"The Cut" REVIEWS
agcbli...@yahoo.com
"The Cut" THURSDAY at 8 on CBS
IN the rag trade, taking someone else's successful design and
shamelessly copying it line-for-line is called a knock-off, and is a
practice that designers like Tommy Hilfiger spend bazillions trying
(unsuccessfully) to prevent.
In television, stealing another's successful concept is called business
as usual, and now even those in the high-end schmatte trade are happy
to dip their beaks into this well-used well.
That is, interestingly enough, just what Hilfiger and CBS have done
with their new reality show, "The Cut," which they are promoting like
it's the Second Coming - and it is. It's the second show just like it
to come along. The first one is, of course, "The Apprentice."
Right off, understand that Hilfiger is no Trump. For one thing, his
hair isn't beige, and for another, he's not as believable as the
know-it-all, fire-breathing fire mogul.
Despite the copycat music, the New York City locale, the shared fancy
digs and the premise - contestants on teams compete in grueling
design tasks to win Hilfiger's approval - the show still stands up on
its own.
The reason probably has less to do with Hilfiger (at one point he even
brings in a gray-haired guy named George to help judge the fitness of
the contestants), and much to do with the contestants themselves. They
are for the most part weirdoes and half-loony misfits who all think
they are incredibly creative.
They come dressed to impress, but look more like they're dressed to
depress, because their outfits are awful and inappropriate. Age
inappropriate, gender inappropriate and just taste inappropriate.
They range (and this is great) from middle-aged to young 20s and from
students to boutique owners and one successful athlete/designer.
The first week's task is to create billboards - which are lined up at
90-degree angles to each other - in Times Square.
One team actually paints the billboard freehand from a scaffold, while
the other designs and executes their design on canvas, which they then
tack up in the howling wind from a scaffold.
One team decides to recolor the Tommy Hilfiger logo and paint a
cityscape complete with a Statue of Liberty, while the other decides to
do an abstract painting and spell out the Tommy Hilfiger letters in a
typeface that looks like it belongs on the Korean Olympic team's
uniforms.
Despite the fact that "The Cut" is a knock-off, it's still a good
knock-off that is lots of fun.
However, for reasons too stupid to even begin to contemplate, the
producers cut off the ending in the tapes they sent out to critics. Oh,
please! Maybe they wanted to keep the one thing we haven't seen before
a big surprise!
* * *
NY DAILY NEWS/DAVID BIANCULLI
The reality-TV graveyard is haunted by the ghosts of those who tried to
copy Donald Trump's formula from NBC's "The Apprentice."
Richard Branson in "Rebel Billionaire" and Mark Cuban in "The
Benefactor" are only two of the also-rans whose shows barely walked.
Yet tonight at 9, style maven Tommy Hilfiger takes a stab at it with
"The Cut," a new CBS reality series in which 16 fashion designers,
shoppers and/or fancy dressers compete to win the opportunity to design
a clothing line under the Tommy Hilfiger imprint, with a $250,000
salary.
Based on a preview tape of tonight's show, "The Cut" may succeed where
those others failed.
It's not that there's much about "The Cut" that's original. In fact,
there's nothing in it original, really. The difference is that there's
a polish to this show that many other reality series lack, and, as in
the best of the genre, the competitors are well cast.
"The Cut" was created by Craig Piligian, who worked with Mark Burnett
on the original "Survivor," and Darren Maddern, who didn't.
Hilfiger, at the show's center, comes off as extremely self-satisfied,
but Trump, on "The Apprentice," isn't a poster boy for humility,
either. But Hilfiger, like Trump, knows what he likes and dislikes, and
has no problem saying so.
Also like Trump, Hilfiger emerges from a limo to bark orders and run
his two teams of lackeys through the gauntlet; in "The Cut," the first
task is to design and install, in 48 hours, a Times Square billboard
pushing the Made in NY logo. As with most urban reality shows,
contestants share living space in sprawling apartments. And, of course,
there are contestants who fan the fires of conflict.
There's Princess, the angry black woman in the bunch (a dangerously
common stereotype in reality TV), who describes herself thusly: "I'm
that diva-slash-vixen-slash-bitch."
There's Vlada, a strikingly attractive woman who seems intent on
smoldering and flirting her way to the top. And Felix, a professional
skateboarder with design aspirations.
The similarities to "The Apprentice" extend, coincidentally, to a
trusted associate of Hilfiger's whose first name happens to be George,
and to a competitor who describes his background as a blend of book
smarts and street smarts.
There's also a rock song adopted as the show's theme.
Other than that, though, "The Cut" is sharp enough to make it without
complaint. It's not great - but as summer reality fare, it's better
than most.
Leigh Melton
but nary a mention of "Project Runway". I thought it was supposed to
be about aspiring designers? But the business about creating a
billboard and so on... I take it that actual clothing design is
secondary.
Oh well, I'll at least fast-forward through the first ep.
Leigh
--
Consequences, shmonsequences, as long as I'm rich. - D. Duck
American Chick
<le...@nbi.com> wrote:
> I notice that over and over the show is compared to "The Apprentice"
> but nary a mention of "Project Runway". I thought it was supposed to
> be about aspiring designers? But the business about creating a
> billboard and so on... I take it that actual clothing design is
> secondary.
He said in the opening that it's about designing a lifestyle brand.
Next week they pimp out a Lincoln Navigator.
I didn't intend to watch this, because I really could care less about
Tommy Hillfiger's clothing and I'm about filled up on reality shows,
but it was on and I walked by and sat down. Hit rewind on the DVR and
watched the whole damn thing.
Now I'm probably hooked, dammit. It was really kind of interesting, and
Tommy Hillfiger or finger or whatever seems like an okay guy.
Totally love some of the contestants, and hate some. That's normal. I
love the young lady with bleached hair, the gay guy, the graduate
student from the hood and the black artist from Brooklyn who has five
kids. The Cuban skateboarder is okay. Everybody else blows, especially
Miss Minnesota and the bald guy.