Bravo, Bravo!

Last night was the finale of Bravo TV's Top Design and I have to say, it was very anticlimactic. The final design challange came down between Matt and Carisa, and each one of them had to completely design a full loft apartment in Los Angeles. They had two months to prepare for the challenge, and five days to execute their design.

I think it was fairly certain that Matt was going to win the entire contest. The judges have always liked his work and he seems to take the safer, classier route that the evil judges seem to love. I personally think Carisa designs some pretty cool rooms (like the "air" room from a few weeks ago) but her design wasn't strong enough to win.

The ending of the show was not nearly as exciting as the finales of Project Runaway or even Top Chef, with the show ending just like any other episode. I was also bummed that we didn't get to see the lofts in more detail. The dark floor colors and strong lighting in the spaces made it difficult to see a lot of the details and differences in color and design. Oh, well. Matt's $100,00 richer. Click here to check out all the cast videos and photos of their designs.

Right after the Top Design finale was the premiere of the new show, Shear Genius! Let me tell you, I can already see that this is going to be one of my new favorite shows. This show has the same appeal that Project Runway offers; people creating "art" of sorts of other people with their bare hands. Granted, I think the contestants on Top Chef and Top Design are very talented, too... but I don't taste the food they make, or sit in the chairs they pick out. Those shows don't have the same draw for me.

So last night on the premiere the contestants on Shear Genius had to pick and hair model and create "hair art." I know, right? The contestants went to a local Michaels craft store to pick out junk to stick in the girl's hair. Unfortunately the overconfident Frenchy was cut out (get it?!) first. His hair art basically looked like he stuck two ponytails on the side of this girl's head and called it a day. Way to not try, Paul Jean. Some of the hair art actually looked pretty cool, like Dr. Boogie's (where do they find these people?)