I blame Rene Fris partly. He had no personality, and he got on my nerves with his “Shake it!” mantra. He seemed downright rude to Anthony and a couple of others. Plus, he contributed nothing — absolutely nothing — to the show.
As far as judges go, Jaclyn Smith was cool, but Michael Carl was an idiot. And it tickled me to see Vidal Sassoon finally put him in his place.
Finally, the challenges weren’t that great either. (With a couple of notable exceptions.) Too much of it was luck, with things that broke or wouldn’t work, and models with all kinds of different hair.
Anyway, I watched the series, but to me, it never rose to the level of Bravo’s better shows.
We must not have been watching the same show - because I thought it worked. It was much, much, much better than the “Top Design” (where the only reason to tune in was to see what Kelly was going to wear that week), and it didn’t get bogged down into the “drama” crap that was on Top Chef.
The challenges were fair. They were decently thought out. They had something to do with hair styling. The judging was clear, and while I didn’t always agree with the judges (and every one of them should have been sent back to high school for remedial history lessons), their decisions made sense and were supportable. The contestants were grown up enough that when there was interpersonal conflict, it didn’t get in the way of the contest.
And the winner was someone that I didn’t mind winning (in fact, none of the stylists were objectionable).
I didn’t like it as much as Project Runway, but I did watch each week. There were some interesting characters (Dr. I’mnotgay Boogie, I’m talking about you).
I’m glad that Anthony won since I really like him. And I just have to say that at 60 years old Jaclyn Smith is still gorgeous. If she’s had work done on her face, she had a verry good doctor.
I agree that the show just seemed a bit…limp. It just wasn’t as much fun as ‘Runway’ and I failed to see any signs of genius in the competitions possibly because genius in hair styling might be more a combination of celebrity, timing and luck.
Dumping the top two contenters 2 episodes before the finale was a good thing/bad thing. It meant that the field was open to any of the finalists but it ripped away alot of the drama and suspense. The final models were not very special and I wonder if the compressed timing of the show didn’t have something to do with that.
The other shows gave the finalists a period away from the show to recoup and rethink but this one shot them straight into the finals with about a day. Unlike the other shows, the hairstylists had no access to tools, materials, models, time or research for their final creations. I found the final sort of a yawn. I think we might have seen more genius if they had made it a free-for-all with no rules, just hair.
Oh yeah, and no Tim Gunn to mentor and sympathize. ALL Bravo’s shows need that element to help us as viewers get behind the process and to give the contestants a sounding board.
I agree. I didn’t watch every single episode, but the ones I did watch I enjoyed very much.
Maybe it has to do with the type of personalities the occupation attracts. I’m painting with a broad brush here, but there is some truth to chefs being tempermental, and hair stylists being “out there” (not necessarily gay, but with larger-than-life personalities). The contestants on “Top Design”, OTOH, were quite serious. They gave me the feeling that every challenge was life-or-death. They never looked as though they were having any fun.
I’m glad Anthony won. In this month’s Allure he has a two-page advertising spread for Nexxus on how he does two fairly easy hairstyles.
For me it worked better than Top Design, but still I’d call it “just okay”. I agree that Rene is no Tim Gunn, and neither are Todd Oldham and Tom Colicchio. I don’t think they meant to be. I do think each of their shows would have benefitted from somone in a real mentoring capacity, as Gunn is on Project Runway.
As a viewer I found it easier to form my own opinions about the hair than about food and rooms.
Amen, Amarinth - the “historic hair” bugged me - though sadly, sending them back to my high school wouldn’t have helped them much.
And choosing models that didn’t want their hair cut? That doesn’t seem right.
I enjoyed it. It was far better than Top Design which I found painful to watch. Of course it’s not as good as Project Runway but then how could it be? Runway is miles ahead of the competition although I guess having Tim Gunn is a bit of an unfair advantage. I swear I’d watch that man read the phone book for an hour.
I thought Rene was a tad annoying but at least he had a little life in him. I even kinda liked his “Goooo, shake it!”
I thought SG was great since they pretty much eliminated all the drama queens early on, including Tabitha who I thought would easily win the whole thing until she exploded and went crazy on Tyson and got herself eliminated for no good reason. That left the rest of the competition relatively drama-free and it was refreshing watching the competitors actually compete instead of standing around snarking at each other for 45 minutes. It made for a rather lackluster finale though since I really didn’t care who won since all 3 of them were pretty likable.
It’s still not ahead of Top Chef on my list either, even though TC was all about the drama. I guess the addition of knives and other dangerous kitchen implements makes it more exciting.
I liked it. Not nearly as much as Project Runway but it was a nice stand in. I didn’t watch any of the others (Top Chef, etc), so I can’t compare it to those.
It seemed like for the most part all of the stylists got along pretty well. Even the reunion show was pretty free of any snarky goodness.
I’m glad Anthony won. Daisy’s final styles just didn’t work and I just flat out don’t like Ben and can’t figure out how he made the final three.
Amen to that! How in the world did they even get on the show? Did they not understand they were going to be on a contest all about the cut and color?
Speaking of Project Runway, does anyone have any scoop on if and when it is coming back?
Not to hijack, but I don’t get Top Chef at all. The hair and the dresses I can see just as much as the judges. Food is all in the taste. Something can be uniquely prepared and look beautiful but taste like ass. It just seems that the viewers are missing out on a key point on the judging of the contest.
It’ll be back in the fall, although that could apparently be any time between October and December. They had auditions back in April, though, so the process is definitely moving. (I was at the Chicago auditions, so I can’t wait to see if anyone I met there made it through!)
One, because there weren’t really any “did you see that” moments. No one went to the hospital. No one went awol. No one threatened to assault anyone. The petty bickering wasn’t the forefront of the episodes (unlike some of the other Bravo shows). It also wasn’t trainwreck tv. The show was very low key (which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea), they mostly just cut/colored/styled/updid hair.
What was there to say other than “I liked Danna’s hair”?
Or, “I really tune in partially to watch people try to say ‘Could you explain your process, please, Dr. Boogie?’ with a straight face, to a man wearing scrubs in a salon .”
Yes - Rene - ANNOYING!
Michael Carl - I consistently disagreed with him - and who gives a rats ass about Allure anyway? How 'bout someone from Vogue or W?
And Sally H.? Give it up with the shag already. Yesterday’s hair.
I watched about a third of it, including the finale jut last night. My better half watched the whole thing.
I like Project Runway and Top Chef very much. Top Design didn’t pull me in as much. I watched about half of it, and didn’t catch the finale.
Which brings me to my observation. The finale of Shear Genius seemed extremely anti-climactic. Nothing set it apart from the rest of the season. Was the finale of Top Design also lacking any travel to exotic locations or public involvement?
I don’t know if having these things would’ve improved the show too much for me, but any little bit would’ve helped.
I liked it a lot better than I thought I would given how little interest I have in the subject matter. It was miles ahead of Top Design which was the most boring Bravo show ever.
See? That was my point. The final challenge was just another ‘Quick Fire’ type thing. If they wanted to bring genius to the show they would have given the finalists say, a choice of 3 from 15 models, a picture of the model, choice of dresses, $1000, rules such as 1 up-do, 1 precision cut and 1 color in any combination plus a week home to study, design and plan. They then come back with any tools, chemicals, adornments or parts and have 3 hours (1 per head) to create a masterpiece.
Just like ‘Top Design’, ‘Runway’ and ‘Top Chef’. Give these people more than the sponsor’s tools and products and I think you would have seen some really special entries. I think they just cheaped out to make a filler show for summer.
