America's Next Top Model: A Redaction

In my last review of ANTM  I gave it a rating of 'meh.' Or, a guilty pleasure. Basically, watching it wouldn't change your life one way or another.

But ANTM finally lost me. How? Flixels.

Between being turned into a serial killer by video games, and being brainwashed by TV, I am a photographer. 

This is one of my photographs.

I've worked with models before.

I've even sold several of my photographs.

So I can comfortably say I am fairly familiar with the 'art' side of ANTM. I'm not going to claim that ANTM is one of the highest art forms out there. It's not. It's a reality TV show that is increasingly being taken over by Tyra Bank's ego. 

So, when I say 'flixels' are tacky, and they piss me off, I'd like to pretend I have some credibility on the subject. For those of you who don't follow my links--I don't blame you--a flixel is basically a gif. Part of the image moves. The rest doesn't. It was previously known to the world as a cinemagraph. I think a flixel is in the right direction for a cinemagraph. The flixels I saw were much stabler than any cinemagraph I've seen, and though a cinemagraph and a flixel are basically the same thing, I don't have nearly as much vitriol towards a cinemagraph as I do a flixel.

I'm not going to analyze why. I have to give my therapist something to talk about. 

But, my rage over the fact that every photo shoot the models do is going to be flixels quickly turned into musings. 

When did ANTM jump the proverbial shark? I feel it's happened, but I don't feel flixels were that point. Was it when Tyra tried to use it to launch her music career? Was it the season focused less on modeling, and more on making a 'celebrity?' Was it the fact that Tyra is the only judge to survive all 20 seasons? Was it the fact that there have been 20 seasons? Was it the 'british invasion' season, where America's next top model very loosely interpreted 'America?' Was it the not one, but two contestants that disappeared from the show for no clear reason? Was it the fact that Tyra has now picked up so many jobs it really should be renamed Tyra: supermodel/judge/stylist/singer/dancer/linguist/mentor/photographer? Was it when she started making up her own words?

I don't know. I've tolerated all of it, so I guess I have no room to judge. One thing that has disappointed me about America's Next Top Model is its decision to throw away the art in favor of drama. The enforced drama was always there; The militant Atheist and Christian in season one were likely chosen equally for skill and their likelihood of clashing. Once Sharon flipped out over the nude shoot, they made it a staple of the seasons until the girls stopped being bothered by it. Usually, there was one less bed than the initial group, to create a fight over who was going to double-up, or sleep on the couch or floor. The makeovers have always created a lot of drama, to the point where they pretended they were just done dealing with it, by giving an opportunity to add more drama by telling girls they can refuse the makeovers.

Then punishing them for it. Though I do admit, because the makeovers are done every season, they should know it's coming, and just suck it up.

I also always found it suspicious that, in the top four girls, if not the top three, there was always the one that everyone hated. The one that clashed the most with the group. I won't deny some of them had the skill to stay, but I will suggest they stayed for more than one reason. 

I was subconsciously aware that, to a degree, the show was carefully edited and scripted. The girls all scream when they see Tyra. They all piss themselves over Tyra mail. Several girls have come out suggesting they were edited into personalities they didn't have. They adopt Tyra's words and bend over backwards to feed her ego. And the girls who don't are quickly eliminated. 

The fact is, America's Next Top Model has been struggling to control itself for some time. It has to maintain Tyra's ego (I cannot stress her ego enough), recruit and support models who will have careers, be entertaining as a reality tv show, handle the people well, and keep itself interesting enough to maintain itself over twenty seasons. 

It has done most of these things well up until this point. Tyra gets to do pretty much anything she wants, though she usually limits herself to one or two episodes where she takes more than one job, and she's balanced out by the two other judges. Most models on ANTM have careers after it, even those who were eliminated early on. Whenever someone out-of-the-ordinary comes around: the two pre-op transsexuals, the multitude of lesbians and (as of season 20, homosexuals), and the girls with clear mental health issues (the bulimic girl, the few anorexics, the Aspie, and the girl with severe co-dependency), or plain health issues (the girl going blind, and the girl with short-term memory loss), the show usually treats them with respect. (The only one I feel was unfairly handled was the girl with Aspergers, who would often get marked down for stuff that was part of the disease, but life isn't fair and I should suck it up.) 

The way it has handled keeping itself interesting is the one it keeps fumbling on. Increasingly, ANTM feels less and less like an introduction to the industry, and more and more like a cruel human experiment.

Especially the runways. The video refers to two crazy ones, but I don't even consider these the worst. The first episode of season 20 has one where the runway is down a building. They have a runway that's done quite high in the air, and they have one in the dark, where they know one of their contestants is borderline-blind. (She said she could see the runway only because of the lights on the edges, but somebody did fall, or more accurately, walk into a wall.)

Some of the non-nude photoshoots also seem designed to break the girls down, or press some buttons. There are two photo-shoots done involving heights: one on the edge of a tower, one where they are lifted into the air. They do a photo-shoot with a spider, and bees. Both times, some girls cried.

So I'm done with America's Next Top Model. Maybe I'll just look for amazing photos on art sites. There will be less egos there. (Ha! Who am I kidding?)