My Thoughts - America's Next Top Model Season 4 (2005)

My wife and daughter recently finished watching season 4 of America's Next Top Model with me in the room (mostly reading a book but still paying some attention). Here are some of my thoughts:

I'm not a big fan of the mass elimination to start the show. The biggest problem with it is there's no real opportunity to get invested in any of the contestants enough to care. Plus, are the judges really getting that much more information about the young women than they already have from try-out videos and previous off-camera interviews?

The show's travel budget seemed to be less this season. The contestants still travel internationally (more on that in a minute) but stayed in Los Angeles rather than flying to New York and, unlike season 3, weren't flown to Jamaica for one photoshoot.

The makeover episode was early. In fact, having the makeovers in the second episode might have been too early. We weren't even given a chance to get to know them with their old looks.

Speaking of the makeovers, the contestants should have been perfectly aware of what to expect by this point and would have signed up knowing there was a good chance they would have a drastic makeover. So, why is there still one or two in each group who throw a fit about it? Are they asked to do so for the television ratings?

I liked the choice of South Africa for their international trip. It was unique and not a country you would normally think about when it comes to fashion. That said, I thought there was disrespect all around when they fought over Nelson Mandela.

Disney Plus did the right thing cutting episode 5. We were definitely confused at first when Noelle Staggers was no longer competing and they kept referring to events we didn't remember. However, after learning it was removed because of the use of Blackface, I am good with that decision. 

This show makes no effort to hide its feelings about "fat" models. Brita Petersons couldn't even make it past episode 2 because she was deemed too heavy and I don't think it was a coincidence Keenyah Hill was made to dress up as an elephant after her weight gain was pointed out multiple times.

On the subject of Keenyah, I didn't particularly like her but was disgusted by the way she was treated after being sexually harassed by that male model. Maybe clever editing made his actions seem worse than they were but the way her discomfort was dismissed by even Tyra Banks was disappointing. 

The cemetery photoshoot was in poor taste. I will give the show the benefit of the doubt and assume that wasn't picked just because Kahlen Rondof had one of her friends recently die. Even without that though, shooting modeling pics in an active cemetery where people were probably burying or visiting loved ones was disrespectful and it wasn't as though the open grave added any more to the final photos.

It was clear the producers didn't like the idea of the models being friends. There was zero reason for the models to critique each other and pick who amongst them was the weakest other than to create drama. What are they afraid of? Setting an example by showing women who are competitors but are also still friends?

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