The return of ‘Project Runway’

Bravo’s hit reality television show
“Project Runway” returned last week
with the first episode of its fourth
season.

Yet, with a seemingly familiar
cast and a boring first assignment,
whether the show will keep its title as
the best reality show on TV remains
uncertain.

The premiere introduced 15 cast
members who, like those in past
seasons, will one by one be voted off
every week by a panel of expert judges.
The judges will base their decisions on
the contestants’ performances in design
challenges.

For this season premiere, the cast’s
challenge was to grab expensive
fabrics from tents in 10 minutes and
then design a signature look from the
material within less than a day.

Although exciting for “Runway”
fans, the opener suffers from what
most reality-show openers do – too
many cast members resulted in too
many personalities getting lost in the
noise, and the drama tended to be more
superficial than genuine, since newly
introduced designers were too polite to
speak their minds or too self-conscious
to act natural.

Worsening matters, the wide-open
first challenge did little to show whether
fans should expect exciting challenges
in the shows to follow. Did producers
want to save the best for later, or are
the writers running out of ideas?

Maybe casting directors are suffering
from a lack of creativity, too; this year’s
cast members seem to be more than a
little reminiscent of past favorites.

New contestant Kevin, who is
defined on the “Project Runway” Web
site as the “definition of rocker chic,”
isn’t quite the definition, considering
last season’s winner, Jeffrey Sebelia,
won the competition with his Los
Angeles-inspired, rocker style. Also,
Kevin makes it a point to mention he’s a
heterosexual, like Sebelia, among a cast
of women and mostly homosexual
men.

Reminiscent of last season’s Vincent
Lebretti, former sculptor and painter
Elisa is the most notably eccentric
of the new cast, barely escaping the
first challenge elimination for her
blue, clingy, floor-length gown, which
judge and supermodel Heidi Klum said
looked like it was “pooing fabric.”

Lebretti also often designed ridiculous,
over-the-top gowns and outfits,
which he defended with unyielding
certainty when challenged by the
judges. Maybe Elisa, who practices
yoga and is used to working with largescale
installations, will be a bit better
at accepting and using feedback.

Though the cast is new, the same
judges – love them or hate them – are
back. Of course, the expert panel
includes Klum, who also serves as the
show’s executive producer.

Klum has returned to flash her
cleavage, offer a model’s perspective
on design and, most importantly, draw
advertisers’ favorite demographic,
18- to 30-year-old men.

Klum is accompanied by American
designer Michael Kors, Elle fashion
director Nina Garcia and a guest judge
who, for the first episode, was designer
Monique Lhullier, best known for her
beautiful wedding gowns.

The infallibly well-intentioned
Tim Gunn has returned as well to
guide the contestants and offer sound
design advice while they construct
their creations. Gunn, who now has
a show of his own on Bravo, “Tim
Gunn’s Guide to Style,” has become
practically an icon since the show’s
first episode, in part because of Season
Two contestant Santino Rice’s dead-on
impression of him.

In this premiere, Gunn said the new
cast will be the most talented yet. This
might be true, but only because this
group of contestants seem to have more
design background and experience
than past casts.

Although this review might appear
overly negative, that’s only because
“Project Runway” has set the bar
so high. The show has effectively
proven that reality needn’t be dumb for
popular consumption. Hopefully, in its
fourth year, the show’s producers will
maintain the show’s quality by forcing
the new cast to design in the face of
novel and challenging obstacles.

With a writer’s strike halting the
production of script-based TV shows,
more pressure is on reality TV not
to suck. So please, “Project Runway:
Season Four,” stay inventive! Then,
reality fans everywhere can stop watching
“The Real World” and “America’s
Most Smartest Model.”

Grade: C+