My inclination was to pick a skinny woman and do a male famine, but that trick has been used before. I stole it from the first challenge on season 2, when they did the Wizard of Oz. That contestant envisioned a scrawny Cowardly Lion because he was too scared to be a good hunter, and wasn’t eating much because of it.
As usual, good summary! Thanks, Irishman!
I didn’t notice top and bottom were from the same group, so nice catch.
I also didn’t get what Jordan did. It required some explanation, which in general the judges don’t think it should. Maybe a scarred face and put the soul sucking part on the chest?
I’m really torn on Scott’s. Yes, it looks like a mummy and that is good. Not being able to do that, I don’t know the skill it took because it seems as if it was face, hands, and then costume. So, for minimal it works, but seems off to me.
I liked Meg’s a lot. I thought it conveyed it all well and I liked the tribal stuff.
Stevie needs to up her game. And after doing her first chest piece, she mostly covers it?
Evan’s was awesome and it came together well.
Nora’s was also good and I’m glad she pushed through her block to finish.
Kevon’s was bad. He knew it but kept going. A bad decision that cost him.
Ben’s was one of those where I wanted to give him extra time to see him finish it as I really liked the idea. I was bummed he felt he had to cover it up. However, his reaction when Kevon was eliminated? Priceless!
If Ben gets back into the game, I would say him, Nora and Evan, with Scott, Jordan and Meg being wild cards. I don’t think Stevie can pull it off. I’m also torn on Scott and Jordan. Scott does good work but it’s sometimes minimal. He isn’t willing to “go big or go home.” Jordan seems to be lacking in make up skill but his fabrication is top notch.
I’m continually surprised at how many technical skills they need to have for this as well as creativity to tell the story. It makes me wonder if the top half of each season is nearly given a job in the industry?
vislor
My big disappointment is that I don’t think either group worked as a group, but this was glossed over anyway in the episode so I guess it wasn’t a concern for the show.
I agreed that Kevon and Ben were clearly the worst. However, I was surprised that Kevon left instead of Ben. I thought the craftsmanship on Kevon’s was markedly better than Ben’s … it would have been okay for another challenge, but clearly a bomb for this particular challenge. Ben’s, I felt, was awful for this challenge, and awful in general. Full disclosure: I have never been impressed with Ben, ever. I don’t think he’s a good conceptual designer. Even when he comes up with a successful make-up, I always feel like he got there by accident. Although by that measure, Kevon isn’t too heavy in the head either.
For the winners, I liked both of the top looks very much. For Evan’s, I have to say, this was one of those times on the show when the lead-up in the studio did not give me a clear idea of what to expect. As in, the reveal of his final product was this “wow!” moment I was not expecting from any of the previous footage of him molding or painting.
I thought Nora’s looked creepy and horseman-like, very much within the challenge while putting her own unique spin on it. HOWEVER, while I loved the concept of the barbed wire across the mouth, it didn’t really read that way to me visually on TV. I got that it was a creepy guy, and maybe it looked like his mouth was mutilated and/or sewn shut, but if she hadn’t been talking about the barbed wire throughout the show, I don’t think it would have crossed my mind that it was barbed wire. (Totally possible this is something that played better in person.)
I think Vee was spot-on, for any other challenge Kevon’s could’ve actually been a contender, it just had nothing to do with what he was supposed to be making. Ben’s was a disaster through-and-through.
I honestly thought Nora was going to win. Evan’s was fine, but when he took off the mask, especially from a distance, his model kind of looked clownish which doesn’t befit a Horseman. Nora’s was a lot more… noble? intimidating? I liked it much better.
I’m not getting the hate for Stevie’s design – it looked fine to me. A bit cliche, perhaps, but if you’re doing Famine as a horseman of the Apocalypse, then a visually wasted guy is the way to go.
Jordan’s War bugged me. Since when do avatars of War have giant soul-sucking leech holes in the middle of their faces? He was lucky it was incredibly well executed or he might have gotten bottom looks for sheer WTF-ery.
I do have one question – when they’re showing the artists’ concepts at the beginning of the show, they usually have these beautifully drawn concept illustrations. Are these actually produced by the artists? Because they look too complete to have been drawn up in the very limited couple of hours they have for concept design and planning. I’m beginning to suspect that there’s more behind-the-scenes work going on here than we know about it.
I didn’t hate Stevie’s design. I didn’t think it was round 9 worthy. I was fine with safe but I don’t think she’s going to make it to the final. That’s just my guess, though.
Yes to Jordan’s War.
I think one of the things the show hasn’t done is tell us the rules under which the contestants are operating. I don’t know if they are out there to read or not. It seems as if they don’t get to contact anyone during this time. Further, it seems as if they don’t get internet, either, because people don’t talk about looking things up at night, such as what it is if they don’t know it or general reading up on the topic.
I say all of that to answer your question about artwork. Not being an artist, I don’t know if they can draw what is shown in the hour or two they have for concept or not. Further, I don’t know if they do get to take those to the place where they are staying and work more on it then? Just a bunch we don’t know.
War and soul sucking isn’t immediately clear, so it needed explanation, and that’s why it wasn’t a top look. Your character should tell it’s story with it’s look.
Meg’s wasn’t bad, I just felt the head was a bit overdone.
This season seems particularly uneven in results.
To run stats:
Ben: 2 Win, 2 Top, 1 Bottom
Nora: 1 Win, 3 Tops, 1 Bottom, 1 Foundation win
Evan: 1 Win, 2 Top, 1 Bottom, 2 Foundation wins
Jordan: 1 Win, 2 Top, 1 Bottom
Scott: 1 Win, 2 Tops
Meg: 2 Win, 4 Bottoms, 1 Foundation win
Stevie: 2 Tops, 2 Bottoms
I think at this point that Meg and Stevie are both going to fall short on skill set, and Scott is going to fall short on vision. Ben, Nora, Evan, and Jordan are the contenders, but it’s anyone’s game. Nora and Evan seem on an upswing, Jordan actually did really well on execution this week, just missed slightly on concept for this challenge.
They all get jobs in the industry, it’s just what kind of job and where. For instance, there was a brief one off episode for a potential show where Nicole, Roy, and Mike Fox IIRC were running a shop together. Some have gone on to work under Ve on Hunger Games, etc.
Yes, it bugged me when it was mentioned by McKenzie, but then ignored by the judges. I guess both were equally short, so there wasn’t any point stressing it. Maybe that got edited out as irrelevant. The focus on what’s in front of them.
I think this was a case where overall record was more important than just this week’s result. Kevon’s could have worked for some other challenge, whereas Ben’s was bad all around, or at least needed a much better paint job. But by general impressions using the numbers as a guide, Ben’s done top or safe work all along, whereas Kevon had a couple of bad turns.
Looking back at results, Kevon made that alien with the Burger King outfit. Nothing Ben has done has been that bad, this week included.
Cool! Actual surprise! I want that.
Yeah, she needed more going from lip to lip to symbolize the mouth tied shut.
The face didn’t just look gaunt and emaciated, it had those weird ridges.
Yes, he needed his explanation to sell it, and that cost him. Some demon challenge that would have been excellent, it just didn’t make obvious sense for War.
I’m beginning to think like you, those aren’t done by the artists themselves, those are done by some in house artist to give the concept a visual read. They seem too consistent of style to be from varied artists. We see glimpses of their notepads, and nothing looks that well formed.
Nix, second to go in the second season, became involved with Naked Vegas and its show on SyFy.
I thought of him. That’s definitely a case of a broad definition of a job in the industry.
I think this show does actually give some thought to previous performance, especially when it comes down to a couple people with equally bad results. They even mentioned that in the discussion that Ben was much more consistent in previous challenges and Kevon was all over the place. They also said that they didn’t think Ben’s face sculpt was that bad but that Kevon’s was just way overdone and too much of a bad thing. I also felt since Ben was so sure he was going to be eliminated that he wouldn’t be.
More creative challenges. Not just monsters and demons.
Foundation Challenge: tribal patterns based upon exotic weapons. Scarification and tattoos.
I agree with the two top picks for their approach to the challenge. Scott made a mud makeup. Meg avoided brushes and used fingers for all her applications, to keep with a primitive tribal approach. Scott’s was more vibrant, Meg’s lost some definition. Scott with the win and immunity.
Spotlight Challenge: make a carnival side show freak character that lives up to the hype.
Scott, Twisted Tom: Character is deformed and misshapen. I spotted the edge problems that led to bad texture, and Glen commented on that. I think he took the concept to 11, but little less might have sold it better. I think it boils down once again to solid work, but nothing exceptional in the creativity or application. Safe.
Nora, Lobster Larry: the mobster turned carny. She has a very good concept and story telling going on. She made a very clean and artistic result. I suppose it says lobster. It is just a bit into the fantastical that it loses connection to how a human form could get there. The judges hold her for Top/Bottom review, but in the end only give her Safe.
Ben, The Human Peacock: At first I was questioning the surface texture, but it grew on me. What I liked is that, while he created a birdlike form, he did so in a way that was still connected to human anatomy. It looked just enough like a natural deformity while being shaped enough to really sell the peacock idea. Top Look.
Stevie, Icicle Irma: She ended up with a beautiful result. I even think the icicles weren’t that bad. Her explanation of the acid melting the skin seems weak, but it’s at least an attempt at an explanation for how her face gets made drippy. Ve wondered why she didn’t put the glittery paint on her face like she did the hands. Probably time - she was racing through last looks and came up with a completed result. I liked it, but the judges made it Safe.
Jordan, Elephant Lady: elephantitis does weird things. I don’t know what too think of this one. Was it overdone? Too big? Ve didn’t like the color choice. I think the arm looked rubbery and hollow. Safe, because there were worse results.
Meg, Inside Out Oscar: I have no idea what “Inside Out Oscar” should be. Intestines around his belly? So her skin-peeled concept at least is something of a disease that could reasonably lead to that moniker in Freak Show parlance. Accuracy isn’t as important as inspiring curiosity and dread. But her execution was a mess all around. She tried to make the jaw and teeth exposed, but in order to do that, had to build up outward, and that made the “muzzle” more pronounced. Simian is an accurate description of the result. When they first did the reveal, my brain screamed “organ-grinder monkey”. The musculature didn’t work, the paint job was atrocious, and the revealing the brain thing was messed up. There wasn’t a redeeming thing about this one. Sorry Meg. Bottom Look.
Evan, Moon Girl: with moon shine. At least there was a hint of a concept with the pockmarks from acne. The hit by a meteor bit was unnecessary, and much of the execution was off. Not a great showing. Bottom Look.
The only real Top Look was Ben, so of course he was the win.
Bottom was Meg and Evan. While both had bad work, Meg’s suffered conceptually as well as all points of execution whereas Evan’s had a glimmer of a concept and an accurate rendition of trailer park beauty. Plus, given their records, Meg was the definite one to leave.
So, Ben’s stats go up one, Evan goes down one, and Scott get’s a Foundation Win.
Ben: 3 Win, 2 Top, 1 Bottom
Nora: 1 Win, 3 Tops, 1 Bottom, 1 Foundation win
Scott: 1 Win, 2 Tops, 1 Foundation Win
Jordan: 1 Win, 2 Top, 1 Bottom
Evan: 1 Win, 2 Top, 2 Bottom, 2 Foundation wins
Stevie: 2 Tops, 2 Bottoms
I moved Scott higher because he doesn’t have any Bottom looks, but I still feel he is lacking in vision. However, if he can keep Safe, that’s all it takes to beat out disasters.
Hard to call from here. Nora is really looking good, even though she wasn’t quite on the mark tonight. Ben came back from his disaster last week and hit this one perfect. Everyone else is pretty up in the air.
And I wanted to mention, I’ve been enjoying McKenzie’s outfits. Both this week and last week have been some excellent dresses for the reveal stage.
Good challenges this week!
Both the top looks in the foundation challenge looked fine to me, sometimes it is hard to really compare and contrast in this challenge because it gets so little screen time. Interesting concept, though.
I thought the circus sideshow challenge was great – very much in keeping with the show overall, but different from things they have done before.
Ben’s win was well-deserved (and I haven’t been that impressed with him so far). As the judges pointed out, this was a great fit for the challenge - a person with a deformity that could have really been marketed as a sideshow thing. It looked like a bird, without being a bird-alien or a bird-monster or a person-with-a-beak. And overall, the story of this person being the MC, and the overall tone of the makeup: I could easily see this character being a creepy, sad sort of Joel Grey thing.
I liked Nora’s too, and I think they should have given her a “top” looks rating, because hers seemed a bit above the other safe looks to me.
Stevie’s Icicle Irma was the toughest one for me. Of all the assignments, “Icicle Irma” doesn’t immediately bring to mind anything in the carney/sideshow genre. It’s like I can picture in my mind the old timey poster advertising just about all the other characters, but icicles? So I think she had a tougher job creating a solid look that was also really in keeping with the challenge. And I think she was successful in making a very dramatic, unusual beauty character … it just wasn’t really clear how this was a sideshow thing.
Scott’s Twisted Tom was a little meh, in my opinion. It seemed rough, I saw what he was going for but the execution wasn’t that stellar.
The elephant lady was also ho-hum in my opinion. Like when Nora was saying she didn’t want her Lobster Boy to be the same obvious lobster person? That’s what Jordan should have been saying, I think. He should have been asking “How can I put a new spin on “elephant lady”?”
Ugh, Meg and Evan, both dropped the ball right out of the gate with weird concepts. It seemed like Meg didn’t think it through enough, and Evan over-thought everything and put too much in there.
I liked this episode.
Scott was again safe. He’s had clean applications and some good ones but nothing outstanding to me.
I thought Nora also deserved top looks. I think Ben nailed it but I didn’t think hers was just safe. Not sure if we have seen that before? Where they keep someone but then they are only safe? Maybe once before now that I type it but I’m not going to look at the moment.
I think that Stevie did well as others said. That was a tough one, icicles? I thought she did well.
I didn’t like Jordan’s for the challenge. It seemed off to me or too much? Not sure what it was but I didn’t like it.
Ouch on Meg. She overcame a lot and while I didn’t think she would make the finale, she was impressing me. I agree that simian was what I got from the face as well and if she had not done that and a bit better painting, it might have been safe.
A good episode.
To me, she had a great application and something that read different enough to be lobster, but what kinda made it weak was a disconnect for how that could in any way be a human deformity or illness. It reads like an alien hybrid kinda thing, not a person who had a deformity and had to work as a side show freak. That’s why it misses the mark on the challenge, and is thus only Safe.
I have to agree on this. I really don’t know how to make icicle a side show thing. I think she had a great result. I think Neville wanted the icicles to be a little more pointy, more conical, and I think Ve looked at the paint job as being incomplete. So I don’t think they hammered her on the concept, I think they just felt it wasn’t quite done.
Okay, good points. I can get behind this reasoning.
Thanks! And thanks for the great summary, as usual!
Meg definitely had a challenging subject. Not sure what “inside out” would mean. I’m actually pretty OK with the design looking simian, but that jello on the top that was supposed to be brain didn’t work at all.
Unfortunately, Meg was very talented, but not very experienced, so she had problems when she had to deal with anatomy. Excellent at painting – not so good at fabrication. Given that she didn’t really have the depth in the bullpen to go all the way, this was probably a fair result.
I agree about Stevie – given the frankly weird challenge she was given, the concept wasn’t too bad and the final result was rather striking.
I do find that I’m not as invested in any of the artists this season – for some reason, even now, none of them are standing out. So I guess I’ll be happy whoever wins.
Focus Challenge: evolve humans to adjust to disasters that occur on Earth.
Right off, I don’t like this challenge. Evolution doesn’t work that way, and certainly not on the timescales being presented. Gah! And changes don’t come from nowhere, they need source material to work with. Maybe with some genetic engineering, but that wasn’t really proposed anywhere.
So I was really ticked with some of the contestants’ ideas. I see a lot of weird stuff that I can’t make sense of.
Evan, Severe Drought: it took me a while to settle on this one. His paint and application are pretty good, but the concept has me struggling a bit. The moisture collector part makes sense, but not so much the ridges on the cheeks. But the artistry and symmetry is good. I could tell once the judges started talking this was their favorite. Top look.
Jordan, Ice Age: Jordan, to me, felt like the one that most understood the nature of the challenge as described and the comments that they were given on how to conceptualize. I’m not sure I get the wrinkles and folds as making sense, but at least he was thinking (a) about a human evolving, and (b) what the environment was doing. And he spent a lot of time on the hair and beard that really helped. His sculpt at first was very comedic and bad to me, and Mr. Westmore hit the worst elements on the lip and nose. Saggy wrinkles was also very nonsense to me, but the judges followed his ideas. Edges, application, and paint all were great. Top look.
Scott, Nuclear Disaster: I feel like Scott least understood the challenge as delivered. Adapting like a cockroach? Really? Of course it would be a lot to expect him to understand why roaches are better at surviving radiation than humans. Mr. Westmore and McKenzie both came back to emphasize just how far off the challenge he was with his concept. His final result had a good sculpt shape, great application, great paint job, but it didn’t make sense for this challenge. Safe.
Nora, Toxic Pollution: Nora once again struggled to find her concept. What she came up with was a bit odd, making slits and holes that act like filters, but she got somewhere. This looks better than her first effort. She’s got to do better at getting a handle on the challenge and her first efforts going well, not getting lost in her own head and beating herself up. This result was midlin. The judges didn’t like the paint job with the veining. I think it was lost because she got too wrapped up the first day on the false start, and it was too much in her head on application day. Still, this result wasn’t as bad as the bottoms. Safe.
Ben, Volcanic Disaster: WTF? Evolution doesn’t work that way! So his character absorbs ash from the environment to make armor plating that helps reflect the heat. Okay, take that concept, and then everything the judges complained about is still true. The shapes of the plates don’t look grown in organically, they look applied like mud. The hair doesn’t make sense. It’s a mess. Fortunately for him, his overall record is still the best, so he’s not going home yet. Bottom look.
Stevie, Polar Melting: She started with a handle on the concept - adapt the human form to be more aquatic. I would have picked seal over fish. It would have made a lot more sense to go with other aquatic mammalian adaptations. Fish doesn’t make sense. Then the quality of the work was low. The gill slits are sloppy, and the overall sculpt looks lopsided. Adn the coloration doesn’t match the concept. Bottom look.
I liked Jordan’s for the best conceptual approach, but Evan’s had a bit better look even if it didn’t completely make sense. The judges gave Evan the win.
Ben’s was wrong conceptually and in all the design decisions, but Stevie’s fell down on quality of work. The lopsidedness, the poor idea on nose, the scales , the color choice. And given their comparative records, Stevie was done.
Nora has got to keep her head in the game. Ben needs to understand the challenge. Scott does great skill but not the best at conceptuals. Evan is hit and miss. Nobody is consistent enough to make a call. The statistics say it’s Ben, Evan, Nora, but it’s really too close to call. Everyone here is capable of screwing the pooch - even Scott, who only was safe this week because Mr. Westmore’s push and his really good application.
I’d like to see Nora win it, but it’s not a strong preference.
Okay, let’s say it’s Ben, Evan, Nora. I think I’d want Scott on my team. Give him a direction to go, and he’ll do good work. Who else? What’s your pick for fixing their skill sets? Jordan is pretty good at fabrication.
Jordan’s Ice Age guy was really solid - I especially like the time he spent weaving beads into the hair. Helped bring out that this character was the product of a culture, and thus added to the humanity.
But I kinda wanted to slap Jordan in the forehead. If I had been an artist, Ice Age is exactly the make-up I’d have chosen to do. Why? Because it has a built-in cheat: there are *real life people *in the world who have bodies adapted to cold climates. If I had been Jordan, first thing I’d do is Google “Inuit physiology”. Body fat distribution, broad, flat noses, round faces, epicanthic folds on the eyes; all these help the Arctic people survive in the high north. Granted, the judges would have slammed him if he had just turned his model into an Inuk man. But that would at least have given him a some guidelines to think along.
As it was, I think his reasoning was solid. Although I’m glad he took Michael Westmore’s advice to pare down the nose. And the hair work was really good.
P.S. Thanks for another good summary, Irishman!
I liked the idea of the challenge, but I felt similarly to how I felt about the Shakespeare challenge - the contestants don’t have enough background information (in that case - the plays & characters. In this case, how evolution works & how the environment is going to change after their specific disaster) to make decent decisions about the characters.
Jordan’s made the most sense to me as far as the challenge (as stated) went. Evan’s was close. (though admittedly, they had two of the easier disasters to wrap your head around). Scott seemed to see the challenge as “make an animal/human hybrid that might be able to survive in a post-apocalyptic environment,” glommed on to the cockroach idea, and could not let it go. In his defense, he did a great make-up for a totally different challenge. (Explain the antennae.) Stevie seemed to do the same, but with human/fish. I don’t think i understand either Ben’s or Nora’s.
THANK YOU. I was quite frothy throughout this episode (I realize that’s ridiculous, it’s a reality show, not the National Science Foundation hour) because it seemed clear that neither the show’s producers or the contestants understand the basic issues here. Okay Lamarck challenge, whatever.
I did not like Evan’s as much as the judges did. I didn’t see why or how the character conveyed “drought” as opposed to say, “alien” or “demon.” I thought his color choice was weird, but I do see how his application was very good and the look was consistent. I would have swapped him for Safe, and put Scott in Top Looks.
Scott?!? you say, but Scott also doesn’t understand how evolution works! Yes, this is true, but since the challenge doesn’t really understand that either, I will give him a pass. I think it makes sense, in a narrative, story-telling way to incorporate the common wisdom of roaches surviving a nuclear disaster, since the show already threw the scientific approach out the window. I thought it was a decent design, and a great application.
Jordon, if I were a judge, would have gotten the win (despite the fact that, AGAIN, he doesn’t have a great grasp on how evolution works, nor apparently the fact that increased surface area means more heat loss). But his finished product looked like a fully formed, coherent character that was obviously human. (And good point, Slow Moving Vehicle, about people adapting to an Ice Age is already a real thing that exists.)
Nora had some problems getting her act together, and I agree with a Safe for her all around. This just wasn’t her week, I guess.
Ben’s volcanic disaster was bizarre and poorly thought out. Definitely a bottom look. I know he has a good overall record, but if Stevie’s wasn’t significantly worse, I would have had no problem with him going home on this make up.
Stevie started with a decent idea, making humans more aquatic due to rising water levels, but she seemed to struggle to do much with it. Even when she was making her scales on her mold, it seemed like so much time to spend on this tiny detail instead of working on a bolder design statement. And she probably could have even pulled that off with an amazing paint job, but the final result looked really drab and muddy to me.
I remember a few weeks ago, I was complaining that some of the contestants didn’t seem to grasp what the show meant by the evolution of aesthetic design from the 1950s to now … so clearly my ultimate take-away here is that they don’t know anything about biological evolution either. No more evolution, please!