antm11

For the first time in a long time, it feels like the judges are making the appropriate decisions for which girls are going home and which ones deserve to stay. Let’s see if this episode entailed that rarity.

The episode starts by the girls going in and seeing Clark’s awesome picture from last week on the digital screen. I know not everyone liked Clark from the beginning (and there’s good reason why), but to me she warmed up, and I still liked her quite a bit. She interviews that she could do better than the first couple of weeks, and I’m thinking, “Hell yeah, you can!” However, she got a little bit arrogant. “I don’t know, it’s a little lonely at the top!” Sam’s cute and talks about her bottom-two experience, and picks herself right back up, and at the end says “I’m hoping to stay here for a very long time” like an adorable little girl who’s trying to be a super-sleuth.

Marjorie and Analeigh go off to one room, and then Marjorie freaks out because she’s tired of all the girls being positive and her feeling like she’s the only one that’s intimidated by the whole situation. She speaks of how she feels it’s a cultural difference, these views of being positive and negative. At this point I’m a little turned off, but can understand where she’s coming from.

TYRA MAIL! “Just because it doesn’t fit doesn’t mean you should be close-minded. Love, Tyra.” Nothing special or corny, but I do love the picture of Tyra as a mailperson with her leg lifted up. Joslyn goes to the booth to talk to her sister who sounds exactly like her. Hey, there’s two of her, what a delight! She starts interviewing that she hasn’t taken a good photo in weeks (although in my mind, I think, “When have you ever produced a good photos?”), and starts talking about how she’s going downhill and she doesn’t know what’s going on. I like the family support she has, but the entire time I saw her talking, interviewing, and just for the entire show, I’ve seen nothing relatively close to a model. I’m sorry, for those of you who love her, but I really, really, really don’t see anything with her and wouldn’t have considered her for the show at all.

The girls get to their challenge destination, which looks like a very desolate and abandoned warehouse, where Paulina comes out of an elevator! I’ve noticed we never really see any judge besides Ms. Jay outside of the panel too often. She comes in this light-blue office wear which doesn’t look to good (and Clark comments it’s hideous), and Paulina raises the shirt and pretty much flashes the girls from the chest down, which I found to be extraordinarily unlike her. Paulina goes on to talk about catalogs (and I found it wonderfully blunt how she stated, “90 percent of the time, if you’re lucky, you’re going to be doing catalog,” we need that realism on the show more), and how you’ve got to make clothes that aren’t so prestigious look good by taking your surroundings and making it feel better.

Girls go up with a tool hat and tool belt, and here are the rules. Five minutes for them to take a catalog article of clothing, use their surroundings to make everything work, and then be evaluated on how well they’ve made the outfits look good on them. Marjorie explains that she doesn’t see the judges as people that she ordinarily speaks to, thus why she doesn’t act like she normally does. Although I love Marjorie, I’ve to say, “Hello? Are you there? None of the other girls really speak to seasoned, experienced people who critique them and send them home either, you’re not alone.” She’s not annoying me, but she’s perplexing me a little bit. So, challenge evaluation went like this:

McKey had this purple top with professional pants, and clipped the back of everything to make it work. She got a lot of praise, and her shirt had cool colors, although the design was a bit cliché. Clark’s clothes were bad, but her body was scorchin’. Being interviewed quite a bit, she wisely says “Here, I kind of approached this challenge keeping my grandmother in mind. You know, if a 56-year-old woman looks in a magazine, they don’t want to buy a piece of clothing that’s sucking the model in.” She obviously has knowledge and common sense, and I expected her to portray those types of tips in her photos. Joslyn didn’t look too bad. I realized that orange is used a lot with her (swimsuit shot, air balloon shot, Jeremy Scott fashion show, this challenge). Lauren Brie puts water bottles in the back of her jeans, which isn’t a little bizarre. At all. I mean, she had a shirt that had ruffles in the back, so she didn’t need to do that. Sheena…didn’t look very good. Elina looked like a mother of a child that was strolling through the park, quite pretty, but nothing extraordinary (although I don’t expect anything like that with this challenge). Sam looked cute, but Paulina didn’t really approve of the way she pulled everything up to make it look shorter. Marjorie actually looked pretty cute, but Paulina didn’t like her look too much.

Paulina’s about to announce the winner and the prize, but stops herself to ask if Marjorie’s okay, who is leaning on a pole looking like she’s going to throw up. Apparently, she doesn’t get this bad around the house, and then sweet, lovely, old (emphasis on the “old”) Joslyn interviews that “Marjorie just boo-hoos all of a sudden (she laughs), and I’m like, (she said it with her annoyingly piercing voice,) ‘DID SHE PINCH YOU?!’ What hap- (laughs again)” Well, at least she’s not sucking, dear Jos. As Marjorie explains her negative demeanor, she’s nervous and Paulina relates and gives her advice, saying that she should just do it for herself, and that her personality is socially acceptable in Europe. She’s being the mommy of Marjorie, which was great to see (since she’s never really shown that warmth). Then Sam goes on to say that Marjorie is being a baby, she “has” to come out of her shell, and “Welcome to America,” which certainly didn’t fit well with me as an immigrant. So, long story short, McKey won the challenge and got 50 extra frames for her photo shoot.

Girls get back home, and it’s TYRA MAIL! “Are you a force of nature, a devastating beauty, or a total disaster? Love, Tyra.” I think that it’s one of those rare episodes when the mail is giving away the challenge/photo shoot immediately (and that’s been happening a lot this cycle…I kind of miss seeing the girls guess frantically and get everything very wrong). The girls get together in the living room, and Marjorie’s obviously the center of attention, talking about how hard it is for her, and how her performance is hindering her. Then Joslyn interviews, just as annoyingly as before, “Poor Marjorie. Marjorie has had a pretty tough week. But with Marjorie’s nerves, she’s probably had several tough weeks. (laughs)” Then Marjorie said “I started off as the weakest in the beginning.”

…WHAT?! She had the first call-out of the entire cycle! Her picture was the first displayed as digital art, and she’s been improving! Like I said, she’s not annoying me, but she’s confusing the hell out of me. She interviews how it’s her upbringing that has made her so, and then Sam stupidly asks, “So do you think you’re America’s Next Top Model, then?” Again…what?! So Marjorie starts flipping out and is being scolded by her for being negative, and Marj get stressed out. Night ends in a pretty bad note.

On to the photo shoot destination (the episode seemed to move real quickly, didn’t it?). There’s a set with what looks like cardboard (although well-executed) buildings. A monster that looks like it came straight out of Alien vs. Predator came out, the lights were flickering violently, and the girls all screamed only to find out it was Mr. Jay. As he was talking in the costume, I really wanted to be his friend for some reason. Anyway, photo shoot highlights:

-Brian Edwards is the photographer. He’s absolutely amazing, I’ve checked his website out. Check him out!

-Elina didn’t do too badly. She looked nice too.

-Sheena looked cute to me. A lot of people hate the styling that was done with her, but I think it did quite a bit of justice.

-Clark struggled quite a bit, but she looked really amazing. I think she has one of the best bodies ANTM has seen in a long time. It’s perfect for high-fashion, in my opinion.

-Lauren Brie looked weird, but very Swedish. She looked lackluster as she was shooting, except for the last frame. I wish we were able to see what the models’ films looked like. Or that ALL of the judges would decide what photo should be chosen, not just Tyra.

-Joslyn did horribly, but I liked her clothes. Everyone keeps going back to her first photo shoot, but I absolutely need glasses if it’s the truth that she did wonderfully. Judge favoritism, anyone?

-Analeigh did real well, and I liked seeing her being shot by the camera.

-McKey did wonderfully, and carried an awesome androgynous feel to her. Mr. Jay commented that it was like she did two amazing photo shoots in one, for she didn’t need the extra 50 frames.

-Samantha did very well, and while seeing her shoot, I was anxious to see how the water would turn out.

-Marjorie struggled, which was amazingly predictable. Mr. Jay felt that he basically contorted her throughout the whole shoot. She looked really weird and different, but I love that she wouldn’t look the same in her photo. She never does, does she? She interviewed another negative expectation, claiming she felt like a fool.
We’re back home, and Clark is really being erratic this episode. Wise, but arrogant. She says she’s number one in the competition right now (apparently your stance in the competition from the week before determines where you are throughout rather than your performance in the entire experience), and how she’s checked out her photo quite a few times. Joslyn gets negative on herself, and Sam talks about how the photo’s look depends on the judges’ overall view on it.

In panel, Brian Edwards was the guest judge (and I love when the photographers are there to talk about their performance). Clark’s face looked horrible, and I think it’s because she was showing too much forehead. It looked bigger than ever. The judges (at least Tyra and her favorite pet, Nigel) go on to show favoritism on Joslyn and talk about how her first photos were amazing, blah, blah, blah. Stop, everyone. They’re not Yoanna’s finale picture or Amanda Swafford’s beauty shot, it’s nothing worth mentioning more than once, if at all. McKey had a good photograph, and although there were better ones, Tyra did that devilish thing where she deliberately didn’t choose the best photograph because it wasn’t telling the story enough (which I can understand, as someone who wants to be a photographer. The clients and photographer are getting out a story, and it’s not entirely about the model looking amazing). As they’re judging and Paulina sticks up for Marj, Nigel sort of barks at her about how she’s on the defense for her every week. What a hypocrite. He only likes the girls that he feels are hot enough for him to hook up with anyway, and the week before, Paulina deliberately disliked Marjorie’s photo, so I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about. Nothing else was really special.

Call-out order:

-Sam. I’m going to end up saying something brief about this at the end, for that rare handful of you who are really, really spoiler-free. Anyway, I thought she’s entitled to it. I’d have called McKey for winning the challenge and being a great model in the shoot, but whatever.

-Analeigh. Runner-up two weeks in a row! I actually noticed that Tyra gave her a sort-of-dirty look in panel, and I have this theory that she’s just going to build Analeigh up to bring her down. I just know she doesn’t like Analeigh.

-McKey. Again, I would’ve made her first.

-Elina.

-Marjorie. With all that screen time, one would think that she’d be in the bottom. But wait…she’s one of the few that doesn’t suck, so that’s why!

-Lauren Brie.

-Sheena. She did NOT deserve bottom-three. What was that all about?

-Joslyn (ARGH!)
-Clark is eliminated. I didn’t think she was winner material, but she could give amazing photos like the one last week, and she showed an amazing body in her swimsuit (and even pre-show) shot. This was a waste. And over Joslyn?! Ha! My very favorite part was when Tyra said “But Joslyn’s personality got her by.” We’re back to this, now. Replace the judges.

The photos (in order of my personal favorite to least-favorite):

Sheena. I’ve realized that this girl’s photos are getting better and better and better. Nothing negative about this, and the thing that caught my eye was that ever since her makeover shot, she’s been looking like she changes her Asian nationality. I love it.

Sam. The photography is amazing. The tidal waves make for a spectacular photograph, and some of that is due to Sam’s good modeling. Her face looks horrible close-up, but the fact that she nailed the retro style (tell me this isn’t reminiscent of our dear Twiggy), and her body looks great. She’s not selling the garment, but who cares?! Oh, wait, the client and people who are paying her.

Marjorie. She looks like an evil Barbie doll. I love her chin and jawline, and the fact that although she didn’t look too great on film, she can make any look work on a photo.

McKey. Even if this wasn’t the best photo on her film, it’s still awesome. She has a great body, and there’s always that unique element of McKey in all of her photographs. Plus, the shoes are awesome.

Lauren Brie. This is pretty amateur for her, isn’t it? She looks a little bit weird, but I think that’s due to the styling. She can, has done, and hopefully will do, much better.

I actually like this photograph quite a bit. Her face brings back Tyra’s ever-famous “ugly-pretty” shenanigan, and I like it. However, her feet and legs are bothering the heck out of me. If she jumped and kept that face, it would’ve contributed to the theme better, I think.

Clark. This isn’t the best photograph of her, I know that. However, her body is fantastic, and her jawline is perfect. I think she looks perfect, and although it isn’t a good photo, I don’t sincerely believe this is a bad one either. She should’ve been given another chance, in my opinion.

Analeigh. I like it, but it’s rather forgettable. If the face was more intense, and the left hand wasn’t so weird, it’d be higher.

Joslyn. There really isn’t much to say about this. Horrible face and horrible body, and she’s making the clothes (which I liked) look bad. This photo would’ve looked better with an invisible person, really.

What I wanted to point out at before is that Sam was on the bottom two last week, and the top this week. Clark was on the top last week, and eliminated this week. As I said before, this cycle is making some really right decisions, but I’m starting to become afraid that this will become Cycle 9…or worse…Cycle 10, all over again.

-Posted by Dorian. Thanks for reading.