Thank God-- Project Runway Is Back Tonight!

The e-mails have been flying fast and furious between me and my friends this week: “Project Runway, this Wednesday at 10! THANK GOD.” It seems like approximately 1,000 years since the last season ended (just over a year, actually), and I think we all needed a little kick in the pants to remember “Oh yeah, we’ve been dying for this since last October!”

Living in New York, a city legendarily immune to the appeal of Dancing with the Stars and American Idol, I’m excited for the return of a reality show that literally everyone I know watches, or at least feels bad for not watching. It’s filmed here, after all, and is about the fashion industry, which far more New Yorkers pretend to be informed about than actually are involved in it. I, for example, have happily passed judgment on the cut of a dress or a fabric choice thanks to something Tim Gunn said once; I ignore the fact that, if any judge on the show got a look at what I’m wearing right now, it would be “Auf Wiedersehen” before I could defend my tights with a run in them.

I’ve been working on convincing my boyfriend that he will love this show, so I’m going to give you the same spiel in case you’re not convinced. Have you been watching Top Chef? You know how you see this food but can’t really judge what it tastes like, since it’s, you know, food? Project Runway completely avoids that issue. You see the designers create the clothes throughout the entire process, and get the delightful surprise when something comes out miraculously well, or the dismay when something that looked so good on the mannequin turns into a blob of chiffon on a model. And when the models walk the runway, you get to judge! You quickly learn watching this show that judging can be highly subjective—Heidi Klum has designers and designs she loves for no explicable reason, just as Michael Kors will verbally destroy a design before admitting it has class. It’s essential to watch Project Runway in a group, so you can make fun of your friend who likes the crotchless ball gown or gain newfound admiration for the one who calls the winner as soon as they go pick out the fabric.

Most of all, Project Runway is really, really fun. The entire country is on to the magnetic appeal of Tim Gunn, who acts as the guiding guru for the designers throughout the process and has spawned more one-liners than the Terminator (I long for 10 p.m. tonight when I get to hear “Make it work!” once more). The contestants love him too, and they show it. Season Two was a boon of songs, jokes and games about Tim Gunn, including the long-running inside joke about Tim and contestant Andrae going on dates together at Red Lobster (the fact that the two later posed for a photo outside the restaurant indicates the self-aware sense of humor going on here). Of course there’s fighting, and there’s always a villain, but the characters—excuse me, contestants—here are so vibrant and energetic, they’re fun to watch even when they’re being total jerks to each other.

I have dedicated a lot, a lot of time to Project Runway over the years, and I’m excited to see that its return seems to be highly anticipated by everyone else too. I am warning you now: if you do not start watching this show, your coworkers will start wondering why you don’t understand their inside jokes. Don’t you want to be in the loop? Of course you do. And in case all that didn’t convince you, here’s a clip of Heidi Klum on Ellen’s talk show earlier this week. Mind you, Heidi Klum is the least interesting person on the show, and she can dance backwards in stilettos! If a show featuring that isn’t worth watching, then I don’t want anything to do with TV anymore.

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