Well so much for the big twist last week of Tyra bringing 14 girls to New York City instead of 13.Two aspiring models didn't make it past the first episode of the season after it turned out that one of them wasn't an aspiring model at all. More on that later.
After silly/hyper Amy announced that she would heretofore be known as Amis (to not confuse Tyra), we got a healthy amount of footage of the girls fawning over their stylish New York digs. I guess we'll have to wait until next week for the girls to fight over the bunk beds and avoid having to share the one huge bed.
Other than the quote from cycle 1's Robin, "if you stand for nothing, you will fall for everything" (I'm pretty sure she wasn't the first one that said that), the other highlight of the house was a no smoking sign. Atalya complained about a few of the girls going outside to smoke. Meanwhile, I wondered "who the hell cares?"
Since this was the big return to New York, there was no way they wouldn't go to Times Square. That was the sight of the week's challenge, a Badgley Mischka Runway Show. Since all the runway training these girls have apparently been exposed to is a few minutes with Ms. J at Top Model prep, I was expecting most of the girls to struggle. They didn't really disappoint, although Marvita (looking at the ground the entire time), as well as Lauren and Amis (back-to-back) awfulness, were particularly bad. On the other hand, Dominique seemed confident, as did Whitney and Claire.
After an entire episode of not fighting, Marvita and Fatima got in each other's face after Marvita was accidentally hit in the face by Fatima following the runway show. I'm the kind of person who apologizes to someone even if they bump into me, so it would've been nice for Fatima to acknowledge the run-in, even if it wasn't anything more than a graze. By the end of the episode, these two had made up after Marvita shared her experience of being raped and molested (I think Marvita shares too much!), but it's not going to take much to get the self-described stray dog riled up again.
Shortly after the fashion show, the girls met with the season's new addition, Paulina Porizkova, who didn't waste any time , nor mince any words, when assessing the girls. She deemed Kim too "High School Musical", and told Dominique than she looked like a tranny. Although her critiques were right on, my girl Erica brought up the fact that it would've been nice if Paulina had given Dominique tips on how to not look like a tranny, but she DID give Marvita advice on relaxing her mouth during panel. Also, Sutan the photographer made a genuine funny when consoling Dominique ("people confuse me with a man too.")
While this week's photo shoot seemed silly at first glance, it...well, it still ended up being pretty damn silly. It's cool that the Reciprocity Foundation helps creative homeless youths get into college, but that didn't mean that I couldn't laugh at the unintentional comedy that resulted from the girls trying to "act" homeless. It was like a real-life version of the "Derelicte" fashion line from "Zoolander." Bonus points for giving Tyra the opportunity to plug her own talk show's homeless episode.
The photo shoot wasn't terribly exciting. I'm basing this on the fact that I don't remember too much about it. Of course, I could just have a bad memory. I remember most of the girls standing around with awkward body language and the same somber expression on their faces ("I didn't want to smile if I was homeless.")
During panel, Ms. J unveiled a new jacket with each of the girls' names which I 100% prefer over last year's ever-growing afro. Also, Nigel seemed a little taken aback when he was immediately challenged by Paulina (who'd tried to make a pimp surprise entrance, but ended up weirdly emerging from behind the contestants). I don't think Nigel's been exposed to any back-sass from that seat in four seasons, er, cycles.
My favorites from the photo shoot were Whitney, Aimee, Fatima (who got lucky with a good shot) and Anya. My least favorites were Amis ("inexperienced model looking up at the light" – Paulina), Atalya (painfully average), and Allison (just weird).
Each girl's assessment was humming along at a decent pace when Kim (pictured, left) dropped the bombshell. She just wasn't into high fashion. I loved that the judges all had a collective stroke when she said this (they obviously edited out the part where the paramedics revived Ms. J). We saw hints of this during the runway show, where she complained about having to model in incredibly expensive clothes. Of course, she apparently showed lots of promise and had one of the week's best photos.
It makes me suspect that the producers had some idea something like this might happen, but decided to bring her along anyway so they could manufacture two reality show shockers ("we're bringing an extra girl", "we're having a double elimination") in one. I mean, think about it: the big to-do after picking the extra girl was basically nullified in one week. Oh well. The show's now in its tenth cycle, so I'm not going to get too mad at it for at least trying to surprise us.
As I mentioned, Tyra decided to get rid of Atalya too for good measure. I'd love to mount a big defense about how she should've been given another chance, but I honestly don't remember anything about her…ther than the fact that she hates smokers.
So what'd you think of this episode? After run-ins with Marvita and Amis, is there any girl that Fatima won't have picked a fight with before the end of the show (Unfortunately, Atalya and Kim weren't around long enough to get in a disagreement with her). Is it possible that Whitney could finally be the plus size model to win this whole thing? (Who's better than her right now?) What's with the electronic Tyra Mail? Finally, what'd you think of Paulina as the new judge? (Here's a hint about how I felt: I LOVED her!)
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