America's Next Top Model

I am very glad I found this image without much work... because I expected to have trouble finding a good image to truly represent the shallowness, pettiness, Tyra-Banks-centric, yet strangely fascinating show. An image with Tyra Banks in the middle, so heavily photoshopped I barely recognized her (except for the fact that she's in the middle, and she's ALWAYS in the middle) and the fact that she, and all of the other kids, looked like barbies.

This show has become so popular, it has been replicated in 77 different forms. (Only one of which I've watched fully, Canada's Next Top Model.)

I will give this show props--it has actually launched careers. Just rarely the ones that 'win' the show. It seems to actually be better for your future career to be second or third in the show. The photos, at least up until the last two seasons, were interesting artistically, and even when I just watched the show in the background, (usually the best way to watch it to dull the shame) I always paused to see the photos that were shown in judging.

The first season was rocky, but it had something to it, and it showed. I'll admit at one time, I wanted to be on the show. It wasn't really that I wanted to be a model, but I wanted to be part of the photos. Then I found that I was more interested in being behind the camera. I was more interested in the art than the work. That's one of my major disappointments with the later seasons--one of the people that left (Tyra has replaced the entire judging table besides her) took the good ideas with them.

Everything felt fake from the start. The bible-thumping Christian and the Militant Atheist were obviously put together not because of their talent, but because they were going to clash. Every girl cheers when Tyra enters. There's always the "weird" girl, the tough chick, the one you hate, the 'plus-sized,' and the one with the sad story. They read "Tyra Mail" out loud. Tyra's face is all over their homes. Each house is usually short a bed for the first week, to enforce fighting with the contestants over bedding. Each time, someone gets upset over the makeovers.

Most of these girls have put their life on hold for this show. You hear it again and again: "I don't know what I'll go back to if I don't win."

You usually have a contestant that you just want to hug, and that's the one you hope will win. But at the end of the day, they're mostly forgettable. The show insisted they weren't, by bringing back the "All-Stars" but I barely remembered most of them.

The show does seem to start becoming self-aware with the editing, but it doesn't make up for it.

Verdict? Guilty pleasure at best.