“Project Runway”
Wednesday 9pm, Bravo
Thank Jeebus, it’s the finale. What a terrible, awful season this turned out to be. Before it even aired I was concerned at the quick turnaround after Season 4, and I was right to be. It’s clear that S5 was cast with rejects from the past seasons, and the lame challenges were thrown together at the last minute. How else can you explain Suede, Blayne, and Jerrel—totally fake soundbite machines of questionable talent—all in the same bunch, or the virtually indistinguishable Mousy Brunette Brigade (Emily, Jennifer, Leanne, Kenley) that terrorized the beginning of the season? Regardless, the Final 3 turned out O.K. I’m completely in love with Leanne’s hyper-structured garments. I like Korto’s clothes but am ambivalent about her as a person. And Kenley has emerged as one of the most despicable “villains” this show has ever produced. Remember how people got so mad at Wendy Pepper? She seems practically quaint compared to this chick, who talks back to Heidi and insults Tim Gunn. You don’t DO that! Leanne FTW.
“Crusoe”
Friday 8pm, NBC
“Ambitious” is how I would describe this new fantasy drama, based on the Daniel Defoe classic Robinson Crusoe. “Crusoe” is a British production that is being marketed as a family-friendly Pirates of the Caribbean, but minus the swishy Johnny Depp. We’ll see if the Friday night timeslot helps or hurts it in its quest to find that audience. Philip Winchester plays the title character, a man shipwrecked on a tropical island, desperate to get back to his wife. On the island he is befriended by freed slave Friday, but attacked by pirates, enemy soldiers, and Mother Nature. The supporting cast back home is loaded with familiar faces, including Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, late of Showtime’s “The Tudors”) and Sean Bean (Boromir from Lord of the Rings).
“Crash”
Friday 10pm, Starz
At the 2005 Oscars the movie Crash stunned everybody by taking home the Best Picture award instead of Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, forever earning the ire of gays and pop culture critics alike. The movie told the story of intersecting lives in racially charged Los Angeles, and how prejudices and ignorances can sometimes lead to, well, a crash. Low-tier cable movie channel Starz—eager for a piece of that primetime pie that HBO and Showtime have gobbled up—has adapted the movie into a serialized drama for its first stab at original dramatic programming. Don’t expect any of the cast or characters from the film; instead look for a whole new group of multicultural Angelenos pissing each other off, led by poor Dennis Hopper, who has finally found his Ninth Circle of Career Hell.
