We start off by meeting Rudy, who was a lot sweeter than I thought he was going to be. To be fair he looks a lot like Dutch from last season, who wasn't the best. Second we have Sammie, who has become a friend of mine lately, and is a total sweetheart. Cheryl Ann, Dawn Marie, and Kyle quickly follow in. Lana got a special intro, which was a bit suspicious, as the rest of them really didn't get highlighted like that. Fernello, obviously got a bit of a highlight as he's this seasons "villian". Last in are Avi and Rachel, two of my top picks for this season.
Rebecca Romijn makes her way in to intimidate everyone with a big speech about how they need to step it up, and then introduces our panel of judges, Craig Tracy, Robin Slonina, and RuPaul. The winner this year not only gets 100,000 dollars, but will get to go to Austria for the world championships, and a brush line.
They waste no time getting to the first challenge, which is a wheel with different inspirations. Each one gets a spin and is assigned a subject to paint. Categories like passion or favorite song. Each of the contestants gets randomly assigned, and they all get going.
This year has a much more diverse cast. We have some very conservative people, as well as some outrageous. We have some possible LGBT members (not trying to out anybody), and a couple of foreign influences as well. The first mini challenge goes by pretty quickly, and is jam packed with a lot of introductions to different people, as well as a bit of drama, but nothing too spicy. Things like Rio being annoyed with Fernello (which seems to be the theme of this season), and Lana mismanaging her time take up most of the action here.
Unfortunately the judges are blowing up Fernello's ego, and the others kind of fly by. With this many contestants, it's hard to have time to equally highlight everyone. Avi, Rachel, and Rudy were standouts. Did anyone else notice that they didn't highlight Sammie or Aryn? Ugh. Anyway, Fernello takes home the first win of the season.
Rebecca moves quickly into the first challenge. She announces that they will be designing chess pieces. The top six, starting with Fernello, get to pick their pieces, as well as choose one other contestant to go head to head with designing the same piece. Fernello of course chooses the king because why wouldn't he, and picks Kyle as his opponent. Rachel picks the rook and Rio, Rudy chooses bishop and Sammie, Cheryl Ann chooses the knight and Aryn, Avi picks the queen and is paired with Dawn Marie, and that leaves Lana with Marcio as pawns. Yikes.
Fernello's whole beef with Kyle because he feels he's not a good artist is stupid as hell. Kyle is extremely talented. I have a feeling that both of them will stick around for a good while just to annoy me with their petty rivalry. Fernello should be a bit more humble. I mean he's a newbie after all.
In the middle of the challenge, Rebecca brings the judges in to talk to the contestants. Most of the people are very humble about the whole ordeal, but Cheryl Ann's claws come out a bit as she openly insults Aryn, a talented and beautiful young lady. We even get a jab from Sammie about Marcio's lack of colors.
On the runway there are some very clear winners and losers for the head to head face offs. Cheryl Ann's annoying horse paintings are a clear loss to Aryn's dark knight. Lana knocked Marcio out in the pawn department. Rachel and Rio are very close. Neither of theirs blew me away. Sammie and Rudy are also very close. Sammie's looked more professional while Rudy was more creative and imaginative. Dawn Marie and Avi had me at a bit of a loss. Avi didn't make a chess piece, and Dawn went a bit too literal painting actual chess pieces on hers. The big face off of Kyle and Fernello was much more of a disappointment. Fernello's back was a huge mess, and Kyles had too many prosthetics.
Fernello was knocked down a bit with the judges not liking his painting, which was a relief, but it was painfully clear who was going home with this one. There were only a couple of people who got negative comments. Cheryl Ann, Lana, and Kyle were in the top three while Fernello, Rachel, and Marcio were the bottom three. Lana is our first main challenge winner! Congrats, girl. Back with the bottom three, we get to see Fernello sweat, and it is beautiful. He is safe, however, leaving Marcio the obvious loser here. He becomes the first casualty of Skin Wars season two.
At the end of the episode we get a fun mega trailer where we see not only some hunky beefcakes (I complained all last season there weren't enough naked men!) but also a few familiar faces for those who enjoy RuPaul's Drag Race. I can't wait to see them paint boys as girls! That will be a fun challenge. Either way, we have a great competition ahead of us.
Notably missing is the apartment segments of the show from last year. We don't get to see them all bonding at the house together, which will be interesting to see how that plays out later on. They didn't utilize this much in the last season, so it's not much of a surprise to see it's gone, but I kind of liked that idea, as it set it apart from the competition.
Season two has begun. Who are you rooting for? I'll announce my team after the next episode!
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