Project Runway Rundown
Bravo
Wednesdays, 10/9 C

One of the saving graces of reality-competition television is that every season these shows are reborn. Rather than endure the same actors year after year, new cast members arrive, full of hope, and infuse the show with a new vitality.

No show reinvents itself in this way as well as Bravo's Project Runway, whose casting department deserves an award for their ability to arrange a cast of designers who are both talented and legitimately crazy. Granted, the subject matter does automatically attract the kooky artistic type. But be certain of this: Project Runway does not simply pick the fifteen best designers from their applicant pool. Sure, they can sew, but the Project Runway cast is the most consistently entertaining group of eccentrics on television (as the show's strong ratings over three seasons have shown). After all, these contestants have the ability to make cutting fabric and sewing seem interesting.

Season One introduced us to Austin Scarlett, the most proudly-effeminate "not entirely gay" man on the planet, and Jay Mccarroll, the most effeminate man on the planet with a goatee. The standout nut job of Season Two was clearly "urban pirate/aging club kid/strung-out artist" Santino Rice.

But Season Three has not been outshone. As the final four begin their final face-off Wednesday night, with Part One of the finale, the list of cancelled cutters is long, but full of characters worth remembering:

• First, there was Keith Michael, who was a completely unlikable misanthrope. Keith was sneaky from the get-go, and like a true sociopath, was able to gain the trust of his fellow designers. A few episodes into the program, Project Runway pulled the plug on Keith after producers discovered he had been breaking the rules by studying pattern-making books during off hours. Smug to the last moment, Keith claimed he had been persecuted and wrongly axed — by a conspiracy.
• Then there was Vincent Libretti, who at 49 cashed in his 401k to start designing again (he had an eponymous clothing company that tanked in the '80s). Throughout the season, he was an easy target for ridicule, constantly proclaiming that clothing "turned him on" and "made him hot." But Vincent also was a strange combination of naive and world-weary, and that was sometimes endearing. His designs? Confusingly, either complete train wrecks or elegant pieces of art.
• Next, there was Angela Keslar, who lived on an organic farm in Ohio and wore tiered skirts before arriving in New York for the competition. Angela loved adding rosettes to everything. Angela was sensitive and so was her mother. When (now finalist) Jeffrey was forced to design a dress for Angela's Ma', the two clashed in an emotional and aesthetic catastrophe that was nothing less than television gold. Angela, however, was sent home a week later, a few hours after arriving in Paris.
• Surving nearly to the end was Kayne Gillaspie, a character almost as likeable as he was bubbly. A Southern pageant gown designer by day, Kayne's designs were often on the Liberace/Elvis track, but he clearly knew how to sew a dress. He was blonde, he was flaming — in short, he was everything a pageant gown designer should be. But not a PR winner.

Tomorrow night, the four remaining characters (type-A Manhattanite architect Laura; the sweet-natured German transplant Uli; Michael, the only African-American contestant and hence the "urban" one; and Jeffrey, the neck-tattooed faux-LA rock star) will begin to compete for the grand prize at New York Fashion Week. Of course, informed viewers know that Fashion Week was weeks ago and all the finalist's designs have already been leaked.

Then again, those who are spoiler-averse can rest assured: for the third time in a row, Project Runway has thrown fifteen designers into a boiling pot and simmered them down to a few essential ingredients — class (Laura), whimsy (Uli), edge (Jeffrey), style (Michael). And regardless of who wins, the final collections will be full of these elements — and the final two episodes will be full of the most important ingredient of all: instability.

Best of luck, designers.

— Laura Birek (laurabirek at gmail dot com)