Genre: Reality, Competition
Rating: B
Face Off is a Project Runway-esque show on the SyFy channel about special effects makeup artists. Each week contestants are given a challenge to create something original - covering everything from a character that could belong in the universe of Star Wars to video game characters to zombies based on Alice's Wonderland.
Some of the things that they create are absolutely awesome, some of the
things that they create are absolutely horrid. At the end of each
episode, one person is sent home, and at the end of the season one
person wins it all.
Know what my favourite part about this season of Face Off was? The almost complete lack of inter-contestant drama. I really hate competition shows that are based on what a contestant can produce and yet still spend half the show focused on the contestants bickering with each other or badmouthing the creations of other contestants. More so than in just about any other competition based reality show, this season of Face Off was just about the actual work being created. Sure there was a little bit of drama in the first episode and a bit in the last two, and there was definitely some poor crafting, but for the most part the contestants at least pretended to get along. Heck, they even helped each other out, which is something you almost never seem to see in these shows.
The second thing that I really liked about this season was the sheer skill of the competitors and the fact that almost everyone seemed to go home right when they deserved it. There was one elimination where I didn't agree with who went home, not because I thought that they hadn't done poorly but because I thought that someone else had done worse. Early on I picked a favourite, and by midway through I picked a second, then a third, and when my first favourite was eliminated I was actually happy - not because I didn't still love that person's work or because I wanted someone else to win more, but because based on that challenge I really thought that my favourite was the person who deserved to go home the most.
The only thing I didn't like about this season was the fact that the final winner was determined not by the judges but by an audience vote in. I don't really agree with audience vote ins for a few reasons. In Survivor-esque shows, I think there's a lot that goes into the editing of the final show that can manipulate the way the cast is portrayed and, as such, the way that the public is going to vote. The same thing can happen in shows like Face Off or Project Runway where the editing portrays the contestants in a certain way. Furthermore, in a show like Face Off or So You Think You Can Dance a huge part of the competition is based on some skill that the viewing audience isn't all that likely to be an expertise in. I can vote for something I liked to see or watch, but when you look at things closer or from a more technical standpoint I have no clue. The judges, however, do. There are a lot of dancers in SYTCD who appear to progress simply because they're fan favourites, but it's people like the judges who will give them a job. It's the same thing with Face Off - the fans aren't the ones who know the technical stuff, nor do we get to really see things close up, but the judges do. I'd rather see them pick a winner than America pick one.
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