Kors-Free 'Project Runway' Needs A Loving But Disgusted Tim Gunn Scowl

There seemed to be reason for optimism when Project Runway returned from a (very) long hiatus. Despite a move from Bravo to Lifetime, a different production company, and a different setting (Los Angeles instead of New York), the first episode felt mostly like home.

But since then, it's gradually sagged. The challenges seem half-hearted, the contestants don't seem interesting enough, and the show has sorely missed — perhaps more sorely than anyone would have expected — regular judges Michael Kors and Nina Garcia, who have been gone for much of the season. (Kors, who has missed all the episodes but the opener, finally returns tonight.)

Kors and Garcia both being gone means that it's just Heidi Klum and a bunch of guest judges, and that's been the case for the last three episodes. Candidly, the biggest problem is Zoe Glassner, who has been sitting in for Garcia. Glassner is an editor at Marie Claire, and she may be an even more obnoxious guest judge than Elle's Anne Slowey, previously the most obnoxious guest judge in history.

I wrote down that you were a bad judge, after the jump.

 

Glassner's specialty is haughtily telling the contestants what she wrote down on her card, as if somehow she's both (1) shocked at her own cleverness and (2) not responsible if it sounds rude, since she's just reading what's on the card. It's a profoundly annoying habit. When Michael Kors famously looked at his notes on Wendy Pepper's post office outfit in Season 1 and said, "I wrote down 'farty,'" it was hilarious, because he clearly was both amused and a little embarrassed — it's reasonable to conclude that it's newsworthy that, when you first saw an outfit, you wrote down "farty."

But when Zoe Glassner announces that she wrote down "clever, bold and risky" or that she wrote down "shoddily made," she just comes off like she doesn't realize that she's bragging about spouting cliches.

A fan asked to name favorite things about Runway might not say "the authority of Michael Kors and Nina Garcia." But without them, there's a lack of — believe it or not — gravitas. Over five seasons, viewers have learned that they're both very fair. They'll give credit where it's due, they'll take a contestant down a peg even if he's been a frontrunner, and at this point, they both have nothing to prove. Zoe Glassner, on the other hand, seems to be showing off in pursuit of further jobs in reality television. Combine that with the fact that the guest judges haven't developed the vocabulary that Kors and Garcia have to explain to contestants where they're getting it right or falling short (that's how you get a lady congratulating herself for the redundant "clever, bold and risky"), and you have a big letdown right at what should be the climactic moment of the show.

The guest judges are not the only problem with the season so far. There also haven't been very many interesting challenges, the parts of Los Angeles they've used have been a sorry substitute for the parts of New York they've used in the past, and there are few standout contestants and few standout creations. But the most immediate problem is that the judging panel has been 75 percent guest judges for the last three weeks.

Who knew this show was running a version of credibility?