Photo Credit: Brett-Patrick Jenkins.
Last week’s episode of Face Off was a special we’ve all been waiting for… since the beginning of the series seven seasons ago The judges to get into the lab and not only create but be judged themselves!
Ve Neill, Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page went head to head, competing for a $5,000 donation to the charity of their choice: Ve Neill for A Window Between Worlds, Glenn Hetrick for The North Shore Animal League, and Neville Page for The Orangutan Foundation International.
The judges each paired up with a former Face Off all-star contestant and a former champion. The two alumni on the winning team each win $5,000. On Team Ve: Conor McCullagh (season 1) and Roy Wooley (seasons 3 and 5). It’s so exciting to learn that Conor has not only worked on The Hunger Games films with Ve Neill but also The Walking Dead and The Vampire Diaries, which I both watch and love! Roy also worked on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay with Ve and boy, if I don’t stop getting tears in my eyes soaking in just how gracious and open Ve has been all these years to these contestants!
On Team Glenn: Laura Tyler (all-star from season 2 and season 5 champion) and Wayne Anderson (season 4). Laura is one of my favorite if not absolute favorite Face Off contestant ever! (It’s close competition between her and Tate.) I can’t wait to see her work with Ve Neill on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. On Team Neville: Miranda Jory (seasons 2 and 5) and Anthony Kosar (season 4). It’s so cool seeing how much everyone has done since their runs on the show!
The challenge? Make a pair of living chess pieces for a colorful, stylized fantasy film. Bishop and Pawn were Neville’s choices, Ve chose the Queen and Rook, and Glenn picked Knight and King. But that’s not all! This season’s “Life and Death” theme was still in play so one of the characters had to be pure and the other evil.
Just like the contestants, the judges had three days to complete their spotlight challenge before showcasing their work and just like the contestants, the judges commentated while in the lab and as talking heads and that was odd because that’s the contestants’ place not the judges’ haha so that felt like an out of body experience even though the judges are the pros. Anyway, it was super fun seeing just how competitive the judges are as well as seeing the former contestants really take charge of the challenge and poke fun at the judges in their territory. Neville seemed to be behind and actually did say, “Face Off is hard!” Yeah! Of course it is! Meanwhile, Ve was killing it!
With the judges in the contestants’ positions, who were the judges here? Academy-Award winning makeup artists, Michael Westmore (Star Trek) and Lois Burwell (Lincoln). Of course, all great feedback. I loved Glenn’s Knight character and could totally see the world in which the King would live in on screen. Wow. It was such a treat to see Ve’s characters from the very beginning stages to the final look. Wow, wow, wow. Beautiful. I love her style. I absolutely adored her Queen. And finally, I was truly amazed with Neville’s characters, especially considering how behind they seemed and how fast they were rushing before last looks! In fact, my favorite look was probably his Bishop. I loved the concept and execution and really was impressed!
So who won? Well, I like that how the winner was determined was different than regular episodes because there was so much familiarity in the episode but I was waiting for a twist! So instead of Lois and Michael picking the winner, each judge and team member cast one vote (not of the their own creation) and the majority of votes went to Neville! I wanted Ve to win because I’m biased and thought Glenn was going to win only to find that Neville, the underdog in this competition knocked this competition out of the park. So was this judges version of Face Off worth it? Totally. Yes. So much yes. This was such a blast. I don’t watch Face Off reruns but if I caught this on television again, I’d be more than happy to watch! What a fantastic hour well spent!