Project Runway Hunger Games

I watched the Hunger Games movie and several episodes of Project Runway in quick succession last week, so it’s no surprise that I had a dream in which I was selected by lottery to participate involuntarily in a Project Runway-like design competition. In my dream we did not have to kill each other, but we might as well have, since the regimentation of the “games” pretty much squashed all the joy out of the creative process.  

Hunger Games source

Which, if you think about it, is what Project Runway does anyway. Sixteen creative personalities are thrown together in a fishbowl, with various unnatural pressures applied, to see what they will do. Who will explode in a rage? Who will break down in a sobbing confession? Who will be rushed to the hospital?  Who will break their contract and disappear in the middle of the night? I don’t think a single one of the contestants enjoys designing clothes while they are on the show. They are just trying to survive.


Project Runway source

I can’t stand Project Runway’s focus on the arguing and sniveling among competitors when all I really want to see is how they come up with a design, and how they drape it, cut it, sew it, and fit it. I guess the producers don’t think that’s good entertainment. Sometimes I just skip the first half of the show and watch the finished looks go down the runway. 

could be either Project Runway or Hunger Games?

Generally I avoid reality TV, since it seems to have degenerated from an interesting and educational concept to a spectacle in which people are subjected to pain, fear, or humiliation for the viewers’ enjoyment. We’re not that far away from Hunger Games. Is this really what the majority of viewers are interested in? I don’t want to believe it.

Maybe there are still some positive, interesting reality shows out there and I just don’t know about them. I do like shows about history, science, etc, pretty much anything where people aren’t competing. So I guess it’s the competition and the associated viciousness that I can’t stand to watch.

Are there any reality television programs out there that you find interesting or enjoyable?

Katrina