All Entries Tagged With: "Tyra Banks"

Watching Crowned is Not Quite as Horrible as Being Eaten Alive by Snakes

I watched Crowned again and I managed to find some entertainment in it. I actually like one of the teams, now. What can I say? Humanity is appealing. Here’s what I thought:

Wednesday night on Crowned the Mom’s were in charge of picking out evening gowns for both themselves and their daughters. Now, I personally trust my Mom - I would let her pick out a dress for me, even for a special event. My Mother picked out the lavender dress I wore for my high school graduation! Of course, in a panic, and a time crunch, this could be difficult for anyone.

And because the show wants to have some drama, I’m sure they threw in some hideous dresses, and not nearly enough ‘nice’ ones. This would ensure that some of the contestants would be wearing something wrong. Of course, I think even if they had their pick of any dress, some of them would still pick a horribly tacky dress (this is based on what they picked out at first, when they all did get to pick anything).

One of the mother’s - Angela (who is incredibly rude and tacky, by the by), pulled her dress’s sides out and showed a bit too much. Highly scandalous. (Later on in the show her vapid daughter proved to be just as dramatic and rude. Hmm… Apples. Trees. I think they say something about that.) I’m putting a high!drama warning on this duo.

The winners of this competition were Ada and Christian, and I would agree - they had the best dresses. Their team name was initially ‘Hot and Not’ but they’ve finally changed it to ‘Blessed Beauties’. I also think that theirs is a relationship that I would like to see mature and progress through the show. I’m interested in this pair, so I hope they stick around. I would like to see Mom, Ada, gain some more self-confidence.

The Mother’s were then in charge of makeovers and a photo shoot for their teams. I liked the Mindy/Rachelle duo, although Rachelle’s hair was really ’80’s Southern beauty queen’ and since when is that coming back? Yikes.

Gina/Hollis seem very sweet and have a nice bond. Ada/Christian, I believe, had the best picture composition. At the panel, their picture was the most well-received.

The CW is milking this show - they choose to take a close-up of one of the Mother’s after her panel when she was upset and crying, and the lights were so bright they were making her sweat a bit and her makeup was very colorful and not looking great…and yea. It was unflattering and just one indication of how reality TV can exploit people in unseemly ways. I wouldn’t advise being on any CW reality show aside from America’s Next Top Model (and I don’t think they have much say on that since it’s an established hit and Tyra Banks would use a flatiron on their faces).

Don’t forget to subscribe if you want to read more of my TV musings! And comment here and let me know what you think of this show. Would you go on this show with your Mom?

- Jessica

Want to know who was booted off the show? Click below for their picture and team name.

Popularity: 32% [?]

America’s Next Top Model : Bye, Bye, Bianca!

Last night I watched America’s Next Top Model. Going into this, my favorite model was Saleisha, then Jenah. Bianca was my least favorite. She was eliminated! And I’m glad, as she was starting to get very sneaky! Read on for my recap of the episode with my commentary.

As we started the episode, the ladies arrived in Beijing, and Twiggy and Miss Jay were there to greet them. I think I heard Twiggy say ‘au revoir’ - which is kind of odd, since, uh… they’re not in France. They were shown four different models in four different dresses, each representing a famous beauty in Chinese culture.

Their new apartment was of course, gorgeous. They had four special red boxes with their Tyra Mail, each box contained dresses for them to wear. Chantal boasted that she got the best one. I believe that she thought that because hers was the only one that showed a stomach. If these were swimsuits, she was the only girl who got a bikini. Shallow much? If you’re a model, you better be able to work a potato sack and make it look good!

Then they got 200 dollars and an hour to run around a mall to find accessories for outfits. They weren’t being very creative, they were just mimicking what they’d seen earlier on the other models. They also made sure everything matched, but that’s something a first grader can do so I’m not giving them any points for that. If you gave me an hour and 200 dollars, I could find shoes, earrings, a purse that matches, a tiara, a bouquet of fresh flowers, and have a broach engraved with my initials! What kind of challenge was that?! A friggin’ easy one, that’s what.

Bianca, like a huge, HUGE, jerk, told Jenah to go across the street to find ‘amazing stores’ - of which there were none. I think a modeling competition should be mostly about how you look, the pictures you take, etc. Not so much about another girl maliciously trying to screw you over. I’m sure it happens, but ugly personalities like Bianca’s are the type we’d like to keep out of the industry, right?

Ann Shoket, the editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine was there to judge them. The winner was Jenah, which seemed awesome. Except she picked Chantal to share her prize. I noticed how much Chantal sounds like a valley girl during this episode. More than that, I realized how much she acts like one.

Bianca said, “I don’t want to leave until I win.” Well, uh, newsflash - I think that’s what most girls in this competition, every cycle, have thought.

The models were told they were doing a shoot on the Great Wall of China. Tyra Banks was there to shoot them. They were given hair that was really dramatic. Chantal’s wig was like, the princess Leia look on crack. Jenah’s was an asymmetric version of that. But hers looked very couture to me, unlike Chantal’s wig.

The Wall was a good metaphor for the industry, as it had the model’s trying to climb over it, sort of. They’re all trying to overcome their obstacles, to get to the other side. And they all seemed to be smart enough to realize that Tyra is the biggest person to impress in this competition.

They were then given the challenge of having to pose together. The challenge is to stand out among the other girls. I would have loved to hear what those girls were thinking as they were posing for that shoot.

At panel, Jenah’s picture was deemed great, but Jenah’s presence had not been memorable. Jenah then cried, and spoke about how much she missed her home, and her little sisters. With just a few words from the judges, Jenah returned to the line, seemingly more assured. I’m not sure what exactly happened - but Jenah seemed to say she needed to be home for her little sisters that she missed and had no one else, and Tyra told her to go be a role model for them by traveling the world. Best advice ever? Fail!