Dear Jenny,
Did you already give up on Top Design? I know that you were not all that pleased with the premiere. I hope you'll give it a second chance, because the second episode was a vast improvement.
Maybe I was just tired, but I found it really, really hilarious, for one thing. I have a feeling the phrase "state-appointed designer" is always going to reduce me to helpless giggles, no matter how many times I hear it. In fact, Kelly Wearstler managed to squeeze a surprising number of bon mots out of Michael's room, all working the same trope, but all pretty sharp.
Equally funny was seeing Jonathan Adler trying to stretch to that Michael Kors place himself, and failing miserably, but in the attempt, reaching a strange sort of elegance that most of Kors's jabs miss. "Mayor of Excuses Village" is a perfect example. Hey, can you shed some light on Adler's weird pronunciation of "mazeltov"? It was like he was reading it phonetically from a cue card: "MAH ZELLL TOV." I wonder if we're going to continue to have a lot to say about his elocution in general, as the season proceeds.
As Dolly once said (in Steel Magnolias), "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion." There was a bit of that as well. The judges exactly captured what was wrong with the cheap "Home, Sweet Home" pillow. Items like that are depressing because of their paradoxical combination of bathos and pathos: they are so clearly, and inadequately, designed to provide a buttress against depression that the mere sight of them is enough to summon gloom. Michael's failure to recognize the pillow's toxicity should have sent him home, immediately. It's even worse that he tried to defend the pillow, back in the White Room.
There are lingering problems with the show. I may not have communicated this at the time, but in my head, I called shenanigans when Lisa and the other one (Heather?) got demoted to decorator last week: I thought that Michael and John were kept around for the drama. After witnessing the HIV revelation in this week's episode -- and the accompanying press release! -- I am even more suspicious. This week, I'm skeptical about the "laterdecoratoring" of John. His room was incomplete, yes, and I can understand how covering up a supply/budget problem is one of the skills one would need, in real life, as a designer. BUT I don't think that it's as egregious a failure as miscalculating your client's age by 80 years, which is what the jury accused Michael of doing. Is Michael better TV than John? Had the producers gotten what they needed from John, after he spilled to the other designers about his HIV status? Am I being paranoid?
Love,
Pete
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