Project Runway Season 4: Finale Preview

Wednesday, March 5th - D-Day. That's Designer Day for all Project Runway fans. Wednesday night is the big finale, the one that decides who America's Next Top Designer is, the one that decides who takes home that big check for $100,000 from TRESemme, the one who will wave hello from all future Project Runway intros. Rami. Jillian. Christian. Who will win?

Looking back, we here at Gratz Industries have to say this season has been underwhelming. We're excited to see the finale, to be sure, but we just don't have the great vibe about this season that we've had for seasons past. Perhaps it was the collection of personalities that never seemed to rise to the occasion that is reality television. Maybe it was a few uninspired challenges that did more to limit the designers than to let them get crazy and creative. It could have been the way Jack Mackenroth was shown the door without much ado when forced to quit for medical reasons, or the way Kevin and Kit were aufed too early for our tastes, or the way Ricky and Sweet P--regardless of their personalities--seemed to overstay their welcomes. It also could have been the totally disappointing tie between Chris and Rami in the last regular season challenge.

We wanted to see more of the workroom, more of the designs, more, heaven help us, of the models. We love Tim, but his appearances often seemed like brief imitations of himself. We wanted to hear more of his appraisals and advice, and more about his bad late night decisions. And how about a little more interaction between the designers that wasn't fueled by throwing them together in team challenges? But perhaps we're back to this group's overall lack of personality. It says something when some of the most entertaining clips were only shown during the reunion episode and in online videos released by Bravo.

And yes, we're avoiding the issue of prediction. This is a tough one for us, because we've been deliberately avoiding any hint of the final runway shows from Bryant Park. True, to be good prognosticators we should be poring over them, examining them, debating them. But we prefer to do that as we see them on the show and afterward.

Bravo hasn't been much help either. Where last week we at least got some hint of what was to come during the judging, this week all we got was one lone video showing the final three designers picking their models.

Over on Blogging Project Runway, they asked the fans who viewed the pictures of the designers' lines to vote for which one they thought should win, and also, interestingly, which one they thought would win. (And those of us who watch PR know those can be two entirely different things.) More than 4,000 readers voted, and the BPR voters said overwhelmingly that Rami's line was the best. The venerableBPR blogger Tbone then weighed in with a thought-provoking and honest essay in which it was asked if Rami had in fact had an unfair advantage in getting early opinions on three of his looks during the "walk-off" with Chris. It's a good question, and one that Runheads will be debating for a long time if Rami walks away with the win.

As to the question of who would win, the results were intriguing. While 45% of readers thought Rami's line was the best of the three, they thought it would be a dead heat (42% to 42%) between Christian and Rami for the win. Are BPR readers a suspicious lot? Do they smell conspiracy and believe the producers will use a heavy hand with the judges? Or is it that they believe that Christian is more golden in the eyes of the judges? For our part, we have to wonder how biased against Rami the judges might be, knowing that he had to win his way in through a playoff, and being underwhelmed with his three looks.

And so we're left with not much more than our gut feelings. In our pre-season predictions, we put Rami and Jillian in the one and two spots--which in retrospect makes us look like geniuses. (That we put Elisa at #3 we'll just ignore for the moment . . .)

Christian we had at #5, behind coughElisacough and coughCarmencough. Of Christian we said, "he may really be a wunderkind, but will he be insufferable? Will he be as unyielding as Austin Scarlett, or prove to be as versatile as Daniel Vosovic?" Well, it turns out he was a wunderkind, and insufferable, and unyielding, and even more versatile than Daniel--all at the same time.

All along, we've watched as Christian bent challenges to his considerable will and talent. The only question that remains for us is if he will show up to Bryant park and fall flat like Michael Knight did without the strictures of Project Runway challenges to guide him, or whether he will bring the fierce. We happen to think he will bring the fierce. We predict that Christian will win Project Runway Season 4.

Despite the fact that Rami brought three looks to his walk-off with Chris that weren't draped (and yes, yes, we know--he didn't drape everything this season), and despite what might be an unfair advantage knowing he should edit out that atrocious Jillian-knock-off blue coat the judges hated, we're not convinced Rami will wow the judges enough to win.

And let's not forget about Jillian. All season long we've liked her looks, but taking our cue from the BPR voters, it sounds like she just doesn't bring the wow either. If the voters are any indication, she comes in third.

We think all three of these designers are going to go on to bigger, better things, and pretty darn quickly. But if you're looking for America's Next Top Designer, we think the discussion begins and ends with Christian Siriano.

See you next season, kiddies! It's been fun -