Hyphen TV: Have the Shoe Be the Leading Lady

November 5, 2012

         Watson makes a call, probably about the stains on her shirt.

Rujubee proved that they know one another better than any of the other pairs on RuPaul's All Stars Drag Race when they won the Newlywed Game-like contest in which they were asked about their partners' underwear choices and "sleep" habits. They were rewarded with pies in the face because the main challenge this week was telling jokes while doing celebrity impressions for RuPaul's Gaff-In! Raven portrayed Bea Arthur and Jujubee chose Fran Drescher, though when faced with the task of writing corny Laugh-In-style jokes, Jujubee said, "Girl, I'm a funny bitch, but I don't write no jokes." I thought their performance was pretty fun. Meanwhile, Latrila went for Oprah (Latrice) and Madonna (Manila). Their performance was also good; Manila nailed Madge's look (and her faux accent).

      I hope Bea and Fran were this close at some point in real life.

The judges enjoyed Rujubee's Gaff-In and loved their mod 60s outfits for the runway, but were also impressed with Manila's Madonna. However, Michelle thought that Manila's white eyeliner on the runway made her crosseyed, and were unhappy enough with Latrice's portrayal of Oprah that the duo landed in the bottom two -- luckily, Latrice's lip sync saved them from elimination.

In non-competition developments, we learned this week that Manila struggled with his sexuality as a teen, forcing himself to date a girl in high school and even attempting suicide. During Untucked, when the girls tearfully and touchingly discussed coming out to less-than-supportive dads, Manila commented that she felt like she let her dad down in the son department, especially since her father and grandfather have a close relationship that she's never had with either of them. I got pretty misty-eyed myself, particularly when Latrice responded with "It takes a strong man to become a woman". Damn, do we ever see raw and powerful emotional support like this on television, ever? I seem to have something in my eye again...

On Project Runway All Stars, the designers each had to design a dress based on a 70s-inspired Nine West shoe of their choosing. Ivy picked a very sparkly gold disco heel, and she took what I found to be a slightly odd tactic. Since the winning design will be featured in a Nine West ad, she decided to "have the shoe be the leading lady and the outfit be the supporting actress." I understand where she's coming from on the advertising side, but how the heck does that mentality get you far on a clothing design show? While she stayed true to her word and kept her hunter green dress fairly simple, Ivy found herself running out of time, so fellow competitor and former assistant Cassanova helped her attach sparkly embellishments to the gold panel at the top of her dress. I only grew more and more sure that this would all end in disaster (and I haven't even mentioned that the bottom part of the dress is sheer with hot pants underneath...ick).

        I'm sorry, I can't handle the hot pants thing.

The judges, including Filipino American accessory designer Rafé Totengco, did not agree with me. They placed Ivy in the top three, telling her that the color of the dress is "stunning" and had only small gripes to share: they wanted the sparkles on the back of the dress in addition to the front, would have preferred a slightly shorter length, and questioned how "disco" it actually is. Although Ivy didn't win, I stand corrected and impressed that her backwards (to me) technique worked out so well for her.

I dorkily love the little crumbs of clues leading to Watson's bigger picture on Elementary. This week, she and Sherlock were looking into murders at a hospital when she ran into Connie, a doctor friend from Watson's old life. We learn that Watson's suspension was only a few months long, meaning that Watson chose to leave medicine herself. Hmm. We also found out that Watson was -- is! -- a great doctor when she correctly diagnosed some kind of disease after seeing a mark on a young soccer player's toe. I realize that that sounds insane when I describe it thusly, but I don't have the medical know-how to explain what happened (sorry, mom). The question the episode raised of whether Watson will be drawn back into her old life is seemingly answered at the end of the episode when she decided to delete photos from her hospital days (another clue is that her name is Watson and the show is about Sherlock). Intriiiiguing. Is there more to her ex-doctordom than mere guilt over losing a patient?

            "I saw her toe! Her TOE!"

The Mindy Project finally returned after being off because of presidential debates and baseball and various other things that I resent for intruding on my beloved television. It was the Halloween episode, so we got to see Mindy break out some pun-alicious costumes (Lil' Wayne on the Prairie, love it) as well as the requisite "sexy" costumes (I actually kind of liked the sexy postal worker outfit) in preparation for her date with Josh, the sports lawyer guy we met in the last episode. She also had a little accidentally violent moment (she opened a door into his head) with her ex Tom. The overall story still isn't quiiite coagulating into a strong whole for me, but I think it's pretty undeniable that the show consistently has great comedic moments. I mean, where else would it seem pretty sweet that a guy goes semi-stalker mode to track down an Inigo Montoya costume so that he could reference one of his date's favorite movies?

                      Tinkerbell Tailor Soldier Spy! Yessss.

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Dianne Choie

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Dianne Choie's TV is in Brooklyn, NY. She has a cat, several reusable shopping bags, and other mildly annoying stereotypes of youngish people who live in Brooklyn.

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