cracking Wise Show is so distressing that Kelly Cutrone is striving to make up for the French quota that's been lagging since André Leon Talley's departure (matissée this, exotique that, Gaugin the other) and AzMarie is doing the Hammer dance.

Aside from Ashley's elimination and the rest of the cast and crew's various methods for grieving (and also, if you're into it, the Canadian porn), this episode doesn't feature a whole lot that's noteworthy, so now's as good a time as any to mention that considering the nearly universal disinterest in the show beyond the perennial "this is the worst season ever" nonsense, I'm finally beginning to wonder about my taste levels, since I've been loving this cycle without reservation and irony. Could I, in my old age, be settling for the cheap thrills and the grovelling wiles of disposable culture? Well, perhaps as those philosophers of partying LMFAO would say, "WIGGLEWIGGLEWIGGLEWIGGLEWIGGLEWIGGLEWIGGLE..."

And it's not just me! I have a cohort of equally tasteless fellow travelers.

However, I don't think I'm giving myself enough credit (I rarely do, you know), which means that I can blame everyone else, hurrah. Specifically, I see a couple of possibilities:

1. People generally don't know how to watch shows like ANTM, which have been ridiculous and fatally flawed from the start. The first cycle had the execrable Nolé Marin on the judging panel, for example, who would be the analogue to the terrible Kelly Cutrone. Similarly, contestants who don't seem to deserve being on the competition and who become the focus of intense viewer resentment? Again, taking from cycle 1, Robin! (Another example would be the first season of Project Runway, which would've been frothy unadulterated fun if not for all the toxic recriminations surrounding Wendy Pepper.) 
2. People are just tired of the format. You can see this viewer fatigue in any number of shows that have lasted beyond 3-5 seasons -- longtime fans simply reach a saturation point with the structure of the competitions and start to find it stale, and the even if the content is roughly of the same average quality as the preceding seasons, the over-familiarity drags down enjoyment.

And I'll just end this long overdue post on a note that casts aspersions on the majority of the show's viewers. Mazel tov, or something!