Once again, a season finale has delivered a touch of drama where I least expected it. I thought for sure Matt was the anointed winner, the Golden Child of Top Design. But near the end, there... I wondered if maybe Carisa's bold, energetic design might snake the win from Matt's classy, yet boring loft.
I mean, honestly, this is where the magic happens in Matt-land. Woo hoo.
I was close, but thoroughly wrong, about the final challenge. Instead of designing a space for each other, they're to design a space for themselves. The final test is how well they convert a gorgeous 1700-square-foot loft into a place they'd like to live, work, do whatever it is Matt might or might not do in that sterile bedroom, etc. Already, I have a pretty good idea how things will look.
Their budget for this project? $162,000. The prize for winning Top Design? $100,000. Am I the only one who finds that a little... lopsided? What I'm not sure of is how they both manage to go over budget. Carisa grumbles for a minute but takes out $18,000 worth of tchotchkes. Matt, however, seems pained by having to reduce his stuff. "But I like it all," he mourns. "These are the breaks!" Kurtis Blow counters.
This episode gives Carisa a chance to do a little image-doctoring. Mind you, I've never thought she was vile or horrible, just kind of immature and caught up in her own drama. And she doesn't disappoint in that latter category; when her laborers are pondering the amount of brute force it will take to get her drywall panels up the fire escape ('cause they won't fit in the freight elevator), Carisa doesn't offer to help, she pouts about how frustrating the situation is. And while that's understandable, it doesn't do anything to improve the situation or endear her to the team that can make or break her.
She also makes a point of assuring us all that she loves Carl, and he does greet her fondly, so maybe theirs was more of an affectionate-squabbling kind of relationship. I'm not quite sure I buy her assertion that she wants to win the competition so Carl can get the $10K carpenter's prize, though. That's the trick to selling the bullshit: selling it in bite-sized pieces.
(That outfit of hers is killing me.) Writing on his Bravo blog, Todd Oldham proves, once again, that he's simply too good for this ugly, dirty world. "I love Carisa. She is such a smart, intuitive designer with a sophisticated approach and never an ounce of pretension, the bete noir of most design efforts. It seems to me that the viewers were presented with a little more tense Carisa than the funny delight I know. Honestly, I don’t know why there wasn’t an actual murder considering the pressure cooker environment." Todd is easily the thing I'll miss most about Top Design. (Adopt me, Todd! We'll go on nature walks and antique runs; you can help me remodel the house. You'll just love J and your little furry grandkids. You won't regret it!)
Interestingly, we see a slightly nasty side of Matt this time around. He clearly believes that he's light years beyond Carisa, and while I think he's very good at what he does, I'm starting to think that Carisa's just as good at what she does, and by the time she's his age, with 10 more years' experience and (hopefully) more maturity, she might be light years beyond Matt right now. I don't think this has ever occurred to Matt, though. For that matter, I'm not sure Matt deserves his saintly carpenter, Ed. Ed reminds me of about four different guys I've worked with: a little off-beat, but cheerful, hardworking, big on praising and encouraging their colleagues. Lovely dudes. Matt should've brought Ed doughnuts every morning -- or at least asked how his thumb was doing after its table-saw run-in. And perhaps Matt does do all this; but we never see it.
The designs themselves are very true to what we've seen all season from these two. But I found Carisa's to have a few delightful surprises and Matt's to have no surprises at all. Here are the shots from Matt's loft:
The door on the left is the front door to the apartment.
This is the view from the door, I think.
Here's the hall.
Living room.
Sleep chamber.
Here's a room Matt built out for his 4 1/2-year-old daughter.
Daughter's sleep compartment.
Kitchen.
Bathroom -- my favorite room in the whole loft.
See, it's all very nice, very clean and orderly and well-put-together, I just don't get much of a feeling of comfort or warmth from it. Throughout the season, much has been made about how "expensive" Matt's rooms look, and this place definitely looks expensive, but I wonder how valid of a quality that truly is. If something looks like it cost a lot of money, but doesn't look terribly inviting or delightful, has it really achieved anything?
Carisa's loft might not look like as much money was involved, but it does look inviting and warm to me. She's hitting the black and white like they owe her money, but here it actually works, punched up by the occasional vivid color and used in proportions that make the black-and-white look like a bold graphic choice rather than the two safest possible neutrals.
The front room.
The view from the door.
Living room.
Dining room.
Office.
More office. (Who knew she loved ping-pong?)
Bedroom -- my favorite part of Carisa's loft.
Kitchen.
Bathroom. (I have no idea how that mirror is supposed to work. I'd probably attack it with a hammer in my first week of living here.)
Honestly, neither loft really suits my style. They both look like a royal pain to keep clean, between Carisa's white furniture and black floors and Matt's love of Lucite and glass. On the one hand, Carisa cribbed Goil's inset bed from the dorm challenge and Andrea's chairs from the chef's table challenge (as well as her own air vents from the hotel room challenge). On the other hand, Matt had no real innovation (borrowed or otherwise) in his space, just a lot of pretty tastefulness.
On a side note, what the hell was up with having Trudie Styler as a guest judge? This is exactly like the first season finale of Project Runway, where Parker Posey was apparently randomly pulled from a red-carpet event to judge the finale. "Here, you're famous! Come judge an aesthetic competition!" And did she always look like this? I seem to recall her features looking a lot different in the 1980s. Oh, but didn't we all.
It seemed like the judges had a tough time discerning which was truly the top design. For a second there, I thought they were actually going to award it to Carisa. But no, it went to Matt, and Carisa herself said she was happy with that outcome because losing to her would have devatastated Matt, but she's quite happy to lose to him.
So everybody wins, but especially the reedy, giant Matt (look at him -- even slouching, he's a foot taller than all the judges) who tells the camera that it couldn't possibly have happened any other way. Nice. And so it ends. I don't know if there will be a second season of Top Design, but I'll probably watch it if there is. I mean, come on, I'm gonna watch Shear Genius, fer chrissakes.
Great summary of the show finale!!!
I did a 180 on both Carisa and Matt. At first I was rooting for Matt as a bow to his being the only straight family man in the competition, and because he seemed so nice. At first I thought Carisa was a stomping brat.
Then by the end I realized Matt was passive-aggressive, full of himself, and worst of all, boring. Many of his designs look suspiciously like stuff that has been appearing in trade mags for years. And what father of a 4-year-old girl would ever design a sterile, boring, kid-unfriendly apartment like that? Is this guy really straight and married and a father? Did he hire actors to model for those black and white photographs? What straight man would put so much energy into a pink and purple princess cave that a little girl wouldn't be able to play in???? I have a daughter and a niece I take care of, and I can tell you -- that loft would be a DISASTER with a little girl running around in it, including that god-awful, suffocatingly pink princess room.
Then we have Carisa, who appears, by the final episode, to have been caricatured and misrepresented by the fiendish show editors. She and Carl are more like a happy-go-lucky duo that bicker like husband and wife because that's how they produce great work. I have lots of lovable co-workers who banter with me. She seems to know more about Carl than Matt knows or cares to know about Ed.
And Carisa's room was WONDERFUL!!! Even with all the white, a 4-year-old girl could probably have more fun in her apartment, especially with that sunken bed pit and the ping pong table and the cool wall vents, then she could have in Matt's apartment.
What is a viewer to do? This show was awesome but I think it got hijacked by Matt's manipulation of Margaret and Jonathan Adler; he played to her vain commercialism and his gay aesthetic, all the while forcing bad, boring, safe crap on us.
I agree with you -- by the time Carisa is Matt's age, she will have left him in the dust. By the end of the show, I and many people like me would be busy looking for Carisa's number to design something for me. I would never give Matt a call to do anything, not in a million years.
John
Posted by: BronzeMan | April 13, 2007 at 11:03 PM