JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Project Runway is a show about people placed in highly stressful situations and forced to produce something beautiful. It’s about talent and ambition and how these hold up under intense pressure. It’s about the fashion industry, but its real subject is the creative process. In the course of the series, the viewers get to know the contestants, their work ethic, their strengths and breaking points, and their relationships with each other—including the bitching, scheming, forming of gangs and all the other wonderful Lord of the Flies scenarios. Even to schlubs like me whose fashion sense hasn’t changed since college, Project Runway is quite addictive.

Project Runway Philippines is the drab distant relative of the original series—the cousin from the province who gets sent to your house for summer vacation, doesn’t utter a word, acts like you’re about to push her down a well, and refuses to get on the escalator because it’s the devil. The show follows the series’ format, but it has all the excitement of homework. It’s no surprise that the production values can’t match those of the original—I assume budgetary constraints (But if the producer wasn’t prepared to spend spend spend, why bother getting the franchise?) and all the other logistical issues that are usually solved through the puede na method. But if there’s one thing we can expect of Filipino contestants, it’s an excess of Personality, and that just doesn’t come through. Are Pinoys less emotional and expressive than Americans? I think not. Everyone in the local series is too buttoned-up and self-conscious, and when they “reveal” their “true” selves it feels like an embarrassed audition for a high school play. I suspect there aren’t enough cameramen to record the real-life theatrics, the sniping, backbiting and nervous breakdowns. The directors don’t seem interested in the contestants as human beings; they’re just going through the motions. The editors and post-production crew are either not interested (trabaho lang ito) or using the best foot forward approach (Wag nating ipakita yan, nakakahiya maraming nanonood).

Perhaps the contestants (and some guest judges) should be encouraged to speak in the language they’re most comfortable in. Face it, it’s hard to bitch if you still have to translate. They all speak English—is this a choice or a requirement?—and it’s serviceable, but strained. They can’t really cut loose if they’re worried about their diction. Let them speak Tagalog, Waray, Pangalatok, their first language. The audience is Pinoy, we’ll get it. As the mentor (Tim Gunn equivalent), Joji Lloren seems to be restraining himself from saying what he really thinks. Judge Rajo Laurel is highly animated, Apples Aberin too sedate, and host Teresa Herrera looks like she’d rather be somewhere else. 

How is it possible that Project Runway Philippines is not gay enough?