Thursday, September 3, 2015

Steampunk'd Season 1 Episode 3 [Review]

The magical world of Steampunk is often unforgiving. Each and every person in this show is incredibly interesting and talented, deserving to be there. Unfortunately it's a competition and every week one must go home. Each episode is hard to watch, and even harder to capture in words, but I'll do my best for all of you, much as I've done this week. I hope you all like it and enjoy.



We enter the work room now two people down and see Team Ave's creation in the manor. Ave has very little time to enjoy the glory of her team's creation as they move onto the challenge. This show wastes zero time. The ever adorable Jeannie Mai tells the makers that this week's room is the bedroom. They announce that the theme for this room is Wild Wild East AKA Asian Steampunk. JW and James being last week's top two get to choose their teams. JW gathers together Karianne (his top pick. Interesting), Tayliss, and Eddie; James chooses Ave and Charles and is left with Miss Morgan by default. The mechanism this time needs to be a transition from day to night, being purposely vague.

JW seemed to pick a good team. He chose the show's two strongest fashion designers, as well as one of the leading mechanics. His team seems very strong, and he really seemed to set aside his ego to be able to let everyone do what they do best this time around. It was pretty shocking, too, to hear that Tayliss has had no formal training in sewing or leather working, especially since she seems to be so good at it. I guess some things can be self-taught.

James's team seems much more disorganized. I love James so, so much, and while this really seems like the dream team, he doesn't have a strong designer for the fashion parts, making the fate of his team really up in the air. He should have snagged Tayliss when he saw JW take Karianne, but he went for his buddy Ave. And I totally called it on the fashion aspect. James, trying to be a nice guy, lets both Ave and Morgan do the fashion parts. Miss Morgan is not having this crap, and seemed very fed up with pretty much everything at this point in the competition.

JW's team wasn't as much of a dream team either. He and Eddie immediately bump heads. JW is very set in his ways, and he is forcing Eddie to do ropes and pulleys when his expertise is motors. JW has a very distinctive way of thinking when it comes to designing mechanisms, so this wasn't exactly a surprise. Thankfully Eddie sacrifices his own ideas to go with the team leader, probably to throw him under the bus if things don't work out.

We got to see a whole new side of Charles this week. He decided to go way out of the box and paint a 3D mural. Part of it was on the wall, and part of it is popping up out of the door. The work in progress looked really promising, but it wasn't clear if it would come through in the end.

JW's room is the one that really came together the quickest. The panels that they were doing looked cool, the mural that Karianne threw together in a very short amount of time looked great, and it felt like a mix of Steampunk and Asia. James's room was not coming together anywhere near as fast. By the end of day two they still had a lot to get done, leaving Ave and the rest of his crew very concerned that they wouldn't get things together in time.

The drama of Miss Morgan and Ave going back and forth (mostly Morgan, really) on the fashion aspect for Team James was completely annoying. Ave concedes on the surface, but she's obviously got her ass covered with something. Ave seems to be the more reasonable person here, but I really hoped that they would come together somehow. James really wants the two of them to hurry up so that they can focus on bring the room together, but when Ave makes a few snips and cuts a good portion of the skirt, all hell breaks loose. Miss Morgan is now sure that she has been sabotaged. They didn't have time to fix it, though, because the judges walk in and decide it's judgin' time.


The guest judge this week is none other than Carter Oosterhouse, originally on TLC's Trading Spaces and a ton of HGTV shows. Now the idea of craftsmanship has gone up and the expectations are higher than ever.

Team JW - I really love the green color for the room as well as the panels. The mural is beautiful and the headboard is a great addition to the room. Tayliss's outfit was a bit plain at first look, but with a closer look, the details were amazing. The swords, too, added a fun touch. The mechanism0 was a bit rough in getting the window closed (the pulleys seemed stiff), and there weren't a lot of fun details. It was simplistic, but very effective.

Team James - As much as I liked the colors in JW's room, I feel like these colors fit much more. This room had all the cool details I was craving from the last room, and I ate it up. The fashion, even with the skirt being ripped to hell, was very interesting and fun to look at, and despite the rought transition, the "night look", it really did look awesome. The mechanism, yet again, had a rope and pulley. The mural, as well, didn't look as good as I was hoping. The door portion looked not-so-hot, but the wall painting was beautiful. Over all it was a bit of a mixed bag.

The judges were all deviled down the middle. It really felt like Matt King got very offended by James's hodgepodge of Asian culture, not sticking to one area, and Thomas really didn't like the lack of re-purposing. Kato seemed the most in the middle, and I think that's mostly why I love her so much.

 
After their decision they brought the makers back out to fill them in. Team JW was picked as the top team this week. Seeing James's look of disappointment broke my heart. I wanted this win for him so bad, but it wasn't meant to be today. The top makers were announced as Karianne (in second), and Tayliss (in first). I have been madly in love with Tayliss from day one, so seeing her finally get a win was so awesome.

Unfortunately this means it's time to say goodbye to somebody. James is immediately thrown under the bus for not solving the Morgan/Ave issue. Ave gets some praise, and then immediately Kato turns on Miss Morgan. This elimination got really rough. They are even asked who should be sent home, and there wasn't even enough to get a clear picture there. Charles and Ave are declared safe, leaving Miss Morgan and James on the bottom. Neither one going home will satisfy me as I love both of them. In a depressing twist, Steampunk'd's hottest cast member is sent packing.

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