Face Off – Eye Candy
Anthony attempts to keep his unprecedented winning streak alive on a candy-themed Face Off.
Almost being eliminated last week still didn’t seem to reduce Autumn’s arrogance in any way, as she starts this week’s episode remarking that the judges must just have higher expectations of her. Yes, that’s it.
There’s a foundation challenge this week that offers immunity to the winner – put a beard on a female model to create a classic bearded lady. The whole thing was judged by a world champion beard & mustache competitor, who thankfully didn’t take himself too seriously (a beard competition is like “a cross between a male beauty pagaent and a dog show”). The challenge offers a gift to the world: the phrase, “bearded leprechaun burlesque dancer.” Eric Z takes top place with a realistic beard that looks like it was transplanted onto his model’s face from a biker.
I don’t recall the immunity from elimination ever coming into play on Face Off. How awkward would that be if someone won immunity then did a terrible job in the spotlight challenge? “Well, dude, your work was just a pile of ass this week, but you have immunity so this person who only did somewhat crappy work gets sent home instead.”
The main challenge is to take candy and create a character with it, using candy. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t take this opportunity for product placement. “For this week’s Cadbury Candy Challenge, create a candy creature that will terrify a generation of children!” Ok, maybe I’m not surprised the marketing folks couldn’t make that one happen. Don’t think they didn’t try, though!
A bunch of the designs were ok, but mostly forgettable. Eric Z’s witch with the gingerbread house on her back was a cool idea, but it was a little plain. Anthony’s Colonel Candy was very well executed, but it didn’t have any wow factor. As a middle look, the streak ends! Anthony didn’t win! I liked Wayne’s idea for the rock candy troll (and his anti-candy, pro-water PSA), but again, it came out very bland.
Fox’s giant gummi blob was freaking amazing and should have been a top look over Alam’s anime girl. He just went totally insane and created this horrific creature unlike anything I’ve ever seen on Face Off.
Not that Alam’s anime girl was bad – her sculpting on that full silicone face was really subtle and cool, and she did great work building a costume out of candy. It just wasn’t as bonkers as Fox’s gummi blob. House’s crazy stomach mouth monster was also amazing, so much so that it’s been in every preview for this season of Face Off.
Kris was completely deserving of the win for his candy demon/zombie. He just did really solid work and had a great design, with all the candy horns and rope candy dreads, plus the licorice ribs and gummibear hearts. It had a killer profile and looked extremely cool and scary at the same time. Looks like Kris is stepping up to challenge Anthony for that sweet, sweet Fiat.
Bottom looks were Autumn’s “gummi bear gone sour,” which was just brutally, hilariousy bad. Autumn seems to have rubbed Glenn the wrong way, because after he savaged her last week (“It punches you in the face with how bad it sucks,” if you need a reminder), he didn’t really let up, saying something to the effect of, “A gummi bear face is really easy, so if you can’t pull that off, what the hell?”
Jenna’s scary tooth fairy was not great – bland sculpt, blander paint, not a terrific concept to begin with. I get that she’s having health issues that affect her use of her hands, but at some point you either need to figure out a way to deal with it, or find a gig where it doesn’t hold you back.
Then there’s Alex. She started with this really random concept, a pageant girl who eats too much candy, so she turns into a candy monster and eh whatever. That’s totally what I think of when I think about pageant girls – eating too much candy. In three days of work, Alex put a Buffy-style vampire brow on a model, then stuck a few bits of rock candy on her skin. And she didn’t even do it well! All the appliances were pulling up. As the judges asked several times, what exactly did she do the whole time? I want a montage of Alex staring off into space with a dreamy smile for hours on end.
I find Face Off significantly less interesting when the contestants are on their own. I’d much rather see team challenges every week. One of the nice things about Face Off is the lack of fake drama, but it could use a little actual drama now and then, which happens when teammates clash and the division of labor is unequal. There were some really cool designs this week, but overall the episode was a bit boring.
I’d also like to see more attention given to prosthetics being applied to models. Skip the foundation challenge. Cut down on the judges judging. Show more of what these people can do. More time lapse. More painting. More fitting it all together.
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Posted by Ed Grabianowski
on Tuesday, February 5th, 2013. Filed under Dark TV, Headline.
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Tags: eye candy, face off, face off season 4, syfy
