What an unusual and fun challenge! Last night’s
episode of “Face Off” was a good example of precisely what I like about this
show. It’s creative, it focuses more on the work than interpersonal drama, and
the output of the contestants was so wild and imaginative that you will
absolutely not see anything else like it anywhere else on television. I
actually liked almost every look, and even the losing team’s creation was far
from a total disaster.
This was a team challenge, as the remaining 10
artists were split into duos and tasked with creating a modern interpretation
of Chinese dancing dragons that also incorporated each of the designers’
Chinese zodiac symbols. Beyond that, all of the looks had to participate in a choreographed
dance number (I’d rather they did that now, instead of in the finale like in
Season 2), so the make-ups had to stand up to heavy physical movements.
Complicated, yes, but also really cool. Here’s how the teams shook out:
Nicole and Rod, whose signs were snake and rat
Eric and Sarah, who were monkey and boar
Alana and Laura, goat/rat
Derek and Tommy, ox/monkey
Jason and Roy, rabbit/snake
Interestingly, almost every team had a really
strong member, and a fairly weak member, the exception being Derek and Tommy,
who at this point seem fairly evenly matched. Unlike the first team challenge
with crazypants Joe, the drama was fairly minimal. If
the designers had issues with one another they dealt with them professionally
and I felt that every team put out some strong work.
The main bit of interest to come from the
design phase was, again, freaking Alana, Queen of the Spazzes. She hurt herself
AGAIN – third episode in a row, I think – by slicing her finger open so badly
that she needed to go off campus to get stitches. This girl, I swear. My
thoughts were best summed up by the following exchange:
Roy: “That girls an accident waiting to
happen.”
Rod: “Waiting?!”
Exactly.
At presentation, we discovered that Rod and
Nicole went in a different direction, integrating the
birth signs into the make-up by having the animals on the face (I had a hard
time making them out, to be honest). The judges liked it, and the fabric
details around the head gave it movement. But New Judge didn’t see dragon at
all in the look.
Jason and Roy were praised for their concept
and the fabrication, but Jason’s red-and-black splotchy paint job was
critiqued, as was their failure to really push the dragon aspect, which should
have been a slam-dunk with the snake face.
Alana and Laura got props from head judge Glenn
for their “persistence of vision,” as the goat/rat look really held up from the
sketches. It was creepy, moved well, but as Ve
pointed out, did not read “dragon” in the slightest. It looked so different
from everybody else’s, but I loved it (minus the goofy teeth).
Eric and Sarah’s creation reminded me
powerfully of shitty Marvel Comics villain The Mandrill. There were issues with
symmetry in the make-up, the flimsy and unnecessary horns, and the paint job.
It was obviously the judges’ least favorite.
Derek and Tommy’s work was called “one of the
strongest collaborations” in the show’s history by Glenn. Glenn also really
liked the Japanese aesthetic, brought in by Derek’s tattoo background. It was a
cool-looking creation.
Unsurprisingly, Tommy and Derek were the
winning team, while the bottom team was Eric and Sarah, which was pretty clear
based on the judging. While Derek got the individual win, his brother Eric was
given the boot. My question was if Sarah, who won last week, had immunity to
begin with. That was never addressed.
Next: “Alice in Wonderland” is attacked by zombies.
Two great tastes that hopefully go great together.
This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2012.
