While self-respecting TV watcher has a mental note to set the TiFaux to tape Project Runway tomorrow evening (or watch it live while sober — something that is hard for me to pull of since Wednesday is bar trivia night), there is another Bravo original show on that night. As you probably realize, Shear Genius airs right alongside Project Runway and concludes its season on Wednesday.It’s hard for me to tell whether the two shows would synergize together or are simply too gay to be watched in succession (we all have our limits).
Depending on your level of will power/tolerance for reality TV, you may or may not have tuned in. In any case, in these long summer months you can do worse than Shear Genius.
The content of the show isn’t nearly as interesting as Project Runway. Despite the enthusiasm the contestants muster for their craft, there are really only so many things you can do with a head of hair. Meanwhile, the possibilities are endless for the varieties of crazy-ass garments the designers on Project Runway can make. However, to make up for that fact — the contestants on Shear Genius are probably twice as bitchy as the average PR contestant.
Which brings us to our final three contestants who will show down on Wednesday:
- Charlie (right): Charlie is the most objectionable character of the season — an instigator of conflict. He’s what makes shows like this tic in that he combines his egocentric swagger with enough cattiness to rile up the rest of the contestants. He often sparred with departed contestant Nekisa who was both extraordinarily beautiful and out of her depth on the show.
- Dee (second from left): Dee has been my favorite from the start because she’s a cute little spitfire of a lesbian. The Miami resident often flirted with Nekisa (”Can somebody rub my back?”) and most famously won a competition where you had to match a dog’s haircut with its owner’s.
- Nicole (second from right): Young and brash, but also sensitive and defensive. Nicole hates Dee for some reason (and Dee hates Charlie and Charlie hates everyone). She’s been the dark horse for a while now.
We’ll see how it all turns out tomorrow night. The season has been pretty watchable, especially because of recently-booted Daniel’s legitimately ha-ha funny sense of humor and because the challenges were consistently surprising and inventive.
Jaclyn Smith is much like Heidi Klum in her role as host. First and foremost, her job is to look fabulous and exude an air of untouchability. Only after that does she really need to try to cobble together some words telling the contestants what the challenges are. She can occasionally pipe up with some opinions during the judging, but the professionals (namely animatronic stylist Kim Vo) usually overhwhelm her. Shear Genius’ Tim Gunn is Rene Fris, a famous Danish hairstylist. Despite the fact that his is extremely handsome at first glance, once he opens his mouth, the result is rather jarring — like the body of a dapper, trim dreamboat has been possessed by a gay European Muppet.
Looks like today is Dad Day on TiFaux. First we talk about greying baby boomers, now let’s talk about another thing dads like. No, not explaining now cars work. Not micro-managing your finances. We’re talking about military history.