In these dark, uncertain times, who knew it’s Tim Gunn’s soothing voice that will ultimately calm. Things may be rough out there right now because of this global pandemic, but at least all is well as far as fashion competition shows are concerned. Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn are back together in Amazon Prime’s ‘Making the Cut’ and I suddenly realized how much miss them. I think except for a problematic season or two, I have always been a fan of Project Runway, and although I still watch and enjoy its current iteration, I found myself looking at these like old old friends, And this is a  much free and confident twosome now – they know their worth and they probably got it and all they needed to do was show up. But I am sure, they had a lot of production input here (Tim mentions that he and Heidi helped choose the contestants) and as veterans of this genre, they know exactly what works, and what they wanted to retool int heir old format. So this is a classier version of what they used to do and it shows – you can see the Amazon money of having the contestants jet immediately to Paris on everyone’s first day. They are not saddled by any kind of corporate sponsorship, and have free reign on everything. It works, and well. I found myself enthralled and by the end of the first episode I had my own favorites among the contestants (Sander, for sure) so you know the show is expertly produced (contrast that with Netflix’s ‘Next in Fashion’ where I only started to care about the contestants halfway through)  And the show is clear that it is looking for the next big brand, so there is definitely some commerce with the art here. On the first two challenges anyway, the designers are to present an ‘accesssible’ look that can be bought on Amazon right away – you can really feel them wanting to get the money they are spending. But that’s fine, as I don’t think they are keeping that fact a secret. As for the judging panel, I love Naomi Campbell already – I love every side eye and purposeful bitchy face she gives whenever she sees a garment she doesn’t like. Carinne Rotrifield, I feel, should be bitchier, and I don’t really mind Nicole Ritchie, to be honest. So you know that I will be watching for every episode of this show so you better be ready to read about it.

It wasn’t quite a fast binge, but I did finish the whole first season of ‘Modern Love’ on Amazon Prime. Even if I wrote that the first half was uneven,  I loved Episode 2 so much it gave me enough goodwill and hope that I will get something similar in the next for episodes. I liked the fourth episode, starring John Gallagher Jr and Sofia Boutella who go on a date, and ending up at the hospital after – the details are too juicy to spoil, and the plot, though a bit improbable, was effective in conveying the message. And the next episode, where a young girl has a relationship with a man old enough to be her father had some unexpected twists. The ‘gay episode’ int he series centers around a couple who wants to have a child, and it’s cute, but not really that relatable to me. The last one, about a couple finding love in late life, could have been better, though. But the best thing about the last episode for me, are the additional scenes about all the episodes. We get some code of coda about the characters in my beloved second episode, and that was so good for my catharsis. All in all, my view of the series became more positive after watching the second batch of episodes, and I haven;t checked, but it would be great to get a second season.

I am still binging Catastrophe, and now I am up to Season Three, and for real, I feel like these characters are already my friends. Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney will always be married to me, and I feel like if I see them in other shows, I will not be able to separate these characters to whatever new ones they will be playing. The third season has a little more drama, all for the better. I couldn’t help but get mad at Sharon, for example, for holding the penis of that young guy when they were on their brief separation state, but at the same time, can you blame her? He was kind of cute. And when her father dies, I went along with that, too. I mean, I have been there, and of course there is that heartbreaking season ender, although I must say that I didn’t know Rob was sober – did I really miss that? And of course, it was very poignant to see Carrie Fisher, and I understand her scene here were the last ones she shot before dying. I am so emotionally invested with his now and have started watching Season Four, which I know is their final one.